Looking to jump into the wide world of digital marketing? Sodiq Ajala suggests you do so by first building your own website:
Gaining perspective by building your own site
Building your own site for the sake of personal branding
Why having a personal website is great for experimenting
How Building Your Own Website Helps Digital Marketers: Episode Synopsis
You should build your own website about yourself. While it might sound obvious, many many of us don't do it. But the truth is, for people trying to enter the SEO and digital marketing space having your own site that you built with your own two hands is extremely helpful.
Why? As Sadiq and I discuss:
1. Hands-on Experience & Perspective
When you're first starting out it's hard to get hands-on experience. Forget your CV or resume for a minute. If you're starting to learn SEO and trying to enter the digital marketing space you do a lot of reading. And reading whatever blog or taking whatever course or whatnot is all well and good. However, to really understand what it is you're reading even just a tad of actual experience can make a world of a difference. Building your own personal site can help you cover the basics. It can help you concretize a lot of the things a new search marketer might be reading about.
2. Personal Branding
As you're getting out there and entering the world of digital marketing establishing yourself can be very important. Whether it's among the members of the digital marketing community or for the sake of clients, having your own website gives you a face. Without your own site potential clients and colleagues are going to have a hard time contextualizing you. Even if you have a strong social media presence having your own website is a far more efficient and effective way to present yourself. As a new marketer being able to present who you are and what you do in a concrete manner is significant. Building your own site allows you do to so.
3. An Enviorment to Experiement
Whether you're new to the digital space or a seasoned veteran, having a place where you can freely experiment is a great resource. Building your own site can offer you an ecosystem where you are free to try new things and to test new ideas. This very site has been part of numerous experiments both for my personal sake and as part of our efforts at Wix to bring new SEO capabilities to the platform. Having a place where I could feel free to experiment has been invaluable. All the more so for a new SEO. By building your own site you create a potential place to extend your learning and skills by experimenting.
Resources:
For more of the SEO Rant Podcast check out our previous episode on keyword research for beginners.