James Brockbank

Communication is SO important for SEOs at every level, and it should be the number one soft skill to improve. Great communication isn’t just about keeping in touch with clients and other stakeholders. It’s about: - Showing the true value and impact of your work, not just regurgitating data but explaining the why behind what this shows - Getting things done; justifying the importance of tasks and explaining the expected impact (and the cost of NOT doing something) - Building relationships and owning these. And with better relationships comes trust. Improve your communication skills and lots of conversations you’ll regularly have as an SEO become A LOT easier.

Closely monitor unlinked brand mentions and follow up on these to try and get them turned into a link. Remember that a link will always be more valuable than just a brand mention, and that the hardest work is done by landing the coverage in the first place. If you spot your brand has been mentioned but not linked to, reach out to the journalist and ask them to add in a link. But you need to make sure you’re demonstrating why the link adds value to their readers. Justify why the link makes sense and what a reader would get out of it. The faster you’re able to reach out after an article has been published, the higher your chances of turning it into a link.

An experienced SEO should be able to easily talk through the things that are holding your site back from performing, and this is one of the most effective ways to identify a great agency. Ask what some of the agency’s priority tactics would be, or issues to resolve, in the first 90 days of an engagement. And ask them to share evidence that a similar approach worked for another client or website. This isn’t about asking the agency to share an in-depth strategy in the pitch stage. Not at all. It’s about understanding how the agency thinks and what their priorities are. Basically, you want to understand why they’d do what they’d do and what you could expect from it.

Don’t blindly follow advice that if you publish great content, you’ll organically earn links to it. That’s not quite true. It’s true that great content can earn links organically and be referenced as a source, but for that to happen, bloggers and journalists need to find the content in the first place. And where do they turn to find sources? Google. Unless your content is ranking in the top few spots, it’s far less likely to be organically linked to. What’s a key to ranking in these top spots? Links. Kickstart your content earning links by promoting it to people likely to reference it as a source; by email and social.

Finance brands are often sitting on SO much first-party data, and this is perfect to leverage as part of your digital PR strategy. Look at the data you hold as part of your customer journey and brainstorm ways you could tell stories based on this. Turn this data into an engaging asset / report / study and pitch these stories out to the press.

Often, resistance from SEO clients comes in two forms: - That you’ve not justified your suggestion sufficiently - That there’s someone internal at the client’s side with a different viewpoint Establish which you’re working with. But in either case, your solution to overcoming resistance is similar. To build trust, you need to use examples. Show your client situations where you’ve rolled out the same solution and it worked. Or even third-party examples of where what you’re suggesting is working for a site with great visibility. Using examples to back up your suggestions goes a long way to building trust, and in turn, this builds a solid working relationship.