While searching for a career, especially in the digital marketing field, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a great place to start! An outstanding level of flexibility comes while working in SEO; for instance, you can work as a freelancer, consultant, or contractor. Additionally, you can work for a digital marketing agency that takes on SEO clients or does in-house SEO for a company.
In today’s corporate world, everything centers around search engines, as we Google for everything. Therefore, the SEO career field is in demand. For businesses to be visible where their users are, they must focus on their SEO strategy, which will not likely change.
If you think an SEO career is the right choice, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. Fortunately, you can forge a search engine optimization career path that suits your preferences and skills.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimization, a marketing field, aims to boost website credibility to drive traffic and rank well in search results. SEO skills are used in various roles and across industries, so developing this skill set can go a long way in presenting you as a valuable asset for any team.
SEO remains a critical digital marketing strategy for enriching online visibility, driving organic traffic, and achieving various business goals. It’s a dynamic field that requires continuous adaptation to search engine algorithm changes and end-user behaviors.
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Types of SEO
The three main SEO components include:
1. On-page SEO
It refers to optimizing website content and source code of HTML to make it more attractive to search engines. This includes incorporating relevant keywords, creating high-quality content, and optimizing title tags and meta descriptions.
2. Off-page SEO
It focuses on building relationships and credibility for a website through external links, social media shares, and other promotional activities.
3. Technical SEO
It involves optimizing a website’s backend structure and coding to ensure it’s easily crawled and indexed by search engines while providing a great user experience through site speed and mobile responsiveness.
Also read: What is Mobile SEO? Importance, Audit, Strategy, Best Practices
Why to Choose SEO for Career?
To build your career, Digital marketing is a booming field with a vast ocean of online activities plethora, such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Marketing (SMM), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and much more.
Here are some reasons to choose SEO as a career option:
1. Increasing demand for SEO services:
Since many companies are leaning towards online presence, the need for SEO services and SEO experts is rising.
2. Monetary appreciation in jobs:
Nowadays, the role of an SEO specialist/analyst is one of the highest-paid ones in digital marketing, followed by Social Media Experts/Specialists, Ad campaign managers, and e-mail marketing specialists.
3. Flexibility of working:
Unlike many jobs, you don’t have to stick to a brick-and-mortar setup to make a career in SEO. You can work from anywhere, anytime- you only need a laptop and a good internet connection.
4. Scope of SEO experts abroad:
If you know SEO well, fetching a job abroad is much more straightforward. All you need is a solid technical knowledge of SEO and good work experience.
5. Future scope for SEO:
SEM is paid in digital marketing; on the contrary, SEO is unpaid, also known as earned media. Many small businesses and startups may lack enough finances for paid marketing. Therefore, they opt for SEO techniques to promote their business online.
Also read: SEO vs SEM Difference in Digital Marketing: Explained in Simple Terms
SEO Career Paths
There are no straightforward career opportunities in SEO, and the trajectory depends on the following:
- Size and growth of the company/team
- Type of company
Since SEOs are involved in many projects, they can transition into entirely different roles outside of SEO. Depending on the work they are involved in, these roles may include:
1. SEO Apprentice
These are entry-level SEO jobs for beginners in the industry. Apprentices are college graduates with basic knowledge of SEO looking to grow in the industry.
SEO apprentice responsibilities include:
- Knowledge of basic SEO principles
- Fix broken links
- Evaluate data in Google Analytics and Google Search Console
- Familiarity with keyword research tools
- Implement inbound link-building strategies
SEO apprentice jobs require limited skills, education, and minimal experience because this job aims to get experience.
2. Junior SEO Specialist
SEO analysts and specialists are junior titles. They create and evaluate SEO campaigns and collaborate with other marketing teams for optimal results. The core skills include strategic and analytical thinking, as they are required to create and review campaigns to boost sales.
The responsibilities of an SEO analyst and specialist include the following:
- Perform keyword research
- Set goals for campaigns and keyword strategies
- Analyze website content
- Track web performance
- Collaborate with other SEO experts and stakeholders
- Create SEO-optimized content
3. Senior SEO Specialist
Senior SEO specialists take on leadership roles in the industry, overseeing entry-level and junior SEO job activities and taking on seniority and managerial functions to supervise and monitor junior SEO specialist roles.
Senior SEO Specialist jobs demand the following skills:
- Advanced knowledge of organic search
- Practical communication skills with team members
- SEO audit skills
- On-page strategies execution
- Website visitor analytics
- Strategic planning
4. SEO Manager
An SEO manager drives traffic and awareness for companies, delegates technical tasks, supervises various team leads, manages team members’ productivity, and coaches them.
As an SEO manager, you do more managerial work, including managing large-scale SEO marketing projects and overseeing projects’ progress from start to end.
You must have a broad skill set to handle several obligations like data analytics and strategies. As an SEO manager, you may have to:
- Manage projects
- Manage brands
- Analyse data
- Create and manage online communities
- Organize clients’ meetings
- Conduct market analysis
5. SEO Head
With years of experience and honing expertise, you can have a career as the SEO Head, also known as SEO Director. They focus on strategy, planning, and management and supervise other jobs and teams managed by SEO managers. Collaboration, innovation, team management, and analytical skills are core requirements for SEO director jobs.
Generally, at least seven years of experience is necessary in designing and executing SEO strategies. Director SEO careers are result-driven, so it’s vital to know how to evaluate numerous metrics for project development.
As an SEO director, you are expected to:
- Strategies formulation
- Set quarterly and yearly performance goals
- Work closely with content and marketing teams
- Oversee on and off-site SEO strategies and implementation
- Collaborate with HR to identify departmental gaps
- Conduct data analytics and proficiency
- Identify new opportunities for a competitive edge
Interview Questions for You to Prepare for Jobs
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SEO Profile Description
The following provides an overview of the role of SEO and what you can expect in this career field:
An SEO specialist is a marketing expert who uses research and analysis to rank a website on search engines, especially Google, to get more traffic to a site from search engines.
An SEO professional must understand how search engines work to tailor strategies accordingly. Search engines send out search engine spiders or crawlers to discover web pages. They crawl and evaluate a page to see if it can be added to that search engine’s index, a collection of web pages showing users when searching via keywords.
When someone enters a search term, Google returns the relevant indexed pages for that search term, i.e., keyword. Many factors and variables play a part in search engine algorithms. Search engines use these to deliver high-quality, relevant results to users on searching.
Since many ranking factors there are, an SEO expert has to learn many things. They have to optimize a site to comply with search engine best practices. As a result, specialists need to understand the broad components of digital marketing.
Given below are some of the skills you need as an expert in SEO:
| Technical Skills | Non-technical Skills |
| Knowledge of Digital Marketing and SEO | Analytical skills |
| Dynamic leading ability | Critical thinking |
| Ability to resolve crawling issues | Research skills |
| Keyword research | Communication skills |
| Basics of HTML and CSS | Problem-solving |
| Google algorithms, Copywriting, and Visual content | Adaptability & Collaboration |
SEO Roles and Responsibilities
An SEO expert must be responsible to:
- Gather and analyze SEO trends and customer behavior
- Distribute content on social media
- Research and implement relevant keywords
- Develop high-quality backlinks
- Monitor and report analytics of a website and search engine marketing campaigns
- Adopt user experience and conversion rate optimization practices
- Study and understand the SEO strategy of the competitors
- Optimize the content of the website for SEM
- Give recommendations to developers on search terms, rankings, and analytics
- Run pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns
- Engage with other businesses on link-building
- Develop and implement effective content strategies
Also read: Top 8 Local SEO Ranking Factors in 2024 For Fast Growth
SEO Job Profiles and Designations
Trainee or a junior SEO executive. Practice and learn advanced SEO techniques and upgrade your skills. You can then move towards SEO executive, Sr. Executive, Manager, or team leader. You can also become a specialist in building backlinks or writing content. You can upgrade your skills and improve in analytics, PPC, etc.
You can also learn Google Analytics and Google Adwords and become a Google-certified professional to upgrade your career and earnings.
SEO experts have several opportunities to choose from. Some of the SEO job titles that professionals with this Digital Marketing skill set can apply for are:
- SEO Trainee
- Jr. SEO Executive
- Sr. SEO Executive
- SEO Analyst
- Link Building Expert
- SEO Consultant
- SEO Project Manager
- SEO and SEM Specialist
- Adwords Specialist / PPC Expert
- Analytics Expert
- Digital Marketing Manager
- SEO Trainer
- Freelance SEO consultant
SEO Career Growth
SEO is a unique, fast-moving industry that has changed over the years. In the early days of search engines, SEO could typically be achieved by spammy activities such as black hat link building, keyword stuffing, etc.
SEO has evolved as a profession as search engines have become savvier about delivering quality, relevant content to searchers. Being an SEO is a matter of developing the best web content for your audience. SEO requires diverse technical, strategic, creative, and analytical skills beyond just getting a site to rank.
The digital marketing and SEO career future opportunities are accelerating as the demand grows. As businesses move online and a brand’s digital presence becomes essential, the need for companies to be found by their users will always be at the forefront of their business strategy.
There is no better time to get into digital marketing and SEO than now. And with multiple career paths leading toward success, it’s a worthwhile journey that appears to pay off now and well into the future.
SEO Job Salary 2024
Two ways to get paid as an SEO expert are:
Salary
You get paid salaries monthly if you work with an agency or in-house. Also, as a freelancer, you can work out a salary-based payment structure with your clients. SEO career salaries provide a consistent flow of income, giving you a sense of security.
Hourly
Hourly rates are most common among freelancers. However, you can request hourly pay from the employer if you work in an agency or company. The benefit of this is that working overtime or during holidays doubles your income. You must stand out among other employees to attract these incentives and negotiate your worth.
Also read: Digital Marketing Course Syllabus 2024: Fees, Duration, All Details (PDF)
SEO Job Qualification
Knowledge and qualifications vary with each profile. It all depends on how clear your concepts are. The more you know the latest technologies, the more you can perform the tasks with expertise.
Certificates in digital marketing matter a lot in the SEO field. To succeed in an SEO role and demonstrate those skills to potential employers. For example, in approximately six months, you can earn a Professional Certificate to strengthen your credentials. The online SEO course with WsCubeTech provides a comprehensive look at project management and digital marketing.
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Conclusion
SEO jobs are new and trending in the current marketing scenario and are in high demand. The horizon of possibilities in the Search Engine Optimisation career path is vast and promising. From e-commerce to local SEO, mobile optimization, and technical expertise, professionals in this dynamic field are in massive demand. As businesses fiercely compete for online visibility, these SEO professionals hold the key to unlocking unparalleled success in the digital age. Embracing diversity and innovation, SEO career paths continue to shape the ever-evolving landscape of the digital world.
So, this is the right time to get into this field- upgrade your skills, make yourself suitable for this field, and become an expert in SEO.
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