Careers in SEO Consultancy

Building a career in the digital marketing industry

SEO is a growing industry and there are plenty of exciting opportunities for those willing to put the work in.

When you were at school you may not have necessarily dreamed of being a SEO Consultant, but in fact it can offer a varied and rewarding career in an exciting, fast-paced field.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation to give it its full name, involves optimising a website so that it ranks as highly as possible on search engine results pages. While basic SEO can be fairly straightforward, many business owners don’t have the expertise or resources needed to take their SEO activities to the next level – which is where an SEO Consultant comes in.

When SEO first came to the fore, it was often viewed with suspicion, with practitioners sometimes seen as ‘spammers’. But it has come a long way since then and is now a reputable industry with experienced, knowledgeable professionals. These days, SEO is not just about metadata and keywords. A good SEO Consultant now has to be skilled in a number of different areas including strategy development, relationship building, content creation, social campaigns, and project management, as well as the more traditional technical components.

The upshot of this is that a career in SEO, while hard work, is never boring.

Starting out

As it’s still a relatively new industry, there is not really a set route for starting a career in SEO. There are digital marketing and SEO-specific courses out there but, while they can be useful, they are not always necessary.

More important than specific qualifications is knowledge of the industry and relevant experience. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to gain experience; try starting your own blog with regular content and experiment with different ways of driving traffic to your site. WordPress is a great place to start if you’re not confident with web design; it offers easy-to-use templates that are designed for current SEO standards. Alternatively, if you have a friend or family member with their own small business ask if you can work on their website to boost their search engine rankings – they’re sure to be glad of the assistance, and it is great experience for you.

Being able to list skills such as WordPress, CSS, Analytics, Blogging and Html on your CV will instantly make your application stand out from the crowd.

Key skills

When it comes to getting ahead in the SEO industry, there are a number of key skills that it pays to have in your back pocket.

Gone are the days of poorly written blog posts jam-packed with keywords. These days Google favours good quality, relevant content, so creativity and good writing skills are a must. While language is the bedrock of SEO, data is also a vital component so it helps if you enjoy numbers and are analytically-minded. In addition, while not strictly essential, design skills (or at least an eye for what does and doesn’t work) can prove useful, enabling you to help clients really get the most out of their websites.

Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, you need to be passionate about what you do, and about digital media more generally. SEO is constantly changing so it’s important to know the industry in depth and keep abreast of any important developments. If you don’t like dealing with constant change or aren’t prepared to put the hours in to stay ahead of the curve, you’ll soon find yourself left behind.

Career prospects

As we mentioned previously, SEO consultancy is a very varied industry so you could find yourself taking any number of career paths, depending on your skills and preferences. You could maintain a broad field of experience, gaining skills in different areas and maybe even running your own agency one day.

Alternatively you could decide to focus on becoming an expert in one particular area, such as content creation, strategy development, link building or technical SEO. The important thing is to know your own strengths and how you can make them work for you.

More and more businesses are waking up to the importance of SEO, and experienced SEO Consultants will continue to be in high demand for the foreseeable future. So, if you’re clever, creative and willing to put in the work, why not bag yourself an interesting and exciting career in an industry that never stands still?

Tags: careers, consultancy

Category: College and Careers