What skills are required for SEO? The more you know, the better. You need to master SEO techniques, understand search engine algorithms, learn database-related knowledge, master website building and front-end coding, be familiar with common online marketing methods, and grasp relevant statistical analysis methods and software. The more SEO-related skills you have, the more smoothly you can do SEO.

SEO itself is not difficult, but doing it well is extremely challenging. A few days ago, a female optimizer wrote a simple optimization plan saying that a website must have rich internal links, which is correct in theory. But when I looked at her website homepage, more than 80% of the links called the same category URL. She knew internal links should be rich but used them incorrectly. She also said image alt attributes should be improved, yet all alt tags on the homepage were set to the homepage title. She knew to add alt attributes to images but made mistakes in setting them. Many seemingly simple SEO settings are completely wrong, so it is natural that they cannot achieve good SEO results. That is why I say: SEO is easy, but doing it well is not easy.

People new to SEO or those who haven’t started yet all think learning SEO is very simple, and that great achievements can be made once mastered. That is why so many people learn SEO—some through training courses, some by following experienced practitioners, with various learning methods available. But in reality, what skills and knowledge must one master to excel in SEO?

1. Master HTML, the website front-end language

Learning to read the source code of web pages and understand what each segment means is an advanced skill required for an SEO professional. HTML is the most essential basic knowledge; without it, many operations cannot be performed. Take link exchange for example: if you do not understand HTML, you cannot tell if a friend link has a nofollow tag or is wrapped in JavaScript. When building backlinks, you also need to judge whether the links you post are valid. Many blogs such as NetEase and Sohu load link sections via AJAX. Without HTML knowledge, even if you post many links, you will not get good results.

2. Understand domain name selection and website server configuration

 

 

To complete SEO work independently, you must understand domain names and servers. If you claim to know SEO but fail at domain resolution or remote server management, your lack of real ability will be exposed. Although domain names and servers may seem mysterious, they are actually very simple if you are willing to learn—watch tutorials and practice by yourself. You need to master these skills because domain resolution and FTP file upload are the most basic parts of SEO.

3. The first step in SEO is to have a website and learn how to build one

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