STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO BECOME AN SEO EXPERT

Do you think that becoming an SEO expert is a daunting task or that SEO is a hard thing to learn? Well if the answer is yes, then you are not the only one to think that because most of the small business owners find the concept of SEO very confusing. The situation becomes more baffling as there are millions of pages of obsolete information, misleading information or simply bad information about the implementation of an SEO strategy. But don’t worry, here is a step-by-guide along with links to some free training material that will help you to turn from a newbie to an SEO expert. So, let’s get started.

STEP 1: KNOW HOW A SEARCH ENGINE WORKS

The very first thing you should do even before starting to think about SEO is to familiarize yourself with the working principle of a search engine. Maybe you already know something about search engines, but there is no harm to start with the basic concepts and then work your way up.

You can refer “How Search Works” to understand how Google search engine works, which is more or less similar to how other search engines also work.

STEP 2: REALIZE THE TRUE PURPOSE OF SEO

Although most of us think that SEO is all about keywords and links, (trust me) it is much more than that. You have to realize that the real purpose of SEO is to prepare customized browsing experience for each user so that they get exactly what they want. You should not start SEO just to get more search engine traffic, but your goal should be to turn that traffic into recurring visitors. Some of the important sub-components of SEO that will help you achieve the goal are:

• Technical SEO: Affects crawling and indexing of webpages
• On-Page SEO: Helps in page optimization
• Off-Page SEO: Supports website promotion

You can refer “Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide” to understand in detail about crawling, indexing, page optimization, etc.

STEP 3: PICK THE RIGHT SEO TRAINING GUIDE

Now, that you have started learning SEO, you will see that there is too much information available on the internet which can make the learning process a little messy. So, if you think you can train yourself to be an SEO expert without any help, you may find yourself in the middle of an endless list of articles to try out. Luckily, there is a number of free reputable courses available nowadays that help people learn SEO without spending too much time searching the internet and reading articles after articles.

In fact, Google has created a course covering all you need to know about online marketing – Google Digital Garage,or you can enroll in our Digital Marketing Course.

STEP 4: STAY ABREAST OF CHANGES

The rules and algorithms about SEO change all the time since it is not a static discipline. For instance, Google makes more than 250 changes to their ranking algorithms every year. So, in order to be a good SEO expert, you should be on top of your game all the time by knowing all the changes going around the world of search engines. One of the most effective ways to stay informed is to follow SEO news websites that keep you updated with all the on-going SEO changes.

Some of the SEO news websites with a proven track record are “Search Engine Land” and “Google Blog”.

STEP 5 : SELECT THE RIGHT SEO TOOL

With limited processing time and a huge number of decisions to make based on abundant information,  it is important that you realize that you cannot do SEO alone and you need to select the right SEO tool. Otherwise, you will end up spending all your time in analyzing numbers instead of working on the core tasks which is actually expected to add value to your business. Although there is some free SEO tool, it is highly recommended that you also take help from some paid ones too because in the long term the return will be much more than the fee you will pay today.

You can refer “Google Webmaster Tools” which is a free SEO tool and will provide a lot of information about your website. You can also refer “Google Analytics” which is another free SEO tool from Google that will provide information about your website traffic and how users navigate your website.

STEP 6: FOLLOW THE EXPERTS

During your journey towards becoming an SEO expert, there will be times when you will feel disappointed, frustrated and you may even decide to give up. But, (again) don’t you worry because this is a normal course of occurrence. This is when you should read the stories of other people who had gone through the same rigor to be successful SEO experts today. After reading you will realize that none of them became what they are today because they are lucky, rather because of the endless hours of hard work that they have put in. Here are the five SEO experts you should definitely follow for inspiration and for better understanding of how SEO can be applied in scale.

• Neil Patel
• Brain Dean
• Eric Enge
• Joost de Valk
• Rand Fishkin

CONCLUSION

So, you must understand that anyone who has anything to do with a website or online business should become an SEO expert because all digital marketing campaigns start with SEO and we all know how important is digital marketing for online presence. Other than ensuring the maximum possible exposure in search engines, SEO principles also help a website in many other ways. Although to be an SEO expert warrants a lot of reading, practicing and testing, it is not that difficult if you follow the right approach. Further, we also understand that search engines and SEO are here to stay for years to come and so this could be the best investment of your life. I hope this article has helped to plan your path to becoming an SEO expert.