If you are a professional, small business owner, or marketing professional for an enterprise, it’s likely that you already have a deep appreciation of how important SEO is to businesses. There are three ways to learn how to SEO on your site this year, ranked from good to best.
Good: Self-Learning SEO
Everyone begins with self-learning search engine optimization. You’ve probably read articles from Moz and other established SEO enterprises that typically develop software for business owners and SEO professionals. The advantage of self-learning SEO is you can take it up any time you want. Maybe you have an hour per week to read an article or two. Then, sometime between the second and third months, you’ve probably accumulated some SEO skills.
The next step is applying the general lessons on SEO to the problems on your site. You will need time to demystify how you can use these available lessons to address the ground situation. Although sometimes it works, business owners often become frustrated that things aren’t working out as they have read online. This scenario is exceedingly common because no SEO magic bullet applies to every problematic site. Search engine optimization works best when it’s tailored to the website that requires optimization.
Better: Online SEO Courses
Companies like SEMRush and ahrefs offer online courses to business owners and marketing professionals who need a more structured way to learn SEO. In addition, there are free courses and paid ones.
Google also offers a free course on SEO, where the course material is delivered through video and text. Overall, online SEO courses provide a more definite flow of concepts. This is because they’re made by industry experts who have a particular learner in mind. In marketing, this ideal personage or audience is an ‘avatar’ (not related to the Nickelodeon show or film).
Online courses are a little better than self-learning because you have a definite starting point, midpoint, and conclusion. The lessons are finite, and you won’t spiral into doing too much of one area. These SEO courses typically provide a sampling of the essential concepts in each domain, so the learner understands how broad the field of search engine optimization truly is.
Thematically, online SEO courses are geared toward business owners who rank and compete on significant search engines. The second type, the certification course, comes with official certificates from private companies. SEO professionals who wish to improve their credentials often invest in SEO certification courses.
They watch videos, read SEO literature, and sometimes do exercises. When they have complied with the requirements of the online courses, they receive the certificates. If you are a business owner, you do not need to be certified by any private company to SEO on your site.
Best: SEO Coaching
SEO coaching is the best choice for business owners and professionals who want to improve their organic rankings and local SEO. If you have the DIY spirit and would like to learn how the professionals do it, you must work with an SEO coach. SEO coaching provides several critical benefits to learners.
The first benefit is personalization. Every person has a unique learning pace. The SEO tutor or coach will analyze the skill and knowledge level of the student and create a curriculum that best works with how the student understands SEO and digital marketing. SEO is a form of digital marketing, providing long-term results by allowing businesses to occupy SERPs for crucial search terms.
The second benefit is that you will work with an SEO professional and ask questions as you work on your site. For example, you can’t ask a YouTube video a question when you hit a snag on WordPress’ back-end. Likewise, you can’t ask a pre-record SEO Bootcamp webinar about HTML tags that aren’t working.
It’s different when you sign up for an SEO class. The instructor will guide you in a structured manner and provide you with the correct, practical skills. You won’t linger on theory. SEO works best in the application. And if you commit errors along the way, you’ll also have someone to talk to.
The third benefit is accountability. Your SEO coach will regularly meet with you and ask you how you’ve been doing. He will provide exercises and evaluations of your current understanding of SEO will be evaluated. If you struggle with keeping your site updated and optimized, then having an actual SEO professional will improve your outlook in the long term.
Bio:
Marius Carlos, Jr. is a freelance journalist, copywriter, and marketing professional. He is the Content Experts PH team captain, a Philippine-based digital marketing team. Marius has written for international and local publications, both in digital format and legacy print. He is the author of three books in print and has received accolades for fiction and the essay. Contact him at [email protected]