Due to the massive growth of online shopping around the world, the need for a company to have a website has gone up exponentially. Where once it was a ‘nice to have’, a website is now essential in today’s digital landscape. However, merely having a website is not enough. A fully functioning, optimized website that offers a great user experience and ranks well on search engines is a key requirement to have any sort of successful online presence.
That’s excellent news for those looking to have a career in the world of SEO. There are many positions in the field, each with its own set of both technical and soft skills that are required to succeed. Here, we’ll look at the role of an SEO manager, how it differs from what SEO consulting is and, finally, how to become an SEO manager.
What Is The Role Of An SEO Manager?
SEO managers can wear many hats within a business, which is excellent news for a person looking for variety in their career. By and large, SEO managers will be responsible for overseeing a company’s SEO strategy. They may also plan that strategy and continue to ensure that it’s achieving the desired results and hitting key targets.
In order to make this happen, an SEO manager will often analyze how a company’s website performs by running web analytics and conducting keyword research. An SEO manager will also try to improve a website’s authority by increasing the number of inbound links a website has and ensuring that all internal links are appropriate.
Notably, an SEO manager will not do the work of a web developer, but they will work closely with one to ensure no technical issues occur. The importance of page speed for SEO is high because a slower site will have a high bounce rate, which decreases a website’s search engine ranking, so an SEO manager will work in tandem with the developer to fix and optimize any technical issues.
What’s The Difference Between An SEO Consultant And An SEO Manager?
An SEO consultant and SEO manager will have many similarities in their roles. However, an SEO consultant will be an individual who comes into a company to help work on a website on a project basis. They will bring their outside experience and focus on implementing an SEO strategy that will help improve a website’s SEO over the long term – though it’s unlikely they’ll be there permanently.
How Do I Become An SEO Manager?
To become an SEO manager, you need to have specific skills that can be learned over time with both training and experience. Perhaps one of the most essential skills you need is critical thinking. Analyzing and drilling down to the root of issues, and executing the most logical solutions, is crucial to an SEO manager’s success.
Following critical thinking, an SEO manager needs to be able to either create optimized content or at least know how optimized content is created. That requires the ability to communicate – both verbally and in writing.
Technically speaking, it will do an SEO manager no harm to have as much programming knowledge as possible. While an SEO manager is not a website developer, it can help them to understand what a website developer does so that the SEO and website structure dovetail together as optimally as possible.
Having A Career As An SEO Manager
Being an SEO manager can be a highly rewarding career. It can be varied as an SEO manager’s role will exist in almost every industry, since the global marketplace is now highly digital. Plus, being an SEO manager is the beginning of a career that will constantly evolve. The nature of technology and the internet means you are likely to be at the forefront of what occurs in our increasingly interconnected society. If you’re not sure you want to go down the route of being an SEO manager, you may wish to investigate SEO consulting instead. An SEO consultant’s role can be even more varied than that of an SEO manager.