Becoming an SEO expert takes time and effort to accomplish, especially now that the niche is dominated by professionals who are the best at what they do. It takes more than skill to help a brand improve online visibility and reliability—two things an SEO specialist knows how to achieve. To be at the top, you need to learn about search engine optimization not only by theory but also by practice.
To be the expert that you aspire to become, you don’t just hand out tips for SEO and call it a day. Mastering the skill means carving your journey towards SEO as a career. You are in charge of your growth in the field, which is why there’s no better time to start learning SEO than now!
When you hear the word ‘expert’, you would immediately think someone who has gained enough knowledge well beyond just watching SEO tips on Youtube or reading SEO tips for bloggers. A true expert has significant experience in optimizing websites to get higher rankings in search engines like Google.
How do you know, then, who the true SEO specialist is? They are the professionals who don’t stop learning the SEO process to get consistent results in every campaign they handle. For this reason, you must be the search engine expert that works to better themselves. Make it your goal to be the authority that clients can trust to deliver long-term commitment and success.
This guide follows a simple process that helps develop your skills from beginner to pro in just twelve steps. Have the power to transform a brand’s digital success and become the best search engine marketer you could be in record time.
For you to become an SEO expert, learning the basics is the first step you should never skip. It’s essential to understand how search engines like Google work when pulling matching pages for search queries. Thousands upon thousands of websites are indexed daily. There’s a specific algorithm Google, which they call search engine spiders that crawls for relevant pages that will match a query.
As an SEO specialist, your goal is to optimize a page so that it appears on page one of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). To do this, you need to have a great grasp of what search engine optimization is, working your way up to intricate details as you progress.
It’s also really helpful at the start if you take time to learn what not to do—black hat techniques that hurt a page’s ranking and unintentional errors that can rack up unnecessary costs in the long run.
You must learn about the different factors that enable websites to rank on search pages. Google’s algorithm might change daily, but these key elements are what SEO specialists optimize to ensure that search engine spiders find your page fast.
There are many factors that even several SEO companies don’t know about, but there are three that will always be there no matter how many times Google switches up its algorithm. Firstly, Relevance guides crawlers to an SEO-driven page. For example, when typing ‘SEO tips for Wordpress’, return pages would likely be articles or tutorials on SEO rather than a subscription page for related services.
Another key factor is Authority, which refers to backlinks or the link that leads back to your optimized page. It denotes that the backlinked content is informative, relatable, and valuable to the viewer. It also means that the content is relevant and read-worthy, which consequently drives more traffic to the page.
Lastly, Utility is a factor that indicates how much Google rates the page as the best of the best. If you give SEO tips, you have to give unique content filled with useful information and optimized in form and function for different platforms.
To be a successful SEO expert, you need to have a deep understanding of the five core topics that define SEO strategies: keyword research, content creation, on-page SEO, technical SEO, and link building.
Keyword research is the process of identifying search terms that have traffic potential, business value, and low ranking difficulty. On-page SEO and content creation go hand-in-hand since great content should be optimized using relevant title tags, descriptive alt tags, meta title and description, and internal links to other relevant pages.
Technical SEO refers to optimizing the code, enhancing page speed, removing broken links that might prevent search engines from crawling the content efficiently. Link building means obtaining third-party organic backlinks that will serve as referral traffic to your page.
If you want to be a search engine marketer, applying what you’ve learned so far can help you develop your skills further. Think of it as a test subject that lets you put theory into practice. Choose a niche you are well-versed on and create a basic website. Buy a reliable hosting subscription and start creating content!
Put all the SEO optimization tips and studying to good use by ensuring that your website is structured accordingly. It will be tempting to test your knowledge by getting your first client, but it’s safer to practice on your own first before branching out to freelancing work.
Once you feel more confident about your SEO skills, it’s time to focus your efforts on a particular niche since search engine optimization is a broad industry. It’s similar to how physicians choose a field to specialize in, gaining more authority and trust as they do.
Aim to be the T-shaped SEO expert who knows everything about SEO with proven excellence in a specific area, whether it be in keyword mining, page speed optimization, or link building. Additionally, you can also refine your expertise further by catering to a particular field, such as real estate, e-commerce, or law firms, among others.
Online marketing takes a lot of effort and money to do, which is why many business owners will delegate this job to a third-party service provider—and that could be you. By now, you would have made significant progress on your SEO learning and could apply it to a client’s page or website. You can work as a freelancer or work in an agency where your skills are in demand. Continue to build up your portfolio and uphold client satisfaction, because that’s how you’ll get recognized in the field.
To ensure that projects flow your way, you need to do standard marketing practices that will get your brand out there. You’ve built your portfolio and completed client requests satisfactorily, so they are likely to recommend your services to other people. Aside from that, you can also create business cards, do cold calls, and bid on jobs within your capacity. In time, all this legwork will pay off!
Search engine algorithms change regularly, and it’s your job to keep up with these updates. You can refer to the SEO tips blogs created by search engineers, and always be on your toes for new guidelines in the world of SEO. Committing oversights is a no-no, so pay close attention and always bring yourself up-to-date.
Reaping the results of your efforts does not happen overnight. You might not even see any improvement in the first few weeks of optimizing a page, but don’t let that dishearten you. If you keep up with your best practices in keyword research, link building, on-page optimization, and other SEO tasks, you’ll eventually climb your way to the top ranks.
Well-written case studies on SEO will provide you great insight into the industry’s current landscape. Reading on high-quality case studies will help you earn additional knowledge about SEO and innovate new techniques to enhance your work.
Do everything in you can to be consistent with your results and make improvements wherever necessary. You’ve been building a good name for yourself, which is why you need to be honest and trustworthy in every SEO campaign you handle.
As an SEO expert, you have garnered the authority to dish out SEO optimization tips that amateurs can use for their journey. You’ve also started from the beginning, which gives you the power to inspire those who want to be like you. It’s fulfilling to be instrumental to other people’s growth simply by sharing your learnings and experiences along the way.