The collective skills an SEO specialist must acquire to hone his SEO CV are the following utterly:

Skills required to become an SEO Expert

What is SEO

SEO is a combination of online techniques to boost your website keywords and web pages so that you can appear on top results of search engines. SEO is about increasing website ranking in the giant search engines during web searches on specific key terms and topics. Google and Bing are the big companies that receive many search queries, especially in English speaking countries. The other search companies are available in Chinese and Russian speaking countries dominated by Baidu in China and Yandex in Russia.

Who is an Expert

An Expert is a professional who excels in specific technical fields. To call a person an expert is that he must have the outstanding skills that distinguish him from average guys, his proficiency allows him to resolve complex tasks that looked hard to get out of.

Who is an SEO Expert

Briefly, an SEO Expert is a wizard who has mastered intensive SEO skills. He combines them to rank your website content on the top first page of search engines in any industry that may have a dizzying competition.

How to become an SEO Expert
How to become an SEO Expert

Javascript

Javascript is a client web-based programming language that they can use to communicate without accessing the server. Being a client programming language means that its codes run directly on the user's web browser.

Use of Javascript in SEO

Whenever an SEO consultant is analyzing your website ranking, he has to know how Javascript loads your web pages. It helps to check whether the Javascript files are not affecting the speed of your website.

How to improve your SEO with Javascript

Javascript Files compression for SEO

Most modern websites run on Javascript codes or libraries or platforms that rely on Javascript's basic codes. You want to become an SEO Expert right, there is a high chance that you will face a website that loads slowly because of technical Javascript issues. To solve the speed problem, you will need to have some basics knowledge of JS.

There are three things from Javascript codes that cause your web page speed; once it is using unnecessary JS files, the other is calling your external JS files on wrong locations, lastly is use large Javascript files with a lot of white spaces. So if you are not a JS programmer, you will need basics skills to get the solutions for these problems, which can ruin your SEO. Therefore learn the basics of Javascript and how to minify JS files so that you can speed up your clients' web pages.

Lastly, an SEO Expert has to analyze his website's metrics and performance, so to succeed, you will need to track dynamic events of your weblinks and pages. To measure this, you will need to set up some JS codes on your website, which also requires Javascript understanding.

Javascript Events Tracking

In Google Analytics and different web analytics tools, you will need to track events on your website's user actions. To achieve this, you will need to add some JS codes on your buttons or links. So to do it without errors, you will need to understand the functionality of Javascript codes.

Javascript with Data Layers

Data Layers is another tracking method that involves Javascript. Data Layer codes help to track web clicks, and buttons click. Data Layers help PPC specialist while measuring Google Tag Manager, which requires to understand how JS works. Even though this topic belongs to PPC Experts, but you cannot optimize your Google Ads without proper SEO. Remember that SEO decreases the cost of your keywords bidding and increases your paid ads' quality score.

Google Featured Rich Snippets with Javascript

Rich snippets are other search engines coded scripts that appear, for instance, under website information in Google search results to help a user find additional information related to his search terms. For Example, web users could see further questions that answer the subject they typed in Google search box.

Putting Rich snippets codes to enhance your SEO requires understanding how and where to paste these scripts. Featured snippets codes were built-in javascript-based programming language called JSON. So knowing JS will help you to understand how to create SEO featured snippets on your web page search results.

CSS

CSS means Cascading Style Sheet. It is a style sheet based language web designers use to create a professional-looking website, the colors, and layouts presentation of every website are created with CSS.

To master SEO, you have to know CSS because no one can design without using CSS directly or indirectly. Even the drag and drop website builders were created using CSS classes.

How CSS affects SEO

There are three CSS things you have to know for the sake of SEO.

  • You need to understand CSS Classes and elements to control your web pages and files. It helps you to boost your landing pages and to combine your CSS classes with few necessary selectors.
  • Learning this style sheet will ease your CSS files' minification and compressions to speed up your website.
  • Combining your unwanted CSS files into a single file will help you reduce your HTTP request, which also improves your web page speed.

HTML

HTML means Hypertext Markup Language. HTML is a pillar language of web design and development, which means that every design and coding depends on HTML tags. You will never see a person who can call himself an SEO Expert without understanding how to close and open HTML tags because SEO leans on HTML tags.

The power of HTML in SEO

List of the topmost usefully HTML tags in SEO

  • Title tag. For Example <title>SEO Experts in Dubai</title> so every HTML Tag must have an open and a closing tag. This tag is written for optimizing the words inside the opening and closing tag.
  • Meta Description tag. This tag is here to tell the user and search engine what the page is about. For Example <meta name="content" content=" I'm writing about what a person who wants to be an expert in SEO has to do">
  • Heading tag H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6 example of a heading tag <h1>SEO in Dubai</h1>
  • Image tag for Example <img src="seo-consultant.jpg" alt="The best SEO Consultant in Dubai">
  • Anchor tag and Rel attribute For Example <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.google.com/">This link is about Google</a> this Example has a link anchor entitled SEO Services with a no-follow attribute which tells search engines not to index this link

Understand these HTML tags and when to use them will hugely help you in your SEO Career. So learn them carefully, try to use them on your web pages, and test their impact on your SEO results.

PHP

PHP is an open-source server-side programming language. PHP is an acronym of hypertext preprocessor; its execution runs on the server, which means that a web user cannot see PHP code scripts directly on the web browsers. Nowadays, many websites are built-in HPH or rely on PHP based platforms, even popular CMS (Content Management Systems) like WordPress was made in PHP.

PHP use in SEO

Two ways PHP can help you to optimize your website load speed

  • PHP is capable of compressing your web page, it has the codes that you can paste on the top of your website.
  • It allows you to include or require your website files instead to repeat writing the same codes for every page. PHP Syntax example <?php include 'footer.php';?> or use require <?php require 'header.php';?>

Web Analytics

Data Analytics or Web Analytics are online measurement methods that web and SEO Analysts use to get the metrics data of web applications. In SEO filed you have to be flexible to work as an SEO Analyst who is capable of measuring the performance of his keywords with different analytics tools. You will always need web analytics solutions to track the statistical numbers behind your keywords ranking.

To analyze your SEO keywords and data, you have to connect your daily activities to third party tools that will help you thoroughly understand your web application. It leads you to make better decisions based on the performance of your website search terms.

Links Building

Link building is one of the essential parts of Search Engine Optimization; an SEO specialist has to build two types of web links; one interlinking which interconnects your web internal hyperlink texts. The second link building technique is called backlinks; thus, links your internal rich texts to other websites that you may not own. So an SEO link builder has to know how to create quality backlinks instead of quantity.

Images optimization

Images changed SEO industry; most search engines have image search options. So this means that optimizing your image keywords improves your website ranking.

An SEO Expert has to understand how graphics affect his web speed and keywords; thus, you have to compress your image and write your related keywords in your images ALT attribute of IMG Tag.

Example of image optimization for SEO; <img src="dubai.jpg" alt="visit in dubai">

Videos SEO

Video adverting has changed the SEO game. In the modern digital world, it is hard to flourish without mixing motion graphics with your online content.

To become an SEO Proficient does not mean that you have to be a videographer or video editor, but you have to learn how video can help and affect your SEO results.

How a video can affect your SEO

There are three ways a video can increase or decrease your website performance.

  • Video keywords research: you have to create a list of keywords you want to rank
  • Video compression: if you embed videos on a website, check the quality, size, and speed of your video.
  • The video featured rich snippets: You optimize your YouTube so that you put them on Google search results.

CMS

CMS or Content Management Systems are among the most popular tools used to build websites. For instance, WordPress is the most popular CMS on the market. To improve a WordPress website keywords ranking, you have to know how to manage WP plugins to increase without decreasing its loading speed. Mastering WordPress SEO will make you flexible to work on any CMS project.

There are other popular Content Management Systems, for instance, eCommerce CMS, like Woocommerce, Magento, OpenCart, Etc. Learning how eCommerce SEO works and CMS will help you to excel in online shopping businesses. Research about Magento SEO, which is the second most popular eCommerce platform. If you already know WordPress, it will be easy to work on Woocommerce SEO because Woocommerce is built in WP.

Keywords Research

Keyword research is a critical path for search engine project. The success of an SEO plan is to have the right keywords; the most relevant search terms are high volume keywords, products, and business industry-related keywords.

To avoid SEO mistakes, most people make, is to prevent expecting a good ranking on wrong keywords. Moreover, you have to study the industry in which you want to optimize. You can do more research and ask the people familiar with those types of business if it is new to you.

Competitors Analysis

In the SEO field, your best teachers are your high ranking competitors; you will learn a lot from them. There two things you have to check; the first is their keywords, and the second is their do-follow backlinks. It helps you to apply their strategies even in a better way if you are good at SEO.

The main objective of your competitors’ analysis is to outrank your competitors. To be honest, every SEO Expert likes to see his keywords appearing on the first line of the first page of Google.

SEO content writing

To excel in SEO does not mean that you have to be a full-time writer, but to succeed in the SEO industry, you must know how to assess the high-quality content. If you do not enjoy calligraphy, you can hire SEO content writers, but you have to supervise his articles.

Remember that optimized content is among the main Google ranking factors. Find the best content strategy that will rank your website keywords.

Reading

Reading is not directly an SEO skill, but to become an SEO Expert, you will have to read for two reasons; to discover the strategy other SEO Strategists use for ranking; lastly, it will help you to stay updated. So I advise you to read the top ranking search engine content and the news from search companies.

Geo-information

SEO field has two geographical parts; the first is local SEO, and the second is international SEO. As you see, local SEO is about optimizing local businesses, whereas international tend to optimize multinational companies.

To increase the keywords ranking of any locations, you have to know that place and its surrounding. For instance, if you are an SEO Expert in Dubai serving the local companies, you will need to learn the environment and its competition.

Search Engine Algorithms

To rank your website keywords to the first page of search engines, you have to understand how search engine algorithms work. Search tools have formulas they use to index and retrieve the content from your website. So an SEO Expert has to master, for instance, Google algorithms changes and its search result ranking factors.

White hat SEO over black hat SEO

An SEO professional is the one who applies white hat SEO. So do not cheat Google for the sake of ranking. Follow Google guidelines best practice; this will help not to get any Google penalty. Moreover, you can read rules that different search engines follow to rank a website.

SEO Audit

Auditing is part of a successful SEO; a good SEO consultant is the one who detects the problems causing your low ranking by providing adequate solutions.

SEO Audit helps SEO Analyst to test the SEO structure of a website. SEO auditing requires checking the site manually, and also you can test it with SEO testing tools. To perform this, you have to understand SEO for finding solutions that can fix SEO issues.

SEO Tools

The good things is that you can rank withoug SEO tools, but more you need advanced SEO features; you will need to lean on the best SEO tools. There are built-in tools and third-party tools you can choose. Some of these tools are free others are paid, so you can buy them depending on what you want to do. For instance, to get indexed on Google, you have to verify your website ownership on Google webmaster tools, also known as Google Search Console.

There are many third-party tools mostly for keywords research, competitors analysis, Analytics, and others for SEO testing. We will describe SEO tools in other articles.

SEO Research

Ranking a website on the first page of Google or other search engines is not enough. An SEO Expert has to contribute and inspire others by publishing SEO books and SEO blogs. You have to keep on exploring different SEO techniques that can simplify the way we optimize the websites.

SEO research will help you to discover some SEO tips that small companies use to outrank multinational companies. Keep on testing, learning and publishing to help SEO communities.

Practice SEO

The best way to master SEO is to practice and keep on practicing. If you want to stand out in an SEO career, you have to practice all the SEO theories you read. You can never be an SEO Expert if you rely on assumptions you have read on blogs because most SEO bloggers teach general theories.

You can practice SEO by creating your blog, helping a friend, optimizing a client website. So you have to evaluate your SEO keywords ranking and performance every day.

Build relationships

Building relationships has many benefits for your SEO career. Firstly having a connection with other SEO Experts will help you stay in their community and cycle; secondly, you can learn some skills from them, third you can get some backlinks from them, and fifth, you can earn projects and their recommendations.

The other relationship that could help in the SEO industry is to stay in touch with your clients, helping you to retain them, and earning potential customers. In the SEO business, the right customer can indirectly market your SEO services. Do not keep your expertise with yourself, create friendships and connections that can save you on the SEO market so that you can get what your knowledge deserves.

Patience

It may sound funny, but the SEO field requires persistence. If you are a person who does not know how to wait for the results, you will need to learn it.

In general, optimized keywords starts to appear on the first page of search engine results after two months, but some competitive industries may take up to nine months to appear on the first page. So an SEO Expert to keep on pushing his keywords, he has to work hard and wait for the results.

SEO Passion

Having SEO Passion is one key to succeed in this field. If you are inquisitive and you like to face challenges, there is a chance that you can beat those people who started an SEO career because they just want to get money. The SEO passion will push you beyond your boundaries; it will not let you sleep till you outrank your competitors. It will motivate you, and definitely, you will likely be successful in your SEO projects.

You need to meditate on different SEO cases, always stay focused. Work on complex projects, never stop learning and reading SEO content. The two SEO challenges you have to try are to compete on high volume keywords, secondary is to rank a website internationally, means make your keywords discovered in every region or country.

The best SEO resources

To master SEO skills, you have to find the best SEO resources and keep on learning as much as possible. SEO is dynamic; you cannot believe what you know today that will remain static till the next year. For instance, Google updates its algorithm and SEO ranking factors almost every year, so you have to follow all of those changes.

Here are the top SEO resources that will sharpen your SEO skills

  • SEO blogs
  • SEO books
  • SEO Training Centers
  • SEO Trainer
  • Online Classes
SEO Blogs
Many SEO blogs can help you to learn and understand SEO. Remember that there many secrets behind SEO bloggers. But I want to tell you the below tips you can use to follow the right SEO blogs.

  • Many blogs are so commercial; they mix their articles indirectly with the content of their advertising partners. Always analyze what you are reading, because sometimes it might be promotional more than educational articles.
  • Choose the blogs that appear on the first and second pages of Google search results. The content writers of such articles know precisely how to optimize their posts, which means that they understand SEO.
SEO Books
You can learn SEO skills from books. The best advice is to read the latest books published a few years ago because SEO and ranking algorithms change almost every year. So always check the date of any SEO book you read.
SEO Trainer
You can hire an SEO Trainer to teach you or your employees. The advantage is that he can take care of you until you understand how to optimize your web pages. You can search on Google to find the best one. For instance, you can Google for instance SEO Trainer in Dubai then choose the one that is ranking on the top of others. The advantages of hiring SEO trainers is that you will have enough time to ask them your SEO questions. Therefore they will take care of you individually with intensive practice.
SEO Training Center
You can join the SEO Training Center. In most countries, search engine optimization has become a hot topic. Suppose you don't know where you can find the best SEO Training institution near your area. You can search online, suppose for Example if you are in UAE, you can google SEO Training Center in Dubai. Then join the one that is on search engine top results. Because if they can rank their institute, they know the meaning of search terms optimization.
Online SEO Classes
Many websites offer online SEO Classes, even many SEO bloggers, SEO Agencies, SEO Software Companies offer free or paid SEO Courses online. There are even renowned institutions that provide SEO classes worldwide.
YouTube

YouTube is among the best source of learning SEO. Most of the famous SEO Experts offer SEO tutorials on YouTube. You can also find SEO videos from well-known digital marketing companies. If you like any person or company that provides SEO services, there is a chance that he might have a YouTube Channel.

The only challenge from learning on YouTube is that you will not be able to ask questions, and you will discover many theories without practical examples or downloadable eBooks.

Show off your SEO skills

To call yourself an SEO Expert, you have to prove it with the projects you have ranked on the first page of search engines.

Here are the ways you can use to demonstrate that you are among the top SEO professionals.

  • Rank the keywords with the high search volume on the first page of Google
  • Show the website you have put on the first page of search engines
  • Earn an SEO Certificate
  • Get a recommendation from your clients

Advantages of Becoming an SEO Expert

  • You make money from your clients or Employers
  • You will have the chances of landing a Job
  • You can quickly start your businesses and succeed in any business industry

SEO Experts vs. SEO Agencies

Here are the advantages of hiring SEO Experts over SEO Agencies

  • Direct contact: it is easy to reach an SEO Expert compared to an SEO Agency. In any SEO Company, most of the time, you will first contact the management before meeting the person who is optimizing your website.
  • Low cost: it is evident that hiring a single person is affordable than hiring a team. For instance, an SEO Freelancer is cheaper than hiring a digital marketing company.
  • SEO Portfolio: It is easy to request a portfolio of an SEO specialist than an SEO agency. You cannot quickly know whether the person who optimized the company's projects is there or not.

Schools and colleges that produce many SEO Experts

Many universities have started to offer some introductory SEO courses mixed with other subjects. This urge students to begin researching and learning advanced SEO courses.

The following is the list of educational institutions that produce many SEO Experts.

  • Computer Science and information technology
  • Marketing and Advertising
  • Media Technology
  • Journalism and Mass Communication
  • Engineering and Software

Final Thoughts

To recap, becoming an SEO Expert, you have to learn and keep on learning. Once you have mastered the following SEO skills, you are among the best in your country or the world;

Different Types of SEO

  • Technical SEO; it helps you to know how to resolves coding issues
  • On-page SEO; this is the pillar of SEO that you have to master
  • Off-page SEO; You have to know how to drive traffics from other websites
  • Content Strategy; Content is the king of SEO
  • Backlinks; you have to understand how to acquire high-quality backlinks
  • Local SEO; you have to know how to serve local businesses
  • International SEO; you have to be able to compete with international industries

Finally, I can assure you that if you have in-depth knowledge of the above skills, you can compete in any SEO industry. Use the resources and pieces of advice we have mentioned; it will help you to grow every day and catch up with other professionals and SEO legends.

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