The world of SEO is always changing, which makes it difficult for you and your employees to maintain a grasp on this little-known aspect of marketing in a digital age. If SEO hasn’t been on your company’s radar before, how do you educate your employees on SEO practices and how to implement them into your business online? Choose from these tips to discover which solution works best for your company.
1. Pay for Courses
There’s a precedent for companies offering to pay for employees’ education. Education benefits incentivize employees to increase their knowledge, skills, and experience, and they can help you attract better candidates and retain them, which means less turnaround and better quality work.
SEO is a fledgling business phenomenon, so there aren’t any degrees offered from universities for it yet, but you can find online courses through online academies like HubSpot, Udemy, and Yoast Academy. Your employees can learn about SEO online from their own homes, and the tuition is far less costly than that of a degree-granting university. Your best employees can broaden their horizons and bring new SEO practices to your company at a fraction of the cost.
2. Choose Self-Guided Free Courses
While you can opt for complete and comprehensive paid courses for your employees, you don’t need to pay for anything if you don’t want to. Instead, you could opt to allow employees to use a fraction of their work hours on free self-guided courses from online tutors like Moz and Simplilearn. Video hosting sites like Youtube boast countless courses from different SEO professionals, all with varying experience and approaches, which would give your employees a well-rounded view of SEO.
Allowing employees to guide their own education is a smart business move for a number of reasons. Employees will be able to develop or exercise time management skills and dedicate the majority of their energy to important work tasks, which maintains productivity.
3. Hire Specialists
If you really want to start seeing an improvement in how your company implements SEO, consider hiring a specialist. Instead of paying your existing employees to learn the SEO skills they need, why not hire someone who has already done all of the education? Marketing specialists learn SEO basics in schooling and previous job experiences, and many have chosen to focus on SEO.
This option is more costly than the others since you will have to allocate funds to a new position. But you will also gain an invaluable team member who can educate their fellow employees on SEO and begin implementing practices in your company right away.
4. Offer In-House Seminars
If you want to start the SEO integration slow and steady, consider offering a seminar within your own company for employees to attend. This is a great time to utilize the expertise of an SEO specialist, but if you don’t have one on staff, you can reach out to an industry master about leading a short seminar.
Granted, a seminar of two to four hours isn’t going to be as comprehensive as an in-depth course, but it could give your employees a primer on why SEO is important and even some basics that could lead to further implementation in the future.
5. Attend Annual Summits
Down the line in your quest to bring SEO to your company, continuing education is imperative. Every year, professionals develop new advances and practices in SEO, and you can stay on top of them through annual summits and conferences. These summits introduce the latest innovations in the industry and offer practical tips, which can build on an existing knowledge.
Many summits are even going virtual, which means your employees can attend without the cost of travel. In-person summits have their own benefits, however, including networking and employee scouting. Whether you want to introduce employees to SEO through a virtual summit or find an SEO specialist for your company at an in-person conference, this option is worth your consideration.
6. Stay Up-to-Date on Changes
SEO changes constantly. It’s dependent on the internet, which is always growing, and if you rely on Google, then you need to be prepared for change. Google changes its algorithm up to 600 times every year, which isn’t counting the occasional massive update that really changes the game. Staying up-to-date on changes is paramount to ensuring the online success of your company.
Fortunately, all of the educational sources previously discussed keep on top of changes in the industry, and many credible sources publish articles frequently that can keep your employees apprised of upcoming changes so you’re never caught off guard. Encourage your employees to seek out information on SEO that can benefit them and the company.
To get started implementing SEO practices on your company site, contact Grow Team. Visit our site to learn what our services can do for you.