Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has added value to many businesses and it has been widely accepted as one of the most powerful tools of digital marketing. SEO professionals could be entrepreneurs, marketers, journalists, and content creators. The reason for this wide-scale use is its utility across businesses. The basic rules for SEO are fairly the same but to make optimum use of the same there is the need for a basic set of skills that one needs to know. 

The art of marketing with the help of SEO involves using multiple elements from certain words on the web pages so that other sites find a link to the establishment’s website. The use of SEO depends largely on the Google algorithm and there are many ways in which the keywords can be optimised.

Some professionals have adopted context indexing wherein the search engines ‘read’ the content on a site and add alt text for images and text transcripts for video and audio content. An SEO specialist should also know how to strike a balance and not go overboard while using keywords, formatting links, URLs and sitemaps. Experts say it is bad to stuff the content with keywords and variations. The recommended pattern is to use keywords in the headers and a few times in the rest of the content for satisfactory search results. 

In this blog, we will cover the role of an SEO specialist and the specific skills that one needs to possess for handling the same. 

What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

SEO is the process of developing or optimizing keywords for achieving topmost ranks in the free, organic or natural search results. This has to be done in a way that a search engine shows the site among the top results for a particular keyword. 

According to industry data, nearly 75% of users start their search on Google and the top 5 search results get more than 60% of the clicks. Your content will only serve its purpose if it shows up in the search engine result. 

What does an SEO Specialist Do?

An SEO specialist has to analyze and review websites and optimize them to ensure that they are picked up by search engines. The aim is to increase traffic to the website with the help of content that has the appropriate keywords and phrases. Moreover, the SEO specialist ensures the designing layout and advertising techniques all help in getting the traction right. 

The responsibilities of an SEO specialist include the evaluation and analysis of client sites to improve optimization. The SEO expert needs to identify strong keywords, prepare strategy reports, execute PPC campaigns, maintain SEO content websites, blogs and social media accounts. The SEO analysts convert visitors with the help of effective Call-to-Actions or CTAs. 

In the next section, we will analyse the skills of an SEO specialist. 

Skills of an SEO specialist

An SEO specialist needs to have technical knowledge as well as certain soft skills. This balance is what helps in optimising keywords and other marketing tactics to their fullest. An SEO expert who can achieve the balance will surely be a desirable name for handling this function. Several companies are creating this position and acquiring the required skills opens up a considerable number of job roles. 

Tech Skill

Technical SEO: 

Technical SEO refers to the website and server optimizations that help in getting up on the search engine websites and draw better organic rankings. It is a subcategory of SEO and involves optimizing the infrastructure of the website. The technical components of a website are sitemaps, page speed, URL structure and site navigation among others. 

On-page SEO: 

On-page SEO means the practice of optimizing web pages for improving search visibility and traffic. It involves aligning elements like title tags, headings and internal links with keywords. It helps in optimizing HTML, internal links and metadata.    

Keyword Research:

Keywords are essential for getting the best traffic to a site. One of the ways is to pick up important nouns. The keywords always help in retrieving more results than phrases or sentences. The key purpose is to gain a deeper insight into your audience and what people search online.  

HTML+CSS:

CSS is how HTML elements are to be displayed on screen, paper and in the media. It also helps in controlling the layout of multiple web pages. The use of CSS has a number of benefits and it’s better than using HTML alone. 

Local SEO:

Local SEO helps businesses to be more visible in search results. It is to do with the physical or geographical locations so that businesses can benefit from local SEO.  

Link Building: Link building is establishing relevant hyperlinks to a website from external links. It can increase the number of high-quality links pointing to a website. Therefore, it is an SEO technique that helps in increasing the search engine ranking.  

Google tools: It helps one to type more easily in the desired language and provide several kinds of text input tools. This contains a set of input methods that the editors of Google have come up for 22 languages. 

Other Skills

Analysis: SEO professionals need to learn the basics about using Adobe and Google Analytics. They also need to understand business KPIs for coming up with a proper SEO strategy. 

Research: This is extremely important for the SEO campaign. The analyst needs to know the art of researching and be thorough with it while coming up with keywords. The one crucial bit is to understand the relevance of the words being put in place.

Critical Thinking: The SEO specialist must have an analytical bent of mind to identify the right keywords. This will help in standing out from other routine digital marketing content. It is essential to know that critical thinking is essential for SEO planning. An SEO expert should be able to find potential issues on the websites so that it can be fixed. Competitor research is also part of critical thinking. 

Communication – Speaking & Writing Ability: An SEO professional should know how to write content that adheres to the digital marketing criteria. The SEO expert needs to convince other teams to work together to achieve the desired optimization. 

SEO – A tool to master

A comprehensive programme will help in building a bright SEO expert. The one program that ticks off many boxes in this matter is the one offered by DigiAcharya. The program teaches you in detail about aspects like

Social Media Optimization

RSS feeds

Social Bookmarking

Videos &

Blogging.

The program has been curated to be able to help one learn about using social media strategies, influencer marketing, SMO tools and customer engagement. 

These are just some of the reasons for enrolling into DigiAcharya. You can explore many more on the site https://digiacharya.com/social-media-optimization-course/# and apply for the same. Good luck!