No matter what anyone tells you, search engine optimization is in demand. That demand will only go up from here, with an increasing number of businesses establishing an online presence. The new trend in marketing is inbound marketing, and this requires a website to have plenty of organic traffic. How do you get that traffic? You guessed it: SEO.
“It’s not a secret that jobs in SEO are very lucrative, as long as you establish your credibility and authority as one,” says Victor Smushkevich, a San Diego-based SEO expert. But, how do you establish those when there’s no university degree specializing in SEO? If you’re reading this article, you’re probably wondering how you can pick up the necessary skills and street cred to kick-start your career as an SEO expert. Here are some steps you can take in the right direction.
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Figure Out If SEO Is for You
You’re interested, fair enough, but is this the right career for you? Many people are attracted to the SEO field by all the glamour surrounding it. You get to enter an exciting subfield of digital marketing and, if you play your cards right, you get to make tons of money doing it. SEO seems like a bed of roses. However, are you ready to deal with the thorns?
Being an SEO specialist requires a lot of dedication, especially when it comes to your willingness to learn plenty of new stuff every day. Take Google, for example: As the largest search engine out there, they release several minor updates almost every day and major updates at least once annually. Additionally, SEO and marketing changes change frequently. You should be ready to stay on top of things and constantly have your finger on the pulse of SEO trends.
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Invest in Learning
This is probably the most important step. You simply can’t overlook the value of learning in this field. Start by signing up for an online course from a reputable website and soak everything up like a sponge. Remember that SEO has grown into a sort of behemoth of information and there is a lot of catching up you need to do before you can even call yourself an SEO expert.
The learning process will require your dedication and hard work. Don’t just stick to the course you sign up for. Make use of reputable websites and blogs that focus on SEO and learn as much as you can. After a few months of dedicated learning, you’ll be ready to start.
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Have a Website or Blog
SEO isn’t just about mastering the theory. You need to get your hands dirty too. Pick a topic and build a blog where you can talk about that topic. Make sure it’s something you love enough to be able to talk about it every day without getting bored. WordPress is a great place to start when building your website because it gives you full control of your website. Play with SEO on this site and see how things turn out. It’s your little lab, so make use of it.
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Create Killer Content
Content is king. In order for your website to attract attention, it needs to have killer content. Make sure you go for long-form, informative content at least twice a month, rather than shorter, but staler, content many times a week. Don’t stuff your content with too many keywords. Write for a human audience, not for the search engine crawlers.
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Build Links
This is arguably the most important part of SEO. Get as many inbound links as you can to your articles. Build relationships with other influencers by reaching out and offering to write guest posts on their blogs. Link to their articles and ask them to link to yours in return. If you wrote killer content, no one will have any qualms about linking to your articles, so make sure you have that covered. Ultimately, as your inbound links grow, you will start to notice some serious growth in your rankings.
Final Word
Follow all those steps above, and you just built yourself a solid resume. Once you have your first successful website, take note of what made it successful and go build others. In time, it will sink in and become as easy as breathing. You can now call yourself an SEO expert and go apply for those lucrative jobs. However, if you’re that successful, they’ll be looking for you. Trust me.