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SEO has emerged as one of the must-have tools in the digital marketer’s tool kit in the last ten years. As anyone begins to search various products, services, and information on the internet using various search engines such as Google, the website and online marketing, in general, must be optimized to increase the chances of been found. This has made the subject of SEO to become very important hence creating a large demand for professionals in the field.
As a result, the question that arises is – what does an SEO expert do? What education and training is required for the individual to become one? And finally, let us consider the daily routine of an SEO expert, that is, what he or she does on a daily basis. This guide will for that purpose delve deeper and offer more on that.
An SEO Expert is an individual with experience and knowledge in search engine optimization, which enables him or her to optimize websites and web pages and rank them high in search engines.
SEO specialist is an individual who understands how the search engine, such as Google, functions and how one can manipulate a site to be ranked high on the search engine’s result.
SEO experts have skills in a wide range of areas, including:SEO experts have skills in a wide range of areas, including:
– Market analysis – determining what people use when searching for goods and services they require in the internet. Selecting good keywords to use when marketing your site is very important in SEO.
– On-page optimization – This involves ensuring that the various structural elements of the site including the actual content on the site, the HTML tags and codes, the site architecture and internal linking structure, the images and other media content and many other factors.
– Off-page optimization – Linking from other sites to your site with the purpose of increasing the rank and credibility of your site. Not only they help to improve citation and link juice but also social media profiles and online listings.
– Search engine encoding – Writing and designing web content in such a manner that the search engine can easily identify the areas of interest and the keywords to use in ranking the content.
– The best description of this has been named as technical optimization meaning that a website needs to load fast, run well on mobile, be easy to navigate, and follow other technical SEO procedures.
And as you can suppose SEO experts have relatively highly specialized skills, they are a combination of marketers, writers, analysts, data scientists, and web developers. The services offered by an SEO expert provide websites with the best opportunity of achieving high rankings in the search engine results and turning visitors into customers.
Education and Background
It is crucial to note that most SEO professionals possess formal education in one of these fields – marketing, computer science/ information technology, data analytics, journalism, or digital media. It is still relatively young to talk about, especially when one narrows it down to the area of higher education. However, there is a relative increase in the number of specialized SEO, digital marketing, and web analytics certification programs offered by colleges and online learning platforms.
In this line, many employers prefer practical experience in the job in question than academic prestige. The dynamics of SEO today are highly fluid due to the constant updates in the Google algorithm. In fact, most of what an SEO expert knows is discovered during practice, not in class, and therefore most of the skills are learnt practically.
A large number of SEO specialists initially enter entry level digital marketing or web developers who are more involved in the process of implementation as opposed to decision making. After 3-5 years they gain comprehensive exposure to SEO and they are promoted to different senior roles in managing SEO for agency’s clients.
Employers who seek an in-house SEO specialist usually expect applicants who have more than five years in SEO positions and have demonstrated the ability to improve organic traffic and conversions.
An Alternative Route In – Becoming a Freelancer
The other way through which one can become an SEO expert is by starting up consultancy firm that deals with SEO on a freelance basis. Starting your freelance SEO services means it is easy to attract clients and build experience even without years of working in-house.
This kind of work is relatively open to anyone who wants to start freelancing as a SEO specialist. But of course to gain and establish that reputation and proof of one’s worth is very important to achieve. One of the most effective ways of doing this is by having an own-domain where clients can see examples of SEO work or previous SEO jobs and achievements on other sites.
Common Day-to-Day Responsibilities
A typical day in the life of an SEO expert is likely to include a wide variety of tasks:A typical day in the life of an SEO expert is likely to include a wide variety of tasks:
Strategic Planning
Browsing SEO news websites and blogs as means to follow the new Google algorithm changes as well as to track new trends and strategies.
Using Google Keyword Planner for conducting keyword discovery research and generating new opportunities to address readers.
Establishing targets regarding organic traffic and conversions from search engine optimization efforts.
Communicating to managers or clients on the status of SEO and its performance as well as recommendations.
Technical Optimization
Conducting website audits to determine common errors, using the Screaming Frog tool as an example.
Analyzing page speed, and web performance using Google Lighthouse tools, among others.
Improving website ranking by correcting some technical glitches and enhancing code for better search engine performance.
Developing website maps in XML format, robots txt files to enhance the crawling of the website by the search engines.
Content Optimization
Developing articles, blog posts, and other content for the website that is related to primary keywords.
Improving content topics by including more relevant keywords, links, media elements, structure etc.
To enhance the visibility of the new content in the search engine, it is necessary to market the content within and outside the company.
Metrics of growth and refinement to get the best out of content and optimize the return on investment.
Off-Page Optimization
Guest blogging, creating resources, etc. , that is, creating high-quality backlinks.
Removing toxins from the link profile, such as toxic backlinks pointing to the website using disavow tools.
Overcoming challenges and enhancing local SEO rankings with online listings and citations management.
Brand awareness and brand reputation analysis which includes monitoring brand mentions and reviews on third-party sites.
Reporting & Analysis
Monitoring Google search console and analytics to analyze data on the rankings, clicks, and traffic sources, etc.
Reporting performance of the SEO to the stakeholders on the results and trends of the particular SEO metrics.
Reporting and recommending to the management based on the SEO reports provided through power point presentations.
From report analysis, one can be able to discover new opportunities and challenges that may have not been seen before.
What you will notice is that the daily work of an SEO expert involves several activities that are diverse and done within a short span of time. It is not as if there is a similar day that is repeated in its entirety, though some parts may be similar. In this case, SEO experts have an opportunity to come across with numerous digital operations involving technical aspect, writing, analysis, research, reporting, preparing presentations and others.
Constant changes on the job front due to the evolution of the structures that one oversees makes the job interesting if you are wearing so many hats. It does create a very fulfilling position for the person seeking an online marketing job tackling various areas of interest.
Pros and Cons of Becoming an SEO Expert
To thrive in the field of SEO you need a particular blend of soft and hard skills:To thrive in the field of SEO you need a particular blend of soft and hard skills:
Sweeping technical background – To achieve higher results in SEO, it is necessary to comprehend how website functions and what should be done to make them perform better. This means that the more technology knowledge one has, the better he/she is in understanding things like HTML, CSS, site architecture, server configuration etc.
Research and analysis – Some of the common tasks of an SEO are to research keywords relentlessly, analyze the website metrics, recognizing patterns in reports and constantly investigating reasons for ranking losses.
Interpersonal skills – Building link opportunities, coming up with ideas and strategies for creating, promoting and distributing content, and developing new ways to experiment requires effective communication. It is a dynamic process and thus, relying on best practices as the cornerstone will make the whole process become irrelevant with time.
Adaptability – Ability to communicate simple explanations about technicalities or SEO recommendations to people without an understanding of SEO. They also need to share big data insights in the form of reports and presentations, which makes it important for SEOs to have good communicational skills.
The acquisition of business sense – Sales funnels, conversion rate optimization, and checking the return on investment of the employed SEO strategies are central to tailoring SEO for ultimate business value.
Time and commitment – it is not easy to perform SEO and usually it takes a long period of time. The overhaul may require a tremendous amount of work and it is not uncommon for months to go by before sustainable gains are seen in the form of higher rankings. That is, consistency and patience with regards to strategies.
Details – Many things in SEO are interconnected, and due to this, little things such as broken links or meta tags issues can easily be overlooked. Still, not considering such issues can have significant effects on ranking.
Further, personal time management and organizational skills contribute to the necessity of dealing with the rather frantic nature of SEO work. The checklist for the tasks can grow rapidly so there has to be a ruthless approach towards prioritizing.
The Promotion of SEO Expert Career
Those who prove themselves effective at implementing long-term trends enhancing organic traffic and revenue tend to be promoted to executive positions as managers of in-house teams, or independent consultants.
They are also able to ascend to the director rank and even reach the C level positions like the Chief Marketing Officer or the Chief Digital Officer. There are also job title adjustments which are typical for the field of SEO, such as transition to the related digital marketing areas like conversion rate optimization, paid search marketing, or web analysis.
Conclusion: SEO Experts and Their Future
There is a lot of evidence that the profession of SEO will become incredibly burgeoning in the foreseeable future. Since 2020 to 2030, there will be employment opportunities for 43,800 new digital marketing specialist jobs, including SEO experts, which is way higher than the national average.
This is driven by the continuously increasing and exponential migration of consumer spending and corporate activity online. Which brings us to fully optimizing the digital properties for their visibility, as the focus of marketing budgets shifts online – an activity that will only increase in importance each year.
While some believe that the introduction of Artificial intelligence will make some of the junior SEO positions irrelevant for example, the opposite is true for the skilled professionals. AI is the tools that have begun implementing routine SEO data report and analysis.
This allows the SEO experts to spend their time more on the higher-value, strategizing like in the case of coming up with innovative link building techniques. That is why talented SEO experts with their inalienable human brilliance and resourcefulness will continue to be valued and sought after continually.
Final Thoughts
It is incredible to imagine that, a profession focused on outsmarting search engines, would have been unimaginable only two decades ago. However, due to emergence of giants such as Google and establishment of search as the entry point to the internet- it has become big business.
It would be great to note that as an SEO expert, you get to open up doors of growth in businesses that are valued in millions depending on your expertise and knowledge. For innovative, creative digital marketers who love working when employers give them the freedom to operate – it is a highly fulfilling career.
So if you feel attracted by the idea of being involved in business digital marketing teams and come up with strategic responsibilities, take a closer look at the details of SEO and begin to practice website optimization now. If you apply yourself diligently and consistently, you will soon be on your way to becoming a spearheading SEO proficient!
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