5 Ways to Hack Your SEO as an Agency

Search has become an incredibly crowded market, with well-funded, gigantic companies spending huge amounts of cold, hard cash to compete over a very limited number of keywords.

Does that mean that your agency should just totally abandon any Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy?

No...or at least not yet.

Here are 5 ways to out-compete the big dogs for consumers' attention in a way that will positively affect your bottom line.

1. Alternatives To

The first one's a cheeky lil' trojan horse-themed SEO trick (the wooden pony, not the virus). Your biggest competitors are already generating searches for their brand names (the Zaras, the Maccy Ds' - you know who you are), which, yes, invariably benefit their bottom line.

However, what if I were to tell you that you could piggyback of their mega clout, by targeting the people looking to move away from these big names directly.

Enter 'Alternatives To' keywords.

These keywords allow you to market yourself as the premium 'alternative to [insert company name]' and therefore use your competition's big dog status to your advantage. Bigger the contest, the better, and for the most part at the moment, extremely low competition for these keywords!

Even better: you can generate some truly valuable content which markets your service in a positive spin by (objectively!) comparing your service to theirs, and explain (calmly and objectively!) how yours cleans the floor with theirs.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you start finessing the SEO system that we didn't volunteer to be a part of, but can start edging in our favours.

Let’s give Depyct an example. Depyct could very well output content and comparisons to include the following:

• Jasper.ai Alternatives
• Writesonic Alternatives
• Imgbun Alternatives
• Depositphotos Alternatives
• Gocharlie Alternatives
• Stockai Alternatives

...and we invariably will! While of course making the above phrase every second phrase (joking but no joking). We'll be drilling the fact that - to you and Google's hungry, hungry website crawlers - yes, there are alternatives to the above solutions. Would you look at that?

Now before I get totally side tracked and start copy/pasting the above bullet points for another 10 million lines, let's move onto number 2...

2. Comparison Keywords

Very closely linked to number 1 are comparison keywords. What's the difference? Well, the beauty lines in the subtlety of difference, with carefully chosen words disguising the fact that you're taking down two birds with the same boulder of a trick. We won't tell if you won't tell ;)

Note if you look carefully below, you may notice the (ever so slight) difference between number 2 and number 1. Note that while the alternatives to allows you to create the full list of alternatives, the 1-to-1 comparison partitions your competition into very distinguishable pairs.

• Depyct Vs Jasper.ai
• Depyct Vs Writesonic
• Depyct Vs Imgbun
• Depyct Vs Depositphotos
• Depyct Vs Gocharlie
• Depyct Vs Stockai

However the genius lies in how well they play together.

You see, in the frightfully weird and wonderful SEO sandbox that they all reside in, you can link between the articles. Talking about Depyct Vs Depositphotos? Why not link to your Alternatives To Depositphotos piece. Already there? How about Depositphotos vs Imgbun.

You get the idea.

By mixing these two up, you can create a wonderful web of comparisons, with each beautifully crafted permutation shooting you up the ranks of very low competition keywords to boot.

However, I get it, I get it, variety is the spice of life, and we've been firmly staying in comparison/alternatives to land. Let's hop on the boat and head to new territories with number 3, shall we?

3. Use Case & Features Keywords

A pattern you'll likely see is that we like the two-fors. Why keep your marketing and SEO content strategy separate when those lovebirds when always meant to be together?

Our number three is a perfect example of this: getting some nice SEO juice by shouting out to the internet heavens (or void, depending on your perspective - no judgement here) about how great, how amazing, how life-changing your solution is and will be when solving their business problems.

Or, to reign it in a little, write content describing certain situations your user personas will run into, highlighting the problems they face and the solution required. And then...just talk about the solutions. In detail. The aim of the game is to create the resonance of understanding with the reader who - hopefully - has the problem you're describing and it's hooked to find a solution by article's end.

And, if you're feeling extra spicy, you could even add a comparison or 'alternatives to' at the bottom of the article, of course espousing your divine gift of a solution (seriously though, moderate the comparisons, keep things objective, and let your content do the talking, rather than chatting clout).

In the case of Depyct, this would involve talking about:

• Text to Image Software
• Text to Image AI
• AI Text to Image
• AI Image Generator online
• AI image generator software
• Image Generation APIs
• Google Drive for pictures (allow it)

For each of these it would involve going into detail for each of the problems faced in each of these use cases, and walking through solutions putting that good ol' product hat on. Channel that mansplaining energy regardless of your gender and let er' rip.

As we move onto number, you wouldn't be wrong to guess that it's tightly coupled to number 3 (it's called anchoring okay? Or, probably, writer's block). Let's get to it.

4. Best A For B

Again, keeping with the old, we're looking to squeeze as much SEO juice as possible from the content that we're creating. Not only does it prevent writer's block, but it also facilitates ample opportunity to tactically link between your articles, seeing as how they're all interconnected.

The obvious next step is diving into the permutations of each different use case - e.g. if you're a SaaS business, looking at the best image solution for desktop, the best image solution for mobile, the best the best image solution for iPhone...you get the idea.

Some examples to play with in the case of Depyct:

• Best text to image app for iPhone
• Best design tools for Mac
• Best digital design app for iPad
• Best apps for a design agency
• Best design software for individuals

Similar to number 3 - people searching for these keywords signal an intent to find a solution. Therefore, these are the people you want to be targetting and converting.

If you could target this type of keyword, your chances of attracting the right people to your website and driving signups are positively increased.

5. How To Solve B Using C

This extends the previous examples we've walked through, finishing on a more instructional shade of content, compared to the previous 4 looking at pure information (and keyword) overload.

Here, you can assume the position of tenured leader, experienced advisor or general know-it-all - but chiefly, a person of trust and credibility in solving the use case problem, which can aid in the marketing/sales funnel for your business as well as juicing those keywords to encourage engagement with your site from a direct search.

Examples for Depyct would be:

• How to generate a logo
• How to create an illustration for a website
• How to create art with AI
• How to create a batch of instagram posts in seconds
• How to create clothing designs for my business

By writing engaging content here, you get the triple whammy or refining your sales pitch as well, making it easier to close on those (sort-of) face-to-face conversations with customers over Zoom, as well as leading people through your marketing funnel with stellar content, as well as ranking for low competition keywords on Google.

And heck, why not throw in a comparison or Alternatives to for good measure as well.

SEO still converts in 2022

If you are a SaaS startup, don't ignore SEO. You've had your differences in the past, but it's time to let bygones be bygones, no?

Like in any good relationship, communication is key. However unlike in human-to-human relationships where comparison is the thief of joy, in human-to-SEO relationships comparison is the thief of your customers' attention. Robin-hood style - taking from the gluttonous, and redirecting to your site.

By engaging with the five tips above, you can then go on to drive qualified traffic, acquire user signups, and grow MRR.