How to make SEO seem exciting

Apr 30, 2021 by
How to make SEO seem exciting

SEO is a lot of things. It’s a cost-effective way of increasing brand visibility, an endlessly evolving digital marketing practice and a cornerstone of millions of business strategies across the world. One thing it is rarely called, however, is exciting.

SEO – It’s better than it used to be

Of course, things have got much better in recent years.

Where the practice used to involve taking a handful of keywords and creating any kind of content around them that was even vaguely readable, today it’s a much more creative and rewarding endeavour.

This is partly due to Google’s algorithm tweaks but in my eyes, it’s mainly because writers were getting fed up with shoehorning keywords into blog posts nobody would ever read.

But there are still ways we could be making the still quite tedious task of optimising content sing with a little more melody, so to speak.

Here are a few tips I’ve picked up in my decade or so of SEO content creation.

Engage with your audience

By their very nature, blog posts are meant to connect with people and forge a relationship between the reader and the content.

Rather than seeing your blog posts as a cynical means of driving traffic and creating backlinks, see them as an opportunity to create genuinely engaging content that will keep readers coming back for more.

This is obviously a lot easier if the blog in question aligns with your interests but even if it doesn’t, try to inject a little personality into it.

You’ll be amazed at how much more site traffic you’ll get if you can create something that people actually want to connect with. This could be anything – from a little sprinkling of humour to creating videos that reinforce the blog post’s content.

Treat yo’ self

Incentive is a funny thing. It’s going to be different for everyone, of course, but in SEO, the rewards are never instantaneous.

That means it can be difficult to ascertain how much progress you’re actually making and as anyone who has ever tried and failed to commit to an exercise routine will tell you, it’s no fun when you’re not getting results.

So, why not set goals for yourself and plan rewards every time you cross off a new target? This could be something small, like rewarding yourself with a coffee after finishing a good blog post (this is something I swear by and have been doing for years now) to booking a few days away when you hit a particular site rank.

Make your reports tell a story

Monthly SEO reports can be incredibly dry but they are a necessary evil if you want to achieve any kind of significant ranking gains.

The problem is, so many reports are just boilerplate PDFs with graphs and figures that could mean anything to anyone without the right context.

The key to creating SEO reports with character is storytelling. Don’t just describe the people that engage with your content but how they’re engaging with it and why.

Factoring in organic impressions and clicks is another great way of gathering more information that you can use to build a compelling narrative. If you can offer your client a report that they actually enjoy reading, you’ve essentially won at SEO.