A Day In the Life of An SEO Expert

SEO has been taking over the creative digital industry by storm, one keyword at a time, for the past decade. The demand for SEOs is constantly growing – this fast-paced, innovative, and ever-evolving profession comfortably sits on the top of the digital throne and shows no signs of ever slowing down.

But have you ever wondered what an SEO actually does on a day-to-day basis? How do they work their “magic”? You may know that those who work in SEO jobs use a baffling alphabet soup of abbreviations regular folk has a hard time keeping up with and spend most of their days trying to outsmart search engines and guide business owners towards their online success.

Although not far from the truth, these guesses only scratch the surface of their work. To shed some light on what these optimization whizzes do in practice on a day-to-day basis, we’ve decided to let you sneak an insider peek into a day in the life of an SEO expert.

Ready? Let’s dive in!

First Things First: What Is SEO?

For those who are not that familiar with this fruitful yet sometimes enigmatic profession, it’s essential to lift the veil of mystery from this abbreviation to truly understand what SEO specialists do.

SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization” – a multiplex strategy for molding your digital marketing efforts to increase visibility and, thus, help a website or piece of content rank higher on Google, Bing, or other search engines. Better visibility in search results means more leads, traffic, and conversions. Or, in layman’s terms, attracting prospective (and existing) customers to your business as greater visibility and out-ranking competition in search results can have a tangible impact on your bottom line.

SEO is, thus, a fundamental part of digital marketing and a must for any business trying to make it or survive in the digital era, as today, organic search is the primary source of digital traffic for brands that supports all other marketing methods and channels.

What Is An SEO Specialist?

If your website is not getting the attention it’s supposed to, you probably need to step up your SEO game. No game? No problem. An SEO specialist can step in to save the day as these keyword kings can generate more traffic than downtown rush hour. Despite being the pillar of all digital endeavors and at the heart of any digital marketing strategy and team, many SEO specialists still get an inevitably confused look when they say what they do for a living.

Put simply, the end goal of an SEO specialist is the same as any marketer’s – generating more sales for a business, but they use their SEO prowess and technical skills to make it happen. By leveraging search engine optimization tactics and the power of competitive keywords and links, an SEO specialist can increase a website’s or web page’s visibility within the search engines.

This ultimately results in increased traffic, lead volume, brand awareness, and – you guessed it – more sales!

The Burning Question: What Does An SEO Specialist Do?

“Oh, so you’re the keyword guy!” Nope. Contrary to popular belief, SEO specialists do more than simply keyword-stuff their way to digital heights. So, we thought, what better way to clear up this widespread confusion around what an SEO actually does than letting you have a look into what a typical working day of an SEO specialist looks like?

Curious about the work that SEO specialists do on a daily basis? Keep scrolling because we’ve spoken to our SEO maestros, who’ve been kind enough to let us outsiders sneak a peek into how they spend their days working their SEO magic.

What A Day In The Life Of An SEO Expert Looks Like

While not every SEO specialist does the exact same kind of work every day, there are some general techniques and methods used, as well as job responsibilities, that come with being a digital marketing professional working in the field of SEO.

Even though it might vary due to numerous factors, some fundamental practices remain consistent and widespread, even in daily use. So, a typical day in the life of an SEO will probably include tackling a mix of the following tasks and responsibilities:

In-Depth Keyword Research

Although keywords are the pillar of SEO, it’s much more complex and technical than simply sprinkling a few popular keywords on a page, crossing your fingers, and hoping to land on the first page in search.

SEO specialists spend a large portion of their day conducting keyword research using various SEO tools to discover competitive and relevant keywords that will improve visibility and rise the rank of a website or webpage to the top of relevant search engine results.

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Optimization

Keywords are the bedrock of SEO, yet just a piece of the complex and diverse SEO puzzle. For keywords to do their magic, keyword optimization must come into play. Optimization includes employing various methods, including technical SEO practices referred to as on-page SEO, to other off-page SEO techniques.

Optimization revolves around keeping track and taking care of the overall content quality, structure, and performance of websites. Thus, many of SEOs’ day-to-day activities include ensuring that the content on web pages has the necessary target keywords, optimized meta descriptions, and URLs and that the HTML code is structured correctly for desktop and mobile devices.

Link Building

Since link building – the art of enriching high-quality content with external links and internal links to add value to readers and search engines – plays a crucial role in SEO success, it’s part of most SEO specialists’ daily routines. They spend a lot of time identifying link-building opportunities and ideas or monitoring the existing links to create top-notch link-building strategies and ensure websites have a robust backlink profile.

Performance Analytics

Any savvy SEO specialist relies on metrics and data to create winning SEO campaigns, and there are no shortcuts to getting them. So, SEOs also spend their days regularly checking analytics, as well as tracking search engine rankings, traffic, and conversion rate metrics to see how websites, web pages, and keywords are performing and measure the impact of their ongoing SEO strategies and efforts.

They usually do it by:

· Monitoring Google Analytics to get an insight into website visits and visitor behavior, evaluate the performance of published content, new changes, etc.

· Checking Google Webmaster Tools to keep track of a website or web page’s performance, check for any changes, and take actions as necessary

· Monitoring Google Search Console to detect and correct any mistakes that may affect search position

· Performing competitor audits to analyze competitors’ web presence, backlink profile, activities, etc.

Staying Current with the Ever-Changing Trends and Algorithms

The daily responsibilities of an SEO specialist don’t stop with a few website tweaks and a few links and keywords scattered around the web. Search engines are moodier than a teen – they’re always changing and evolving. Thus, SEOs can’t rely on the same activities forever, and one of their main missions is to go with the flow and keep up with Google’s mood swings.

A savvy SEO expert has to be on the ball, constantly looking for trends and new ways to maximize website traffic, then experimenting with them in practice. So, the fast-paced nature of SEO makes keeping up with search engine algorithm changes, staying on top of the ever-changing SEO industry, and making trial-and-error style testing of various elements in practice part of an SEO specialist’s daily tasks.

SEOs take this challenge on with enthusiasm and spend their days researching and keeping an eye on the latest trends and best practices to develop key skills they need to implement strategies that improve search results.

Teamwork

An SEO specialist is rarely a lone wolf – it takes an SEO team and orchestra of digital marketing skills to play a winning symphony. During a typical work day, an SEO will communicate and collaborate with different departments of their digital marketing company, SEO agency, or another digi-savvy business, including sales, customer service, web development, design, content marketing teams, analytics, IT, and more.

When they’re not deep into some kind of SEO research, they’ll spend their analytics-free time networking and connecting with thought leaders and other experts in the industry. They’ll sometimes join client meetings to discuss the best strategies for their business goals and evaluate or report on the current progress they’re making because they also have great communication skills.

Is SEO Calling Your Name?

SEO is a never-ending process, but no day looks the same. By joining the digital and SEO community, you’ll enter a world of possibilities and everlasting relevance and get an exciting, life-changing career opportunity. But is SEO the right career choice for you?

The daily routine of an SEO specialist includes a combo of the above-mentioned activities, which means you need to have a broad skillset and be willing to always learn more if you’re interested in dipping your toes into SEO waters. If you’re knowledge-hungry, analytical, and always up for a challenge, feel free to hop on the SEO train.

Did hearing about a day in the life of an SEO specialist give you butterflies? Does pursuing this career path intrigues you? If you’re wondering: “How do I get into SEO?” take a look at some tips and tricks of the trade our savvy SEO pro’s learned the hard way and were kind enough to share in this blog for some insider strategies and resources to help you become one.