How to Start a Successful Career In SEO

SEO is a game changer that has taken the digital world by storm – the demand for SEOs is booming and showing no signs of slowing down. With search engines becoming smarter each day, SEO has become a fruitful profession. Delving into SEO waters can provide you with an array of exciting work opportunities and the chance to meet some amazing people down the road.

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The best way to predict the future? Create it. Starting a successful career in SEO takes work and dedication. However, even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Are you interested in venturing into digital marketing and walking down a thrilling and lucrative career path that merges art and science? We’ve got your back!

Check out our top insider tips and trick shared by our SEO pros to help you cut the learning curve, stand out in a highly competitive niche and jumpstart your SEO career in no time!

Building an SEO Career from Scratch

An SEO career promises excitement, flexibility, and tremendous potential for growth and learning. The best thing about starting an SEO career? Digital marketing is a multi-faceted niche with numerous options in the line of work, and formal training is not necessary to dip your toes in the SEO waters. No degree? No problem – for an entry-level job, any background is fine. All it’s going to take is time and effort on your part.

As a fast-paced, innovative, and ever-evolving profession, having up-to-date practical SEO skills, as well as critical thinking, adaptability, and the willingness to constantly learn and keep up with the SEO trends is what it really takes to become a sought SEO specialist businesses will be eager to get their hands on. Thus, you can use your analytical brain and learning potential to carve out a successful career in this rewarding field.

Tricks of the Trade: How to Start a Successful SEO Career In 6 Steps

If you’re looking to venture into the world of digital marketing, build a rewarding career in SEO and position yourself as an SEO expert in the future, you’ll need to start working on carving your way into this lucrative, multi-faceted field.

Here’s how to kickstart your SEO success story, step by step:

1. Learn the SEO Ropes

The first step to starting a career in SEO is tackling the SEO basics – grasping the concepts behind the fundamental SEO principles and building a strong foundation in core SEO skills. Lucky for you, in today’s digital era, acquiring knowledge and information is easier than ever!

There’s no end to the resources available – you can take some online SEO courses or simply Google your way around for free, as there is no shortage of blogs, videos, tutorials, and other learning materials available on the web, right at your fingertips.

We suggest you kickstart your SEO career by honing key technical skills and getting familiar with basic SEO concepts like technical SEO, on-Page SEO, and Off-Page SEO. It involves wrapping your head around keyword research, data analytics and audits, competitor analysis, HTML, link-building, content marketing, as well as the latest SEO trends and search engine algorithms.

2. …Then Master Them

When you gain basic skills and knowledge of SEO, it’s time to scale up and fine-tune your prowess. Bolstering your skills is the best way to get both feet in SEO. You’ll need to develop a broader and deeper understanding of SEO by tackling SEO tools and channels.

As an SEO, you’ll be expected to be able to use a wide range of SEO tools and software, such as Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Ads, Keyword Planners, Ahrefs, Yoast, spreadsheets, etc. Coding expertise may not be necessary to land an SEO job, but it’s a plus. You should at least be able to read HTML code and understand how a website is structured.

Get familiar with Google Webmaster Guidelines, build up your analytical skills and get into the ins and outs of the trade to skyrocket your SEO to the next level.

3. Keep Your Skills Up-To-Date

Keep in mind that you’ll also need to learn new skills as you go and adapt your acquired skills continuously, as the SEO industry is always changing, along with search engines tweaking their algorithms all the time.

One thing about the nature of SEO is that it’s never dull – there’s always something to test and new to learn. So, if you want to make it in the SEO game, you must never cease to improve yourself. It’s a career where you can quickly get left behind if you don’t keep up, so ensure you always stay current with emerging trends to stay ahead of the curve.

4. Practice Makes Perfect

On top of all the learning, SEO is something you’ll also have to practice. But another beautiful thing about SEO is that you can acquire experience yourself! Would having an official degree or certification in digital marketing, communications, or computer science give you a leg up? Sure. But what’s likely to make a real difference is the practical skillset you bring to the table.

Don’t dwell on not having any prior experience, as you’re just starting your SEO career. Simply get creative and put your SEO knowledge into practice any way you can. You can hone your skills on your own and gain “hands-on experience” in SEO before you even begin applying for jobs by working on personal projects and websites, helping a business or charity out by volunteering, and/or simply freelancing.

Use this approach to test and practice the skills you’ve learned and put your growing search-engine knowledge into action that will eventually shine on your resume and make it land on top of the pile.

5. Network and Connect

Reaching out to SEO professionals is a great way to get your foot in the SEO door. SEOs are usually an interesting bunch eager to share and discuss their knowledge, as communication skills themselves are a big part of SEO. Plus, they’re always online, so connecting is a piece of cake, thanks to social media, forums, and other platforms.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to other SEO experts and like-minded people for advice, help, or tips, and build a diverse professional network. Also, attend any SEO events, meet-ups, conferences, workshops, or online meetings you come across. Not only will connecting with industry experts help you expand your knowledge and pick up some useful tricks of the trade along the way, but also draw their attention.

If you play your cards right and make a strong impression, you may not even have to send out your resume, as networking is an excellent opportunity to harbor references, get the latest SEO scoop, and even land potential gigs!

6. Reach Out and Knock On Some SEO Doors

Develop a compelling portfolio to showcase your hard-earned SEO skills and work, even if it just features the results of your personal practice projects or gigs that weren’t paid. You can even build your own website to demonstrate your on-hand SEO experience and nail those SEO interviews down the road.

Numbers speak volumes, so focus on highlighting meaningful metrics that speak for themselves to swoop potential employers off their feet. Did you rank a website on top of SEPs or grow organic traffic by 20%? Get it in there.

Don’t just sit tight, cross your fingers, and hope for the best. Opportunities don’t just happen – you create them. So, if opportunity doesn’t knock while you’re networking, start knocking on digital marketing agencies’ doors instead. There’s no downside to applying to more jobs – the more, the merrier!

In the meantime, you can also take up freelance projects to keep learning, growing, and enriching your portfolio until you ultimately land the job of your dreams.

Choose Wisely: Different SEO Career Paths You Can Venture On

SEO is as diverse as it gets. If you’re looking to start a career in SEO, you won’t necessarily be limited to a strict set of job responsibilities – you’ll have various opportunities open to you on the SEO career ladder. But as the old saying goes, less is more.

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So, before you start working on launching your SEO career, you can choose to specialize in one of the SEO areas listed below that work best for your personal set of interests, skills, and strengths and set yourself up for success:

• SEO Specialist / Analyst

As an SEO specialist, your job would be to test, analyze and modify websites to make them more search-engine-friendly – in other words, improve their visibility and search engine rankings to generate more organic traffic. You’ll probably closely collaborate with web developers, content writers, and online marketing teams to ensure that SEO best practices are used for all web pages.

Working as an SEO strategist or analyst would be a good fit if you have an analytical mind that can see a broad picture of search trends and craft direct SEO strategies that will achieve the required KPIs and other business objectives.

• SEO Manager

The role of an SEO manager is, in many ways, similar to the one of a marketing manager, as your goals are driving traffic and raising awareness, but more technically oriented. You would be in charge of large-scale marketing projects and be less of a technical SEO practitioner and more of an SEO project manager.

In most cases, you will probably oversee teams and digital marketing strategies rather than working directly with the analysis of links and data, thus a good choice for those who are more management-oriented.

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• Content Marketing Manager / Content Strategist

The SEO profession involves a lot of technical aspects, but if you’re not really that tech-savvy, you can try your luck as a content marketing specialist or a content strategist. In this role, you’d be responsible for researching and designing overall content strategies, ensuring that all content is written according to SEO best practices and aligned with a company’s overall digital marketing goals.

If you’re creative and innovative, give it a go!

• PPC Specialist

Pay-per-click marketing, or PPC for short, is a form of paid advertising, often through Google Adwords. As a PPC specialist, you’d be responsible for researching relevant keywords, selecting target audiences, and optimizing campaign budgets.

• Search Engine Marketer (SEM) Specialist

People often use the terms Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) interchangeably. However, SEM is broader than SEO as it integrates several traffic-driving techniques, such as SEO, PPC marketing, and customer relationship management.

As an SEO specialist, you can branch into SEM by mastering additives like Google AdWords and other web analytics to nail this SEO career path and be able to design a strategy that will bring websites to the top of both organic and paid search engine results.

Kickstart Your SEO Career Today

If you’re waiting for the right time to give search engine optimization a go – it’s now. Everything you need to start a successful career in SEO and embark on the professional adventure of a lifetime is already inside you and in front of you.

Access your inner power, follow our advice, be persistent and seize the opportunities coming your way. If you ever run into any bumps down the road, remember that it always seems impossible until it’s done. Like building a career in SEO, landing a job takes time, so don’t get discouraged if there isn’t a fast turnaround.

Keep working on your skills and projects, keep up with emerging SEO trends and keep knocking on those doors! Eventually, one will open up to officially welcome you into the SEO realm.

Here’s to new beginnings!

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