After mastering SEO, tap into the potential of content marketing, digital strategy, and web development to further boost your career. With SEO expertise, you can diversify your skill set and explore promising roles such as Content Marketer, Digital Marketing Strategist, and Web Developer.
Key Insights
- SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a strategy to increase website visibility and customer attraction by improving search engine rankings.
- SEO encompasses technical SEO, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO, each focusing on different aspects of optimizing a website.
- Professionals skilled in SEO often work as Website Optimization Specialists while also expanding their skills in related fields.
- Content Marketers utilize SEO knowledge to develop and manage a company's content strategy, incorporating keywords for optimal search engine placement.
- Digital Marketing Strategists use SEO along with other skills like data analysis and conversion rate optimization to strategize long-term marketing plans.
- Web Developers build the bedrock of a website, including its front end and back end, sometimes leveraging SEO to improve the site’s visibility.
- Salaries for these roles vary, with Digital Marketing Strategists and Web Developers generally earning higher salaries due to the comprehensive skill set and experience required.
Once you have learned SEO, why stop there? If you already know how to use SEO, you might consider learningcontent marketing, digital strategy, or web development. We’ll cover what these skills involvebelow so you have a clear understanding of what skill you want to tackle next.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a way to drive more traffic to your website and gain more customers. It depends upon content, technical website optimization, link building, and keyword research to ensure that your website appears near the top of a Google results page. A BrightEdge survey conducted in 2019 found that SEO is 1000% more effective at driving website traffic than organic methods like social media posts. Professionals who work with SEO are often called Website Optimization Specialists.
The primary goal of SEO is to build trust between your business and your users. You can do this through high-quality content, ensuring your website loads quickly in desktop and mobile versions, and optimizing your site for voice search. Another way to improve your rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs) is to create a “Google My Business” listing.
Read more about what SEO is and why you should learn it.
What Can You Do with SEO?
SEO is used to determine search engine success in three crucial ways: technical SEO, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO.
Technical SEO looks at a website's technical features and how they affect search engine rankings. These include the site structure, schema, and URL. The site needs to be easy to navigate with a clearly understood organization. Other aspects of technical SEO are website loading speed, mobile friendliness, voice optimization, and the XML sitemap.
The primary goal of on-page optimization is meeting the intent of the searcher/user with high-quality content. On-page content is essential and refers to everything that appears on a website, including text, keywords, images, tags, and internal links. Researching and choosing the best SEO keywords shows that the website has authority and is trustworthy.
Off-page SEO involves building links and strengthening social media engagement. Backlinks and social media help build authority and trust with search engines. Link building refers to finding reputable and relevant websites to link to your website or content. The more references to your content on other reliable sites, the better. Additionally, building out social media presence across various channels will further establish your internet presence and boost your SEO. You can use different analytical tools to track SEO and conversion rates.
What to Learn After SEO
Working as a Web Optimization/SEO Specialist can allow you to learn skills in addition to your SEO skill set. You might want to try content marketing, digital marketing strategies, or web development.
Content Marketer
If you are looking to expand beyond SEO, you might consider content marketing, especially if you have a creative bent. Content Marketers are in charge of developing and managing a company’s content strategy. They create blog posts, videos, social media posts, emails, ebooks, and reports to inform, engage, or entertain a target audience. Storytelling ability is crucial in order to build and maintain a community audience.
An understanding of SEO is crucial in order to choose the best keywords to ensure prime placement on Google and other search engines. Knowledge of tools like Google Analytics, SEMRush, and Moz Keyword Explorer is another important part of a Content Marketer’s job. Content Marketers are also responsible for creating a publishing schedule. This plan determines the most advantageous timing for publishing content on a weekly, monthly, yearly, or seasonal basis as determined by data collected with the SEO tools.
Digital Marketing Strategist
Another area you could study after SEO is digital marketing strategy. Digital Strategists are tasked with planning long-term marketing strategy. This can involve everything from regular social media posts, to running analytics to keep tabs on how a campaign is doing, to researching new tools to improve a company’s digital marketing.
In order to get a job as a Digital Strategist, you will need to have skills in data analysis, SEO, and conversion rate optimization (CRO), and you should know how to use the tools to collect this data. In addition to analytical skills, you will also need to be very familiar with different social media platforms and their analytics. Further, you need to be very comfortable with technology, good at problem-solving, and willing to keep up with the rapidly changing world of digital marketing.
Most employers are looking for candidates with at least a bachelor’s degree in marketing, advertising, or communications for digital marketing strategy jobs, plust three years of experience. This position carries a lot of responsibility and is not an entry level job. It is possible to complete a training program and work in other digital marketing positions to work up to a Digital Strategist role.
Web Developer
Working with SEO could also lead to an interest in web development. Web Developers do all of the coding work that goes into the creation and maintenance of a website. Web Developers use a variety of coding languages to make websites that are functional, user-friendly, and visually appealing while also meeting additional project specifications. The websites that web developers create can vary in complexity from a simple, plain-text webpage to a complicated ecommerce or social networking site.
There are three types of Web Developers: Front End, Back End, and Full Stack Web Developers.
- Front End Developers program all the website elements users can see and interact with, such as page text, drop-down menus, images, and forms. Front End Developers need to learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
- Back End Developers create, test, debug, and maintain all the technological components that support the front end of a website and allow it to operate. The primary coding languages used in back end development are JavaScript, Java, Python, Ruby, and PHP.
- Full Stack Developers deal with both the user-facing elements of a website plus all of the technological components behind the scenes that users don’t see. Full Stack Developers need to know a variety of programming languages.
Learn SEO with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop
If you want to change careers and become a Web Optimization/SEO Specialist, you can sign up for Noble Desktop’s SEO Bootcamp. This two-part class will teach you beginning and advanced SEO strategies to get your website to the top of the page. In the first class, SEO Level 1, you’ll learn how search engines work, how to do keyword research and competitor analysis, and how to use SEO-driven content to increase web traffic. SEO Level 2 covers how to do SEO audits and gives you hands-on experience with an expert instructor.
You can also sign up for a Google Analytics Bootcamp to learn how to set up an account, know which metrics to track, and understand the Google Analytics reports. You can also learn about paid advertising with Google Ads Bootcamp.
Another way to prepare for a career as a Web Optimizations/SEO Specialist is a digital marketing certificate course. Noble’s Digital Marketing Certificate includes the digital marketing, SEO, and Google Analytics bootcamps, plus Google Ads and classes on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter marketing, as well as content marketing with blogs.
Use Noble Desktop’s Classes Near Me to find other courses in digital marketing in your area.
Key Insights
- SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.
- SEO is a way to drive traffic to your website, get more customers, and increase sales.
- There are three types of SEO: technical, on-page, and off-page.
- Some other fields you could learn after mastering SEO are:
- Content marketing
- Digital marketing strategy
- Web development
How to Learn SEO
Master SEO with hands-on training. Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of improving organic search results for a website. It is a critical digital marketing skill in today's business landscape.
- SEO Bootcamp at Noble Desktop: live, instructor-led course available in NYC or live online
- Find SEO Classes Near You: Search & compare dozens of available courses in-person
- Attend an SEO class live online (remote/virtual training) from anywhere
- Find & compare the best online SEO classes (on-demand) from the top providers and platforms
- Train your staff with corporate and onsite SEO training