Is Career Training Right For You?
Take the Quiz!

What is an SEO Specialist?

Table of contents

    B

    efore I can dive into what an SEO specialist is, I want to develop a clear understanding of digital marketing. There are numerous skills required to succeed in this industry, and the key piece is the ability to learn and implement new strategies instantly. A digital marketing diploma can go a long way to help you learn these skills, and colleges often hire industry experts, such as Digital Marketing Directors, to teach the courses. 

    Today, everyone and their dog has a cellphone or smart device with access to Google’s search results. This shift is what encouraged marketers to move their efforts to digital platforms, but of course just placing an ad on your Instagram feed isn’t enough to generate results. It’s no longer the kind of world where you can mass produce flyers, hand them out in your neighbourhood, and hope to sell out of your products. The online world has caused us to think differently, as is evident in multiple studies examining the effects of the internet and social media on our minds.

    Google is a household name we all know and love, it's easily accessible information in the palm of your hands. You’d think that it would be simple; you build the website, content, or ad and the clients come like honeybees to the comb, but you’d be wrong. Now the only way to appear on search results is to make content with SEO in mind.

    What is SEO?

    This brings us to the frosting on the cake that is Google. SEO is the acronym for Search Engine Optimization, and means exactly what it sounds like. It is the practice of optimizing web content to appear in search engine result pages (SERPs), basically it helps your audience find you online.

    With the growing amount of online data on the web, what makes your content so special that it would stand out? Nobody wants to read the same information over and over again in unreliable articles from untrustworthy sources, but at the same time the most dependable source can provide readers with accurate information, but if they don’t apply SEO to their writing, their audience will never find their article in the sea of search results.

    Gone are the days of “If you build it, they will come,” nowadays the phrase could be reworked to say “if you write it with no SEO, they won’t come.”

    Knowing the basic concepts, and understanding SEO, will help a website to reach the target audience that their content is intended for. There are 3 major areas of SEO that can be utilized to reach the right audience:

    • Technical SEO

    Technical SEO is an exciting field that covers the basics of web design, covering everything from sitemaps, meta descriptions, meta tags, and JavaScript, to HTML CSS, indexing, linking, and keyword research. While many of these terms can be intimidating and appear very complicated, they are essential knowledge when looking to boost rankings or become an SEO Specialist. Tools like Google Insights help to decipher what changes and fixes are needed for optimization.

    • On-Page SEO

    On-page optimization is the practice of creating content for a website that includes the correct keywords to attract and appeal to your target audience. Understanding the power of keywords and knowing when and where to use them is one of the many skills that ABM College covers in our training.

    • Off-Page SEO

    This can be the toughest skill to develop and takes much more time to master. If a business or specialist fails to correctly use off-page SEO, they could face losing visibility and ranking, or even be banned from search results altogether. Well-known brands such as BMW, Newsday, JCPenney, Overstock, and Forbes have been banned or given penalties for incorrectly applying off-page SEO.

    By understanding the fundamentals of SEO, you will have the ability to strategize internal link building, using keywords in web content and blog posts, and correctly using SEO in perfect harmony to reach your target audience and become a trustworthy and reliable source of information.

    What is an SEO Specialist?

    An SEO Specialist is an expert in Search Engine Optimization who understands the strategies that can be used to optimize content to receive more organic and paid web traffic. An SEO expert, like myself, is able to differentiate between the three areas of SEO and apply them as needed to different websites and pages depending on the needs of clients or customers. 

    This role is one of the most significant in Digital Marketing and it’s essential that all businesses hire the right person to do the job. This person, if chosen correctly, will not only improve the company’s website ranking in search engines like Google, but they will increase SERPs, boost visibility, and ultimately attract more traffic, which will in turn boost profitability and brand awareness. A small increase in website speed of 0.1 seconds can increase page views by 2.8%, and conversions by 10.1%, so finding a person with the right training and experience is essential to creating a thriving business.

    To be successful as an SEO Specialist, correct training is needed and a college like ABM that employs SEO Consultants and experts in the industry as instructors are able to teach students about the SEO industry, content marketing, and to into the SEO strategies that are essential knowledge to anyone interested in digital marketing or search engine marketing.

    What does this mean for you?

    A Digital Marketing Diploma at ABM College will teach you the fundamental methods, tactics, and strategies needed to become an amazing SEO Digital Marketer. 

    SEO can appear to be complicated, with a lot of acronyms and constantly changing rules, preferences, and keywords that mean staying up-to-date to keep up with and outrank competitors. Google changes its algorithm six times every day in order to evolve and meet the search needs and intent of users, and to deliver the best and most reliable answer to queries.

    Our course teaches students the best SEO practices and gives them the foundation of knowledge that will allow them to start their own  digital business and grow in any SEO area of specialization. 

    The foundation knowledge and the fundamentals of SEO will not change, no matter what search engines decide to do. It will continue to seek out the best audience for whom the content is aimed and give you the ability to keep content and copy optimized for search engines.



    A student writing on their notebook.

    Free College
    Information Kit

    Get started on the road to becoming an ABM College graduate today with our free information kit. In it, you will learn about all of the exciting programs we offer, our philosophy, information about our campuses, and lots more.

    Note: For students requiring a study permit, please see our International Students form here.

    Thank you! Your submission has been received!
    Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.