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Being a woman in tech might be a thorny path, given a significant gender gap in the labor force and certain biases existing out there. Yet, despite the challenges, starting a career or transitioning into a promising tech industry like search engine optimization (SEO) can be incredibly exciting and fulfilling.
Getting started with SEO and excelling in this rapidly changing field as a female requires dedication, hard work, and continuous learning. To empower women to break into this competitive niche and combat stereotypes, we are collecting career stories and professional insights from female leaders.
Ivanna, an Outreach and Partnerships manager at the Top 10 SEO Software review platform, started as an ESL teacher and transitioned to the tech sphere to become a top-of-the-class SEO expert. In this article, Ivanna shares the top 5 lessons she learned through her journey to empower other girls with the skills and insights they need to build a successful SEO career.
Lesson 1. Technical SEO Is King
Of course, keyword research, on-page optimization, and link building are pivotal in bringing a site to the top in search engine result pages (SERPs). However, technical SEO is also crucial for rankings and user experience, albeit it’s often left behind the curtains.
As a woman striving to build an excellent career, you will need to learn the basics of technical optimization. And the earlier you do this, the faster you can excel in your career.
Namely, there are three core aspects you want to dig into:
Basic HTML/CSS. Understanding the basics of HTML and CSS is crucial for on-page optimization. This knowledge will enable you to understand the structure of a webpage, optimize meta tags for SEO, improve crawlability, and perform a wealth of other crucial optimization techniques.
Website architecture. By understanding how websites are structured and how search engine bots crawl and index pages, you can identify existing tech issues and make strategic improvements to get higher in SERPs.
Mobile optimization. With Google’s mobile-first indexing (as well as the fact that more and more traffic is coming from mobile), it’s imperative for SEOs to know how to test mobile-friendliness and optimize pages for various devices.
Obviously, mastering technical SEO is harder compared to on-page or off-page optimization basics. Yet, expanding your skill set with technical knowledge and skills can make you an irreplaceable specialist and even help you grow to leadership roles, which, according to the most recent statistics, women receive significantly less often than men - only 8-9% of females perform leadership roles.
Lesson 2. Become a Master in Keyword Research and Analysis
Keywords are the short or long phrases people use to search for information on the web. Incorporating them into your content and site strategically is how you can make it visible to your target audience. Hence, if you are planning to get into SEO, keyword research is among the first things you need to master.
Luckily, finding the right target keywords isn’t hard today. This can be done with keyword research software like Google Keyword Planner. Such tools will help you explore a large pool of promising keywords related to your niche and area. Your task is to select the ones that are:
The most relevant;
Have low to medium competition (to boost your chances of ranking high);
Have a high search volume.
Additionally, you’ll need to become proficient in competitor keyword analysis. With specialized tools, you can look into your direct and indirect competitors’ strategies and detect which keywords work best for them to include them in your strategy or identify the gap that you can bridge and outshine the rest.
Lesson 3. Master SEO Software
As you see from the previous lesson, there are many areas in which SEOs rely on specialized software. Namely, SEO software can help you:
Streamline keyword research;
Review and analyze competitors’ tactics;
Track SEO performance;
Assess the quality of your backlinks;
Watch industry trends, etc.
Of course, many of these tasks can be performed manually. However, if you strive for greater accuracy and automation to receive more tangible results, you need to identify reliable SEO tools and master them ASAP.
Lesson 4. Develop Analytical Skills
Performance tracking and analytics are the two keys to SEO success. Analytics gives you the possibility to see whether your current optimization efforts pay off and predict future results. It also allows quickly detecting gaps and flaws in your strategy and acting on them using given insights to boost the outcomes. Hence, honing your analytical skills is a must-do if you’re seeking progress in your performance and career as a whole.
You need to develop an in-depth understanding of the core key performance indicators (KPIs), such as:
Conversion - This rate represents the percentage of regular users who eventually convert, aka perform the action you want them to take on your page (e.g., submitting a contact form, buying a product, etc.)
Keyword rankings - The position your page takes in search results for target queries.
Bounce rate - This rate represents the percentage of users who don’t engage with your website beyond the first page they landed on and saw.
Organic traffic - The number of people who visit your pages from organic (unpaid) SERPs.
Lesson 5. Understand Link Building and Outreach
Backlinks (when they come from reputable sites) serve as proof, confirming to users and search engines that your site is credible and worth trusting, hence boosting your rankings and giving you broader exposure to your target audience. Thus, link building is an integral part of search engine optimization.
In order to excel in your career, you need to understand how to develop a solid backlink strategy. To do this, you need to explore existing link-building strategies, such as guest blogging, finding and fixing broken links, and others, and learn how to use them in practice.
Additionally, you need to refine your relationship-building skills. The truth is that many link-building opportunities come from reaching out to potential link donors and fostering lasting relationships with them.
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Lesson 6. Master Adaptability and Continuous Learning
Last but not least, probably the most important lesson an SEO specialist can learn is the value of continuous learning and adaptability.
Search engine optimization is an incredibly fast-paced industry. Google algorithm changes happen frequently, often changing the rules of the SEO game to 180 degrees. These changes dictate the standards and requirements search engines pose on sites to rank them high. Respectively, the ability to continuously track the SEO evolution and quickly adapt to all significant changes and trends can help you keep your strategies competitive and up-to-date, which is incredibly important for an SEO professional.
Conclusion
As a woman entering the competitive and fast-paced tech field like, SEO might not be easy. It is no secret that certain gender stereotypes and biases are still there, making it harder for female specialists to prove their worth and build prosperous careers. Luckily, this challenge is easy to overcome if you’re empowered with the proper knowledge and insights.
Of course, as a very deep and diverse sector, search engine optimization requires lots of knowledge and skills to excel in it. However, after reading this article, you know about some of the biggest lessons established female professionals have already learned through their own journeys. Use this knowledge to make your progress faster and easier!
