Search Engine Optimization (SEO): become an SEO expert?

SEO experts are charged with a number of responsibilities, depending on the company and industry, within which they work. SEO experts who work as freelancers or within a marketing firm, should have a number of important skills:

• Website analysis–It is critical to the success of any SEO marketing campaign that the target company website conform to the latest standards for search engine optimization. Keywords, backlinks, formatting and content are but a few of the important areas that a SEO specialist consider as he analyzes, redesigns and rebuilds a website.
• Keyword optimization–Researching keywords and organically introducing them into a website is essential to a SEO optimized page.
• Content generation–The keywords are important, but the textual, informational, and graphical content that constitute the page must also be produced by the SEO specialist.
• Search engine parameters–This may be the most important job of a SEO specialist. Maintaining an updated understanding of what the major search engines, and especially Google, are using as criteria for SERP informs all of the design choices a SEO specialist makes.
• Information technology skills–A skilled SEO specialist should possess a strong background in HTML, CSS, a number of programming languages and familiarity with a variety of operating systems and hardware platforms.
• Client management–The SEO specialist must maintain a working knowledge of his employer’s or client’s objectives. Any optimized site must, first of all, conform to the business strategy of the site owner.
• Analytical processing–The ability to analyze problems, find appropriate resources and develop solutions goes to the heart of the SEO specialist position.

As the name denotes, a SEO specialist may focus on a specific part of search engine optimization. Some of the most important roles a SEO specialist may take on are

• Content writer–Many SEO specialists acquire this skill early in their careers, as it requires less technical knowledge than other SEO professional roles. The production of new and unique content is critical to raising a SERP, and may focus on producing short articles, web dialogue or other forms of online text.
• Link builder--This is an SEO specialization that is growing in importance as more search engines have adopted backlinking as an important part of their search algorithms. Developing authentic backlinks to the client’s website from reputable websites can be a complex proposition which requires extensive expertise and critical human management skills.