The Skills An SEO Needs In 2013

Jan 30, 2013 - 8:35 am 29 by

skillsA new Threadwatch post is asking what skills does an SEO need in 2013 to make them a "sharp" SEO?

2013 is a lot different than five years ago when it comes to SEO. Think about what we have much more of now. We have social, deeper localization, Panda, Penguin, EMD, and tons of other Google updates. We have analytics certification, we have content marketing, conversion optimization, and so so much more. It is not just about creating as much content as possible and as many links as possible.

We have a post from 2007 where most the skills we listed were technical skills, like HTML, SEO tool knowledge, etc.

But in today's SEO world, I would assume that the technical skills are a prerequisite. Of course you need to build sites that are search engine friendly, without canonical issues, that don't have duplicate content issues, that have the proper markup throughout the sites including rich snippets. But now you need to know more about analytics, more about social media, more about content marketing, and even more about link bait.

And of course, we have to deal with Panda, Penguin and the other Google algorithms.

Which SEO skills do you need in 2013?

Forum discussion at Threadwatch.

Image credit to BigStockPhoto for puzzle

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: January 30, 2026

Jan 30, 2026 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Rank Volatility Heated, AI Overviews To Send Less Traffic, Opt Out Of It, Yahoo Scouts & Bing AI Performance Report

Jan 30, 2026 - 8:01 am
Google Updates

Google Search Ranking Volatility Super Heated January 29 & 30

Jan 30, 2026 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Tests Third-Party Endorsement Content On Search Ads

Jan 30, 2026 - 7:41 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Search Adds Preferred Sources Help Docs

Jan 30, 2026 - 7:31 am
Google Maps

Google Business Profiles Review Appeals No Longer Delayed

Jan 30, 2026 - 7:21 am
 
Previous Story: Multiple Locations? You Need Multiple Phone Numbers In Google Maps