The internet is filled with useful information that helps us in our daily lives. And thanks to search engines, we don’t have to sit for hours and ponder over the pool of information available. We get the most relevant results to our queries in a jiffy. If you are using a smartphone, you just need to type in some keywords and get instant results whether you are looking for a location, a song, or a video. Can you believe there is a career involved in making websites rank higher on the Search Engine’s Results Page (SERPs) when a user types in certain keywords? The field is none other than Search Engine Optimization or SEO, a popular aspect of digital marketing.

While many organizations may require just one or two professionals to handle SEO strategies, the ones that have entire operations online need an SEO team to make their websites search engine friendly. E-commerce companies like Amazon and Flipkart are the best examples of the latter. Those who are not aware of the SEO specialist role may think that it doesn’t involve any challenge. Yes, the overall aim is to rank higher in the search engine results and draw more organic traffic to a website, SEO specialists have a lot of responsibilities to handle. If you are a beginner, you may start working as an SEO analyst. But what next? Many are not aware of the growth opportunities in this field.

So, this article familiarizes you with the SEO career path. Read on to know more.

SEO Specialist – The Career Ladder

Search Engine Optimization is a broad field that involves various activities, and not all of them can be handled by a single person. This is the reason there are different levels of SEO jobs, and you will find increasing responsibilities as you climb up the SEO career ladder. If you are looking for a precise answer, you will be disappointed to know that there is no established career path in the evolving world of SEO. However, once you step into this field, you will come across more strategic roles and finally land in a managerial position.

Presently, here are some of the popular SEO job roles you will come across.

SEO Analyst

This is an entry-level SEO job in most of the organizations. They perform some important SEO tasks like conducting keyword research as per the requirements and include them in the content to make the website more SEO friendly. They are well-versed in using Google Analytics and know about conversion optimization strategies. Generating content ideas, keeping track of search engine algorithms, and monitoring search trends are some of the other things they perform as an SEO analyst.

SEO Strategist

As the name suggests, these professionals are in charge of developing a company’s overall SEO strategy. SEO strategists research industry trends and understand the goals of an organization so as to come up with the most appropriate SEO strategies.  They review and implement the changes in web pages to make them optimized. Moreover, they build natural backlinks, split-test similar pages, create effective ranking strategies, and follow latest SEO best practices.

SEO Manager

As described earlier, the more experience you gain in SEO, the more capable you become of handling an entire SEO team, i.e., moving to an SEO manager position. It is a senior-level role that requires collaboration with other digital marketing teams like PPC, SEM, and SMM. They have exhaustive knowledge of SEO and understand how to work with other teams and bridge social media efforts, content marketing efforts, and paid advertising initiatives to create an overall effective marketing campaign. They oversee the work of the entire SEO team and guide them to bring out better results.

Are There Any Other Options?

Well, the best thing about digital marketing is you can explore the other aspects even if you started with a specific one. The same holds true for an SEO specialist. You can make a switch to Pay-Per-Click marketing, social media marketing, search engine marketing, and more. Alternatively, you can also aim for a digital marketing manager role. Once you have gained experience in SEO, your knowledge comes in handy in the above areas and you will be able to seamlessly transition into the new field.

Talking about the job roles, search engine marketer, marketing consultant, content marketing manager, and Director of SEO are some of the ambitious options you can take your career to. Whatever role you choose, your expertise will be in high demand. With the ongoing digital transformation, businesses that do not have an online presence are losing out on their competitors and fail to rise in the dynamic marketing landscape.

To sum up, a career in SEO is a promising one and you won’t regret stepping into this domain. A lot of online courses are available for people who want to learn SEO and gain relevant skills. Enroll in any of them and learn at your own comfortable pace. Soon you will build a strong foundation in SEO and become job-ready.