We’re not
impostors, though. None of us are SEOs because we got an advanced degree in it.
We’re SEOs because we happen to possess knowledge and ability. But what kind of
knowledge do we need? Here’s a list of areas that every SEO should have some
familiarity with. Before you begin, please be aware that the SEO does not need
to have an in-depth knowledge of each of these. He or she simply needs to have
a functional familiarity with them. If we had to be experts in all these
fields, nobody could become an SEO.
If you do
develop an awareness of these 18 areas, you will have a powerful set of skills.
Each of these areas are tied together in a complex web of inter-relatedness.
Knowledge in one area builds on knowledge in another area, which enhances
knowledge in the next area.
1. On-Page SEO
This is
square one for every SEO. It is the absolute basics:
- Page content
- Title tag
- URLs
- H1s
On-page
SEO has become common knowledge for many people who are not SEOs. This makes it
that much more important for true SEOs to thoroughly understand this area, and
how to apply the always-changing best practices of content, titles, and metas.
2. Link Profiles
After
on-page factor, a site’s link profile has the most impact on how the site is
returned in search results.
As an
SEO, you should understand the impact of a link profile, what defines a good
link, and what a spammy link is.
3. Keyword Research
Even
though semantic search and search intent is supplanting the traditional
functionality of keywords, they are still important.
You don’t
need any specialized tools to do keyword research, but you should know
basically how to do it. What keywords are best for a specific site? What
keywords will drive the most targeted traffic?
Great SEO
begins with top-notch keyword research.
4. Linking Best Practices
Linking
from one website to another has been one of the foremost tactics of SEOs ever
since there was such a thing as SEO.
Linking
has changed a lot since it first revolutionized the web. Linking is still
important, but it can also be a realm of penalties and dangerous maneuvers.
Make sure you understand the nuances of linking — both internal and
external/inbound and outbound — as you function as an SEO.
5. Local SEO
Local SEO
defines how a local business gets search traffic, and therefore local
customers. Like many of the areas of knowledge that I will discuss below, local
SEO is a vast field. The basic idea is as follows:
- NAP – Every business has a
Name, Address, and Phone Number.
- These bits of information
are part of the business’s local citations happen when the business is
mentioned on the web. Usually, these mentions are in directories or other
local listings.
- In addition, the business
must have profiles on the web. Profiles like Yelp, Foursquare, and Google
Local are important for a business to have local traffic.
Reviews
are another critical element of local search. Negative reviews can damage a
business’s ability to be featured in local results.
6. PPC
It’s possible
to be an SEO and never have to bid on a keyword. Many SEOs, however, carry the
load of both organic search optimization and paid search.
If you
don’t know how to log in to Adwords and customize campaigns, that’s okay. It’s
only necessary to understand that there are such things as paid searches, and
these are what appear as ads in search results (at the top and side).
And, by
the way, this is how Google makes so much money.
7. Mobile SEO
Mobile
SEO is an entirely new iteration of the SEO universe. Yes, it’s important to
know about. The digital world is hurtling towards a mobile future. From
wearable devices to handhelds, we need to understand how to apply the
principles of search optimization to mobile.
Thankfully,
there’s a lot of overlap. Keep in mind, however that there are some important technical distinctions. If you want to become a
mobile SEO expert, there’s a bit of a learning curve.
8. Conversion Optimization
Conversion
optimization or conversion rate optimization (CRO) is helping users convert on
your web page — clicking on a call to action or purchasing a product.
Conversion
optimization is a parallel field to SEO. SEO tries to get traffic to the page,
CRO tries to get that traffic to convert.
CROs are
a low farther in the conversion funnel, and know that their niche has a more
direct correlation to the revenue of a business. As an SEO, you should be aware
of the basics of CRO — A/B testing, landing pages, etc.
9. Marketing
You may
have never thought of yourself as a marketer. If you’re an SEO, though, that’s
exactly what you are. You’re in marketing.
Marketing
is defined as “the action or business of promoting and selling products or services.”
When you
do search engine optimization, you are promoting products and services —
specifically a website.
You will
improve as an SEO if you grasp the basic concept of marketing, and even some of
its advanced concepts. Many of the principles of traditional marketing can be
applied to the digital arena, even in something as apparently far removed as
SEO.
10. HTTP Status Codes
Want to
prove your worth as a kick-ass smart SEO? Then you should take Moz’s SEO Expert
Quiz. The quiz deals mostly with technical aspects of SEO. What you’ll learn is
that HTTP status codes are a big a part of the discussion.
HTTP
status codes come from web servers when the search engine makes a request and
can’t find what you’re looking for. It comes in the form of a three-digit
number. You may not have every one of these
memorized, but you should know about the concept of response codes.
- 200 – successful information
transfer
- 301 – visitors are
redirected to a new page
- 302 – the page and search
spiders are redirected to a new page (transfers link juice)
- 404 – the page is not found
- 500 – there is no such page
- 504 – the page is
unavailable for some reason
11. Web Development
How does
stuff get on the web? It happens by development.
Some SEOs
enter the field from a background in web development. It’s certainly not
necessary to know how to build web pages, but knowing about web development
will help you understand and advise developers on how to implement SEO best
practices into their websites.
12. Algorithms
The
science of search algorithms back up everything that the SEO does. The
algorithm defines how and what results are returned in the SERPs.
As an
SEO, you should be aware with the fact that the algorithm is responsible for
determining search results. No one except Google employees know the entire
algorithm, but SEOs can make educated guesses.
To really
advance your knowledge in this area, you can read about two areas of the algorithm
from Moz:
13. Guest Blogging
Guest
blogging is not dead. It’s alive and well. What’s more, it’s used by some of
the most influential personalities in digital marketing today.
As an
SEO, you must be familiar with guest blogging, including its risks. Guest
blogging is the secret to spreading one’s influence and reach, but it is not to
be entered into without caution.
14. Content Marketing
Long
before it was a buzzword, I used content marketing in my marketing efforts.
Now, it’s mainstream. Content marketing is something you have to do in order to
succeed.
Content
marketing has dozens of variations and applications. But the central tenet is
this: In order to succeed in online marketing, a business must be a producer of
high quality content. Maybe it’s videos, maybe it’s infographics, maybe it’s
Slideshares, maybe it’s podcasts, maybe it’s blog articles, maybe it’s all of
these.
Whatever
the case, SEOs need to know about content marketing, and even why content marketing is the new SEO (this is a
post from my own blog).
15. User Experience
User
experience, and the related fields of User Experience Design (UXD) have to do
with a person’s interaction with a digital medium.
User
experience has everything to do with SEO. That’s not to say you need to
become a master of UX, but you should be aware of its implications for SEO.
If a user
can’t navigate a website or see the text on her mobile, this is a violation of
good user experience. This has a negative impact upon SEO.
User
experience is something that most people can understand intuitively. Does
this website work? Do I know where to click? Can I find what I need to find?
Better
user experience invariably translates into better SEO.
16. Semantic Search
Semantic
search is the way that the web has moved in recent years. It used to be that
search engine optimization was all about the specific keywords.
Now, it’s
not as much about keywords as it is about the other factors that affect
language — intent, substance, context, synonyms, location, trends, word
variations, and other elements of language.
Hummingbird
crystallized our conception of semantic search, alerting SEOs to the fact that
it’s not just about keywords. It’s about the whole breadth of language usage
and practice. Now, we have to deal with queries like “Where’s the closest place
to get a pumpkin spice latte after midnight?”
17. Social Media
Don’t get
too scared about this one. There are people who spend their entire careers as
social media experts. That’s not required of you.
Social
media is just about as vast as the industry of SEO itself, but your knowledge need
only extend as far as being able to function on each major platform — Google+,
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Pinterest is bonus.
What’s
the connection between SEO and social media? There is obviously some correlation between “social
signals” and a page’s rank, but there is not a
direct cause-effect relationship on increasing number of
retweets/likes/pluses and a page’s rising rank. Social signals are not an
algorithmic factor as far as we know.
18. Penalties
Ah,
penalties. I’ve saved the worst for last.
If you’ve
never experienced a penalty on a site that you oversee or manage, then your
education in this area will come when (or if) the penalty comes to strike.
Obviously,
I’m talking about Google’s penalties. There are two types:
- Algorithm penalty – Your
site violates the changing rules of the algorithm, and you lose rank and
traffic. Make the necessary improvements, and you will hopefully recover.
- Manual penalty – This
penalty is called by a Google employee. It happens when your site is
manually reviewed, found to have violations (usually “unnatural links”),
and loses ranking. In order to recover from this type of penalty, you must
perform extensive link remediation, and ask Google for a removal of the
penalty.
Conclusion
Those are
powerful forms of knowledge — the tactical methods of delivery and execution
that we have to do each day. When you combine this knowledge with other
abilities like communication, honesty, diligence, etc., you will become a
master of your trade.
