Should I learn On-Page SEO as WordPress Developer?

I prefer to call myself WordPress Developer, because it’s my main skill sets. And most of the roles I have landed as freelancer and full time employee always had been for WordPress Developer or mix of Front End WordPress Developer. I had been fortunate to work for various companies and businesses around Sydney. During this […]

I prefer to call myself WordPress Developer, because it's my main skill sets. And most of the roles I have landed as freelancer and full time employee always had been for WordPress Developer or mix of Front End WordPress Developer.

I had been fortunate to work for various companies and businesses around Sydney. During this time, I had opportunity to up-skill thanks to my workmates and managers who had put trust on me.

But one of the main skill that I thought really bought biggest value on my resume or portfolio had been On-Page SEO. I had an amazing experience learning SEO techniques working for a financial corporation, and thanks to my co-worker who was really helpful to teach me how SEO works. I could see the value a good developer with good understanding of On Page SEO could bring to the overall business and lead generation.

What is On-Page SEO?

On-Page SEO is the technique used to optimise website page or post for better visibility so that search engine gets idea about what the page is about. It includes optimising page title, content, images, internal links. On development level, it involves making website faster and as lean as possible.

Why is On-Page SEO so important?

First and foremost On-Page SEO tells search engines what the current page is all about.

SEO is always evolving and Google does add new features. Some of the latest features I love include usage of data schema and rich snippets. There are several advantages of targeting these and values that can bring for better rankings, which I will be discussing in future blog posts.

Values On-Page SEO skills brings on your resume

One of the mistake that developers do is having so much effort put on learning latest technologies and forgetting the importance of website's most important aspects. 8/10 websites are for user, and getting high on SERP results matter to almost every website. If that's not the case, landing pages are built for SEM, and a good architect landign pages can save budget targeting keywords if done properly.

These are the values of On-Page SEO:
1. Helps website optimise for various keywords to rank on Google SERP
2. If implemented properly with SEM, helps save budget
3. Helps in conversion and lead generation

Coming to the main point, how On-Page SEO helps to land you better role. If I go back to my last 3 roles, one thing that made me stand out candidate was my On-Page SEO skills. I had proven record of ranking my clients for high competitive keywords with or without budget. Also, I had worked for some client to optimise their SEM campaigns both for conversion and budget.

What do I suggest?

I am a big advocate of upskilling. I love to learn something new on the side. On-Page SEO had been on of my outstanding skill of resume for last 3 or 4 roles I had landed. Most recent role that I have landed as Front End WordPress Developer, I was selected via my On-Page SEO skill. It did fit in all criteria of the role I was looking for, so in short I would say learning some On-Page SEO will help you get further and most importantly land a role and working setup you are dreaming of.