As an SEO professional myself, this is one of the statements I’ve been hearing from marketers around me. “SEO is dead!!”
With the competition getting cutthroat, paid traffic on the rise and with Google supporting the process by seemingly limiting organic traffic, the SEO professionals around the globe are having a hard time. (Google is making it hard and challenging to get the websites ranked, with it’s frequent and unknown algorithm updates).
Even with all these, SEO has been, is and will be among the top skills that are hard to master, given the countless and endless Google algorithm updates that change the SEO landscape from time to time. Digital marketing professionals all over the globe have a hurdle in the form of SEO, as an ever-changing landscape of digital marketing real estate, unlike the other pillars of digital marketing.
Unlike other skills that could involve more technical aspects, SEO can be learnt by anyone. Here are the top 5 ways anyone can follow to learn the ropes of SEO and be good at it.
1. Start a blog and take action
Nothing beats the learning experience you can get by doing it. In this method, starting a blog and working on the SEO can give you more learning from mistakes, than signing up for countless courses and workshops that teach you from the surface level. Don’t go course collecting!
So how to get started?
Buy a domain name, host your website with a good web hosting provider, Install WordPress, Buy a good theme, your website is now your dojo. Practice like no one’s watching.
Learning by taking action puts you ahead of your competition since you have proof to show that you know SEO, instead of trying to convince someone to believe that. Client and companies hire dreamer-doers and not just dreamers.
2. Join an SEO Course
Yes, but try to refrain from being a course collector.
Each course is unique in its way. Try finding a course that fits your method of learning and continue with that. It helps you stay focused, from the piles of courses available online. The best part of courses online is that they offer structured lessons based on how you choose the course.
Finding the right course could be hard. Try finding someone good at SEO and willing to help. Pick someone who good at SEO, have ranked websites and built stable traffic through SEO and is patient enough to teach you.
3. Join an SEO Agency
This step makes the most sense and is more process-oriented. Join as an intern and learn the ropes.
Joining an SEO agency and learning the ropes will help you learn faster since you’ll be bang in the middle of all the action (and possibly since you’ll have your senior monitoring you).
You’ll be more hands-on with the daily affairs, doing page optimization, link building, keyword research, performance analysis, reporting and much more. It’ll also help you set a perspective since doing all that will give a clear set of distinction between your strengths and weaknesses.
Joining an SEO agency gives you an edge since you will also be learning the business aspect of SEO. Lead generation, client pitches, providing good service and ensuring customer satisfaction, and client retention can be learnt from an agency. It could also help you start your agency once you gain expertise on what you are good at.
4. Work on your strengths
Being an SEO expert is not about being a one-trick pony. It’s about finding out what you are good at.
If you’re good at writing, focus on content writing and blogging where your skills will be put to optimal use.
If you’re a number cruncher, focus on the SEO analysis where you can create meaningful and actionable data out of the reports.
Are you a networking pro? Put those people skills to good use and leverage that valuable skill for link building.
Working on your strengths and constantly improving it can set you on a growth path faster than someone who is doing it all.
5. Focus on the big picture
Getting traffic and ranking on Google is among the objectives of SEO professionals. Is getting traffic and getting ranked the only thing that matters?
Focusing just on the SEO aspect and ignoring other factors to convert visitors into conversions is like buying a new house and leaving it open for the burglar to walk in.
After getting people to visit your websites, it all boils down to the conversions made on the website or the transactions/sales achieved.
To hook your visitors right from the SERPs and make them click your link, you should know how to write good copy.
To keep the visitors on your page, engaging UI/UX is important. Think like a visitor and focus on their objectives and pain points while creating the pages and content.
To rake in more conversions, it is important to learn about basic visitor psychology and common persuasion techniques.
Being a digital marketer is 80% marketing and 20% digital.
Don’t just focus on the SEO aspect and rest on it. Work on other skills that would make you a better marketer.
Start with these and you’re halfway there already. Get started, stay consistent, make mistakes and learn from your mistakes. Your last mistake is the best teacher you could get. Happy learning.