Table of Contents
Artem Kolomiets, Head of SEO Webpromo, gave a speech at the Digital Start Day conference. Artem told what an SEO specialist does, what he should know and be able to do, how relevant the profession is and how to become one.
What is SEO?
SEO appears to an uninitiated person to be something global, complex, and completely incomprehensible. Beginner SEO specialists who are looking for an answer to a simple question read dozens of articles. As a result, they are told that it can be done in this or that way, but it may or may not work. This scares a lot of people.
SEO is a set of measures used to optimize a website, increasing its visibility in search results and driving traffic. Search engines like Google and Bing are closely monitored by specialists. They research what Google has to offer.
SEO is always changing. Because search engines provide free traffic to websites, a large number of unscrupulous masters attempt to deceive the search engine.
Google frequently complicates SEO specialist lives by inventing new algorithms, ranking factors, and chips that improve the Internet itself. Google’s pink dream is to clean up the Internet: quality resources, only useful sites, all content from experts, stunning multimedia data, high-quality images, and videos created by everyone, not copied from somewhere else.
SEO stands on three pillars:
- technical optimization;
- thematic component;
- external optimization.
The purpose of SEO optimization:
- Make website pages understandable for search engines.
- Make site pages relevant to specific search queries.
- Make it so that people find the information they need on the site faster and easier, so that the site becomes the first place the user turns to if he has a question.
SEO specialists appeared to help achieve these objectives.
SEO Specialist Duties
Improve the site and gain robot trust. This will assist the target audience in locating the product, service, or content on it and performing the desired action (buy, order, subscribe and become a regular customer, subscriber, reader).
An SEO specialist optimizes websites for search engine queries in order to attract the most relevant traffic. SEO specialists improve the site’s quality and monitor the resource’s promotion in search results. It attracts the target audience with whom other professionals can collaborate.
An SEO specialist's responsibilities
Every day, a SEO specialist performs a variety of tasks.
Site technical inspection
A technical audit can help identify errors and shortcomings on the site that prevent it from achieving high rankings. Several services assist the specialist in his work.
The semantic core
The expert compiles a structured list of keywords that correspond to specific search queries. This aids in the formation of the site’s correct structure and the filling of the pages with relevant content.
Competitor analysis
SEO specialists keep a close eye on his competitors. If you do not analyze competitors, you risk promoting your site blindly. SEO specialists use competitive analysis services to avoid wasting their valuable time. The analysis aids in the development of successful promotion strategies for your project.
Technical task for copywriters
An SEO specialist’s responsibilities include creating a technical task for writing texts that will appeal to both users and search engines. Interesting and technically optimized content will help the site rank high in search results.
Link building
Referral promotion is one of the areas of SEO site optimization. An SEO expert needs to follow the algorithms of search engines in order to successfully use different linking methods.
An SEO specialist must have knowledge and skills
A modern SEO specialist should understand: how search engines work; Internet marketing principles; Internet advertising principles; copywriting rules; and usability fundamentals.
An SEO specialist must be able to analyze competitors, compose the semantic core of the site, perform internal site optimization, write meta tags (Title, Description), work with Google Analytics analytics service, increase the number of links, develop a site development strategy, and much more.
Soft abilities
A good SEO specialist should be alert, knowledgeable, and stress-resistant. A specialist cannot work without communication skills because it is necessary to express one’s ideas to copywriters, programmers, typesetters, designers, and managers.SEO specialist keeps track of site traffic and other indicators, as well as competitors. Analytical thinking and a good memory aid in data analysis and drawing correct conclusions.
How to become an SEO specialist
Self-study
On the Internet, you can find blogs, Telegram channels, SEO chats, forums, and YouTube SEO channels. Also, don’t forget to read Google’s beginner’s guide to search engine optimization.
It will be difficult for a beginner to understand all of the complexities of the profession, but you can learn the fundamentals. Remember that without practice, knowledge is only theory. An SEO expert must work in order to gain experience. You will have to learn the trade from the ground up, practicing on the sites of friends and acquaintances.
The ideal situation is to find a company willing to hire a person with no experience but a strong desire to learn for the position of assistant SEO specialist.
Studying at courses
The second option is to enroll in SEO specialist training. Lecturers will disseminate information on the shelves. Here is an example of a course on Udemy — SEO Strategy 2023. SEO training to TOP rank your website!
This SEO Course for Beginners can help you learn how to build an effective SEO Strategy and increase your website’s Google rankings. Besides, on this SEO training you will learn how to organize your promotion strategy, choose the right keywords, analyze your competitors, and much more! Learn how to use SEO tools to optimize your digital marketing campaign!
Where can an SEO specialist look for work?
An SEO specialist can work in one of two ways:
- Freelance
- Office
Remote work allows you to perform duties without being physically tied to your employer.
There are numerous freelance exchanges where you can find a project and work on your own time, setting your own rates for services:
- Weblancer
- Fiverr
- Upwork
Working in the staff solves the problem of employment and project selection. The SEO specialist will already work with the assigned tasks. In addition, companies provide access to paid services.
Employment exchanges can assist you in finding employment.
Another work format option is to start your own business. A specialist must have an excellent portfolio, which cannot be built without practice. You can work on projects alone or as part of a team.
Beneficial SEO specialist tools
SEO specialists use a variety of tools in their daily work. The main services that are difficult to do without can be found by following the links.
Site parsing services:
Download speed testing services:
Services for collecting the semantic core:
Certificate verification services:
We recommend reading the article — TOP 22 Digital Marketing tools
Bonus. SEO trends
Every year, new vectors emerge, which SEO specialists monitor. In 2022-2023, we can highlight 5 main areas that Google is working on in more detail:
- Core Web Vitals
- Google E-A-T
- Google Passage Ranking
- Mobile First
- Increasing the amount of content
Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals is a site quality and usability rating. It is made up of three major components:
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) is the loading speed of your site’s main content. How quickly the site loads and provides the necessary information to the user, as well as how heavy objects are loaded.
- FID (First Input Delay) – the time it takes for the site to load after the first interaction with the user, as well as the time it takes for the site to display after the user clicks to interact.
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) is a layout feature. This is especially true for mobile devices. As a result, the layout should not float when the site is loaded. The Internet resource should be user-friendly and should not obstruct visitors’ access to information.
Google’s popular PageSpeed tool has been updated. You can now not only assess the loading speed of each element, but also receive recommendations on how to improve the site based on the new quality rating.
Core Web Vitals Recommendations
- Check that the site is mobile-friendly and responsive. Mobile device traffic will continue to grow year after year.
- Improve the CLS, FID, and LCP indicators. You should make site elements smaller without sacrificing quality. Logos, large images, and video files, for example.
- Data compression and caching should be used. This will speed up page loading and eliminate the need to process and reload them.
- Remove technical errors such as redirects, broken links, incorrect links, cyclic redirects, and so on. Each technical element slows the site’s loading and the bot’s movement on the page.
- Examine the site’s loading speed. The more traffic you have, the slower your site will run and the more difficult it will be for your audience to interact with it.
- Check the resource’s dependability and safety. Use Google Search Console, which includes a separate security report. If your site is unsafe, untrustworthy, or lacks a secure https protocol, this can have an impact on the quality assessment of your site and lower its ranking in search results.
- Avoid aggressive marketing. It has a negative impact on a specific target audience. Users form a negative opinion of your website over time. If you have to interact with the content, especially if it is inconvenient.
Google E-A-T
Google recognized that all sites can be classified based on certain criteria and highlighted a few sites that require additional attention. These are websites that have an impact on the user’s financial or health situation. He dubbed this collection of websites YMYL (your money – your life). And the search engine identified several key factors for evaluating ymyl-sites:
- expertise,
- authority,
- trustworthiness
Google evaluates the presentation of the information. These factors are most relevant for you if your site is related to medical, financial, educational, legal, economic, or mass media sites, that is, if you communicate with a large audience and provide the most up-to-date topical news.
Google prefers content created by experts in a specific field so that those experts can demonstrate their expertise. It is not a person’s previous work experience that is relevant here. Certificates, references, speaking at events, visiting professional websites, and other factors are used to determine expertise.
You should also consider the information that you publish on your website. All of the data you work with has to come from somewhere. And you must make a reference to something. If you provide numerical indicators, figures, or other statistics, you must state where you obtained the information. As a result, such information must be backed up by credible sources. Because unsupported content is untrustworthy in the eyes of the search engine.
Working on each of these aspects will lead you to victory, attract an audience, and make Google as loyal to you as possible.
Suggestions for Google E-A-T
- Change to the HTTPS protocol.
- Include a user agreement and a privacy policy on the website.
- Make a page for each participant that includes a description of their experience, education, awards, and certificates, among other things.
- In each article, include the author’s name and a link to his website.
- Create a cycle of articles on each topic, describing specific questions that readers may have, and linking these articles together.
- For content preparation, use the LSI copywriting technique.
- Avoid headlines that are clickbait.
- Pay attention to article structure, and divide the text into sections with subheadings.
- Use various types of media content, such as tables, videos, and infographics, depending on the topic.
- Include links to authoritative sources of information in your articles.
- Obtain social signals for your articles.
- Make use of crowd marketing.
- On the website, specify the editorial contacts.
- Add contacts, the address of the office, or the address of an offline representative office to the website.
- Put a detailed description of the goods and services here.
- Declare the terms for returning goods or money.
Google Passage Ranking
The third factor is Google Passage Ranking, or passage ranking. Google is already so smart and trained that it can extract information not only from headings and subheadings, but also from specific passages of content, form a search snippet from them, and display it to users.
It could be a phrase from the text. For instance, “how to whip cream.” There is a zero position here, but the content that Google displays is far from the beginning of the text, so you must scroll and look on the page. It could be 40% of the way down the page, and there could be 1-2 offers for a specific keyword. However, Google will consider this passage useful and will include it in search results.
Google can rank sites and add an active link using anchor link markup, especially if you use micro markups on your site. The user arrives at a specific piece of text by clicking on this active link in the search results.
Suggestions for Google Passage Ranking
- Divide the materials into meaningful chunks.
- Make the appropriate title.
- To separate the material, use H2 or H3 subheadings.
- Make use of anchor links.
- Write a sufficient amount of text to reveal the topic.
- Concentrate on keywords and LSI queries in blocks.
- Image alt attributes should be specified.
Mobile First
The following factor is Mobile First. Google recognizes the importance of mobile-friendly websites. Users should be able to easily find information and make use of all of the elements displayed on your page. As a result, your site’s loading speed should be as fast as possible.
Recommendations for Mobile First
- Check that Google bots can see your content.
- Check that the robots meta tags are visible in the mobile version.
- In the mobile version, enable lazy loading.
- Prepare your robots.txt file for mobile use.
- Check that the main content is the same in the mobile and desktop versions.
- Improve image quality.
- Make sure your images have an alt attribute.
- Make use of schema.org micro markup.
- Keep an eye on how media content is displayed.
Increasing the quantity of content
The final factor is an increase in content amount. According to recent research, content that contains more useful information and is larger in volume ranks higher.
It is necessary to create content. A 15,000-character text “will not fly” if water is poured into it. It is necessary to optimize the test, divide it into subheadings, create information blocks, and reveal the topic of the subheading as well as the entire article. This is laborious and difficult work that necessitates immersion and a precise, precise structure. If we miss something here, it is unlikely that we will make the top edition.
Recommendations for increasing content amount
- Examine the output and niche in terms of content quality and volume.
- Examine your main competitors.
- Study the semantics and plan the article’s structure.
- Divide the keywords into blocks based on the structure of the article.
- Try to reveal as much of the topic as possible in the block and throughout the article.
- Subheadings and anchor links should be used.
- Try to include a variety of media content.
- Analyze the “old” content and rewrite it if necessary.
Do you want to get even more useful information about search engine optimization? Watch our free online conference SEO Day and learn about Search Engine Optimization from industry experts. Discover how to improve website ranking, understand Google search algorithms, and learn about what it takes to become a top marketing manager.
