The best way to make the most of your website, especially for digital marketing, is by using SEO. This helps increase your website visibility, especially with targeted keywords, and improves your SERPs ranking.
SEO is now an important marketing strategy in today’s digital marketing world. So, it’s understandable for anyone to want to become an SEO professional in 2021.
There are many avenues for you to learn more about SEO and acquire the knowledge that you need. It also does not take a lot to become an SEO professional. All you need is to follow the following steps;
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1. Understand how search engines functions
Before you become a professional at anything, you need to understand the basics first. It’s the same for SEO professionals. The first thing to learn is how search engines work. This is very important as they built SEO around the workings of the search engines.
Even if you already know the basics, you should still regularly revisit them and also make sure that you’re familiar with newer concepts and any changes.
2. Know the basics concepts of search engine marketing
Again, there are many basics that you have to familiarize yourself with if you want to be an SEO professional. Even if you already know these basics, revisiting them and solidifying your understanding will do you much good.
If you don’t know these concepts, you need them. This is for you to understand what SEO is, how it works, and what to expect.
3. Know what SEO really means
It is easy for you to think that all you need for SEO is your search engine ranking and some links. Well, that’s just a part. There is a lot more to SEO. The first reason for SEO is to help search engine users get the best answer to their searches. Google wants to make sure that the users get answers that are the most precise to the queries.
It is vital to have high-quality content on your website. It’s relatively more comfortable to get the traffic you need on your website. But converting this traffic into buyers and recurring visitors is another thing.
There are three different components of SEO;
- Technical SEO
- Off-page SEO
- On-page SEO
4. Get some SEO training
There are many SEO-related materials that you can access freely on the internet. With these materials, you can get enough details on the basics and elements of SEO. However, this also means that you have too much information and might not be able to tell if it’s useful.
You might as well be better off getting proper SEO training. The good thing is there are several reputable courses to choose from as well. Make this decision based on your research and not in haste.
5. Own your website
There’s no better place to practice the SEO strategies that you are learning than your website. As you’re learning the basics of SEO, you also need to apply them. Many SEO professionals learned this way. SEO is more of a practice, and your website gives you a platform to practice SEO regularly. You can start with a topic that is easy for you to create content on. Then write and optimize.
6. Practice SEO regularly
You are likely to find many tutorials and guides explaining SEO in a very logical manner. However, SEO is best in practice. The truth is, every website is different on its own, and its SEO approach is usually different.
Every website would ask you for a customized SEO approach, and as an SEO professional, you have to deliver. This is where the practicality of your SEO knowledge comes to play. This means that you have to practice SEO as regularly as possible.
7. Be informed of SEO updates
There are regular and constant updates to SEO. The strategies and functionality continue to change. As a matter of fact, the Google search algorithm embraces over 250 changes every year. To be successful as an SEO professional, you need to be abreast of these changes regularly as they come.
You can do this by regularly visiting a reputable SEO news website known for publishing insightful and up-to-date SEO content. Examples of these websites are:
- Google Blog
- Search Engine Land
- Search Engine Roundtable
- Google Search Blog
8. Use proven SEO tools
It is impossible to practice SEO without the necessary tools. This is because you have numerous things that you need to manage at the same time. This is what differentiates different SEO tools in the final result that you get. You can get to use some tools for free while you pay for some others. But standard SEO tools are:
- Google analytics
- Google webmaster tool
- SEMRUSH
- Ahrefs
9. Read quality rater guideline from Google
Google’s quality rater guideline will give you an in-depth knowledge of how the search engine works. There are professionals hired by Google to rate websites, as well as the bots as well. The factors that they have to look at are:
- Authoritativeness
- Trustworthiness
- Expertise
10. Remain patient
With SEO, it gives the result that you want, howbeit it does not happen overnight. Your SEO strategy will probably yield results if you continue with it persistently. Chopping and changing your SEO strategy will not give the best outcome that you want.
Organic SEO takes time to deliver exceptional results. This means that you have to take your time, then measure the results. This will help determine your next step.
Conclusion
Becoming an SEO professional is many people’s dream. However, it requires a high level of practice, effort, and determination. The good thing with SEO is that you can become an SEO professional irrespective of your current role.
It’s a role that requires you to be knowledgeable and informed about current trends. So, if you can keep up with this, you have a future as an SEO professional.
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