How would you define SEO? What does it mean to be an SEO expert?
This guide will teach you everything you need to know about SEO, including what it is, why it’s an essential analytical skill, and how to use it to improve your website’s user intent.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimising websites to rank higher in search engines such as Google and Bing. It is a complex field that requires years of experience.
To become an SEO expert, start by learning what SEO means and how it works. SEO aims to increase traffic from organic searches and, for this traffic to impact your overall business goals.
Reading this article shows you want to learn everything about search engine optimisation. You’re wondering what steps you need to take to become an SEO expert, otherwise known as an SEO specialist.
You want to learn how to increase your website traffic from search engines or achieve higher rankings in Google for targeted keywords.
There is fierce competition for the top slots of the search engine results pages since 76% of B2C marketers use content marketing and 88% of B2B marketers use it.
Whether your business is a small, one-person company or large multinational or somewhere in-between, if you rely on targeted organic traffic to your website for sales and marketing, you need to know search engine optimisation or hire an SEO expert or an SEO specialist.
What is an SEO Expert?
A Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Expert or SEO specialist uses SEO tools to analyse, review, and implement regular changes to websites. Therefore, they use their SEO experience to optimise websites and increase search engine traffic from Google and other search engines.
An SEO specialist goes above and beyond the SEO basics to research and analyse the trends and best practices online to develop and implement strategies that improve search results. An SEO specialist must spot trends, understand them, and create systems that work within them.
An SEO professional must also be proficient in creating online content, optimising copy and landing pages for search intent, and providing a positive user experience. Her tasks include using Google’s Keyword Planner and similar tools to perform ongoing aspects of SEO, such as keyword research and discovering new keyword opportunities. They must also have the technical skills to create a URL structure with relevant internal links that are search-engine friendly and devoid of duplicate content. An SEO specialist must also be capable of researching and implementing content quality recommendations for organic SEO success.
Anyone can learn how to do search engine optimisation. But pursuing an SEO career or becoming an SEO expert in Lagos, Nigeria or anywhere else takes time and a lot of hard work. In addition to having SEO knowledge, you need practical SEO skills in handling an SEO campaign. It would be best if you kept abreast of the latest search engine marketing news on relevant news sites like Search Engine Land and Search Engine Journal. You also need to subscribe to relevant journals and attend SEO conferences. Therefore, hiring an SEO expert is not cheap!
The cost of hiring an SEO expert or an SEO agency with years of experience is usually prohibitive for small businesses.
There is fierce competition for the top slots of the search engine results pages since 76% of B2C marketers use content marketing and 88% of B2B marketers use it. Click To TweetIt is why some small business owners who appreciate the importance of digital marketing in growing their businesses learn all they can learn about SEO.
Learn About Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Basics
To be an SEO specialist for your website, you must train yourself in basic HTML editing. It will help if you are conversant with meta-tagging, H1, H2 tags and Href commands.
Also, it would help if you had a solid understanding of the following:
- Keyword Research
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
- How Google search works
- Link Building
- Content Marketing
- Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs)
- User Experience
- Page Rank
- How to Create Great Content
- Knowledge of ranking factors and how to analyse search engine rankings
- Competitive Analysis
- How to write great blog posts
- Responsive Design
- How to craft keyword-rich domain names
- Competition Research
- Marketing Strategy
- How to use the right keywords and title tags in your content
- Copywriting
- Social media marketing
- Website Analytics
- Content Strategy
- Web Development
- Online Marketing
- Email list building and email marketing.
- Use SEO tools to improve your online presence
- Excellent communication skills.
They say practice makes perfect. So, you need to find a website you can use to practice. In most cases, this will be your website – yikes!
But please, for heaven’s sake, practice on your ‘staging site’ rather than on your live website. Then transfer whatever works on your staging site to your live website. Also, keep several backup copies of your website if something goes wrong.
You will also need to train yourself on all the major CMS platforms like Drupal, Joomla and WordPress.
With about 33% market share, WordPress is the most popular platform for building websites.
30% of Internet users rely on voice search to perform a Google search. So, you need to know about optimising for voice searches. Click To TweetSo, it is likely that you will build your website on WordPress. Thus, knowing the best practices for optimising WordPress sites will be great.
Also, you need to subscribe to and read blogs like The Mauco Blog. You must also watch SEO expert how-to videos on YouTube, SEO industry webinars, and conferences and get certified.
It is predicted that by 2021, 82% of traffic will be video. Optimising your video is, therefore, essential.
30% of users rely on voice search to perform a Google search. So, you need to know about optimising for voice searches, which is also gaining momentum in recent years.
Becoming an SEO expert in Lagos, Nigeria, requires two main things: content creation skills and Google Analytics skills.
These two skills will help you create great content that ranks high on Google or identify blog posts losing organic traffic. Then you can optimise them to rank higher in search engines.
Becoming an SEO expert is not an overnight endeavour. Knowing the ins and outs of search engine optimisation and the major search engines available takes time. To be an all-around SEO expert in Lagos, Nigeria, or an SEO consultant, you need to know on-page SEO, the technical aspect of SEO, and off-page SEO.
SEO experts must understand all digital and social media marketing aspects beyond the surface level. It will be a bonus to you if you know the psychology of humans, the specific culture you’re marketing, the social media landscape, proficiency with web analytics tools, mobile usability, Google Ads, fixing broken links, selecting keywords and topics with sufficient search volume, web design and development, viral marketing, content, product, business models and more.
As an SEO specialist in Lagos, Nigeria or elsewhere, you must consider different SEO aspects and be comfortable researching and analysing online trends and best practices. You need to develop and put in place search engine marketing strategies that improve your rankings in search results.
It would help if you were comfortable with search engine algorithms, spot trends, understand what they mean, and develop strategies that work within them.
But, let me sound a note of caution. It would help if you were realistic in your expectations. Search engine optimization is dynamic. You or I, or any other digital marketing agency or SEO company, will never know every single intricacy of search engine optimisation. Nobody ever will.
Your search rankings in search engines can rise and fall overnight. Therefore, you need to know your key search terms, monitor industry changes, or hire an SEO specialist. Hiring a search engine optimisation specialist will save you time and money because you don’t need to go through the rigours of SEO training and understanding search engines and search algorithms. You will not need to bother yourself about the intricacies of a search query, creating a compelling type of content, high-quality content, or an SEO strategy. This allows your business to respond quickly before things get out of hand.
Understand The Importance of Keywords
The purpose of keywords is to inform search engines about the content of a website’s page. A “keyword” is also a term used to refer to the words and phrases people enter into a search engine to find the information they’re looking for. In terms of SEO, they are ideas and topics that define your content.
Keyword research helps understand the competition, what people search for on the internet, and what keywords business owners and content creators should target. That is why relevant keywords are critical in matching your website content to what your targeted viewers are looking for.
Keywords are used in SEO to increase relevant organic search traffic to websites and can be simple phrases or complex words. Keywords matter because they attract the attention of search engine algorithms to terms associated with your website’s products and services.
Incorporating keywords into meta information on your website — particularly in title tags and meta descriptions — enormously helps Google and other search engine crawlers understand what your piece of content is about.
Know How to Write a Good Title Tag
- Write unique titles for every page: Your HTML title tag appears in browser tabs, bookmarks and search engine result pages. Write a different title tag for every page.
- Pay attention to the length: Make your title tags clear and concise (maximum of 65 characters or 200-569 pixels).
- Use your target keyword (but don’t overdo it): Include your most important keywords in grammatically correct phrases.
- Be descriptive of what’s on the page: Your title should summarise what is on the page. Write titles that make sense to humans.
- Make a (brief) case for what’s on the page: Your title should convince your potential visitor that your page contains the correct answer to their search query.
Find Out More About Meta Descriptions
- Consider your customer mindset: Your meta description is responsible for attracting new customers. So, it would help to focus on what would compel a searcher to click on your title tag.
- Make it unique: A good meta description acts as an organic advertisement, so use enticing messaging.
- Keep it at optimal length: A good meta description contains between 70- and 160-character spaces included (400 – 940 pixels).
- Make it actionable by adding a call to action: A clear call to action to maximise click-through rate. They allow you to influence how your web pages are described and displayed in search results.
- Use your target keyword: Ensure that all your web pages have a unique, explicit meta description and contain your most important keywords (these appear in bold when they match part or all of the user’s search query).
- Try to avoid meta description generators: A meta description generator online is a machine and, therefore, may tend to make mistakes and not include all the necessary keywords for your blog article.
Find Out More About Backlinks
Backlinks are links from other websites to yours. Among hundreds of factors considered in SEO, they are the key factor in helping search engines find your site easier and rank higher. The best way to get backlinks is through guest posting. As a link building strategy, guest blogging is when someone publishes an article about your business on another blog. This helps you build credibility and trust among readers.
Discover The Benefits of Social Media Marketing
As an industry expert, you need to realise that to provide quality SEO service, there are several benefits of using social media as integral for business purposes. These include the following:
- As a marketing channel, it allows businesses to connect with potential customers through various platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, etc.
- It helps social media managers build relationships between brands and consumers.
- It provides businesses new ways to market themselves on social media platforms.
- It improves customer service.
- It increases sales.
- It helps establish credibility.
- It creates awareness about your company.
- It builds trust.
- It generates leads.
- It gives you access to information about your target market.
- It makes you look like a leader in your industry.
Conclusion
In conclusion, being an SEO expert isn’t rocket science. It just takes practice and dedication to understand the basics of SEO. With years of hands-on experience, you will move on to more advanced SEO tactics. So why don’t you give it a try?
As SEO experts, we know enough to add value to your business. We encourage you to outsource your search engine optimisation to Mauco Enterprises.
Outsourcing your SEO to us leaves you with enough time to focus on other vital business areas. To learn more about SEO and how to be an SEO expert in Lagos, Nigeria, we recommend reading the following articles below.
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- How to Explain SEO to Someone Who Knows Nothing About It
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- The Benefits of Outsourcing Your Digital Marketing to a Professional Agency
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