What is an SEO Expert?

The term SEO, which stands for search engine optimisation, gets bandied about a lot but do you know what it means? And more importantly, does it take an SEO expert to optimise your website and send you rising in the ranks of Google?

Let’s take a closer look.

What Exactly Do SEO Experts Do?

An SEO expert also referred to as an SEO specialist, is a specific type of marketing professional that uses a combination of research and analysis to improve a site’s ranking on popular search engines such as Google and Bing.

Typically the role of an SEO expert includes both on-page SEO, optimising both the content and the HTML source code of a page, and off-page SEO which refers to link building and other external activities that you do away from your website to improve your search ranking such as your social media campaigns.

On-page SEO

An SEO expert will advise you on all aspects of on-page SEO, including:

• Title tags
• Description tags
• Meta tagsA meta tag is a structured data element that appears in the head section of a webpage.
• Keywords density
• Content
• Site structure
• Site speed
• Mobile friendliness
• Indexing

Off-page SEO

Equally as important as what you do on your site, an SEO expert will also help you with off-page, or off-site SEO techniques which include:

• Link buildingLink building is a process of acquiring links pointing to your website. These links are obtained by creating content, participating in social media or commenting on other blogs. – natural, manually built, and self-created
• Social media marketing
• Influencer marketing
• Guest blogging
• Brand mentions

How Much Does an SEO Expert Cost?

As with most business decisions, whether you choose to enlist the services of an SEO expert will be largely dependent on how much it costs. However, as search engine optimisation is still one of the most effective and powerful digital marketing strategies available in terms of driving long-term results, the question should be “can you afford not to hire an SEO expert?”

Furthermore, seeing as the first page of Google captures, on average, 75% of all search traffic, paying £1,000 a month in an all-inclusive SEO strategy doesn’t seem like such a bad investment.

Simply type “SEO experts near me” into Google, and you will be met with the top SEO agencies in your area and how to get in touch to find out the cost of hiring an SEO expert.

Why Does My Business Need an SEO Expert?

If you do not have the skills, resources, or time to manage your SEO in-house, then hiring external SEO experts is the most cost-effective option for your business.

Benefits you can enjoy by hiring an SEO expert include:

• Generating high-quality traffic
• Improving your overall user experience
• Building brand awareness
• Keeping costs low
• Enabling you to compete with your top rivals

How Do I Become an SEO Expert?

If you are tempted to forgo hiring a professional SEO expert and instead, learn to become one yourself, there are tools out there to help you achieve this from fully licensed SEO training consultancy firms where you can learn the latest techniques and earn a formal certificate, to free online tutorials that can help you understand the basics.

Alternatively, if you are thinking about becoming a professional SEO expert and you want to sell your services to others, the best place to start is with your own website and then gradually build up your portfolio by offering your services to family and friends.