What Does An SEO Specialist Do?
An SEO specialist is a digital marketing expert who implements optimization strategies on websites as a way to increase their ranking in search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, or Bing. They do this by conducting keyword research, creating content, and making sure the site is technically up to speed. These efforts can then lead to an increase in the number of relevant search results the site appears for, an improved user experience, and an increase in site traffic, leads, brand awareness.
Responsibilities Of An SEO Specialist
The responsibilities of an SEO specialist vary depending on several factors. But typically, the role involves the following:
SEO Campaign Building
An SEO specialist builds the SEO campaign of a website. But what is an SEO campaign? It’s is a comprehensive, long-term strategy that implements SEO techniques to increase a website's ranking in the search results over the long term, such as a period of six months to one year. A SEO campaign will typical consist of a number of different types of SEO and their respectives techniques, including:
● On-page SEO: content creation & optimization
● Off-page SEO: link building
● Technical SEO
Each of these are just a single component of a well developed SEO campaign strategy, so if you find your specialist does not offer one of them, consider looking elsewhere.
Optimizing Website Architecture
One of the first things an SEO specialist does is optimize the website by fixing or changing its architecture in a way that makes it easier for Google to crawl. This can include creating a sitemap, enabling crawlers, fixing site hierarchies, applying metadata, etc.
Content Creation
Content remains one of the most important ranking factors in SEO. An SEO specialist will ensure that all content on the site is optimized through foundational keyword research, and by applying best practices in regards to keyword placement, heading structures, and proper linking structure between content pieces.
Reviewing SEO Analytics
An SEO specialist doesn’t just apply techniques and stop there. They must analyze metrics over time to see if their strategies are performing well. They do this by looking at tools such as Google Analytics. An SEO specialist must be able to answer the question, “how long does it take for SEO to work?” by efficiently evaluating the campaign current and past analytics and projecting success from this data.
Managing SEO Teams
Some SEO specialists, especially those in larger companies, must manage SEO teams. This will be a team of people contributing to the overall campaign, which may include developers, writers, market researchers, and outreach specialists.
Key Skills Of An SEO Specialist
SEO is a wide field that encompasses many areas. The role of an SEO specialist is quite complex and requires the need to wear many hats. If you want to be a successful SEO specialist, you’ll need to be able to be creative, technical, and analytical, at the same time, while possessing a significant degree of management skills. You’ll have to stay on top of many different tasks, metrics, and key performance indicators (KPIs) all at once, so there are a key set of skills you should be looking to develop, these include:
Communication
Most of the time, an SEO specialist must work with different departments that contribute to various aspects of the campaign. Communication is important if you are to collaborate with various people to achieve the same goal, especially if you're working with a team that is primarily remote and communicates mostly through email and apps like Slack.
An Understanding Of Marketing
SEO is a subset of marketing. They both require the creation of campaigns and strategies that are meant to drive sales. So, an SEO specialist should have a solid understanding of marketing and the various channels that could be used to attract potential customers. This is also important as it is helpful to know which ones work well along with the SEO campaign, such as various discounts or promotions.
Analytical Skills
There are indeed a lot of numbers in SEO—you are working with algorithms, after all. But you don’t have to be a math whiz to find success in the field. However, what you must have are analytical skills that are required to derive insights from metrics and performance data, so that you can understand how your campaign is performing and make data-based decisions on what adjustments to make.
Adaptability
SEO is an ever-evolving landscape. A good SEO specialist must be curious enough to seek out new techniques and be adaptable to change, as what may have been a great practice in the field of SEO last year, could now no longer be relevant.
How Do I Become An SEO Specialist?
You don’t have to take a four-year course to become an SEO specialist (though having a background in marketing does help). A lot of the technical skills needed to build your experience can be learned and practiced on your own through mentorships, courses, or entry level jobs at an SEO agency.
Since SEO is a new field, there is still a ton of room for it to grow, and for you to rise along with it.