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Do I need to take a course to learn SEO?
Learning SEO Is An Art Form
Hire a search engine optimization expert or learn myself?
Are you new to the world of SEO? Do you know very little about SEO but want to grow from a novice to an expert? Are you wondering if you need to take a course to become an SEO expert?
Well, the answer would be no. Learning and practicing SEO is analytical, technical, and creative work. Understanding and mastering it is not as difficult as it might seem.
If you are willing to put in the time and effort, you will be able to master SEO without any external instruction.
Read on to get a clear picture about how to understand SEO in a better way.
What is SEO?
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the rankings of pages on a search engine's results. The ranking is organic, i.e., non-paid in nature. The goal of SEO is to be as high as possible among relevant and organic search results.
The scope of SEO is wide. It covers disciplines such as website designing, graphic designing, content writing, and digital marketing. A well-structured website with optimized content gets the more attention from search engines.
The quality of the content should be good enough for other websites to prefer linking it. The perfect recipe for a highly optimized webpage demands the webpage to have a strong technical backing. The technical bowl requires it to be filled with great content that grabs rankings and attention.
Quality backlinks should then garnish this content. This garnishing increases the authority and credibility of your webpage.
SEO is extremely important for webpages to rank high in SERP (search engine result page). A page’s SERP ranking is the determining factor of the amount of traffic that it will get. The higher the ranking, the more the traffic.
How Long Does It Take to Learn SEO?
This is a question that cannot be answered straight. Think of a career in SEO in likeness to a career in medicine or academics. There is no possibility to stop learning at any point in time.
Learning SEO is a continuous process. It doesn't matter if you're a beginner, have been dabbling for a while, or consider yourself an expert; you will always have something new to learn about SEO.
As search engines advance in technology such as Artificial Intelligence, there are always new things to learn. You will always be able to find a new optimization technique if you look for it. Therefore, there is no definite time when you will know all about SEO because that might never happen.
SEO is a highly practical field. Therefore, a lot of time that you devote to learning SEO must be allocated to practicing. Memorizing SEO theory is a matter of only a few weeks. It is the understanding and the ability to apply that theory into practice that takes time.
If you allocate adequate time and energy into learning, you will understand the basics in 6 months. You might take fewer months to learn and practice.
SEO does not work like magic. The changes you make do not immediately affect your page's ranking and the traffic inflow you get. All changes time to be verified by search engines before you begin to see changes on their SERPs.
These changes can take anything from a month to about 4 months. You need at least 6 months to master the basics because you cannot learn what you've not seen the results of.
Do I Need Formal Instructions to Learn SEO?
Learning SEO is like learning a new art form. You will have to be dedicated and consistent if you want to learn properly. A significant problem with taking courses is that they do not teach through experience.
SEO is a practical discipline and requires experiential learning. SEO becomes difficult to learn because it is the amount of information you can find on the Internet. This much information is enough to overwhelm and confuse anyone.
The number of ranking factors and the way algorithms work are confusing at first. Even with an abundance of available knowledge, we know very little about the workings of search engines. Google alone uses over 200 ranking factors, most of which are kept secret.
Once you get the hang of all the confusing elements, you will begin to enjoy SEO. You do not necessarily require external instructions to learn SEO. However, a formal structure helps some people learn quickly.
If you prepare a good learning plan and stick to it, you can learn it on your own. An easy step-by-step approach will help you demystify your way through the excess information you can find yourself.
A learning plan will keep you focused on the important fundamentals and characteristics of SEO. It will also help you to grow and enhance your skills at a steady and gradual pace.
Discussed below are some advantages and disadvantages of taking a course to understand SEO. These points should help you understand which learning technique is the most appropriate for you according to your requirements and schedule.
Advantages of Taking a Course to Understand SEO
There is no denying that any learning is better than no learning. However, formal training helps you get over a self-taught SEO marketer.
Some of the advantages of getting formal training at SEO are discussed below.
Getting an Instructor
The presence of a teacher indeed enhances any learning. This instructor gives you direction and keeps you focused on the correct path. Since SEO is a multidisciplinary field, having someone to help you through the process is a definite positive.
Having an instructor also helps if you are stuck somewhere. When you don't understand the execution of a technique you read about, you can approach your instructor. A professional SEO instructor would be able to walk you through the execution plan of that technique.
Leaning becomes faster and more assisted when you have an instructor.
Experienced Knowledge
If you go to an SEO based training institution to take a course in SEO, the people there are likely to be extremely experienced. Since SEO is a practical field, getting associated with people who have done it themselves will help you learn faster.
Seasoned SEO experts can let you into the tactics that they have developed over many years. This is the kind of knowledge that has no monetary value measurement.
Better to Learn Than to Hire
If you are a website owner and want to improve your website’s rankings, you must know that hiring an SEO consultant is expensive. If it is not in your budget to hire an experienced SEO expert then enhancing a new skill may be the road you want to take. Please keep in mind if you do not know what you are doing you may actually hurt your rankings rather then improve them. Be 100% sure you know what you are doing first.
If you’re already running a company, you must have a number of things to worry about. Therefore, taking a course would help.
Structured Approach
The people who teach SEO do it as their full-time job which is for a living. It seems like an obvious truth, but it is often overlooked. These professional instructors have been training people to master SEO for some while. They understand even the minute details of SEO and how it can be explained.
With the help of a formal course, you do not have to worry about the structure you will be learning SEO. Courses in SEO are sure to have a learning plan in place. A plan that has worked for people in the past.
Immersion into The World of Digital Marketing
When you pursue any course, you tend to meet many like-minded people through your classes and interactions. If you take an offline course, you will also be likely to meet and converse with different instructors personally.
In addition to that, you might even get a chance to accompany them to a seminar related to SEO. Attending these seminars or workshops will enhance your learning experience to a large extent.
When you do these things, you are more or less immersing yourself into the world of SEO. This will help you understand the subtle nuances of the digital marketing industry. This will also give you good exposure to the expectations of the industry.
Professional Tools
If you plan to take an advanced SEO course, you will be taught how to apply SEO practically. To apply SEO professionally, you might require certain tools and equipment that you might not be ready to buy before gaining expertise in the field.
Training institutions, as well as certain online courses, will give you access to such tools and equipment. This will help in advanced and enhanced learning.
Disadvantages of Taking a Course to Understand SEO
We have so far understood why taking a course to understand SEO is beneficial. With that understanding in place, now let’s have a look at the other side of the coin.
Discussed below are some reasons why you can understand SEO without taking a formal course.
Self-Discipline
While some people prefer being under the guidance of an expert, others like to learn on their own. The act of committing to a task on your own without it being a formal obligation is powerful.
Building such self-discipline is anyway necessary for an SEO professional expert. It is good to start practicing while learning the professional skill itself.
Plenty of Available Information
Saying that there is 'plenty' of information out, there is a major understatement. That is because there is, in actuality, an overwhelming amount of information available on the Internet and in the form of books.
If you set to understanding SEO, there is no way that you might get stuck at a certain point. You will never have to hopelessly fish for information because all information is readily available on your device of choice.
Even if you require practical guidance and suggestions, a plethora of online forums can get you the information you need. SEO self-learning leaves no place for slacking off. It functions on the proverb "where there is a will, there is a way."
SEO: Practical Field of Knowledge
SEO is not a field of knowledge that can be learned through theoretical routine learning. An explanation of the key concepts you can help you become an SEO expert. Everyone must learn SEO through a sequence of trials and errors.
SEO is a skill that is acquired over time with proper practical experience. No good can come out of learning all that there is to SEO today and not be able to put it into practice right away. You will either forget all that you have learned or will not be able to apply your knowledge.
Courses are Time-Consuming
Taking courses is not recommended for practical fields because time is the key to practice. Courses generally take a lot of time due to the introductory sessions that they have to include. Other than that, instructors have to move at a comfortable pace for everyone.
If you are a fast learner, there can be nothing more frustrating than that. With the help of online resources, there is no need to indulge in such time-consuming activities, especially when done on your own in a time-effective manner.
Courses Can Be Expensive
There are plenty of free online courses available on the Internet. But the most these free courses will be able to teach you are the basic theories that you can anyway read on the Internet. If you want to gain SEO expertise, you will have to opt for an online or offline paid course. These courses are not exactly cheap.
Rigid Structuring
Most courses - online or offline - have a rigid time and course structure that they follow. If you already have some basic understanding of SEO, you would not want to get indulged in introductory explanations. Similarly, if you are a fast learner, you wouldn't want to go to someone else's learning pace.
If you study and practice SEO on your own, you do not have to worry about other people. You can learn at your own pace with your level of understanding of the subject. This is a crucial necessity, especially for a specialization that is incredibly personal and creative.
Might Not Let You Find Your Style
An important thing to remember about SEO is that it is an incredibly creative disciple of knowledge. Each SEO expert has a personal style and likes to do things their way. When you learn SEO from an institution, you will be taught certain skills conducted in a certain way.
This kind of learning tinkers with the very essence of SEO.
The only way to create your unique style of SEO is by forming a personal understanding of all concepts. If you learn about various SEO techniques on your own, you will automatically learn to apply them in your way.
Becoming an SEO Expert
Now that you know the advantages and disadvantages of learning SEO practices on your own, you can determine the kind of learning path that you would want to adopt. Regardless of the path you choose, the following things should always be kept in mind while learning and practicing SEO.
Understanding the Basics
You should always be as clear as you can be with the basics of SEO. No matter the expertise you gain, it is always the basics that help create new optimization methods.
Understanding user and search engine interaction and capitalizing on it will help you become an SEO expert in no time.
Learn WordPress
More than half of the websites available online are built with WordPress. As an SEO expert, WordPress should be as easily usable for you as an instrument should be for a musician. It is not only the omnipresence but the significance of WordPress that makes it a necessary skill.
Read About SEO Regularly
Since SEO is a dynamic field, you should keep in touch with it at all times. Search engines like Google refine their algorithms regularly and you need to be updated. Reading about new SEO advancements and SEO related news will help you gain perspective and win clients.
Build Websites
As you start learning SEO, not many people would be willing to let you experiment with their websites. By creating your websites, not only do you learn how to work on the Internet, but you also get immense practice.
Learn Proper Distinction Between White Hat vs. Black Hat SEO
While learning on your own, it is possible not to learn about proper Internet and SEO ethics. Black hat SEO can boost the SERP ranking for a while, but it is possible to get banned by search engines in the long run.
On the other hand, white hat SEO involves using quality content and proper backlinking to better a website’s SERP rating.
Endnotes
Learning and understanding of SEO is a very personal and creative task. It is surely something that can be done on your own. Learning SEO by yourself can be a fun and exhilarating experience due to its work independence. However, some formal training seems like a wise idea for some people.
Regardless of the medium of training you choose, discipline and dedication are mandatory.
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