How to become an SEO Expert? [9-Step Guide]

This post was most recently updated on February 27, 2021

Anybody who has been grazed by the world of online marketing has at the least once thought about how hard could be or Googled ‘How to become an SEO expert?’ Chances are you have landed on this page after Googling that. 

Keep reading about how to become an expert in SEO, you are doing great! 

At times people interested in learning Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are overwhelmed by the number of concepts one has to master to become an expert.

To be fair, becoming an SEO expert is a pretty complex process but it doesn’t need to be.

To save hours, days, and weeks of finding quality content to become an SEO specialist, I have decided to share my knowledge and journey of how to become an SEO expert. 

Let’s get started

What is an SEO Expert?

As the term suggests, an SEO expert is someone who is an expert in the ins and outs of how SEO works and how to use it to improve the brand’s online recognition on Search Engines.

Commonly, SEO specialists put their wisdom to use by engaging in SEO consulting, a freelance project to help companies with advanced SEO services. 

It’s important to know that you can become an SEO Strategist even if you are not practicing SEO professionally. There are many benefits of learning SEO along with adding another skill set to add your stack. 

What are the skills required to become an SEO professional?

Going deeper into the world of SEO, you will realize that working with SEO is more than just adding keywords and optimizing meta tags on a website. Most of the SEO professionals in India are the jack of all trades when it comes to digital marketing including content creation, UI/ UX design, and more. 

Apart from the obvious SEO strategies like optimizing keywords, here is a list of important SEO stacks that every SEO specialist must have under their belt: 

• Sourcing high-quality keywords
• Fundamentals of HTML
• Understanding of integrating keywords with website content
• Knowing how to write web copies is quite advantageous
• Ability to work with visual content like videos, gifs, and infographics
• Knowledge of link building and bringing traffic to key pages
• Expertise in technical SEO and how it impacts SEO rankings 
• Ability to keep up with the latest SEO trends

Why should you become an SEO Expert?

There are several advantages of training to become an SEO expert. 

You can increase your website traffic and improve the SERP ranking

The whole point of becoming an SEO specialist is to know how to make your website more search engine friendly and get higher rankings. The higher the SERP ranking is the higher the chances of conversion and sale. 

Becoming independent

You can hire an agency or a consultant to take care of your website’s SEO but it’s always great to have an in-house SEO professional that can help your business grow. This will not only improve the time it takes to finish a task but also reduce your dependency on external help. 

It costs less to learn SEO 

Even though it is very important, learning SEO doesn’t cost a lot. It is especially helpful for people new in the world of digital marketing, or newly graduated students who wishwhich to add a new skill to their profile before entering the corporate world. 

You know what to look for when you are hiring someone for SEO

It will be much easier for you to understand the SEO strategies and online marketing lingo if you are an SEO specialist yourself. Because of that, hiring another SEO executive or an SEO agency to take care of your website’s SEO also becomes a cakewalk. 

It will make you an all-rounder marketing manager

Often marketing managers are great at creating content and promoting it but they are not so savvy with the workings of SEO. Learning SEO yourself, you will have an added advantage as a marketing manager and better manage your team. 

How to become an SEO Expert?

1. Learning how the search engine works

To become an SEO expert, you first need to understand how a search engine works. Even if you might know it, revise your basic concepts and then slowly get to more challenging aspects of SEO. 

Check out this SEO Guide to learn how search engines like Google work. 

2. Understand the SEO Ranking Factors and the SEO terms

Once you understand how a search engine works, next you should learn the different SEO ranking factors.

Learn the terminologies of SEO, what to expect from SEO, and familiarize yourself with different search engine marketing and SEO tools.

Check out this glossary guide from the Search Engine Journal with almost 200 most common SEO terms that you need to know. 

3. Learn what is SEO and how it works?

Now we come to the meaty part of SEO which is surely more than just keywords and backlinks. The goal with SEO is not just to get more traffic but give your visitors a visit worth their time. A great user experience will keep people coming back for more. 

The most important elements of SEO include 

• Keyword Research To find the right keywords
• On-Page SEO To optimize your website’s content 
• Off-Page SEO To promote your website

4. Learn from the best SEO resources

The internet is full of self-proclaimed SEO experts flooding the online space with not-so-best SEO practices. Most people learning SEO on their own give up because of the sheer number of blogs and articles to read. 

To help you avoid the mistakes I made while learning SEO, I have compiled a list of Best SEO Blogs to learn SEO and reviewed some of the most reputable courses and guides so that you can learn SEO fast. 

To learn SEO, follow the steps given in this SEO Guide.

5. Using proper SEO Tools

SEO is not a game for someone who doesn’t believe in the power of helpful tools and tries to do everything manually.

You can’t imagine the amount of time it takes to analyze every aspect of SEO and execute them. Thankfully, there are multiple helpful tools that can help you increase your rankings and help you become an SEO expert. 

Here is a list of 25 free SEO tools that are all about boosting business.

6. Only practice can make a man perfect! 

Contrary to the popular belief SEO is not something that you can learn just by reading a lot. You need to apply what you learn and practice it over and over again. Only then can you appreciate the complications of search engines and derive a unique strategy for each business website. 

Add reading real-life case studies of how others managed to execute winning SEO strategies to your list. It will help you push yourself to practice SEO and get new ideas to implement on your own. 

7. Establish yourself as an SEO expert by sharing your knowledge.

Have you heard of the concept of an elevator pitch? It is when you try to explain your business to someone in less than a minute. It shows that you have a complete grasp of what you are talking about. 

If you try explaining SEO to someone, you will realize what more you need to learn and will be able to upskill your SEO knowledge considerably. I started writing this SEO blog precisely for that purpose.

You can do the same, like me, create a website or an SEO blog to share your learnings with other people. Over time, this blog will also be a testament to your SEO expertise.

8. Learn Content Marketing 

Learning content marketing is a very important process in SEO. Nobody and I mean no successful SEO professional can implement SEO without learning a thing or two about creating and promoting engaging content. 

9. Be consistent and be patient

SEO takes time is an understatement of the decade! If you are looking for quick results, SEO is not for you.

SEO is about you laying a solid search engine friendly groundwork that will give you high rewards in the long haul. If you are making changes to your website for SEO, keep a note of the rankings and traffic for a certain period before and after making the change. Give it time to show you the actual results.

SEO Expert FAQs

Conclusion

The journey of becoming an SEO expert is long but it is not so difficult either. You simply need to read and practice a lot. To jumpstart you can take a good crash course for learning SEO and keep practicing what you learn on your blog/ website. 

If you have anything to do with running an online business, becoming an SEO expert is just the right step forward for you. Especially if you are a marketer, designer, freelancer, entrepreneur, and more. 

SEO is at the heart of all digital campaigns and trust me SEO is not leaving us anytime soon. So, learning SEO will only benefit you by giving your better understanding of your online business and get you the right exposure.