What is SEO and how does it work?
SEO, short for Search Engine Optimization, is the process of improving a website’s visibility and ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). It involves a series of strategies and techniques that aim to make a website more appealing and relevant to search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo.
How to Become An SEO Specialist
By optimizing various elements of a website, such as content, structure, and metadata, SEO helps to increase the chances of the website appearing higher in the organic (non-paid) search results, making it more accessible to potential customers or users. Effective SEO can increase website traffic, better engagement, and more conversions for a business or organization. Understanding and implementing SEO best practices is crucial for any website owner or digital marketer who wants to improve their online presence and reach their target audience.
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What is an SEO specialist?
Since 95% of all search traffic comes from the first page of search results, businesses of all sizes—including 74% of small-to-midsized businesses—seek out skilled SEO specialists to help them achieve top rankings.
An SEO specialist makes this possible by developing strategies tailored to the latest changes in search engine algorithms, thereby improving a website’s ranking.
SEO experts also prioritize a positive user experience. Google’s recent updates favour content that meets user needs, meaning SEO experts use the right keywords to align with user search intent rather than simply stuffing content with keywords. This ensures the brand reaches its target audience effectively.
You’ll learn more about search intent below and what an SEO specialist can do for businesses and clients.
Why Becoming an SEO Expert Matters
Every online business—whether a multi-million dollar corporation or a hobby blog—needs SEO.SEO is crucial for gaining online visibility.
Moreover, having SEO expertise can open up numerous career opportunities. You can work in digital marketing agencies, in-house marketing departments, or even as a freelance SEO expert. Employers highly value professionals who can optimize websites to attract organic traffic, generate leads, and increase conversions. SEO skills complement other marketing disciplines, making you a well-rounded digital marketer.
How to Become An SEO Specialist: 10 skills to get hired
1. Understanding How Search Engines Work
Search engines are the gateways to the vast expanse of information on the internet. To effectively navigate and utilize these powerful tools, it is essential to comprehend how they function. Search engines employ complex algorithms to crawl, index, and retrieve relevant information from the web in response to user queries.
The process typically involves the following steps:
Crawling: Search engine bots, or spiders or crawlers, systematically navigate the internet, following links and discovering new web pages to add to the search engine’s index.
Indexing: The discovered web pages are analyzed, categorized, and stored in the search engine’s vast database, known as the index. This index allows for efficient information retrieval during a search.
Ranking: When a user submits a search query, the search engine’s algorithms analyze the index to identify the most relevant and valuable web pages. These pages are then ranked based on various factors, such as content relevance, user engagement, and website authority.
Serving Results: The search engine presents the user with a list of ranked search results, typically displaying the most relevant pages at the top of the page. Users can then explore these results to find the information they are seeking.
Understanding the underlying mechanisms of search engines empowers users to refine their search strategies, optimize their web content for better visibility, and ultimately enhance their overall online experience.
2. Learn the Basics of Search Engine Marketing
Before diving in, it’s essential to understand the different aspects of search engine marketing (SEM). You should grasp the fundamentals of digital marketing and the role of SEO within digital marketing campaigns.
Knowing what to expect from SEO and how it can be complemented by other channels to enhance your online presence is important.
In brief, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one component of SEM. The key distinction is that SEO generates free traffic, while SEM includes paid traffic.
With SEO, the goal is to reach the top of organic search results by creating content that aligns with user intent and providing search engines with signals to aid in indexing and ranking.
With SEM, you can use PPC platforms like Google Ads to pay for your ads to appear at the top of paid search results.
Both methods can drive traffic from search engines, but SEO offers the advantage of not relying on paid ads. Once you achieve high rankings for important keywords, you can receive continuous traffic to your site around the clock.
This is just one of the benefits of SEO. Reaching the top of the SERPs also boosts brand awareness, user trust, and recognition, which can help grow your business.
3. Learn SEO Fundamentals
To advance in SEO, it’s essential to understand the basic concepts. SEO goes beyond just keywords and links; its primary mission is to provide users with a great experience and deliver exactly what they need.
Your goal should be to increase search engine traffic and convert that traffic into recurring visitors and customers.
There are several types of SEO, the most important being Technical SEO, On-Page SEO, and Off-Page SEO. As an SEO expert, you need to know which SEO rules to apply at each stage of the optimization process to enhance your website effectively.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO focuses on the crawling and indexing phase. It ensures that search engines can properly index all important pages of your website without issues.
The most important technical SEO tasks include:
- URL Canonicalization
- XML Sitemap Optimization
- Setting your preferred domain
- Optimizing your page URLs
- Optimizing your website structure
- Improving your website page speed
- Optimizing your website for mobile
- Adding structured data markup
- Optimizing for core web vitals
- Finding and fixing broken links
- Finding and fixing crawl errors
For certain SEO tasks, like implementing HTTPS and structured data, you may need a developer’s assistance to make the necessary code changes. Your role is to ensure proper implementation and maintain a website free of technical SEO errors. Once technical SEO is set up correctly, you’ll mainly need to perform regular technical SEO audits.
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO involves optimizing elements on a page, such as content, headings, images, and videos, to help search engines understand their context.
The most important on-page SEO elements include:
– Optimizing page titles
– Optimizing meta descriptions
– Content optimization
– Proper use of headings (H1 tag, H2, etc.)
– Internal and external linking
– Image SEO
Apart from these factors, it’s crucial to understand that the quality of your content is the most significant SEO factor. Poor content won’t rank well in Google even with a highly optimised website.
In terms of SEO, good content possesses the following characteristics:
– Original, unique, and unbiased
– Created for people, not just search engines
– Satisfies search intent
– Provides a comprehensive answer to user queries
To excel in content creation, it’s essential to master keyword research and learn how to blend content marketing with SEO to produce content that appeals to both search engines and users.
Off-Page SEO
The final aspect is off-page SEO, which involves activities beyond the website’s boundaries.
Factors like link building (acquiring backlinks from related websites), local SEO, and other online promotion methods play a significant role in helping search engines rank your website.
From experience, Off-page SEO is often the most challenging aspect of SEO because it involves techniques beyond your direct control. However, mastering these methods is crucial for achieving top rankings in Google.
4. Enroll in an SEO Training Course
As you delve into SEO, you’ll quickly realize something: There’s an overwhelming amount of information online, making it easy to feel lost.
Navigating this alone can lead to a never-ending list of articles and experiments. It took me years to learn SEO this way because formal training courses or comprehensive guides weren’t readily available.
Thankfully, things have changed. Those eager to learn SEO quickly can now follow reputable courses without spending countless hours searching the internet. Here are some top options:
- The Complete SEO Course: Our comprehensive course covers basic and advanced SEO concepts, available online or as downloadable PDFs for self-paced learning.
- SEO Certifications: Explore reputable certifications to become a certified SEO specialist.
- SEO Training Courses: Discover sources to learn about technical SEO, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and content creation.
- Content Marketing Courses: Online courses covering various content marketing techniques.
- Google SEO Courses With Certifications: Courses focused specifically on Google SEO.
5. Master the Use of SEO Tools
Successful SEO experts stand out for their adeptness with SEO tools. The reality is that you can’t effectively do SEO alone. There’s too much data to process and decisions to make. Attempting to handle everything manually means spending valuable time analyzing data instead of focusing on tasks that drive results.
While good SEO tools come at a cost, the return on investment far outweighs the monthly fees. As an SEO specialist, it’s crucial to be familiar with tools such as:
- Google Search Console (Free): Provides valuable insights into your website’s performance on Google.
- Google Analytics (Free): Offers in-depth traffic analysis and user behaviour insights.
- Semrush (Paid): A comprehensive SEO platform covering SEO, PPC campaigns, competitor analysis, and more.
- Ahrefs (Paid): Another respected SEO tool with features to simplify various aspects of SEO.
- Google Keyword Planner (Free): Google’s free keyword research tool.
6. Practice Your SEO Skills
Once you dive into SEO, you’ll realize it’s more practical than theoretical. Studying SEO theory should result in actionable strategies for improving your website’s search engine exposure.
However, each website is unique, and what works for one may not work for another. Therefore, practical application of SEO strategies is essential.
Reading case studies of successful SEO campaigns provides new ideas and inspiration. Remember, SEO takes time to yield results, so avoid rushing to conclusions too soon.
Before making any SEO-related changes, monitor your website’s rankings and traffic over time to assess the impact accurately.
7. Demonstrate Your SEO Expertise
One effective way to learn is by teaching. Starting a website or SEO blog to share your experiences helps others and enhances your understanding of SEO.
Over time, sharing knowledge becomes a rewarding experience, offering new insights and opportunities. Moreover, having an established SEO blog can open doors to high-level SEO jobs or consulting opportunities.
8. Build Your SEO Experience
Starting as an entry-level SEO specialist provides practical insights and advice that courses and books often lack.
Working with experienced SEOs or on personal projects helps build a portfolio of successful projects and case studies.
9. Stay Informed About SEO Changes
SEO is dynamic, with rules and algorithms constantly evolving. It’s essential to stay updated on these changes to adjust your SEO strategies accordingly.
Follow reputable SEO news websites like:
- Search Engine Roundtable
- Search Engine Land
- Google Search and SEO Blog
10. Learn From Established SEO Experts
You’ll encounter challenges and setbacks on your journey to becoming an SEO expert. However, learning from the experiences of others can provide inspiration and valuable insights.
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What is the role of an SEO specialist?
Keyword Research: SEO specialists enhance SERP results through research, strategy, and understanding of search intent.
Understanding search intent is crucial as it influences which keywords are utilized for content. SEO specialists typically categorize intent into four types: informational, navigational, transactional, and commercial. This forms the basis for their content strategy or how they can optimize existing pages.
Content Strategy: Content strategy involves creating a comprehensive, long-term plan derived from SEO research. SEO entails identifying topics that meet user intent, conducting keyword research for those topics, and developing content around them.
This also includes determining how to distribute and promote content to target audiences and evaluating its effectiveness. SEO experts ensure this process is replicable and continuously improved based on results.
Paid Search Campaigns: As an SEO specialist, managing paid search campaigns is also part of the job. Paid search, or pay-per-click, involves bidding on keywords to display a business page as an ad on SERPs. While it doesn’t directly affect a site’s SEO rankings, it showcases websites to potential customers searching for relevant solutions.
SEO specialists manage campaign budgets, select ad pages and target keywords. They also track which keywords generate conversions and integrate this data into SEO strategies.
Website Optimization: SEO experts must report findings on campaign performance, competitor analysis, and the latest SEO trends to clients or employers. They recommend optimising websites based on these findings, business goals, budget, and user feedback.
Team Collaboration
These reports are shared with teams that SEO specialists collaborate with to achieve business goals. Depending on a business structure, SEO specialists may have distinct roles from content writers. In such cases, content writers are typically among the first team members an SEO expert needs to connect with.
Understanding Algorithms
According to Semrush, Google changes its algorithm “thousands of times every year”. Core updates, in particular, can significantly impact a site’s rankings. SEO experts monitor these changes to understand what has been altered and how they can leverage them to maintain competitiveness.
Performance Review
You can’t simply create content or make changes without monitoring the results. SEO specialists use various tools to observe, record, and generate reports on these results. These reports provide insights into the effectiveness of campaigns or keywords, the number of visitors to a piece of content, and other metrics that are important to the business or useful for an SEO specialist.
SEO expert work environment
SEO experts can work in various settings, including for individual companies, consulting firms, or as freelancers. They may work in an office or remotely. SEO experts often participate in in-person or virtual meetings to discuss project details and strategies with clients or team members. They typically follow traditional 8-hour workdays and 40-hour workweeks, with the option of paid time off. Freelancers have the flexibility to set their own schedules based on client needs.
Average SEO Expert Salary
The average salary for SEO experts is $56,059 per year. Salaries can vary based on whether you work for a company or freelance, your level of experience and expertise, the size of your clients, and your geographic location. Full-time salaried SEO experts may also receive benefits such as insurance, paid time off, and flexible scheduling.
Conclusion
Every individual involved in managing a website or online business should aim to become proficient in SEO. This includes marketing managers, developers, webmasters, web designers, social media managers, PPC experts, solo entrepreneurs, and eCommerce owners.
Why? Because SEO forms the foundation of all digital marketing endeavours. Not only does it ensure maximum exposure in search engines, but it also offers numerous other benefits for websites.
Becoming an SEO Expert isn’t a walk in the park, but it’s certainly achievable. It requires extensive reading, practice, and experimentation. If you’re just starting out, the best approach is to enrol in a reputable SEO course to gather all the necessary information in one place, utilize the appropriate SEO tools, and start implementing SEO strategies. Learn from your mistakes and keep refining your techniques.
Search engines and SEO aren’t going away anytime soon, making this investment in your business and personal skills highly valuable for the long term.
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