ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT A CAREER AS A TECHNICAL SEO CONSULTANT?
Toma is a Senior Technical SEO consultant with 8 years of experience in the industry. She currently works at Digital Ethos, a multi-award-winning digital marketing agency. She has a proven track record of helping businesses improve their search engine rankings and increase organic traffic to their websites. Toma is highly skilled in Technical SEO, on-page optimization, keyword research, UX, and conversion tracking. She has worked with a variety of clients in different industries, including healthcare, e-commerce, charity and technology.
FIRSTLY, LET’S TALK ABOUT SEO AND WHAT SKILLS YOU NEED TO HAVE TO START WORKING AS AN SEO CONSULTANT.
SEO is short for Search Engine Optimisation – which means optimising your website for search engines like Google.
The primary two skill sets employers are looking for in SEO consultants, are ones that can optimise all content on the website, and Technical SEO consultants who can fix technical aspects of the website, which includes website indexing, website architecture, and structured data – Schema, XML sitemaps, sets conversion tracking, and more.
WHY DO COMPANIES HIRE TECHNICAL SEO CONSULTANTS?
A company’s overall priority from its website is to attract more users to the website and encourage more users to ‘convert’ into customers.
To do so, companies, from a wide variety of industry sectors, will hire Technical SEO specialists to make sure their business website is reachable and visible on search engines like Google, and to improve their website’s user experience so users can quickly purchase products or services without experiencing any issues.
Technical SEO is an important process that is instrumental in ensuring that a website is effective, user-friendly, fast, and visible. As such, the role requires a specific set of skills and companies will rely on Technical SEO consultants for a variety of tasks to improve the website.
WHAT SKILLS DO YOU NEED TO HAVE TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL TECHNICAL SEO CONSULTANT?
Becoming a Technical SEO consultant requires a strong understanding of the technical aspects of SEO, as well as practical experience in implementing Technical SEO strategies and conversion tracking.
HERE ARE SOME TIPS TO HELP YOU BECOME A SUCCESSFUL TECHNICAL SEO CONSULTANT:
- Practice on your own website by implementing technical SEO strategies, conversion tracking, and schema to gain hands-on experience and understanding.
- Track your website’s performance and build a case study document to showcase what changes you have made and how much organic visibility you have gained over a period of time.
- Learn how to use the most known SEO tools like Google Analytics (GA4), Google Tag Manager, Google Search Console, SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Screaming Frog.
- Keep up with industry trends by reading industry blogs, attending conferences, and following other Technical SEO consultants that post regularly about issues and updates they are experiencing.
- Follow all Google algorithm changes to make sure all strategies you are implementing on your website are white hat techniques.
- Learn how to track specific goals on your website using Google Tag Manager. Conversion tracking is one of the most important reporting elements, as you are able to show growth in form submissions, transactions or phone calls your website has generated over time.
BASIC QUESTIONS YOU MAY BE ASKED IN AN INTERVIEW FOR A TECHNICAL SEO ROLE
How do you optimise websites?
Try to explain your process from start to finish, which includes crawling the website to find the issues, checking the Search Console to review their website indexing status, and building a strategy to improve website performance.
What tools do you use for a Technical SEO Audit?
The most known SEO audit tools are ScreamingFrog, Semrush, and Ahrefs. These tools will help you crawl their website and see their performance on search engines and their competitors.
How do you measure SEO progress?
Everyone knows that SEO takes time, which means that even the best Technical SEO can take months to improve organic traffic. It’s important that you mention that you will be implementing conversion tracking to see monthly improvements not only in organic visibility but also in improving set goals which can be form submissions, transactions or calls.
Overall, these tips will help prepare anyone looking to get started as a Technical SEO consultant, and what the overall expectations are from the role. The most important aspect to remember is that SEO is a dynamic industry, which is why it is important for everyone, regardless of experience, to stay on top of trends and updates, and continue to learn.
