Why SEO is gaining so much popularity today?
Gone are the days when the major channels of marketing were television, radio, newspapers, etc. SEO is a major a part of Digital Marketing and is soon replacing these traditional forms of marketing. SEO is gaining so much popularity because of:- More and more people using internet and search engines for their day to day activities.
- Growing demand of ecommerce websites and online shopping.
- Sharp increase in Web and Mobile marketing.
- Organic listing is cheap and more reliable than paid ads.
- Better ROI, branding than traditional marketing channels.
- Better business visibility and credibility
- Various tools available for data analysis, the most famous being ‘Google analytics’.
SEO Basics - SEO Techniques:
- Domain Names
- URLs
- XML Sitemaps
- Meta Tags, Meta Descriptions, Title Tags
- Web Content
- Keywords
- Inbound Links
Career in SEO:
Now comes a million dollar question -- Is it worth making a career in SEO? What is the future of SEO Analyst? With the rise in the no. of websites and web pages being developed each day and the popularity of Digital Marketing, SEO is surely one of the most sought-after career options available today. Every organization, whether it is into online or offline business, is hiring SEO experts to get more visibility. Though many professionals enter this career not deliberately, folks enjoy the challenges they come across being an SEO analyst. The responsibilities of improving the ranking and visibility of web pages are shifting from Webmasters to full-fledged SEO experts. The best thing about this profession is that even those who don’t have any idea what is SEO can get trained and begin or make a career change as an SEO Analyst.Success Stories as an SEO Analyst:
There are many SEO professionals, who have been very successfully in this profession and have carved a niche for themselves. Some of them are:- Rob (Blackwood Productions)
- Dharmesh Shah (Hubspot)
- Rand Fishkin (SEO Moz)
- Jill Wahlen (High Rankings)
- Mr. Abdul Hayi Mansoor (SEO Consultant Specialist)
- Neil Patel & Hiten Shah (KISSmetrics and Crazy Egg.)
- Avinash Kaushik (Web Analytics expert)
Skills Required to become an SEO Expert:
- A solid background of SEO and how search engines work
- Good analytical and research skills, knowledge of Google guidelines
- An internet savvy person
- Expert at keyword search
- Excellent communication skills
- Good at meta tag writing and optimizing content
- Social Media freak
- Expert in Linking- Internal, External and Back linking
- Developing and executing SEO strategies
- Thorough understanding of HTML, CSS and Web programming languages.
- Passion for Digital Marketing
- Creativity and Problem Solving abilities
Some Useful Reference Materials to learn about SEO:
- Google’s SEO Beginners Guide
- Google’s Webmaster Guidelines
- Blogs and other content published by SEOmoz.
- Blog posts from Hubspot
- searchengineland
- Matt Cutts’ Blog
18
