Digital marketing is poised to offer businesses plenty of sophisticated new ways to sell to consumers, as mobile technology, personalized ads, virtual reality, predictive targeting and the Internet of Things (IoT) all continue to evolve and become mainstream—and that’s only mentioning a few of the new technologies that will soon become standard for digital marketers.Â
Despite the hoopla around these developments, however, one tried-and-true facet of digital marketing remains as important as ever: search engine optimization (SEO).Â
Whether you’re new to the digital marketing field or you’re an experienced professional seeking ways to upskill and stay relevant, SEO knowledge continues to be a necessary skill—so necessary, it can work wonders for your digital marketing career.
Getting Started in Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is a field of opportunity. First of all, you have plenty of jobs available: Experts say we will need 150,000 digital marketing professionals by 2020. Secondly, you have so many areas to choose from, including advertising, growth hacking, email, mobile, social media, and of course SEO. Third, this is a domain with a place for just about anyone. The digital marketing field needs people who are creative and those who can write, but also people who are analytical and those who can think on their feet.Â
Is there a place for you in the digital marketing domain? Probably! If you’re considering digital marketing as a career field, start by getting a certification so you’ll have both the knowledge and the credibility. The Digital Marketing Specialist Training offered by Simplilearn will give you a solid foundation in digital marketing principles and legitimacy when you start applying for jobs. This training is approved by the Online Marketing Certified Professional (OMCP®).
Upskilling in Digital Marketing by Learning SEO
If you’re already a digital marketing professional, your next step should be an SEO certification. If you’re new to digital marketing, ditto: Your next step should be an SEO certification.Â
Why Should Digital Marketers Master SEO?
- Search is still the number one way consumers start looking for products and services, so SEO is vital to just about every business.
- If you’re working at a small company or as part of a small team, SEO could be part of your job.Â
- Understanding what’s generating results with your SEO can translate into knowledge you can use to improve your paid search, social media or content marketing.Â
- The more digital marketing skills you have to offer, the more attractive you are as a job candidate—and the higher salary you can earn.Â
Although the benefits of adding SEO to your skillset are clear, SEO is not. In the early days, SEO was straightforward: Use keywords on your webpages and in your metadata, then get ranked by Google as a result. Over time as people cheated the system, however, Google made SEO require more effort on the part of the marketer to ensure the consumer is being served.Â
Today SEO requires knowing which keywords to focus on thorough research and analysis, writing long content, building webpages that load quickly and are mobile friendly, knowing how to use paid ads to help boost results, getting clicks on the search results page—oh, and using keywords, although Google now takes a contextual rather than literal approach to keyword usage on the part of the searcher.Â
For all these reasons, SEO is something that should be learned through a formal means like a certification program rather than on-the-job. Getting a top spot on Google takes a lot of work—a certification means you’re doing the work correctly, so have a better chance of getting there.
How Your SEO Skills Can Benefit Your Employer
The business need for SEO cannot be overstated. In the present scenario where the market is so competitive, SEO plays a crucial role. The Google, Bing and Yahoo search engines serve billions of users looking for answers to their questions daily. Google alone processes over 4 billion searches per day! Once you’re trained in SEO, you’ll be able to help your employer (or your own business) to get your website ranked high with the search engines, so you can attract more website visitors and make more sales. That’s mainly because:Â
- Most of the audience that is running through several search engine are likely to select trending keywords or one of the top few suggestions on the results page.
- SEO is not just about search engine rankings, but can also be used to improve the usability of a website, increasing user satisfaction with your website and brand.
- A top search engine ranking can increase a user’s trust in your website.
- The audience might as well promote your website on social media channels, like LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook that reaches you through Google or Bing.
- SEO can help organizations with their rankings. If a few websites are offering almost same set of products, then the website that is search engine optimized will have a larger audience amongst the others, and that website will increase its sale.
Adding SEO to Your Skillset
A certification is an easiest and most effective way to add SEO skills to your skillset—and a boost to your career. The Advanced SEO Certification Training by Simplilearn  will teach you the many facets of SEO, including keyword research, on-page optimization, link building, content marketing and web analytics, with projects that give you plenty of hands-on experience, so you’ll earn your certification and be job-ready.
Whether you’re a digital marketing novice or expert, you need SEO skills to round out your skillset, increase your value to your employer, and make yourself relevant in this rapidly changing digital landscape. Although, new ways to market might keep popping up, but Google and SEO will remain critical.Â
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