Is SEO A Good Career?

People ask me, is SEO a good career? I tell them damn right it is! At least for me.

So, why is it good?

Because despite all the wailing about how it's dead (it's not; it's changing), businesses are still looking for either in-house or contractor support to optimize their sites for better search results visibility.

If you're thinking about starting a career in search engine optimization, I'm glad you're looking at this job for the following reasons!

Why Is SEO A Good Career?

To start with, it's a time-consuming job. Between doing on-page optimization, inbound backlink analysis, web site audits, pay per click and troubleshooting ranking and indexing issues, you'll never complete your to-do list.

You can either work in-house as an employee for a company or business and concentrate on one web property. You may manage the site as a whole project, or you could be assigned specific tasks with a team of SEO specialists doing other functions.

If you choose to be an independent contractor, you can work for multiple clients at the same time. You have flexibility to set your own hours within reason, and you can choose the clients and industries you want to work for. You'll work from any location you want, including the client site from time to time.

You can either specialize in one or two major functions, or you can be a generalist. For example, if you decide to concentrate on offering PPC and technical SEO, you won't do on-page work, local SEO or backlink work.

You'll be in demand if you under-promise and over-deliver, solve ranking and indexing issues, and communicate clearly and often with your clients/manager.

Why Else Is SEO A Good Career To Think About?

Choose to be an SEO specialist or consultant, and you'll learn how to be flexible and meet changing conditions. As Google updates it's algorithms, you'll need to manage your SEO stategies to stay away from penalties. No two days will probably be alike, so if you get tired of doing the same old thing, working in search engine optimization is right for you.

You'll develop mad investigating and troubleshooting skills, since when websites develop problems, they're rarely clear-cut and easy to see. You'll need to think about all possibilities that could happen, and eliminate them one by one. Being able to look at a site as a system, and methodically test out each part of the system is a great way to isolate issues and fix them.

So many companies hire SEO specialists, you'll be able to move from one to the next if you get in a situation that's not to your liking.

The bottom line is this: SEO changes all the time, but it's here to stay. You'll always need to stay on top of the latest changes from Google, but with so many great resources, you can quickly find out what's going on, whether it's a mobile-first index or algorithmic penalties.

Having great communication skills (written and oral), working as a team member and taking inititiative to dig into website problems are valuable skill sets for doing SEO as a career.

Using spreadsheets, word processors, presentation software and SEO tools are mandatory skills you'll need to master, because you'll product reports, brief executives and analyze software tool results if you do SEO for a living.

Knowing all of this, are you ready to get some SEO training? Let us set up an SEO course for you and get started today!

Until we meet again, stay safely between the ditches!

All the very best to you,

Nancy McDonald

Picture courtesy of picserver.org