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| Important SEO Skills Every Technical SEO Expert Needs |
How can you be an SEO specialist and not know any SEO skills? That’s like being a mechanic who doesn’t know how to use a wrench, or working as an electrician and never having learned Ohm’s law! It just doesn’t make sense. And yet, plenty of technical SEO experts out there lack the skills they need to do their job well. Ok, can you tell me how many SEO skills you need? Where do you start? How can you fill in the gaps in your skillset and become an SEO expert? And what does it take to be a good SEO specialist? All these questions and more will be covered in this guide that will help you understand what skills are most important for SEO specialists, so you can be sure you’re not missing anything vital to your job performance, and you can build your career on the best foundation possible.
The 7 technical SEO skills for marketers
Below, we will mention and explain the most important SEO skills that every technical SEO expert needs. Let's get started!
1. Google Analytics & Google Search Console:
If you work in Technical SEO, you probably want to pay attention to the Google Search Console (GSC). It's a free suite of tools from Google that can help you monitor site behavior. You can track clicks and impressions, see how often your content is shown in search results, and more. All of this data helps make informed decisions about on-page optimization or keyword targeting. Knowing what users are clicking on and what they're seeing in their browsers will give you an idea of what they're looking for (and what they might not be finding). Using it as part of your research process will also make you better at tracking down and fixing things like broken links or misnamed files.
Google Analytics (GA) is an amazing tool powered by Google to measure the performance of your website. And, when it comes to technical SEO skills, many people say that Google Analytics is absolutely essential. You'll want to be sure that you know how to use GA on your own site. But also know that using GA will require some technical skills if you plan on automating any parts of its setup or use. That's because one major advantage of Google Analytics is that it can produce reports automatically via a number of filters including filtering by different devices or user agents, to help your business.
So, it's important to understand that both Google Search Console and Google Analytics are tools every SEO expert should know, and you can't be an SEO expert without knowledge of them.
2. HTML, CSS & JavaScript:
HTML and CSS are widely considered important skills for technical SEO. This is because they help your website rank higher and get indexed by search engines more easily. Plus, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are important in the sense that they are foundational to any other web programming language. They are also essential for conveying what a webpage is about from an information design perspective. JavaScript is another essential skill because it allows you to customize the way your website responds when the user interacts with it. It also makes it easier to embed videos, tweets, and other third-party widgets. Without JavaScript, many of these functions would not be possible. Mastering these three fundamental programming languages will make you a better-rounded candidate for technical SEO jobs. These skills are used on every single page of your website which means the work never ends! That’s why we always recommend focusing on coding as a complementary skill to your technical SEO expertise.
Even if you’re working primarily with data analysis or content strategy, learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript will give you a broader understanding of how all parts of your website function together. If you ever need to audit code on another developer's behalf or diagnose a problem yourself, having these SEO skills will allow you to do so without having to consult someone else. The range of potential career paths that technical SEO can lead to is wide and varied. You might want to focus exclusively on SEO best practices and quality assurance or become a full-stack engineer who codes alongside other team members. And even if you never leave technical SEO behind, the chance to branch out into new fields and learn new things will improve your skillset in this industry over time.
Related Article: HTML, CSS, JavaScript Tutorials - W3Schools.
3. Keyword research:
One of the skills that are essential for any search engine optimization (SEO) expert is being able to do keyword research. Keyword research is the process of finding related keywords and getting detailed statistics about a keyword's popularity on Google Search. It also includes helpful suggestions for linking words you may not have thought of. It's not easy to come up with keywords that a business may want to target, so using an internet marketing tool can be a huge help. The software looks through the keywords of a website and calculates the number of people who have searched those keywords on Google within the last 30 days, showing you which words are most popular. This type of tool can also show other valuable data like how much competition there will be when someone tries to rank high on Google for a certain keyword.
Researching keywords is one of the most important SEO skills to learn. With no research, your business is missing out on a huge opportunity. Understanding which keywords people are using will help you target them more effectively and get your content in front of their eyes where it can do the most good. Your keyword research may not be perfect right off the bat, but with time and experience, it'll become one of your strongest SEO skills. Some resources for finding keywords include Google Adwords Keyword Tool, Ubersuggest, Google Trends, and many other keyword tools. It's also possible to use competitive keyword analysis by looking at other sites that rank well for the keywords you're targeting. You want to use tools like SEMRUSH to determine what keywords competitors are targeting so that you don't miss any opportunities for optimization. These same tools can help you find keywords related to topics relevant to your industry, too. As with all SEO work, keyword research requires constant upkeep as search engine algorithms change over time.
Related Article: Best SEO Tools.
4. Link building:
Link building is the strategy of obtaining links from other websites to your own website, and getting other websites to link to yours. If a link is from another domain, it's known as an external link. Links from other domains are extremely important for your site’s rankings in Google’s search results. The more quality links you have, the better you will rank and the more likely people will want to share your content with their friends. Link building comes in different forms and can be accomplished through outreach (contacting other bloggers) or by guest posting on relevant blogs. It's also one of the best ways to get backlinks that signal to Google that your site is trustworthy and authoritative.
In order to get a higher ranking on Google search engines and drive traffic, technical SEO experts must know how to develop and implement effective strategies for achieving high-quality link building. Strategies include developing a relationship with publishers who might need articles written for them, finding link partners who have similar audiences and interests, creating outreach campaigns targeted at specific websites and communities, and leveraging social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
Successful link builders take into account multiple factors including where they're trying to get the links placed, what kind of website they're trying to target, what content they're using to earn those links (guest posts vs. paid ads), how many resources they're willing to spend on this project (time/money), whether the goal is immediate or long term growth potential, etc.
Here are some important link-building skills that every technical SEO expert should know: - Optimizing your anchor text - Building internal links on the site - Searching for resource sites - Developing relationships with key bloggers and social media experts - Monitoring backlinks on competitors' websites - Identifying opportunities for broken links - Connecting your company website to relevant pages on other sites. As you can see, there are a lot of important technical SEO skills that go into being a good link builder, which is why having some basic knowledge in these areas can give you an edge over the competition.
A big part of getting links indexed is to use anchor text. Anchor text helps readers find what they're looking for, so it should be descriptive enough that searchers can understand what they'll find if they click through the link. Anchor text also plays an important role in determining how high a website ranks within search engine results pages (SERPs). Using keywords or key phrases as anchor text ensures that those keywords rank higher on SERP pages - which means more traffic coming from those SERP pages!
It's really hard to rank without good quality backlinks and using appropriate anchor text for the target keywords. When generating backlinks, there are tons of factors to take into consideration like the source page's quality, content relevancy, etc. In addition, new tactics like disavowing and removing bad links have been introduced over time which makes creating backlinks harder than ever before.
5. Content crawling:
Crawling is important because it provides the search engine spider with essential information. This data helps the search engine determine page relevance and rank pages for organic placement. It also makes sure that the index has a complete index of all the content on your site, which improves your site's ranking on the search engine's results page.
There are two types of content crawling - human-powered crawling and robot crawling. Human-powered crawling is when someone accesses the site manually to see if anything has changed since the last time they crawled it. Robot crawling is when an automated crawler uses advanced programming to crawl the entire site.
Crawling is an ongoing process and should be done at least monthly to make sure that any new or updated content gets indexed as soon as possible. The level of crawling can vary depending on how much content you have. For instance, if you have only one webpage on your site, then there is no need to do more than one crawl per month. However, if you have 100 web pages on your site, then you will want to do two crawls per month so that each webpage gets crawled once every four weeks.
6. On-Page & Off-Page SEO:
The importance of On-Page and Off-Page SEO Skills can't be understated. For On-Page SEO, there are many factors that need to be considered including keyword relevance, link density, and formatting. Similarly, Off-Page SEO plays a major role in ranking websites by developing links and promoting content. Such skills are crucial to modern technical SEO strategies. You should consider how these on-page and off-page skills play into your day-to-day work as well as what type of education you might need to expand your knowledge base.
Related Article: On-Page and Off-Page SEO.
7. Mobile SEO:
Might you have heard of Google's new mobile-friendly index? If not, you're in for a treat! Mobile optimization is now a key focus for many marketers and site owners who are making sure their site is being seen on all screens. Whether you're a seasoned SEO pro or someone just starting out, it can't hurt to know the basics of mobile SEO.
As mobile devices become more popular and technology advances, SEO experts need to make sure that their websites work well across various screen sizes. Luckily there are some great programs designed specifically for optimizing mobile experiences! There are tools out there like AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages), which is Google's open-source project meant to speed up the web browsing experience on mobile devices. They also provide a helpful guide so that you can get started right away with improving your sites' performance on smartphones and tablets.
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| Credit: SEMRUSH |
+2 Bonus technical SEO Skills
Besides the previous technical SEO skills, here are two bonus skills that can help an SEO expert excel.
8. Local SEO:
Local SEO is the process of optimizing your website content to rank higher in local search engine results, or showing up in the top three search engine listings for a particular city or geographical region. In order to successfully rank well for a location, you must have very high-quality, keyword-rich content that fills their needs and caters to their interests.
If you're looking for a place to start, I recommend getting started with Local SEO. You see, it's easier to rank at the top of a search engine results page on Google if you are found locally by people in your target market. Your customers may be 10 miles away and they won't know where you are unless they find you on Yelp or Google Maps because those listings show up on search engine result pages. Plus, local SEO is becoming more relevant as time goes on because mobile users tend to do research locally rather than looking elsewhere like Yellow Pages.
Location data is hugely important for businesses, whether brick-and-mortar stores or e-commerce shops. People want to be able to find local products and services from nearby stores rather than getting items shipped from overseas! Since local SEO factors depend heavily on geography, it's vital that technical SEO experts do their research before tackling the task of improving local rankings.
9. A/B testing:
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| A/B Testing |
A/B Testing is a comparison technique used in marketing and research. This may seem to have nothing to do with SEO, but A/B Testing is one of the vital SEO skills because it helps identify the best keyword phrases and content which performs well on search engine results pages (SERPs). Once you have done your research and identified the words with the best long-term potential, run an A/B test to determine which one performs better.
When you think about how much time we spend trying to rank for keywords, it's always a great idea to spend some time trying different options out first. It's not always easy to decide between two phrases, but running an A/B test can help us find out which one works better for us as an individual or companies.
The main benefit of an A/B test is that it's fast and cost-effective. Since there are many other factors at play, like backlinks, social media presence, etc., an A/B test won't tell you which phrase will give you more organic traffic; however, it can tell you which phrase will get more clicks from SERPs.
So when deciding between two words with similar organic traffic potentials, choose the one with higher SERP click-through rates! In addition to helping you figure out which phrase should get top priority, A/B testing also plays a major role in refining the performance of existing pieces of content. As I mentioned before, it can tell you which pieces of content need improvement and make changes accordingly.
There's no doubt that A/B testing is an invaluable SEO skill. It doesn't guarantee rankings or even reveal which option will garner the most organic traffic; however, it does offer insight into how your target audience reacts to certain words and phrases--information that would otherwise take weeks or months to compile without its help.
Related Article: Important SEO Tips.
Non-technical SEO skills for marketers
Now we will mention and discuss some non-technical SEO skills (soft skills), which are very essential for any SEO professional in their business.
10. Critical thinking skills:
Critical thinking skills are important for anyone who is creating content. This is true for SEO professionals as well because they have to analyze website content, identify potential issues and make recommendations on how to fix them. If you want to be a successful SEO expert, you need strong critical thinking skills.
Any SEO expert needs the ability to interpret data from the analytics platforms in order to understand the site’s visitors, their goals, and what pages they find valuable or not valuable enough.
Then, In order to solve any problem with a website, it's crucial that you first understand what the issue is. You'll be able to do this by reading the customer's request carefully so that you can tell if there's an issue with either one page or the entire site. It may take time to fully understand what's going on, but without recognizing the problem you won't know where to start solving it.
After recognizing the issue, you need to use your problem-solving skills in order to decide which action will help resolve the difficulty and make your client happy again.
11. Writing skills:
Good writing skills are essential for all types of jobs, but especially so for SEO. You'll need to write with accuracy and clarity in order to meet your audience's needs. Make sure you use a natural, conversational tone in your blog posts. An occasional joke or personal story will make things more interesting, as long as it isn't too frivolous. Always take time to proofread your writing before you publish it so that spelling and grammar mistakes don't give the wrong impression of your professionalism.
Finally, once you've published a blog post and responded to readers' comments, revisit the post at least twice a week to answer any new questions they may have had while reading the content. Even if the answer is already on your blog, there's always a chance that somebody missed it! It doesn't matter if you're an experienced SEO expert or just starting out on this career path - good writing skills are crucial for success.
12. Analysis skills:
Marketing is all about the data. Gathering it, analyzing it, and presenting it for maximum value. For those with experience in SEO before data-driven optimizations were the norm, this was one of the most important SEO skills a marketer could have. Data analysis is still incredibly important for any marketing professional who wants to optimize their campaigns effectively.
Google Analytics might be your first stop on an optimization journey because of its accessibility and wealth of information - but there are many other tools that you can leverage to improve your campaign performance such as marketing automation software like HubSpot or Pardot. These tools allow marketers to track progress, measure conversions, and produce insightful reports on key performance indicators (KPIs). The difference between these two types of tools is that Google Analytics provides insight into where you currently stand while marketing automation allows you to create goals and determine how much work is needed before these goals are met. So what does this mean for technical SEO experts? It means we need to focus on our data analysis and not just rely on reporting numbers from other sources.
Keyword research is always going to be a major component of optimizing websites, so make sure you're utilizing keyword analysis tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to find new keywords, identify trends, track competition levels, and analyze search volume. And don't forget that qualitative feedback from customers should never be ignored!
13. Social & communication skills:
Social and communication skills are SEO’s backbone. Building relationships is a key in SEO, and often SEO expert needs to connect with other members of a business or wider industry. An SEO specialist also must communicate effectively internally, persuading and explaining things to colleagues and bosses. In order to be a good speaker, you need excellent listening skills too; both for how you process what others say and also so that you can ask the right questions when it comes time for presentations, as well as being able to speak on behalf of the company, it is important that the SEO specialist has their own voice too - this means developing your own point of view on matters relating to your field.
Excellent speaking and listening skills are imperative for every person working in marketing because they must be able to convey information about the company's product to potential customers. The ability to communicate clearly and convincingly is an invaluable skill for any profession, especially one where so much of your job involves dealing with people face-to-face.
Conclusion
Any SEO Expert needs to have a variety of skills in order to deliver their best work, and all of these skills are essential to their success. These SEO skills may not be directly involved in your day-to-day tasks, but without these abilities, the work you do would be extremely limited. Every SEO expert needs to know their strengths and weaknesses and find a team that allows them to develop those skill sets. In addition, they need to understand how they can grow their capabilities as they gain more experience.
Marketing is all about trial and error, and this is true with SEO as well. Take time to experiment with new tactics, share what you’ve learned with others on your team, and always pay attention to what other people are doing because there’s always something new out there. The world of search engine optimization changes constantly and it's important to stay up-to-date with industry developments. So, never stop learning!
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