As a kid I had a real love hate relationship with paint by number sets.

On one side, as a 6 year old kid, I was able create a pretty nice piece of artwork by following a set of specific instructions.

On the other side, I often felt limited by the number of colors available as well as having to following the directions.

Now you would expect with having more freedom I would create a nice piece of artwork, but the truth is, every time I decided to follow my own rules, or mix a few colors to create my own version…

It looked terrible.

So why was I able to create a great artwork despite having constraints?

There were 3 main reasons why paint by numbers are able to help people grow into becoming better artists. These same 3 reason can be directly translated into SEO.

Why You Need a Paint by Numbers Style of SEO

A Step by Step Process

It’s often difficult to know where to start. Creating a checklist or an SOP (standard operating procedure) is helpful, but if you don’t have specific experience, that checklist or SOP isn’t going to be helpful.

By having some one with experience show you the step by step process, you are more likely to be able to repeat that success over and over again.

Constrained Parameters

When you are given unlimited choices, such as a blank canvas and unlimited colors, it can be very difficult to determine where to start. SEO is a huge, vast discipline with many different styles and starting points. “Doing SEO” can really feel like having unlimited choices and having no idea where to start.

By limiting yourself to a few simple steps that are easy to follow you allow yourself to be focused on your learning. Once you have mastered doing something with limitations, slowly add more colors.

A Sense of Accomplishment

So many people give up on SEO because they don’t see any results. The problem is that they start with a blank canvas and an infinite number of colors. If you follow a paint by numbers approach to SEO you can see the end results from the very first step.

When you can see the final step and work towards it, once completed your will have this great sense of accomplishment.

Get Started with Minimalist SEO

The first step in learning this paint by numbers style is to grab the Minimalist SEO cheat sheet. This cheat sheet is effectively your SEO paint by numbers set. Follow its steps and you will become much better at SEO.