How to Become an SEO Expert in 10 Steps

Intro

SEO is a crucial knowledge set if you want to have a successful website or online business, but it is also a fantastic career to follow.

There are many aspects and steps that are involved to become successful in the field, but we’ve got you covered!

How to Become an SEO Expert in 10 Steps

Here are 10 steps we believe to be the most important in becoming well versed in the world of SEO and successful in it.

Understand the Basics of Search Engine

SEO stands for search engine optimization, so how can you optimize if you don’t know about the search engine? We always hear about the algorithm, and this is essential where you learn to play the algorithm in your favor.

The goal of SEO is essentially to say to Google, and other search engines, “My website is worthy of being viewed by the public. It is valuable, reputable, and fits a particular niche. Make sure it is seen.”

So, you design your website and provide content on it that is specifically geared toward a particular niche in order to drive the traffic that is interested in those particular topics and fields.

Here are a couple of aspects to keep in mind when it comes to becoming an SEO expert:

• Organic Traffic - This is the traffic that Google keeps an eye on and that you should really be building. Traffic is organic when an individual searches for a term, and your site is the result of this search, and they click on it.
• Bounce Rate - This is the rate at which an individual leaves your website. The lower the bounce rate, the better, as it means the visitor to your website visited multiple pages on your site.
• Ranking - The overall goal of SEO, and the work involved with it, is to get your website ranking high. The higher the rank, the more likely your website will be listed at the top of a search result.
• Reputation - A main component of ranking high and gaining organic traffic. Reputation is built on your website’s reliability, quality, and adherence to respectable techniques.
• White vs. Black Hat - White hat techniques are the “legal” SEO methods to use within the algorithm. Black hat techniques are loopholes and unsavory methods to gain traffic quickly.

When it comes to the difference between the techniques, it is crucial to keep in mind that Google gets better and better at recognizing black hat techniques and will punish a website by placing it in what we like to call “Google Jail”.

This means that your website will cease to receive traffic and therefore be stunted in its growth.

Master Search Engine Marketing Concepts

Now, what are the building blocks of this process? How do you rank high, and build a reputation?

Here are the main tools to effectively build your website:

Keywords

These are words and phrases that let Google know what your website content is about. This allows Google to appropriately categorize your website and show it to the right audience.

This is crucial, because keywords are general phrases and words that individuals put into Google search, and a lot of research goes into this aspect.

Let’s say for a moment that we have a website about cats called Everything Cats.

So your target audience is people who own and love cats. Well, that particular demographic is going to search terms on Google such as _how long do cats sleep?, what is the healthiest food for a cat?, _or the perfect litter box for a cat.

Google accumulates these search terms and calculates which phrases are most searched for and are competitive. Those are keywords you want to include in order to get more organic traffic.

Where do you start to get some of the best keywords? Well, you can start with our keyword finder!

Backlinks

These are links that you place within your website to other related website articles and pages. As long as the links are relevant to your website and blog topics then this will help to build your reputation.

It’s important to remember that they have to be relevant! A common black hat technique in the past was to place multiple backlinks on the website, regardless of relevancy, in the hopes of building a reputation.

Google picked up on this and continues to be aware of irrelevant backlinks. So make sure they are quality links that are on topic.

If you are looking for the best backlinks that your competitors are using then look no further than our backlink checker!

Headings

These tie in with keywords, but should be acknowledged as an individual aspect. The way in which Google finds and categorizes websites is also through heading titles. This clarifies what the actual content of your website is about.

So let’s go back to our awesome website, Everything Cats. Maybe we have a particular page dedicated to litter boxes, and we have several headings on that page discussing various litter boxes.

As a carrier of keywords, headings hold a lot of value. A heading literally says to Google, “We talk about this specific topic on this specific page.” So, maybe you have a heading like, _The Best Litter Boxes for Big Cats. _

Google will recognize this heading and as long as it is properly worded, will recommend the page to people searching for litter boxes for big cats or even a variable of those terms.

URL

The title of your website and URL are also crucial tags and markers for Google to understand your website. You want to make sure

PPC vs. Organic Results

Organic results we already mentioned, but something to also be aware of is PPC or Pay-per-click. This includes ads or any kind of link that is paid for on Google. You generally see these as search results on the top of the page.

It will usually be a website link with the term “Ad” next to it. Now, these may not be considered organic traffic if someone clicks it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not valuable.

PPC can actually be very helpful in gaining traffic and awareness of your site especially if your general SEO is solid.

Metadata

This is information that the visitor to your website doesn’t really see but is programmed into your website. You’ll generally see it on a search results page as the description underneath the link itself.

However, metadata is also sprinkled throughout your website in relation to videos and images. Google can’t necessarily read those aspects, but placing metadata for them will help Google better understand what topics they relate to.

Invest in the Right Foundation - SEO Training

There’s a lot to learn when it comes to SEO and this article barely scratches the surface.

SEO is a constantly changing terrain so you want to ensure that your foundational training is enough for you to build off of. You can learn a lot of factual information, but the key is to become an independent learner.

The training you receive should give you the confidence to take on any client and any project with confidence and clarity.

Keep Up with Changes and SEO Trends

SEO is an environment that is constantly changing and developing. Google itself is always working to make its analysis of websites more reputable and concise, and so you need to keep up.

We believe this to be a good thing since the goal is to ensure the individuals who work hard to make their SEO fair and reputable are rewarded for their work. Also, to ensure that the content gets to the people who really want it.

So it’s very necessary to keep up with how all of the aspects we’ve already discussed may change, and what you need to know to continue to steer your optimization in the right direction.

Familiarize Yourself with SEO Tools

As mentioned before, SEO and the status of your website are trackable values, and there are countless tools out there to help you see it. What’s important is to familiarize yourself with those tools.

If you don’t have an SEO tool you can’t track it, and then you don’t know what your website needs. How do you know what you are getting right and wrong?

If you are looking for a great tool to check the health and wellness of your website we have a fantastic web audit tool to keep track of it for you!

Also, our SERP checker is great for helping you find the weak spots in your competitors and discover what keywords would help you dominate.

Start Your Website/Blog to Practice Your SEO Skills

An athlete that trains but never plays the game isn’t going to get better. It’s the same with an SEO expert. You can learn all of the skills necessary for SEO, but you have to get in the game.

The best way to do this is to start a website or blog and start implementing what you learn. There are many ins and outs that have to be practiced practically.

It also forces you to start thinking about how the simple aspects like title, headings, keywords, backlinking, and metadata are complex and require continued attention and practice.

Establish Systems

Clear systems help you to see clear flaws. Sometimes things don’t work. That is the beauty of trial and error, but if you don’t use an established system it doesn’t present a clear issue. Where did you go wrong?

The other benefit of a clear system is efficiency. If you have multiple clients you don’t have the leisure of being everywhere all at once. You have to focus and ensure the best quality work for each client.

So build something that you can follow, and execute effectively. Here are just the general steps that you have to keep in mind.

They are simple and seem obvious, but you can break them down into smaller steps as well:

• Research
• Implement
• Test

Commit to Continuous Learning

As we mentioned before, SEO is continuously evolving and changing so it is always crucial to stay up to date on those changes, but also it’s important to continue learning in general.

With the unlimited amount of topics on the internet, you can never know too much in order to benefit the work of your clients. After all, if you want to be an expert in SEO, it’s in your best interest to know as much as you can.

Knowledge of all types of topics can help you learn possible keywords, backlinks, and heading opportunities.

Have Patience!

Don’t worry if you don’t get traffic immediately. Trust us, you do it all right, you research keywords, you get your website looking beautiful and concise, and then you sit and wait for the traffic to roll in.

A day goes by, a week, maybe a month and you see a couple of visitors here and there, but you don’t blow up like you were hoping to.

We understand how disheartening it can be, but it is crucial that you stay patient. After implementing the right SEO tactics it can still take anywhere between 3 and 6 months to see substantial results.

The reason is that Google takes time to read and categorize your website. So, be patient. Trust that your hard work will pay off. Continue to build your blog and don’t lose faith.

Show Results to Your Clients and Keep Mastering Your Craft!

The great thing about SEO is that it’s something you can track. As we mentioned, websites have data that track all of the progress you have made.

You can see all of the organic traffic and the sources so you know where everything is coming from. You can even see what devices are being used when visiting your site and how long people stay there.

One way to keep track of how your website is ranking is to use our rank tracker to see how your website stacks up.

Ensure that you keep track of these results for your clients or even yourself. There are many tools out there that not only show you results but give your website and content a score so you can know how competitive your site is.

This is also data that gives you a clearer idea of what you need to work on and what steps you should take next to better improve your abilities.

Conclusion

SEO is constantly changing and adapting, but you can take charge of that world, and become successful. With the right tools, mindset, and discipline you can help others and yourself build reputable and respected content online.