SEO is probably the most misunderstood discipline/digital marketing channel on the internet. Since the sector emerged some twenty-plus years ago, countless figures and companies claim they’ve mastered it. However, search engines continue to evolve, and search technology will likely never cease to change.
Why? Because people change. The interaction between people and technology creates additional needs in the search landscape. It pushes companies like Google to develop new algorithms and systems to give people what they want when they go online to look for something.
Google marketing remains a practical, long-term marketing solution for different businesses simply because many people use this search engine. Google sites hold the distinction of being the most visited web properties on the internet, with 270 billion site visits in 2020.
Can We Ever Master Google?
Just because we use Google doesn’t mean that we’ll master it completely. Take, for instance, another upcoming upgrade in early 2022, where Google’s ranking system or desktops will change. For at least three years, marketers have been focused on satisfying Google’s mobile-first policy, but it seems that there is a shift – one that could once again affect businesses.
Search engine optimization is a digital marketing subject that commonly divides marketers. It is also possible the discipline in which a little knowledge may be extremely dangerous, yet a lot of expertise is required to execute your digital strategy. If you have limited information, you can rank first for a specific key term, costing money and time.
Developing a more comprehensive approach to increase performance over several keywords is significantly more efficient and lowers the danger of a Google penalty. A Google Penalty is a ranking penalty imposed on a website due to changes to Google’s search algorithms. For example, penalties may be charged due to an algorithm change or suspicions of black-hat SEO methods like questionable links or keyword stuffing.
Even if you have hired a fantastic SEO or digital marketing company, it’s essential that you first grasp the SEO foundations, as agencies cannot succeed without customer guidance and direction (despite what some may tell you). In short, the SEO agency will always turn to you for advice and will do its best to succeed with what you provide as the head of the effort.
The Critical First Step: Learning at Your Own Pace
Entrepreneurs who need to learn SEO are faced with a big problem. The internet is flooded with information, and not everything you see online is reliable. Moreover, time is of the essence, and if there is no marketing plan, a business cannot expect to go past a certain performance level, as measured by crucial KPIs.
It doesn’t matter if the learner is a business owner with no experience or an SEO professional who wishes to improve his skills. Everyone must start somewhere solid and reliable. If we learned anything with the lockdowns, it’s that self-paced learning offers many advantages. SEO coaching services like the one I offer provide a way for new learners to overcome the initial hurdles of learning SEO.
The cost of professional SEO training would also work with most marketing budgets. Compared to the long-term benefits and the potential to fix a broken site, for example, the benefits of learning from someone with a good track record far outweigh the cost. Therefore, it would be a stellar idea to consider coaching as a part of your marketing effort.
Does coaching negate the need to self-learn? Not at all. It would be best if the new learner adopted a “can do” attitude for mastering the different stages of search engine optimization, from on-site optimization to creating backlinks. Why? Because all the additional knowledge that you gain from resources like “The Beginner’s Guide to SEO” by Moz will help you advance as you encounter more complex topics.
Just How Complex is SEO?
Just how complex is search engine optimization? While there is no central regulating body for search engine optimization, SEO professionals have created entire sub-fields of the discipline depending on what you want to achieve. There are three basic types: on-page optimization, technical optimization, and off-site optimization. You can find the overviews for each of these types of optimizations below.
On-Page Optimizations
The content on your website is referred to as on-page SEO.
It offers techniques for optimizing a single website page. These elements (all of which are listed in our on-page SEO checklist) aid search engines in comprehending the content’s topic and determining whether the website is a valuable resource that people would want to find.
This sort of SEO entails the following:
- Finding the best keywords to target on a page of content is called keyword research.
- Creating high-quality content that is focused on the keywords you want to target.
- Keyword optimization entails putting the desired keyword in the correct locations and employing SEO-friendly meta tags.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is concerned with your website’s non-content aspects.
It comprises techniques for improving the backend structure of your site. Technical SEO increases a site’s readability, too. In addition, it delivers a positive user experience, which helps search engines recognize that the site is of high quality. People go online specifically to enjoy a positive user experience, influencing total traffic and engagement rates.
Using free site auditing tools is a simple approach to check on the health of your technical SEO. While these free site tools aren’t perfect, they give you a good idea of any potential technical SEO difficulties.
Off-Site SEO
Off-page SEO tactics improve your website’s influence and relationship with other websites. It comprises tactics for enhancing a website’s authority and reputation. These elements aid search engines in recognizing that a website is an acceptable search result because it comes from a reputable, credible, and trustworthy source.
The majority of off-site SEO is concerned with high–quality backlinks. Many relevant, authoritative links connecting to your site indicate to search engines that your site is useful and established. You can work on these trust signals by using different link-building strategies.
What Can You Expect from Coaching in SEO?
Does an entrepreneur truly need coaching to get a good start on your journey to SEO? There is an exciting report from the Harvard Business Review about the value and importance of coaching to businesses. Below are some takeaways and analyses:
1. Coaching can increase motivation and make professionals more passionate to change.
Individuals who receive the most coaching are also the ones who develop the fiercest desire to change.
Analysis: Coaching is the most direct way that a new learner can grasp concepts on optimization. It’s even better when the learner has a coach that does not delve too much into the theoretical side of things. While the theory has its uses, many of the ongoing efforts needed in SEO are practical and not speculative.
For example, the learner must understand the differences between longtail keywords and how to make a practical selection based on search intents and goals for each page that he wants to create.
A coach will provide an overview of how these search intents work in the real world. What then is the role of books and free learning resources online? These free resources will provide the backbone for the practical application of SEO – they are still important!
2. The learner has to have good chemistry with the coach. This determines the success level of the mentee.
Analysis: As with any other relationship, coaching works best when there is good chemistry between the learner and the coach. A self-paced learning approach with a custom curriculum for each learner is best.
There is a good reason why this works so well with learning SEO. SEO is demanding because it requires learners to understand how search technology has evolved all these years. Knowledge of how things worked before and how things work now go hand in hand.
The comparison helps the learner avoid old bad habits while learning newer and more useful ones. If the learning speed is too fast, the learner will likely forget crucial interstices in the process. The coach must understand how the person is learning to create the perfect learning environment.
In the end, it’s easy to understand why self-paced learning for SEO is beneficial for the most number of learners. People learn at different speeds and grasp new concepts in different ways. Therefore, there has to be an active and engaged agent in the picture to take care of the learner’s needs. An SEO coach can provide that coverage and buffer for first-time learners to maximize results and improve the learner’s performance. Suppose you have just begun with digital marketing, and you find SEO indispensable based on what you’ve learned. In that case, we recommend exploring individualized classes for SEO coaching – and don’t forget – the quality of the coach is just as important as the quality of the lessons!
