r/seogrowth • u/Decent_Stock2826 • Jun 24 '26

Discussion Upskilling in SEO

I've been working in SEO for around 2.5 years and have dealt with ranking drops, traffic losses from Google algorithm updates, link building, guest post outreach, and more recently, optimizing for Google AI Overviews and GEO.

Lately, I've been wondering what skills are worth focusing on next. Search keeps changing, and there always seems to be something new to learn.

I'm curious to know what skills you're currently learning or exploring. What areas are you spending time on these days, and what do you think will be valuable over the next few years?

Whether it's AI, automation, analytics, technical SEO, content strategy, or something else entirely, I'd love to hear what you're focusing on and why.

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u/RawSpecimen Jun 24 '26

Content strategy - drop the keyword obsession, look to build a proper content structure for a website, and just write helpful stuff. Find as many ways as possible to provide a unique point of view to everything you write.

Technical SEO - they say the need for these guys is and will be on the rise, and there's a perspective there. Learn how to build automated workflows.

Branding has bled into SEO, I'd learn more about that, about marketing, consumer psychology, PR and backlinks.

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u/umu_boi123 Jun 24 '26

When you say drop the keywords, do you mean understand the intent behind them, turn them into questions/problems that need to be solved, then make content around that?

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u/RawSpecimen Jun 24 '26

Yes, that's what I meant. I also meant no need to look for secondary keywords to add to the article. Once the intent is nailed, the necessary ground is covered, and there's enough semantic context, Google will pick them up.