A modern SEO specialist can be called a digital hero. To promote the site and ensure its proper ranking, one needs to know how search algorithms work, how to develop a promotion strategy and all the pitfalls of site promotion. To do his work well, a specialist should know about marketing and design and perfectly interact with other professionals and clients. If you are just starting your career in SEO and do not know what to start with, we have made a list of prerequisite knowledge, skills, and courses that you should consider.
Basic SEO Knowledge
Like any professional, a SEO specialist should have a basic knowledge of their field. It is impossible to get SEO certification without knowing search algorithms, filters, and ranking factors. One should also have some practical experience. For example, a junior specialist needs to be able to conduct a technical audit of a site, prepare a competent technical assignment, collect and cluster semantics. So if you are on a starting line to your SEO career, then we recommend that you first take a course on SEO basics and focus on search engine work and ranking factors.
SEO Strategy
Basic knowledge is not enough for ensuring effective site promotion. That’s why it is critically important to develop an effective promotion strategy. Working without a competent strategy, you can harm the site instead of bringing it to the top of search results. So once you are done with the SEO basics, we recommend that you dive deep into the specs:
- Select appropriate tools and set the budget — To work on a strategy, a specialist must correctly select methods for achieving goals and determine a budget for optimization. Here it is important to take into account the client’s capabilities and form the budget individually;
- Run deep-dive analysis — Although there are a lot of templates for creating a SEO strategy, it is best to have developed individually. To do this, a SEO specialist must be able to analyze, understand the product, its target audience, competitors, and promotion potential;
- Analyze the sites and channels that competitors use to promote their business;
- Analyze content — there are special services for evaluating texts, and a junior SEO specialist should know how to use them and how to assess content being posted on a site;
- Analyze search results — To build an effective strategy and make it work, a SEO specialist must examine search results. To do this, you need to be able to use position collection services and refer to profile analysis services.
UX — Working with Site Usability
When working on site optimization, you must remember the rule that an inconvenient site will not be used. UX expertise is about working with the usability of the site, which is necessary for having website visitors converted into buyers. Based on the UX audit, the specialist forms technical tasks for the designer, developer, and a graphic specialist. Of course, it is not an easy thing to analyze site usability, but it becomes easier with the practice. So you can watch any course from SEMrush academy to have an idea of how to boost the UX potential of an online resource and take a look at some of the best use cases.
Behavioral and Commercial Factors
A SEO approach to UX assessment is based on bounce rates, depth of page view, and time spent on the site. That is, the specialist must be able to work with heatmaps to analyze the interaction and user navigation on the site. Besides, for successful optimization, it is necessary to pay attention to commercial factors: assortment, price, order forms, payment, promotions, and guarantees. Make sure there is a CTA on every LP and conversion scenario laid behind it.
Of course, a junior SEO specialist will not be able to develop all these and provide expert recommendations. However, working with the UX designer, one will be able to assess the current situation and come to some improvement ideas.
Where to Get SEO and UX Knowledge?
Develop your powers of observation and mindfulness to improve the UX and SEO side of your online project. For example, evaluate all sites from a professional point of view: usability, quantity, and quality of content, structure, presentation, and feedback forms. It is worth paying attention to large entertainment sites. They have a lot of thought out in terms of UX and content structure.
To dive deep into the question, you can also read research studies on design. For example, you can learn the recommendations for attracting mobile traffic, sharpening user interaction with the site, and the psychology of color.
Becoming a SEO Guru Is Touch but Doable
A modern SEO specialist is an analyst, designer, and strategist. One should know the basic principles of content layout and HTML, as well as know technical audit of the site and have marketing knowledge. Besides, a real professional is constantly learning new things because the niche is rapidly developing and changing. Communication skills are no less important since you need to be able to communicate with the team and set the technical assignment correctly. The result of optimization depends on this. If you are on your way, start it by picking relevant SEO courses and do not be lazy to practice.