Top 13 Important SEO Skills From Experts You Need To Know

Every modern business, large or small, needs to have a strong online marketing strategy, and that includes proper SEO skills. It’s not enough just to advertise online nowadays, you need to understand the best ways to optimize your online presence.

SEO skills are a very valuable asset for anyone in marketing. As the field of SEO changes, many old skills are becoming less important and there are some new skills that are emerging. Here are 13 important SEO skills you need to know and how you can market your business with these skills.

Sound goods? Let’s dive in!

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization, or “SEO” for short, is the process of improving your website to make it more visible in search engine results pages (SERPs). The higher your pages rank in SERPs, the more likely people are to find your business when they search for products or services related to your business. Moreover, good SEO can help you attract new customers and keep existing customers engaged with your business.

What is the greatest SEO Skill?

Is patience the greatest skill in SEO? This tweet says it is, but we don’t agree that there is a single greatest skill in SEO. Although patience is important, there are many other skills that are essential for success in this field.

Why not patience?

SEO is a combination of hard and soft skills that are necessary for success.

Asking many SEO professionals one question will get a wide variety of opinions. So we asked several SEO professionals what they would consider the greatest skill in SEO.

Here’s what they told me.

Top 13 essential SEO Skills that can help you reach your goals

If you want to be successful in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), there are certain skills that you need to know. Here are 13 of the most important ones from many top SEO experts in this field:

1. Research and troubleshooting

From Dave Davies, SEO Lead at Weights & Biases

Dave thinks the most important skill for an SEO practitioner really depends on their focus. If they’re more content-focused, then he would say writing skills and strong research abilities are at the top of the list. However, if the practitioner is more technical in SEO, then the most important skills would be skewed more toward technical knowledge. Even that branches out, though.

If an SEO contractor works with different tech companies, they need to have a broad understanding of the tech landscape and be able to research specifics quickly. If they work for a specific platform, then they need in-depth knowledge of that stack and possibly deployment capabilities.

The one skill that every SEO contractor needs is strong research and troubleshooting capabilities. If they can’t do that, their career will be short. Thankfully, if you’re reading this, you’re already on the right track!

2. Critical thinking

From Dan Taylor, Head of Technical SEO at SALT.agency.

For Dan Taylor, one of the more important skills for SEO experts to develop is the ability to think critically. With all the conflicting information and various levels of data and evidence out there, it can be easy for someone in the SEO field to read something and take it as gospel without questioning it or doing their own research to see if it applies to their own situation.

A common occurrence in SEO is when a client (and other relevant parties) wants to redesign a website without taking into consideration the various ranking factors that come into play. Just because major companies like eBay, the BBC, Amazon, etc. do something doesn’t mean it’ll work for smaller businesses. It’s important to consider all aspects of a website before making changes, as even small details can have a big impact on ranking. 

Moreover, SEOs need to be able to critically think in order to be successful. This means reading studies and articles, understanding the data and results, and then looking for other sources that contradict these findings. Once you have formed your own opinion, you can then apply this to the current client scenario and influence your strategy.

From John McAlpin, Director of SEO Strategy at Cardinal Digital Marketing

Most experienced SEO professionals will likely say that the most important skill is a soft skill. And John agrees with them—critical thinking is the most important SEO skill. Not everything in SEO is black and white-there’s always a middle ground. It takes real detective skills to find the answers.

3. Problem-solving

From Elmer Boutin, VP of Operations at WrightIMC

Being able to solve problems quickly and efficiently is a very important skill for any SEO specialist to have. Oftentimes Elmer can get caught up in small tasks and miss the bigger picture of what’s going on with the website as a whole. 

For example, we might spend too much time worrying about things like meta descriptions or blog post release times instead of looking at the bigger picture of how everything fits together.

It’s important to be able to see the big picture so that you can make decisions that will positively impact the website, the business it represents, and the people who visit it.

From Corey Morris, Chief Strategy Officer at Voltage  

SEO is all about problem-solving. If you want to be successful, you need to be adaptable and always be willing to explore new techniques and resources. A SEO checklist won’t get you very far—you need to be constantly thinking outside the box and looking for new ways to improve your technical on-page and off-page SEO, as well as factors like UX and IT.

4. Experimenting

From Himani Kankaria, Founder at Missive Digital

Himani said the greatest skill in SEO is experimentation. Just because something works for one website or company does not mean that it will have the same effect for another. The only way to know for sure if something will work is to test it out. This can be done through A/B testing or other methods.

When it comes to SEO, it’s important to keep up with the latest trends and changes. With different audiences, technology, and content always changing, it can be difficult to keep up with what works and what doesn’t. You need to be constantly experimenting to see what works best for your website, client, or employer. And sometimes, we learn from other people’s experiments. So, if you want to be successful in SEO, you need to be good at experimenting.

5. Business acumen

From Trond Lyngbø, Founder of Search Planet 

As an SEO consultant, Trond specializes in enterprise-level SEO consulting for eCommerce companies and omnichannel retailers. He believes that SEO strategies should be focused on business performance results, productivity, and economic growth, rather than simply optimizing for Google. A solid understanding of business, business processes, workflow automation, and cross-functional alignment is essential for success in this field.

From Connie Chen, an SEO Specialist at Moving Traffic Media

Commercial awareness (ROI) and soft skills are important for anyone in a technical role because they enable you to effectively communicate the value of your work to those who may not be as familiar with the subject matter. Being able to distill complex technical concepts into layman’s terms is an invaluable skill that will help you build trust and buy-in from your stakeholders.

6. Adaptability 

From Maria White, Head of SEO at Kurt Geiger

SEO is a spectrum of skills that are always changing as Google and other search engines evolve. It can be difficult to dominate all aspects of SEO, but it’s important to stay up-to-date on the latest changes so you can stay ahead of the competition. Some of the skills involved in SEO include technical skills, data analysis, content creation, PR, and management. Every new Google algorithm shapes the way we do SEO, so it’s important to be constantly learning and adapting to the latest changes.

Change is the only constant, so the best way to succeed is to learn how to adapt. In the agency world, change is always happening—new clients, bigger clients, different budgets, fast pace, etc. And on top of that, we have to keep up with algorithm changes that can totally change the way we work. If you can’t adapt to change, you won’t survive in this industry. But if you learn how to go with the flow and embrace change, you will not only survive but thrive.

From Holly Miller Anderson, Lead SEO Product Manager, Under Armour

SEO success comes down to two things: technical skills and content. But the greatest skill of all is adaptability.

Besides, SEO is a learned skill, and you can get better at it by studying techniques and best practices. But at the end of the day, it’s your ability to adapt that will make the biggest difference.

Every website is different, and every market is different. The only way to succeed is to be flexible and able to adjust your approach as needed. If you can do that, you’ll be miles ahead of your competition.

7. Communication

From Casey Markee, Owner of Media Wyse

SEO is a lot like being a teacher. You have to be able to explain concepts and objectives in a clear way to different people, often in many different ways. Your ability to do so without getting emotional is a big part of your success.

8. Ability to learn

From Chris Silver Smith, President, Argent Media

The ability to learn and change with the times is perhaps the most important skill for anyone in SEO. The landscape of SEO is always changing, so those who can keep up with the latest trends and adapt their methods accordingly will be the most successful.

9. Persistence

From Ludwig Makhyan, Co-founder at MAZELESS 

Persistence is the key to success. Never give up, continue to learn, and push yourself to improve. Engage with other teams and cooperate for the greater good of the business you represent.

10. Cross-collaboration

From Jon Clark, the Managing Partner at Moving Traffic Media

Cross-collaboration is one of the most incredibly valuable skills. SEO is one of the few skills/roles that sits at the crossroads of nearly every department in an organization: design, development, content, UX, PR, marketing, engineering, quality assurance, analytics, and more. As a result, those who specialize in SEO are able to bring together various perspectives and create solutions that are greater than the sum of their parts.

11. Understanding the user

From Mike Grehan, SVP of Corporate Communications at NP Digital

The greatest skill of an SEO is the ability to understand an end user’s “information need”. They don’t start their research as a consumer or a B2C customer or B2B, but rather as human beings with a problem to solve. Help Google help them – and Google will help you in turn!

12. Inquisitiveness

From Mark Jackson, President, and CEO of Vizion Interactive

An inquisitive mind is one of the most important qualities for success in SEO. You can be a technically gifted and super bright person or a content marketing expert, but if you lack an inquisitive mind, you may not be looking at a project from all the possible angles. Having an inquisitive mind means that you’re always looking for new and better ways to do things and that you’re never satisfied with the status quo. So, if you want to be successful in SEO, start by developing an inquisitive mindset.

13. Ability to know what matters

From Olaf Kopp, Co-founder and Head of SEO at Aufgesang

Out of all the skills that are necessary for SEO success, “ranking experience” is the most important. You can accomplish a lot in SEO, but only 20% of that is actually effective in helping you rank higher. With enough experience, you’ll know which tasks are effective and which aren’t worth your time. This makes the difference between good and average SEOs.

From Joe Devita, Managing Partner, Moving Traffic Media

The ability to stay focused on what signal is being sent for optimization, rather than be distracted by everything else that is going on.

There you have it! These are 13 of the best SEO skills that can help you improve conversion to your business!

Final Thoughts

In this blog, we broke down the 13 essential SEO skills from top SEO experts that can help you achieve your goals and further your career. 

A lot of people want to be SEO experts, but SEO takes a lot of practice and a lot of patience. SEO is a very important skill to have and can help you with your business goals. So, if you want to know more about SEO and how you can use it to your benefit, please contact us at EverRanks. We’d be happy to help you with your SEO needs.