Here are some of the most effective tips and pieces of advice to become one.
Learn the basics of SEO
Understanding and knowing the pillars of SEO is a paramount step in becoming a successful SEO expert. Knowing the common terms and basic strategies you can utilise for your clients is equally important. SEO falls under the spectrum of Digital Marketing, so you need to know how the search engine works and how it affects your website’s ranking and performance. This way, you can find the right market for your business.
What are the pillars of SEO?
Pillar 1: Technical – both content and HTML codes (site optimisation and web development)
Pillar 2: Content – article or blog writing
Pillar 3: On-site – meta tags, titles, and descriptions
Pillar 4: Off-site – actions outside your website, for example, backlinks
Understanding Your Business
What is your business? What do you sell? Who is your target audience? Do they know your brand well enough when looking for products and services related to your market? Are there already websites out there ranking high in the SERPs that promote similar products/services as yours or even better than yours?
The answers to these questions will help you choose which keywords you’d want to rank higher in the SERPs. They will also save you a lot of time because SEO keyword research is time-consuming. Conduct SEO keyword research that will give you value, not just numbers.
Observing Your Competitors
Once you have an idea of what you’re selling and who your target audience is, it’s time to observe your competition and analyse their strategy. You should know how they do it so that when conducting SEO planning or making decisions regarding the keywords you will already have an idea. Analysing backlinks using tools like Ahrefs, Moz Open Site Explorer, SEO Spyglass, just to name a few.
Keywords are of no use if you don’t get SEO traffic from them. So it is very important to check the numbers for your SEO competitors when conducting keyword research. If they’re getting more SEO traffic than you are with the same keywords (more sales/leads etc) then you might be doing something wrong in terms of marketing activities or SEO strategy. Or maybe there’s a reason why people search differently on Google for products and services related to yours. For example, younger audiences prefer mobile devices over desktops and tablets, so your website optimisation efforts are also keys to your SEO strategy.
Defining Your SEO Target Keywords
This SEO step involves deciding which keywords you’d like to compete for in the SERPs and a keyword planner tool. There are so many keyword planner tools out there, some are free, some have paid versions, but we prefer using Google AdWords or Alli AI because they’re simple and easy to use.
Understand what keywords are and how they’re used in SEO
People often think that SEO is all about keywords. Not all the time, but keywords are important so your brand stands out among your competitors. Getting and using the right keywords for your business can easily boost its ranking and visibility on search engines. You must know the right keywords that people are searching for. Significantly, relevant keywords that provide organic traffic for your website can help generate more sales for your business. Being an SEO expert must know how to research keywords that will work best for your business or clients.
Familiarise yourself with SEO Tools
SEO is an important component of an online marketing strategy. Understanding SEO tools such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Moz, Ahrefs, SEMrush, and other SEO tools can help improve your website’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).
The first step to understanding how SEO can help grow your business is to know what it stands for search engine optimization. This practice aims to ensure that a website ranks highly on SERP, which means it appears near the top of the list when someone types in a keyword related to your company or domain name into Google, Yahoo, Bing, or any other major search engine. Many factors determine where you rank on SERP, but one way you can increase your chances of success with SEO is by using SEO tools available online. You can even use some tools or resources for free!
Be knowledgeable about content creation
There is no doubt that content is king. Content creation is one of the main factors why a website provides credibility and relevance on search results! If you are knowledgeable about creating content, it is much easier for you to optimise the website and increase its ranking on search results. You should know about using an appropriate title tag (use descriptive words), including meta descriptions (adds clickable text when someone searches on a site) that accurately describe the page you are linking them to. In addition, it would be best if you made sure that your images have captions. Hence, people know what they are looking at and provide links back to other articles you’ve written about related topics to build up credibility within the industry.
Being an SEO expert can give you a lot of opportunities. SEO experts are responsible for designing, executing, and managing strategies that improve search engine ranking. They use their understanding of algorithms and their experience with user behaviour on websites to create effective content campaigns that help them rank higher in organic searches. Just keep in mind that it takes a lot of work and dedication, so be patient!
Mars Digital is a digital marketing agency in Auckland that focuses on YOUR needs rather than giving you a standard SEO package. We listen to your needs and goals, and from there, we create strategies especially designed for your business. Talk to our Digital Marketing Experts today at www.marsdigital.co.nz.
