Lots of SEO practitioners in our world today see SEO as a task. They see it as work. They see it as a bunch of quotas that they need to accomplish. And if you don’t love what you’re doing, you’re most probably one of those guys. Well I say SEO is an art.
The big picture
When you look at it on a bigger scale, you can’t do SEO without a strategy and plan. That strategy and plan can only be made when you really understand the business and it’s customers. The only way you can understand the business and customers is to interact directly with them and try to get a feel of it yourself.
It is tasking, yes and it is also a lot of work. But trying to formulate that specific strategy for a specific company can only be a form of art – there is no map to do it and you are not bound by any specific laws. It is without shape. Your SEO strategy will have to be shaped and traced by you – you’re the artist.