How to become an SEO expert : The top 10 thing you need to know

An SEO expert is a specialist who optimizes websites in order to get higher rankings on search engines. Since SEO is still a relatively new field, there is no traditional educational program for this field. This is why to become an SEO expert people self-learn key skills and take different courses.In this article, you will find out the top 10 things you need to know to become a professional SEO specialist.

In this article, you will find out the top 10 things you need to know to become a professional SEO specialist.

Table of Contents

Why Should You Become An SEO Expert?

It is estimated that by 2040, 95% of all purchases will be through e-commerce (Source: WP Forms). Trillions of websites on the internet are competing every second to reach higher ranking on SERPs.

Using keywords alone will no longer get your website high rankings, unless you implement a proper SEO strategy. Hence, the demand for SEO professionals is higher than ever. This is why acquiring professional SEO skills and knowledge is important – whether you are running a website or want a job in digital marketing.

10 Things You Need To Know To Become an SEO Expert

1.Understand How Search Engines Work

To optimize a website on search engines you should know how a search engine works. Search engines find, analyze, and organize the content available on the internet to satisfy different search requirements.

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Three fundamental processes involved in how a search engine works are:

Crawling – search engine robots systematically browse the internet to index websites
Analyzing – search engine algorithms assess the quality and popularity of a website
Indexing – search engines store and organize websites for retrieval
Ranking – search engines rank different websites relevant to the search queries
Knowing how these processes work can help you better understand SERP optimization.

2.Understand What SEO Means

Nowadays, SEO has become a common term, but a lot of people still don’t know what it means. SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is a set of different techniques to increase the rank of a website in natural search engine results for a specific query. SEO works for every search engine, but is typically discussed for Google because:According to statistics, Google is responsible for 94% of all organic traffic. (Source: Web Presence Solutions).

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The ultimate goal of SEO is not only to gain traffic but to turn that traffic into leads. SEO improves ROI and gives you more business by combining different techniques.

3.Know The Basic Concepts

SEO is a multifaceted and complex field. It comprises different subcategories i.e. digital marketing and SEM. Both SEM and digital marketing further comprise techniques such as video marketing (also known as video SEO), mobile marketing, email marketing, content marketing, affiliate marketing.

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To create a strong and effective optimization strategy, it is important to understand the different disciplines that makeup SEO. These include:
Technical SEO – deals with crawling and indexing
On-page SEO – enhances content in page optimization
Off-page SEO – works to promote websites
B2B SEO – online marketing of products or services
Local SEO – optimizing a website for local search
Content SEO – optimizing website content for search engines

4.Master The Basic Skills

When talking about SEO, there are some key skills that an SEO expert must-have. These include:

Keyword Research – to find the most suitable keywords for your niche
Analytics – to study and analyze statistical data such as authority site, website traffic, etc.
User Experience – different factors which improve the performance of a website for a visitor like page speed, interface, etc.
Content Creation – creating engaging and relevant content that attracts both search engines and visitors

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5.Train, Practice and Grow

SEO is not static; it has grown over the years and it is constantly evolving. An SEO expert trains and stays up to date with the latest SEO best practices. Google alone makes hundreds of changes to its ranking algorithm every year.

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SEO experts need to know about these changes to streamline their campaigns accordingly.

6.Get The Right SEO Tools

To create a custom SEO strategy for a website, it is important to know the relevant data to that website. An SEO expert cannot retrieve numbers and figures on his own. The right SEO tools produce detailed analytics such as competitor analysis, demographic statistics, keyword analysis, etc. These analytical reports assess the overall performance of a website.

By knowing the data, it becomes easier to create a targeted SEO strategy to improve performance on SERPs.

7.Make A Website

Knowing the theory helps but it is not a substitute for practical experience. When you create a website from scratch you can better understand the elements of a website. You put your knowledge to use, and see how website optimization works. For example, you can insert keywords into a domain name and meta tags, build an effective information architecture or design a user-friendly interface.

To put it shortly, making a website is one of the best ways to learn SEO, because you practice all the fundamental techniques – both technical (when the website is in development phase) and on-page (when the website is running).

8.Select a Niche

Since SEO is a broad concept, one cannot become an expert on everything. For example, Off-Page SEO and technical SEO are two different areas so improving your skills in one won’t improve the other. Instead, become an SEO expert with skills across all things but excel in a particular area.
On the contrary, becoming an expert SEO for one type of business will refine your skills. For example, SEO for realtors requires a completely different approach than SEO for ecommerce pages.
Therefore, niche down by mastering SEO for a particular industry or mastering one specific skill within SEO.

9.Networking

SEO depends on many factors like website design, content, and marketing. By networking with the right industry professionals (for example, web designers, content creators, influencers and marketers) you can learn more about these different disciplines and expand your SEO knowledge. Furthermore, you can create a good reputation in the market and attract more clients.

10.Be Patient

SEO is not a quick process. You constantly need to learn and practice; continue polishing your skills and learn new market tips and tricks. So, it takes time to become an expert.

If your page does not rank in the first two weeks, do not quit. According to research, it can take a page 950 days on average to rank number one in Google search results. (Source: Ahrefs)

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The key to successful SEO is to stay consistent, and eventually, you will reap the benefits.

By becoming an SEO expert yourself, you can not only improve your online reputation but also serve others. With the help of the information mentioned in this article, create a steady stream of organic leads and traffic for your website!