7 Skills Every SEO Specialist Must Have
An SEO specialist needs to be a jack of all trades to be truly effective. They must acquire a large number of soft skills and technical knowledge; however, that's not all. SEO experts need to keep their ear to the ground and stay up to date with all the latest online trends. Whether you are an aspiring SEO specialist or a business owner looking to send employees for corporate training – you are in the right place. We will discuss the 7 skills every SEO specialist must have to help businesses reach their audience.
Keep track of Google's updates
After all, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and the name of the game is appeasing Google's algorithm. If you aren't up to date with the latest developer guidelines, the techniques you are employing could actually cause harm to your business. Therefore, any SEO specialist needs to have a solid understanding of how search engines work, but they must also keep their skills up to date. Aspiring SEO specialists should also get familiar with Google's entire product platform since they are the largest search engine around. You should know how to make the most of Google's Console, Workspace, and Business platform, to name just a few.
Know basic web design skills
You don't necessarily need to know how to make a website from scratch, but you need to be familiar with how sites are made. Understanding the terminology will facilitate more accessible communication with web designers and developers. After all, they are the ones who will be making the SEO changes you request. If you know how to describe exactly what you need, they will be able to implement the features much faster and more accurately. We realize that knowledge of web design is a broad topic, but those are necessary skills every SEO specialist must have.
Understand online marketing
One of the main goals of SEO is to improve your website's standing on SERPs and to get more organic traffic to your site. Another great way to get people to visit your website is through marketing. Digital marketing experts from Movers Development claim that there is a lot of overlap between marketing and SEO. It would be best to know how online marketing works since you will need to invest in some form of paid advertising to get more users on your site. You can also apply SEO techniques to marketing to make it more effective. Learning about online marketing expands your skill set with complementary skills necessary to achieve similar goals. This is a double win in our book.
Be familiar with user habits
There's no need to become an expert in human psychology, but you should understand what motivates customer behavior. Thankfully, you can get plenty of information on user habits by tracking relevant KPIs. Monitor how online audiences interact with your brand and understand what is behind customer perception of brands. Learn what motivates your customers and implement changes to your website and marketing to appeal to those needs. After all, SEO shouldn't only be about what Google is interested in since they admitted that they based most of the changes to their algorithm on improving user satisfaction. For this reason, if you know what users want and optimize for them, Google is also likely to notice.
Have your finger on the pulse of social media
Nowadays, brands primarily interact with users on social media platforms. Therefore, it's not enough to know how to optimize your website, and you must also learn how to optimize specifically for social networks. Of course, there will be some overlap; however, social networks usually have specific limitations and requirements.
Additionally, trends on social media move incredibly quickly. Unless you know what is currently making the rounds, you could be trying to get attention with a trend that's yesterday's news. Arguably, the most effective way to draw user attention on social media is through content marketing. You'll need to craft the type of content currently in demand and learn the ins and outs of every social platform.
Understand the principles of visual design
We'd like to continue on the previous point by stating that the most popular social media content is visual. You'll need to learn about creating powerful images and attractive videos. Although these are skills every SEO specialist must have, not all of them are easy to pick up on your own. Thankfully, we offer formal online education as part of our Scholars International Institute of Technology. You can attend online courses to learn graphic design and video editing skills. Even if you plan to outsource video production, we recommend getting familiar with vertical video due to its current popularity on social networks. Even various online platforms that didn't previously cater to this type of content are making changes to incorporate vertical video in the hopes of attracting more users.
Strong verbal skills
Blog posts and written articles are still the centerpieces of any SEO and marketing campaign. Long-form written content is gaining popularity as more users are looking for informative and well-researched explanations and guides. Every advertisement and Call to Action button need a strong copy, and your emails require a catchy headline. Therefore, you better brush up on your writing skills and improve your creative writing. You'll also need to improve your technical writing. Your articles must be SEO-friendly if you want your website to perform well. You'll need to employ headings, titles, meta tags, and the appropriate keyword density.
In summary
You should go through our list of 7 skills every SEO specialist must have and determine which areas you need to improve. Unfortunately, SEO isn't something you can learn once and then use forever. You will constantly need to maintain and update your skill set. These sorts of dynamic requirements make SEO a challenging yet rewarding area of expertise. Thankfully, there are many online courses you can take to improve your existing skills and learn new ones. With the relevant SEO skills knowledge, you will be able to help your business grow and prosper.
