Like many SEOs, it’s become a bit of a tradition for me to publish a reflective piece at the end of each year citing my “SEO predictions” for the coming year. Alas, since nothing is normal about 2020, I wanted to do something slightly different and instead of speaking directly to SEO trends, I’m going to share my recommendations for how you can amp up your SEO game in the coming year(s), and where you can go to learn these skills.
The thing I love most about the SEO field is how it’s constantly changing. This is pretty standard in the Tech world, but there’s something about SEO that constantly keeps you on your toes and forces you to grow, learn, adapt, and add new skills and tools to your repertoire each year.
Therefore, these suggestions are founded in my prediction that SEO will only continue to get more technical over time. This is only natural because SEO is essentially a game of outwitting Google and catering to the end-user, so as Google gets smarter and the end-user becomes more tech-savvy, so must we. J
8 Advanced SEO Skills to Learn in 2021 and Beyond
- Python
- Data Analytics (custom reports, Google Tag Manager, GA, etc)
- HTML & CSS
- Local SEO (+ how to work with local aggregators like Yext)
- Natural Language Processing (NLP)
- Web Entities
- International SEO (+ using HREFLANG tags)
- Log File Analyses
1. Python
Python is a dynamic programming language that can be used for many things, including application development, data analysis, and machine learning.
Because of its flexibility, relative ease of use even for beginners, and processing speeds, many SEOs have begun to use it to automate certain tasks such as:
- Analyzing broken links on a site (learn how)
- Writing image alt tags and captions (learn how)
- Finding your BERT scores to show how well certain pages correlate with keyword meanings (learn how)
- Identifying keyword cannibalization issues (learn how)
- Creating an XML sitemap with up to 50,000 URLs (learn how)
- Automating the process of categorizing keywords by user intent (learn how)
I believe we are just scratching the surface of how we can use Python to extract and analyze SEO-related data, so this is a skill that SEOs will need to have at least a basic understanding of moving forward.
To learn more, just Google “python for SEO” and enjoy nearly 40 million results! 🙂
2. Data Analytics
Being able to analyze your own data has always been important when it comes to SEO, but as the reliance upon data only continues to grow across all industries and companies, the need to be able to collect and analyze your own data is becoming even more important.
Luckily, there are a number of easy ways that SEOs can learn more about data analytics and how to track, measure and report on important data points. Below are some options that are either free or very low-cost that will help you increase your savviness when it comes to data analytics:
– Google Analytics trainings on Skillshop
– IBM Data Analyst Professional Certification via Coursera
– Google Tag Manager Fundamentals via Google
– Learn about Google Data Studio via Google Support
– Explore various Google Analytics courses on Udemy (these are paid, but most courses range from a reasonable $12.99 to $18.99)
– Free data science courses via Coursera
I’d highly recommend at least brushing up on your Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager skills since these are free to learn and the tools are widely used.
3. HTML + CSS
Knowing some HTML and CSS is vital in today’s SEO climate. The reason for this is that as an SEO, you need to be able to communicate with developers who may also be assigned to the project and who can help implement more technical SEO recommendations.
Also, understanding some basic HTML and CSS can help you conduct more thorough website audits and identify potential code issues that may be causing issues on your site (like slow load times, duplicate content, canonicalization issues, “hidden” text, wonky URL issues, tagging and analytics issues, etc.)
I can’t tell you how many times I have had to dig through the source code of a site in order to pinpoint where an SEO problem was coming from, and then be able to have an effective conversation with a developer on how to address the issue!
I highly recommend exploring Codecademy and freeCodeCamp for excellent, free resources. You can also challenge yourself and get involved with something fun like #100DaysofCode.
4. Local SEO (+ how to work with local aggregators like Yext)
Local SEO is here to stay, in a big way. In fact, according to ahrefs:
– 30% of all mobile searches are related to location
– 76% of people who search on their smartphones search for something nearby and visit within a day
– Certain “near me” searches (like “where to buy near me” and “store open near me”) have grown more than 200% between 2017-2019
Other studies have shown that upwards of 72% of SERPs now have a local feature included on them, which is a huge number!
So, if you want to keep your SEO game strong you also need to be well-versed in Local SEO. Part of this is understanding how the Local map pack works. Another part is understanding how local rankings are determined (hint: consistent NAP+W business information (Name, Address, Phone, Website) is a big factor). And a final part is being able to manage your listings effectively with platforms like Google My Business (helpful for small and medium-sized businesses) or aggregators like Yext and Moz Local, which are helpful for managing large, nationwide businesses with many locations.
A simple Google search for something like “how to learn local SEO” will yield many results and great resources, but here are a few that I have used to hone my skills:
– Moz’s Local SEO guides found within its SEO Learning Center
– Ahrefs Guide to Local SEO
– SearchEngine Journal’s Guide to Local SEO
5. Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Natural Language Processing has become even more important in the days since Google introduced BERT in 2019, an AI function that allows machines to be pre-trained to understand words and extract nuanced language from those words; in other words, it helps Google (and any other machine that uses BERT) become smarter and better at interpreting search queries and other inputs.
The reason that I’m including this in this post about Advanced SEO tips is that I think moving into 2021 and beyond, that you have to understand what BERT is in order to continue being successful at SEO.
Sure, if you’ve already been creating amazing content and focusing on incorporating semantic keywords into your site and content, then maybe not much will change in your optimization efforts.
However, we have to be aware of the fact that due to Google’s ability to discern the underlying meaning and intent behind a searcher’s behavior, a user searching for “leaf peeping trips northeast” may not be shown results that literally have “leaf peeping” in the title or even the entire page itself – instead, they can now see results that only cover “fall foliage” and “foliage maps.”
Why? Because Google isn’t taking things so literally anymore – it’s interpreting. It knows that if I search for “leaf peeping” it means I am interested in taking a trip to see the fall foliage, probably in the New England area.
To learn a little bit more about this phenomenon and tips for optimizing for NLP, check out Tip #1 in an article I wrote last year called “5 Tips to Help You Win at SEO in 2020.” I’d also recommend the two articles linked to below, or just doing a search for “what is bert seo” for more information.
– https://moz.com/blog/what-is-bert
– https://searchengineland.com/faq-all-about-the-bert-algorithm-in-google-search-324193
6. Web Entities & “Fraggles”
When I attended MozCon in 2019, Cindy Krum blew me away with her theory about “fraggles,” which is essentially a word she uses to describe pieces of information held together by similar language and meaning. This isn’t a new concept or theory (I believe Cindy originally began talking about fraggles around 2017, and the concept of entities has been around for even longer than that), however, I still think that this topic is not something many SEOs know about or care to apply to their everyday practices. I also believe that this concept is only going to continue becoming more relevant over time, so it’s better late than never to learn about it.
The idea relates to how Google, empowered with things like RankBrain and BERT, today ranks and indexes entities not just websites, and how Google is really just in the business of giving people answers.
Perhaps unfortunately for us SEOs, these answers no longer have to come in the form of whole websites or web pages; Google is gathering small bits of information all the time which are then used to give people answers right there in the SERPs through People Also Ask accordions, featured snippets, Knowledge Graph results, etc.
Therefore, we now have to consider the relationship between all of our (or our client’s) pieces of information that are hanging around on the web (local listings, web pages, reviews, social media, articles, etc.), and how / where those pieces of information (“fraggles”) are showing up.
That means we can no longer focus only on optimizing the main website; we have to be diligent as SEOs about how we are creating content, organizing that content on web pages, and marking up content and pieces of information with schema and such.
To learn more about entities and fraggles, check out these resources:
– https://mobilemoxie.com/blog/what-the-heck-are-fraggles/ (This is straight from Cindy’s company, MobileMoxie)
– Whiteboard Friday on the topic: https://moz.com/blog/fraggles
– Podcast episode on the topic: https://www.kevin-indig.com/podcast/the-future-of-entities-fraggles-and-api-indexing-w-cindy-krum/
7. International SEO
As the world continues to shrink and become an even deeper, no-boundaries global economy, understanding international SEO is likely not something you’ll be able to avoid for long.
For some, international SEO may come easy, but for others who are used to working on more localized brands and websites (like myself, to be honest), it can be a little harder to get the hang of; after all, there can be so many questions! How do you format your URLs? Should the sites in different languages be within subfolders on the main domain, function as subdomains, or be separate ccTLds altogether – or a gTLD? What’s the best way to code and format language switchers for bots and users? Should you do language or country targeting?
As you can see, this can open up a whole can of worms and – depending on the maturity level of your website or your client’s website, can be quite the headache. Luckily, there are some great resources out there to help you learn more about international SEO. I’ll link to a couple below:
– My personal favorite resource: https://moz.com/learn/seo/international-seo
– A beast of an article but very helpful if you find yourself in the middle of an international SEO project or site migration: https://www.searchviu.com/en/cctlds-to-gtld
– https://www.semrush.com/blog/how-to-choose-the-right-international-seo-site-structure/
– This article obviously relies on SEMRush quite a bit, but I think it’s still worth a read even if you don’t have SEMRush because the author gives great tips and links out to many other good resources including an hreflang tag generator: https://www.semrush.com/blog/how-to-develop-your-international-seo-strategy/
8. Log File Analyses
Log file analyses aren’t necessarily new, but they have become increasingly popular among technical SEOs over the past few years – and for good reason!
Log files offer another (and far more accurate) way to crawl your website as a bot would and gain valuable insights into things like crawl budget, error codes, active and inactive pages, etc. The insights from a log file analysis are more accurate because they come straight from your own server, vs. a third-party tool that may be limited or can then help you identify areas for improvement and optimization.
Below are some great resources for learning more about log files and how to perform a log file analysis. Happy logging!
– https://builtvisible.com/log-file-analysis/
– https://getstat.com/blog/uncovering-seo-opportunities-via-log-files/
– https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/log-file-analyser/
– https://moz.com/blog/technical-seo-log-analysis
Honorable Mentions
These skills are definitely important, but I felt that they were either A) already understood to be important by most SEOs, or B) hard to cover in this blog post without it ending up being like one of Neil Patel’s infamous 10,000+ word posts 😉
My recommendation is to set aside some time to research these topics, understand what they are / what they mean, and – in the case of tangible items like the video sitemaps, content audits and speed improvements – know how to actually do them. I can guarantee that if you do this, you will be leagues ahead of most SEOs, and make yourself an invaluable part of any organization or client team that you work on.
- PageSpeed Improvements
- Video Sitemaps
- Content Audits
- JSON-LD (schema markup)
- Javascript + SEO Implications — I wrote a whole post on SEO considerations when thinking about adopting an SPA/Javascript React framework if you’d like some light bedtime reading 😉
- Advanced Tool Usage — learn how to use Screaming Frog, DeepCrawl, Ahrefs, etc to their full capabilities to get the most out of them and make your life a little easier
- Customer Data Platforms (“CDPs”) — This isn’t directly related to SEO, but as someone who is responsible for bringing in traffic to a website and – hopefully – monitoring whether that traffic converts to a meaningful sale or inquiry, you should be familiar with these types of software because I believe they are only going to keep gaining in popularity
