The ever-changing world of SEO can feel like a complex maze, but with dedication and the right approach, you can become an expert who navigates it with ease. Here’s a roadmap to equip you with the knowledge and skills to excel in the field of SEO:
What Is an SEO Expert?
An SEO expert (also known as an “SEO specialist”) is someone who optimizes websites to achieve higher search engine rankings.
Put another way:
An SEO expert is someone who knows how to get more traffic from search engines.
Understand the Basics of SEO
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s the process of improving your website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords. The higher you rank, the more likely people are to find your website.
Why is SEO Important?
Think of search engines as giant libraries with a complex filing system. SEO helps search engines understand what your website is about and categorize it properly. This increases the chances of your website showing up when people search for information related to your content. Here’s why it’s important:
- Free Traffic: SEO can bring more visitors to your website without the need for paid advertising.
- Targeted Audience: By optimizing for relevant keywords, you attract users genuinely interested in what you offer.
- Credibility: Ranking high in search results can boost your website’s credibility and establish you as an authority in your field.
What Skills Should an SEO Expert Know?
There’s a lot more to SEO than optimizing meta tags on a website.
The best SEO specialists are people who are proficient in several different areas of digital marketing. This includes “core” SEO skills (like title tag optimization). But it also includes other digital marketing skills, like writing and web design.
With that, here are the key skills that an SEO expert needs to have:
- Ability to find high-volume, low-competition keywords
- Basic understanding of HTML
- How and where to add keywords to a webpage
- Intermediate to advanced copywriting skills
- Proficiency in visual content, like video and infographics
- Ability to promote and build links to key pages
- Understanding of how technical SEO impacts rankings
- Knowledge of emerging SEO trends and Google algorithm changes
Master The 5 Keys of SEO Expert
1) Finding and Choosing Keywords
Keyword research should be the first step of ANY SEO campaign.
Choose the right keywords. You’ll see your site rocket to the top of Google’s first page for keywords that thousands of people search for every month.
Choose the wrong keywords? Your site will be buried at the bottom of Google’s 5th page.
Keywords are that important.
2) Content Marketing
No SEO training would be complete without a section on content marketing. That’s because it’s almost impossible to rank in 2023 without awesome content (even if your site is perfectly optimized for search engines).
3) Optimizing Content
Back in the day, you could stuff your content with keywords… and it would rank. Flash forward to today, and on-page SEO is much more sophisticated. Sure, you still want to include keywords on your page. But that’s just the beginning.
4) Technical Optimization
Technical SEO is one of the most underrated parts of SEO. It’s important for just about any website. But technical optimization is especially important for big websites with thousands of pages (like e-commerce and news sites).
5) Link Building
There’s no way around it: link building is a HUGE part of SEO. And that’s not likely to change anytime soon. That’s why any SEO expert (even one that specializes in technical SEO or content) needs to be good at building backlinks.
Test and Learn
The best SEO professionals I know all have one thing in common:
They’re ALWAYS testing. I’d say that “testing” is the one thing that ultimately pushes people to the top of the field. That said: SEO is a tricky thing to test. So if you’re going to run an SEO experiment.
#Things You Can Test
In theory, you can test just about anything.
But here are some relatively easy SEO experiments to run:
- Title tags (keyword optimization)
- Title tags (organic CTR optimization)
- Content formats (list posts vs. how-to posts)
- Content lengths
- Internal linking
- External linking
If you want to get more advanced, you can start testing different link-building strategies, search intents, and paid social media promotion.
Implement Advanced SEO Expert Strategies
#Analytics
When I say “Analytics”, I’m mostly talking about Google Analytics.
Understanding Analytics is important for two main reasons:
- Analytics is how you measure the success or failure of an SEO campaign.
- Analytics can help you find SEO opportunities that are impossible to find any other way.
#SEO Audits
In a perfect world, you’d work on sites that are almost perfectly optimized. They just need your magic touch to push it over the edge.
But we don’t live in a perfect world.
In the real world, you’ll find yourself battling duplicate content, Google penalties, horrible UX, and lots more.
Enter SEO Audits. SEO auditing is important because it helps you break down a site’s SEO in a systematic way.
#User Experience
Is User Experience a direct ranking signal? Probably not.
But user experience indirectly impacts SEO in a major way.
For example, let’s say your site is hard to use. Well, Google searchers are going to “Pogostick” back to the search results, which can hurt your rankings.
#Competitor Analysis
In other words: reverse engineering how your competitor is getting their links. This includes looking at the content that’s working best for them and WHERE they get their links from.
Stay Current With Emerging Trends
The SEO industry is ALWAYS changing.
Which means there’s always something new to learn about.
So if you want to stay ahead of the curve, I recommend reading up on these 5 emerging SEO trends
- Voice Search
- Video SEO
- Google Lens
- Featured Snippet Optimization
- User Intent
Remember:
I hope this guide helped show you how to become an SEO expert.
The journey to becoming an SEO expert requires dedication, continuous learning, and a willingness to adapt. Embrace the challenge, hone your skills, and don’t be afraid to experiment. With the right approach, you’ll be well on your way to conquering the ever-evolving maze of SEO.
