Do you want to learn how to increase your traffic and achieve higher rankings for the keywords that can generate more sales and revenue for your website? Then you should learn everything there is to know about SEO and become an SEO Expert.
Having SEO expertise is not the sole privilege of SEO professionals. It’s a skill that can be mastered by anyone wishing to learn how to do SEO on their own.
I’ve been practicing SEO for the last 18 years and in this post, you will learn what steps you need to follow to become an SEO expert.
Why everyone should become an expert in Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Before getting into the steps, it’s important to understand the difference between an SEO expert and an SEO professional.
An SEO expert is someone that knows how SEO works and how to apply SEO to increase the rankings of a website in Search Engines.
An SEO professional is an SEO Expert that practices SEO as a profession either by doing SEO consulting, offering SEO services, or taking clients on a project-by-project basis.
I’m mentioning this difference to point out that you don’t have to practice SEO as a profession to become an SEO expert. There are many advantages as to why you should improve your SEO skills even if you don’t plan to offer services to clients.
Advantages of becoming an expert on SEO
Increase your rankings and traffic – This is the most obvious reason why someone should aim in becoming an expert in search engine optimization.
If you know how to optimize your website for search engines then you can take advantage of the increase in rankings and search engine traffic to make money blogging or start an online business.
Less dependency on SEO agencies – I know that this is not what you expect to read in the blog of an SEO agency but that’s the truth. If you have in-house SEO skills then you can grow your business without depending on external support.
Decrease costs – If you are a solo entrepreneur or blogger you can save a lot of money if you can do SEO yourself than having to hire an SEO specialist.
Make better decisions like who to hire to work on your SEO – If you know SEO yourself then it’s much easier to decide which consultant or company to hire to work on your SEO. You will be in a position to understand what their SEO packages include and judge if what they are suggesting can actually help your website achieve better rankings.
Highly recommended for Marketing managers – if you work as a marketing manager then having a good understanding of SEO will give you an extra advantage over other marketing managers or colleagues in your organization.
No business can survive online without SEO – SEO is no longer optional. Websites that are not built with SEO in mind, there is no way they can survive in the highly competitive online World. Knowing SEO and how to use it correctly, can make a huge difference in your website’s future.
10 Steps to Become an SEO Expert
These are the 10 steps to follow to become an expert on SEO.
- Understand how search engines work
- Get to know The Basic Search Engine Marketing Concepts
- Understand the true meaning of SEO
- Choose the right SEO Training
- Stay informed about SEO changes
- Choose the Right SEO Tools
- Practice SEO – Don’t stay theoretical
- Demonstrate your SEO Expertise
- Be Patient
- Follow the leads of established SEO Experts
1. Understand how search engines work
Before even starting to think about SEO, the first step you need to take is to familiarize yourself with how search engines work.
For many people, this may be something that they already know (or think they know), but it’s always good to start with the basic concepts and then work your way up to the most complicated theories.
In a nutshell, search engines have three main processes:
- Crawling – this is how they discover content on the web
- Indexing – how they add and organize the content in their index
- Ranking – how they decide which websites to show in the results (and in what order), for a given search query
As an SEO specialist, you’ll need to know how to optimize a website for each stage so that search engines can read, index, and understand the content of a website without problems.
Resources you can use:
- How Search Engines Work – a gentle introduction to search engines for beginners. It explains how search engines find, index, and rank websites.
- How Search Works – this tutorial will help you understand how Google search engine works, which is similar to how other search engines work too.
2. Get to know The Basic Search Engine Marketing Concepts
Before getting your hands dirty, you should have a general idea about all the different disciplines that make up search engine marketing. You should understand what digital marketing is and the role of SEO in digital marketing campaigns.
You should have clear in your mind what to expect from SEO and what other tools you can use in conjunction with SEO to make your Internet presence stronger.
In summary, SEO is one of the two components of SEM. The main difference between the two is that SEO traffic is free while SEM traffic is paid.
With SEO your goal is to get to the top of the organic results by publishing content that matches the user intent and by giving search engines ‘signals’ to help them with the indexing and ranking process.
With SEM, you can use PPC platforms (like Google Ads) to pay for your ads to appear on top of the paid search results.
Both methods can help you get traffic from search engines but with SEO you don’t have to rely on paid ads to get traffic. Once you manage to secure high rankings for the keywords that matter for your business, you can get continuous traffic to your site 24/7.
This is just one of the benefits of SEO. By getting to the top of the SERPS, you can take advantage of other benefits like brand awareness, user trust, and recognition that can help you grow your business.
3. Understand the true meaning of SEO
SEO is not just about keywords and links, it’s much more than that. The true mission of SEO is to provide users with a great experience and give them exactly what they want.
Your goal is not just about getting more search engine traffic but it’s about turning that traffic into recurring visitors and customers.
SEO has a number of types, the most important are:
Your job as an SEO expert is to learn what SEO rules to apply at each stage of the SEO process so that your website is fully optimized.
Here is an outline of what each SEO type does:
Technical SEO – Technical SEO is responsible for the crawling and indexing phase. With technical SEO you can help search engines index all important pages of your website without issues. The most important technical SEO tasks are:
- URL Canonicalization
- XML Sitemap Optimization
- Setting your preferred domain
- Optimizing you page URLs
- Optimizing your website structure
- Improving your website page speed
- Optimizing your website for mobile
- Finding and fixing crawl errors
On-Page SEO – On-page SEO has to do with elements found on a page. Things like content, headings, images, videos need to be optimized so that search engines can understand their context.
The most important on-page SEO elements are:
- Page title optimization
- Meta description optimization
- Content optimization
- Making proper use of headings (H1 tag, H2, etc)
- Internal and external links
Off-Page SEO – The last process is called off-page SEO. Unlike technical and on-page SEO, Off-page SEO has to do with activities outside the boundaries of a website. Things like getting backlinks from other related websites and promoting your website on the Internet are factors that help search engines during the ranking process.
You can use the resources below to get started with SEO and build the necessary expertise.
Resources you can use:
- How to learn SEO from scratch – a step-by-step guide on how to learn SEO if you know nothing about it.
- SEO Tips for beginners – a list of the most important SEO tips that beginners need to be aware of.
4. Choose the right SEO Training
Once you start learning SEO, you will realize one thing: There is too much information about SEO on the Internet and so many things to learn, and this in the end creates a mess.
If you decide to do this on your own without any help, you will end up with an endless list of articles to read and things to try out.
It took me years to learn SEO this way because back in 2000 when I started, there were no SEO training courses or guides you could read and have all the information in one place.
Nowadays things are different. People wanting to learn SEO fast can do so by following a reputable course without having to spend endless hours searching the Internet and reading article after article.
Resources you can use:
The Complete SEO Course – Our own SEO course has everything you need to know about SEO. It covers both basic and advanced SEO concepts.
You can take the course online or download the material as PDF and learn at your own pace. It is the only SEO Course you’ll ever need to read.
Google Digital Garage – Google has created a new set of courses covering everything you need to know about Digital marketing. They don’t go into the fine details of SEO but they are a great resource if you want to familiarize yourself with online marketing.
Moz SEO Course – Moz is a company famous for its tools but they also created an SEO course that covers the basics of SEO. It’s not complete but it’s a good start for beginners.
SEO Guide – This is another guide from Google. It covers SEO from Google’s perspective. This means that you will not learn what actually works for SEO but what Google wants you to learn about SEO. Nevertheless, take a couple of hours and go through the guidelines, there are some good pieces of advice worth thinking about.
SEO Certifications – A list of all available SEO certifications you can pursue and become a certified SEO specialist.
5. Stay informed about SEO changes
SEO is not a static discipline. SEO rules and algorithms change all the time. Google alone is making more than 250 changes to their ranking algorithms per year. Good SEO experts need to know about these changes and adjust their SEO campaigns accordingly.
The best way to stay informed is to follow a couple of SEO news websites that are proven to provide information about on-going SEO changes when they happen and not after it’s too late to do something about it.
Resources you can use:
Search Engine Roundtable – A must follow website by all SEO experts. Daily news about everything that is happening in the SEO industry. For me, this is the most valuable and useful SEO news website in our industry.
Search Engine Land – One of the oldest websites in the SEO industry. Previously owned by Danny Sullivan, now he works for Google.
Google Blog – Google recently established a blog for sharing news related to Google products. They occasionally share news about Google search as well.
Google search blog – a blog by Google dedicated to Search.
Google Webmasters Blog – the official Google webmasters blog. Follow to get news about the latest changes in search.
Reliablesoft SEO Blog – Our own SEO blog. It is updated on a weekly basis with guides, step-by-step articles, and resources to help you practice SEO efficiently.
6. Choose the Right SEO Tools
The truth is you cannot do SEO alone. There is so much information to process and decisions to make and if you try to do everything manually, you will spend your precious time analyzing numbers instead of working on tasks that can get you better results.
It’s also true that good SEO tools cost but in the long term the return is much more than the monthly fee you will pay for a good SEO tool.
SEO Tools you can use:
Google Webmaster Tools (Free) – Google webmaster tools is perhaps one of the most useful tools for SEO. It is free and it can give you a lot of information about your website. Read my previous guide on how to use Webmasters tools to improve your SEO.
Google Analytics (Free) – Another free tool by Google. You can use Google analytics to learn a lot of things about your traffic and how users navigate your website. There are a lot of reports to explore and many metrics to analyze. This article, Google analytics for beginners, is a great place to start.
SEMRUSH (Paid) – This is my favorite SEM tool. It’s not free but you can use it for your SEO, PPC campaigns, competitor analysis, keyword research, link building, social media monitoring, and many more. It is updated frequently with new features and it’s one of the best investments you can make for your SEO.
Ahrefs (Paid) – An alternative to SEMRUSH. It comes with a monthly subscription but it’s also one of the most respected SEO tools in the industry. It comes with a 7-day free trial so you can test it out before buying.
Google Keyword Planner (Free) – The Google keyword tool is a free keyword research tool offered by Google. You can use it to find out what search terms people type in Google’s search box.
7. Practice SEO – Don’t stay theoretical
SEO is not theoretical but it’s mostly practical. The outcome from studying the SEO theory should be a list of actions you can apply to your website and improve your exposure in search engines.
The problem is that each website is unique and what works for one website may not be the best solution for others. That’s why it is necessary to actually practice SEO and not just stay theoretical.
Reading case studies on how others have managed to succeed with SEO campaigns it’s a great way to get new ideas you can use and the inspiration you need to keep trying until you get SEO right.
8. Demonstrate your SEO Expertise
They say that one of the best ways to learn something is to try to explain it to other people. This is true with SEO as well.
I have learned a lot of things and improved my SEO skills considerably when I started writing about SEO.
My recommendation is to start a website or an SEO blog and share your SEO experiences with other people.
Over time you will find that sharing knowledge is a great way to learn new things about SEO and at the same time you help other people, which is a highly rewarding experience.
9. Be Patient
There is no way to talk about SEO and not mention the word “patience”. SEO takes time to work and you shouldn’t rush to conclusions too soon.
SEO is not the quickest way to increase your traffic. If you want immediate results then try PPC campaigns. SEO is about creating a long term sustainable business by building a solid foundation that will get you organic traffic 24/7 for years.
Before making any SEO related change to your website you should take note of your rankings and traffic (for a period of time), before the change and compare it with the same period of time (in terms of duration), after the change.
Monitor your rankings and traffic and give it enough time before taking further decisions.
10. Follow the leads of established SEO Experts
Last but not least, in your path to become an SEO expert, you will face a number of difficulties. There will be times when you will be disappointed, frustrated, and ready to give up.
Don’t worry, this is normal to happen. If you read the stories of other people you will understand that none of them became what they are today because they are lucky. It’s the result of hard work and endless hours of testing and reading about SEO.
The list below includes 5 SEO experts you definitely need to follow for inspiration and for understanding how SEO can be applied on a scale. All 5 have managed to build multi-million businesses and they managed to do it because they know how to use SEO correctly.
Read their stories and spend some time analyzing their SEO practices. You may find that sometimes they do things differently than ‘traditional’ SEOs and this is because they have the confidence and expertise to try new things and experiment with SEO without being afraid to fail.
Neil Patel – One of the most respected SEO experts in the industry. Don’t just read his blog but try to analyze his practices and how he managed to use content SEO in scale.
Brain Dean – He is the expert in link building. His blog is a great resource for case studies and techniques you can use to get fast results.
Eric Enge – Speaker, Founder, and CEO of Stone Temple. An SEO with years of experience in the industry.
Joost de Valk – Founder and CEO of Yoast, the most popular SEO plugin.
Rand Fishkin – Co-Founder of MOZ, great presenter, and entrepreneur.
Conclusion
Everyone that has anything to do with a website or online business should become an SEO expert.
The list includes marketing managers, developers, webmasters, web designers, social media managers, PPC experts, solo entrepreneurs, and eCommerce owners.
Why? Because SEO is at the base of all digital marketing campaigns. SEO principles will not only guarantee the maximum possible exposure in search engines but they can help a website in more ways.
Becoming an SEO Expert is not easy but it’s not difficult either. The process includes a lot of reading, practicing, and testing.
If you are starting out now, the best way is to take a good SEO course so that you have all the information in one place, use the right SEO tools, and above all start practicing SEO. Learn from your mistakes and try again.
Search engines and SEO are here to stay for years to come and this is the best investment you can make for your business and personal skills.
Really great blog and tips. Thanks for sharing this knowledgeable blog.
Hi Paul
Thanks for your comment. Glad I could help!
Alex
Thank you for sharing this blog . It’s really helpful for me.
Thanks Madhavi!
Hello
Such a great and informative article. Thanks for sharing
Thank you Sujata!
Hii
Your article is really very informative and attractive too. I like the way you describe each and everything. Keep sharing these kinds of article.
Hi Alex,
Wow! Impressive Guide! This must be more than enough for anyone who wants to become an SEO expert.
As per my opinion, every SEO Expert should focus on these few things.
1. Quality
2. Search Engine Behaviour
3. Networking and keeping up to date with SEO news
4. User Experience
5. Content
6. Link building
Thanks again for this Awesome Information. I’m so glad I came across this Post today!
Hi Saurabh
Excellent summary of the steps needed to become an SEO expert.
All the best with your SEO efforts!
Alex
Hi Alex, This article is filled with answers for my ample questions. I am in the mist of starting a new blog and this article will be a bookmark for my future reference. Thanks for sharing this informative article.
Hi Jacob
All the best with your new blog!
Alex
Thanks for sharing this great information. I really like your post.
Thank you for this article, now everything is clear 🙂
Thank You so much for this informative post. Thanks for sharing how you are doing it and I am sure a lot of people will be helped through the resource you shared.
Hi Abhishek
Thanks for your comment. Follow the included resources and you can become and SEO specialist in no time!
Thanks
Alex
Thanks for sharing this marvelous post. I m very pleased to read this article .I enjoy this site – its so useful and helpful.
I am reading a blog on this website for the first time and I would like to tell you that the quality of the article is up to the mark it is very well written.
Hi Alex,
This article is awesome, because this article is very clear and simple for us and all SEO’s. I love this article. Thanks Alex!
Hi Alex,
I have started my career as a freelance SEO expert and your post is going to help me. I have reviewed your post on Technical SEO and my doubts are cleared now. I think I am going to buy you “the complete SEO course” 🙂
Hi Mandeep
Thanks a lot. The Complete SEO Course will teach you everything you need to know about SEO and it’s perfect for beginners.
All the best
Alex
Search Engine Optimization is the backbone of Digital Marketing now a days. All of your distinctively defined tips for becoming SEO expert are tremendous. I will surely work for SEO accordingly.
Hi Paul
Thanks for your comments. All the best with your SEO efforts!
Alex
Nice write-up, thanks for this. SEMRush & Ahrefs both are great tools. However, I think they are expensive for someone who is just starting. Looks like there is a clear market for a tool that offers similar features at a limited cost so that a newbie blogger can afford.
Hi Dhiraj
Good tools are expensive but they offer a lot of value. There are so many things to analyze and a lot of metrics to track that makes it impossible to do it manually.
All the best
Alex
First I thank you. I was benefited by reading this post, which was very useful for me. My knowledge has increased. I have read a lot of blogs before, but I did not get as much advantage as I did when reading this blog. I like the way you write your blog, method of writing. Write the same blog and keep giving everyone knowledge.
“Gaining knowledge increases knowledge!”
Thanks for the article!
SEO changes very quickly. It is difficult to follow trends. It is necessary to read a lot of information, read blogs, forums. Thanks for the list of experts does not know all of them 🙂
I feel very glad that I got to come here for reading about SEO professional and expert as well, In the beginning, I thought I’m read unnecessarily but when I read the whole content of your site I feel very glad I can’t tell you what have you done for me. I will just thank you for sharing your incredible knowledge with us
Thanks for this. I have to confess I do find SEMRush a bit confusing – do you know of a good resource that gives a simplistic guide to how to use it?
Hi Tim
There is a learning curve but once you get used to it, it’s really a good tool. They have an academy and a KB to help you get started. Also, a lot of my blogs have instructions on how to use it for keyword research, link building etc.
Hope this helps
Alex
Thanks for sharing this blog post online. I really loved the way you have organized this blog post. All the tools and links which you have included are amazing and top-notch. Hope, this will help me polish my SEO skills. Will definitely be sharing this blog post with my friends… 🙂
Thanks for providing such a wonderful and meaningful info regarding seo tools and techniques. I hope you will share same informative post in future also. Please keep sharing!!
Hi Alex,
I like your point 3 – Understand the true meaning of SEO
I have seen people selling SEO courses on Facebook don’t know the difference between on page or off page SEO.
Thanks for explaining it all in a clear meaningful way.
Hi Gareth
Glad I could help! Thank you for your comment.
Alex
Hi Mr. Alex,
This article is amazing. I am in the midst of starting a new blog and this article will be a bookmark for my future reference. Thanks for sharing this informative article.
Really great blog and tips. This article is amazing Thanks for providing such a wonderful and meaningful info regarding SEO tools and techniques
Thanks, for this sharing this post Alex!
Hi Alex, I came across many blogs on SEO but this is something which every SEO starter can keep in mind. Thanks for this informative post. Cheers!!
This got ranked for many keywords…congrats Alex
Hi Stella
Thanks a lot. Yes, it does rank for a number of keywords.
All the best
Alex
Thanks for sharing this amazing post.
Thanks for sharing this amazing post.
Love your content, too helpful
Hi Faraz
Thanks a lot!
Alex
Hi Alex,
Thank you for sharing valuable information to become SEO expert, This is exactly the same approach that I have applied to learn Search engine optimization.
@Alex I need your suggestion on learning International SEO regarding creating with ahref language. Please suggest your view long-term vs short-term, Can I use same content in all the version as most of the country are English speaking country.
Hi Alex, Thanks a lot for sharing this awesome Guide! In my opinion SEO Is and will still be the number #1 Most effective strategy for delivering highly engaged traffic and that makes it deserve the efforts we make to become Experts in this field 🙂 SEO Needs one to pay to get the needed results, but If he has the knowledgeable you have mentioned then, it can save us a lot of money. Thanks again for mentioning how we can get the needed SEO experience.
Hi John
I agree with you 100%. SEO is the best way to get targeted traffic to a website and this trend is not expecting to change anytime soon.
All the best
Alex
Hello Alex, Your article is very much helpful and convenient for a new SEO learner. All the points you mentioned are much helpful and interesting to know. I agree with you that following the SEO leaders could be much help to achieve knowledge. Thanks for sharing. Keep Sharing more with us..:)
I love to read SEO blog to learn more about digital marketing. I never joined any SEO training class or nor paid to someone. I have only reading blog and doing practice to get command over the website optimization techniques. Practice is the best way to increase understanding about SEO.
Hi Alex
I love your article. It’s very informative and well structred. But I wanted to know that the course you are providing is only for beginners or people looking for advance strategies can also refer this book or you are planning to release book which will cover advance strategy and techniques i n coming future.
Hi Pradeep
Our SEO courses are both for beginners and advanced users. They cover both basic and advanced SEO concepts.
Thanks
Alex
Such a great article this is. All the tips provided are quite helpful. Great for SEO enthusiasts Thanks! 🙂
Search Engine Optimization- one of the most important thing that help to make your website rank higher in all the search engine platforms. To become an SEO expert everyone needs to take care of these things-
1- Content
2- Keep updated yourself about current SEO scenarios
3- Link Building
4- Should have Analytical Skills
Thanks a lot for writing such a wonderful article. Well written and the guideline is awesome and essential to follow. I’m looking forward to more informative posts further and I like to wish you all the best.
Hi Phill
Thanks a lot for your comment. All the best with your SEO efforts!
Alex
Thank you for these amazing tips.
Hi Alex
Your Content is easy to read and step by step. SEO can be overwhelming. Anyone can easily loss track with many SEO terms. That’s why I always recommend to those who want learn SEO to start with an SEO course.
A Step by step beginner friendly SEO course give anyone clear basic knowledge.
Thanks
Wow! Finally came across a wonderful blog post which provide detailed insights about becoming an SEO expert which is thereby an essential thing for a business to sustain their website’s presence online.
Hi
Thanks a lot, glad I could help you understand what it takes to become an SEO expert.
Alex
Thank you for taking the time and writing this post. Great help for me!
I just liked the 5th point. In the world of SEO, we have to just remain informed otherwise our rankings can go down. When there is Google Algorithm Change or something, we have to be just aware of that.
Hi Gautam
Google is making hundreds of changes to their ranking algorithms per year and to stay current, you need to follow their changes and adjust your SEO strategy accordingly.
Thanks
Alex
Great post. Thanks for describing the difference between an SEO expert and an SEO professional. All content on your blog is very helpful to me. I appreciate your work.
Goodness! At last, went over a great blog entry which gives point by point experiences about turning into an SEO master which is in this way a fundamental thing for a business to support their site’s quality on the web.
Great article. This will really help me work on my new website SEO.
Thanks for writing such a great post. I will try my best to use these methods in my blog.
I found this article so helpful and informative.This would be useful for those who are beginners in digital marketing
Thanks Alex.
Hello Admin,
Thanks for sharing this post, It will help to understand my roles & responsiblities as an SEO Expert.
Thanks & Regards
Prempal Singh
Hi Alex, it’s really a very effective guideline to become an SEO expert. I’m an SEO trainer from Bangladesh. Thanks for sharing.
that is an awesome post. i have recently started a blog of mine and many of the topics mentioned here helped me
Hi Alex,
I’m encouraging and hoping to see more women SEO experts like myself in these articles. 😉
Hi Jen
I’m sure that there are a lot of women SEO experts out there. I will definitely update the list to include them.
Thanks for pointing this out
Alex
I’ve been an avid visitor of this website and reading the different blogs has always been a learning experience. After reading this particular one on SEO Expert, I can say for sure that these are the ‘must-know’ for any SEO Expert.
Your blog is very good. I agree with your words that semrush is the best SEO tool and it is a good investment for your SEO.
that is an awesome post. i have recently started a blog of mine and many of the topics mentioned here helped me
Hi Ravindra
Thanks for your comment and good luck with your blog. Follow the steps above and you’ll become an SEO expert in no time!
All the best,
Alex
A debt of gratitude is in order for the astounding article. This is Excellent data for the accomplished SEO and learner/business owner who might be attempting to save a couple of bucks and gain proficiency with search engine optimization all alone…
Hi Stephen
Yes, taking the time and effort to learn SEO will definitely help you save money and become more efficient.
All the best
Alex
Hi Alex
Really helpful guide. I learnt lot of things from this course.
The way the topics have been arranged in steps is really informative.
This is really helpful. Great Overview on”How to Become an SEO Expert”, I just bookmarked this post for future reference. Really love your work have learned so much & I will definitely be implementing these tips:)
Hi Kenneth
Thanks, glad I could help. Becoming a SEO specialist is not hard, it just takes times and effort.
All the best
Alex
Hello Alex,
I am a huge fan of your newsletter, I have a lot of contents that have rich snippets, but it’s not driving traffic to my website. Could you please give me a lead on what could be done?
Thanks.
HI! I am a start-up in the SEO industry and I find this topic really helpful.
Thanks for providing such insightful information regarding seo techniques.
Have a great day and keep sharing!
Hi Marjorie
Thanks for your comment. Start-ups have a lot to gain from SEO. A good SEO expert can help a start-up business grow faster by following good SEO practices and techniques.
All the best
Alex
Brilliant article, Alex! Very easy to understand what SEO is about! Thanks for sharing!
Excellent article, Alex!
Detailed, solid information that is also a good refresher for an SEO practitioner like myself.
Great article. I’ve shared it with my colleagues of the Worldwide Cleaning Association (ISSA) as well as a link to your training academy Keep up the great work.
I have used google keyword planner. Its really very helpful which is free to use. I am surely going to try the other tools as well. thanks for sharing this valuable article with us. I’m pinning this article to share!
Nice Article. Thank You for sharing such a clever and informative article. Keep sharing.