Do You Need to Learn How to Code to Do SEO?

Do you need to learn how to code to do SEO?

You don’t need to learn how to code to do SEO, but it can take your skills to a much higher level than your competitors and coworkers.

“Knowing how to code” doesn’t mean that you need to become a professional programmer, but even a little bit of knowledge can go a long way.

Here are some ways learning to code can help boost your SEO skills.

Become More Confident

If you know how to code, you’ll become more confident in front of clients and developers when you talk about Web technology.

If you have heard a lot of the technical terms but aren’t sure that you could explain what all of them mean if you were asked directly, going through the process of building things from scratch a few times and getting used to “looking under the hood” can really boost confidence.

Come Up with New Solutions

If you know how to code, you’ll be able to think of solutions that you wouldn’t otherwise know about, because you’ll understand the infrastructure that the sites run on.

Build Custom SEO Tools

If you know how to code, you can build your own tools to scrape websites, analyze data, and automate tasks.

Solve More Complex Problems

Many SEO problems are caused by technical problems on a website. If you don’t understand the basics of the technical infrastructure, it’s hard to communicate with technical people about it. Also, you might not even be able to see what the problem is unless you understand enough of the technical side.

Build Your Own Sites and Apps

What if you knew WordPress well enough to write your own themes and plugins?

What if you could build your own dynamic sites and apps without needing to hire developers? You could build the MVP that you have been dreaming about.

WordPress is fine, but it’s older technology, and if you know how to code you’ll be able to choose better options. (Tutorials for them are coming soon.)

Reduce Client Friction

Sometimes SEOs can get into conflicts with development teams. The developers don’t believe that SEO works, and they don’t have a lot of respect for the SEOs, because they can see that the SEOs don’t have much technical knowledge (something that the engineers have spent years developing).

If you are able to do “technical speak” at a respectable level, it can give developers a sense that you are serious and that you do know what you’re doing.

Transition into Developer Roles

If you decide that you like programming, you could use your new skills to transition into a well-paid developer role.

With well-developed, professional SEO and programming skills, you’ll be unstoppable when it comes time to build your own projects.

Prepare for the Coming AI-Driven SEO Apocolypse

Google’s and Bing’s chatbots might reduce the number of clicks to content websites within the next few years.

Once content becomes effortless to produce, websites will have to distinguish themselves with extra features, and that requires programming skills.

Now Is the Time

A great thing about learning how to code for SEO is that you don’t have to learn as much about programming as a software engineer would, and you can take it slowly at your own pace.

You can take the first step today!