Learn SEO in 2017 — What Does It Take?

And why certain types of people will be more successful at it than others.

Search Engine Optimization is simple. These days, it’s really not some mystical thing that you absolutely need a guru for.

If you own a small business that has a digital presence of any kind — you stand to gain a huge amount by understanding and implementing the basics. (Or at least seriously considering consulting out a SEO-focused conversion copywriter.)

It’s totally doable to gain a solid grasp of this in a short period of time, if you know where to look.

If you’re a marketing manager in 2017 that’s focused on analytics, or content, or paid advertising —you really have no excuse not to be up to date on the essential areas.

Same thing with sales teams and more executive level management.

Real quick, those major areas are: Technical, Links, and Content Generation. And content is where you should focus your attention.

Preparing to Learn SEO: An Overview

Truth be told, you can read a book like SEO for Growth and you can take in just about all the information needed to conceptually understand 90% of it. 95% if you also make it through the latest version of The Art of SEO.

It’s one of those things, though, that until you actively put the theoretical knowledge into practice (e.g. creating a content engine within a marketing department or two) — you can’t really honestly say you have significant SEO experience.

Experience with the development, implementation, and sustaining of a robust, search engine optimized content strategy is the other piece of the puzzle.

Learning SEO: Where Should You Start?

1. Consume expert resources.

Online courses from Coursera (or similar, well-regarded MOOC) provide wonderful, structured learning environments for a meager financial investment.

Combining this with books (mentioned above) will put you in a great spot.

2. Know that your skillset and interests align.

This is one of those career development secrets that many don’t talk about, probably because it’s tricky to acquire and takes time.

It involves trying things out, getting rewarded sometimes. And getting rejected many others.

Perhaps the most difficult thing is recieving honest answers from the people who are rejecting you. In general, people in the professional world don’t like to give negative feedback because it’s easier to just focus on the positives and send you on your way when things don’t work out.

Fair enough. But you’ll also find that some (myself included) believe that giving honest, encouraging feedback is just the right thing to do.

In practice, when you’re getting turned down — don’t let them get away with deflecting. You need to know what other people think you’re good at, and what they don’t. It’s an imperfect metric, but if multiple people in different organizations say they same things —it’s about as good a sign as ever that the universe is speaking, and that you should change your behavior in some way.

Here are some shortcuts to knowing if you will be good at SEO.

What will set you up for success?

• a. An early background in writing and critical thinking (e.g. did you excel at advanced placement literary analysis classes in high school?)

This will help you in many ways — but in particular I think this sort of background helps you 1.) uniquely empathize with others and 2.) categorize what may seem like many different types of topics into more overarching delineations.

• b. An eye toward big picture strategy. Just as the index fund investor knows pulling his money out when experiencing a market downturn is the wrong move, peaks and valleys should perk your ears up — but they should not phase you.

For example, sometimes your content won’t resonate with people. You must be ok with (better yet — curious about) the anxiety-provoking uncertainty that’s produced by this.

As an aside, a great book on why weathering a bear market is statistically likely to net better returns than jumping ship is A Random Walk Down Wall Street.

• c. An interest in brands who are doing it well.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich is known for personal finance and entrepreneurial advice. Buffer is known for social media management. Intercom is known for thoughtful startup guidance, and in particular product marketing. Same thing with Moz for SEO.

All are executing a clear content strategy. All employ compelling, persuasive writers — who have a unique voice, but don’t make you cringe. All have a interesting flair in terms of visual design.

They’re also all brands who take stances. Who are up to date on the latest in their fields. And who have a clear vision, despite existing in a rapidly changing world.

• d. A natural skill in, and enjoyment of writing. This is particularly the case if you are a part of a small marketing team. Because rest assured, even if your focus is something else (e.g. social media management, brand management) you will be leaned on for content creation at times.

3. Try things out. Implement.

As mentioned before, once you have the conceptual knowledge and have played around with some tools — there’s no substitute to actually getting in there and trying to help a brand move up in their Google rankings.

If you think SEO is interesting — and that you’d actually be good at it —try throwing yourself into helping a small business rank for keywords that people are searching for.

That’s where the real learning will occur.

Read our next guide in this SEO series, and learn what the process of getting started with SEO actually looks like.

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