SEO consultants are in high demand these days. But if you’re an aspiring SEO consultant, you need to know more than just how to optimize a website; you also need to understand the basics of web development and have a good grasp of how search engines work. And that’s where this post comes in! In it, we’ll discuss what makes an excellent SEO consultant and give you some tips on how to become one.
Know the fundamentals of SEO
To become a top performance SEO consultant, you need to know the fundamentals of SEO. This includes understanding how keywords, meta tags and descriptions work; knowing how to create a sitemap; creating a Google Webmaster Tools account; and understanding what a 301 redirect is.
Have a strong grasp of HTML and CSS, JavaScript, and XML
You should be familiar with HTML and CSS, JavaScript, and XML. HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the language used to format web pages. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is the language used to style them. JavaScript is a programming language that allows you to create interactive elements on your page–like buttons that make things happen when clicked on or dropdown menus that appear when the user hovers over them. XML stands for Extensible Markup Language and it’s used mainly as an alternative way of storing data compared to JSON or JSONP which we’ll talk about later in this guide!
Be able to write in variations on the web’s most common languages
- HTML, CSS and JavaScript
- HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a markup language used to create web pages. It’s also the foundation of other web technologies like CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), XML and JSON.
CSS lets you describe how elements should appear on screen by defining their style properties such as font color or background image. You can use it to format text, define positions for elements on your page and much more!
JavaScript allows you to add interactivity by creating animations or forms that allow users to input data into fields on your website without leaving them open all at once; this helps improve user experience while also reducing bounce rates because users don’t have long waits between clicks during loading times when they’re trying something new!
Understand how search engines work
The first step to becoming a Top Performance SEO Consultant is understanding how search engines work. Search engines are designed to make it easy for users to find the information they need, so they work hard at making sure that every page on the web has a unique URL and can be found by users in their search results.
The key components of how search engines work include:
- Understanding how your target audience uses Google or other search engines;
- Understanding how keywords impact rankings;
- Knowing what types of content perform well (and why);
Be familiar with the key players in the industry
- Google, Bing and Yahoo are the Big Three search engines in the world today. They’re also competitors to each other in terms of organic and paid search results, but they all have their own data and analytics tools that can be used to improve your SEO strategy:
- Google AdWords – this is Google’s PPC (pay per click) advertising platform for advertisers who want to buy traffic from search engines like Bing or Yahoo Gemini (formerly known as Bing Ads). It’s important to know how this works because knowing how much it costs per click will help you understand how valuable each keyword will be when you’re trying to rank them organically on page 1 of Google’s SERPs (search engine results pages).
- Google Analytics – this is a free tool provided by Google that measures website traffic stats such as visits/sessions per day/month/year; conversions; bounce rate; average time spent on site etc… It also includes custom segments so that you can see what users do once they land on a specific page; where they came from etc… You should also use tools like CrazyEgg or Hotjar which will tell us where visitors spend most time looking at certain parts of our website
Take an interest in what your clients are doing
To be a top performance SEO consultant, it’s important to take an interest in what your clients are doing. This can mean asking questions about their business goals and how they plan to achieve them. It also means listening closely when they talk about their company–what products or services do they offer? Who are their target customers?
If you’re unfamiliar with a particular industry, spend some time researching it online so that you have a basic understanding of its terminology and general structure before meeting with potential clients. You don’t need all the details down pat; just make sure that when someone asks how many employees work at their company, you don’t say “a lot” instead of “about 500.”
Be prepared to learn some coding basics so that you can edit code if necessary
The main thing you need to know about coding is that it’s not as hard as it sounds. It’s true that there are some complex aspects of coding, but the basics are simple enough for anyone who has taken an English class or two in their life.
To begin learning how to code, start by reading an introductory book on HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), which is one of the most basic programming languages out there. This will give you a good foundation for understanding what all those characters mean when they’re written into your website code by someone else–or even by yourself! The more familiar you are with these characters and what they do, the better able you’ll be at making edits when necessary during this step-by-step process: 1) find something wrong with my website; 2) figure out where exactly those errors were made; 3) correct them myself using my newly acquired knowledge about HTML (or another language).
Learning these basics will also help ensure that no one else can take advantage of your lack of knowledge by tricking them into believing something untrue about themselves based solely on what appears online–which happens way too often nowadays thanks to bad SEO practices being used widely throughout society today.”
Learn how to be an SEO consultant.
In order to be a top performance SEO consultant, you need to know how search engines work and what they look for when it comes to ranking websites. You also need to be familiar with the key players in the industry and understand their roles. If you want to succeed as an SEO consultant, it’s important that you take an interest in what your clients are doing–and how they’re doing it. Finally, even though this may seem obvious: be prepared to learn some coding basics!
In conclusion, if you’re interested in becoming an SEO consultant and helping businesses reach their online goals, then we hope this article has given you some insight into what it takes. As we’ve said before, there are many options available for learning and developing your skillset–from online courses through universities like Google’s Digital Marketing Institute or Northwestern University (which offers a certificate program in search engine optimization), to self-study materials like Lynda.com’s tutorials on web development or Lynda.com’s Introduction to SEO course that teaches the fundamentals of search engine optimization techniques like keyword research and link building strategies
