SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a Web Marketing Technique of getting web traffic through organic (un-paid) or natural listings on search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. The goal of SEO is to rank a company’s website or web pages higher than millions of other websites in search engines. This is turn, leads to more visibility and subsequently more people visiting your website. SEO can be done for text, images, videos, news, local search or even academic search. SEO is an art (in terms of branding and understanding customer needs) as well as a science (in terms of coding, engineering and other technicalities).
The major role of an SEO Analyst is to determine how search engine is working, what people are searching for, which keywords are performing better, and so on. SEO analyst needs to continuously update the content of the website, post blogs, keep himself/herself informed with the latest guidelines of search engines and enhance the viewership of the website or web pages by applying back links or inbound links. SEO expert should aim for improving the website’s Alexa Ranking (a subsidiary company of amazon.com of high repute in web traffic ranking) and also the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) Ranking.
Why SEO is gaining so much popularity today?
Gone are the days when the major channels of marketing were television, radio, newspapers, etc. SEO is a major a part of Digital Marketing and is soon replacing these traditional forms of marketing. SEO is gaining so much popularity because of:
- More and more people using internet and search engines for their day to day activities.
- Growing demand of ecommerce websites and online shopping.
- Sharp increase in Web and Mobile marketing.
- Organic listing is cheap and more reliable than paid ads.
- Better ROI, branding than traditional marketing channels.
- Better business visibility and credibility
- Various tools available for data analysis, the most famous being ‘Google analytics’.
SEO Basics – SEO Techniques:
- Domain Names
- URLs
- XML Sitemaps
- Meta Tags, Meta Descriptions, Title Tags
- Web Content
- Keywords
- Inbound Links
Career in SEO:
Now comes a million dollar question – Is it worth making a career in SEO? What is the future of SEO Analyst?
With the rise in the no. of websites and web pages being developed each day and the popularity of Digital Marketing, SEO is surely one of the most sought-after career options available today. Every organization, whether it is into online or offline business, is hiring SEO experts to get more visibility. Though many professionals enter this career not deliberately, folks enjoy the challenges they come across being an SEO analyst. The responsibilities of improving the ranking and visibility of web pages are shifting from Webmasters to full-fledged SEO experts. The best thing about this profession is that even those who don’t have any idea what is SEO can get trained and begin or make a career change as an SEO Analyst.
Success Stories as an SEO Analyst:
There are many SEO professionals, who have been very successfully in this profession and have carved a niche for themselves. Some of them are:
- Rob (Blackwood Productions)
- Dharmesh Shah (Hubspot)
- Rand Fishkin (SEO Moz)
- Jill Wahlen (High Rankings)
- Mr. Abdul Hayi Mansoor (SEO Consultant Specialist)
- Neil Patel & Hiten Shah (KISSmetrics and Crazy Egg.)
- Avinash Kaushik (Web Analytics expert)
To make SEO career more recognized, there are some reputed SEO Certifications from Google and Microsoft, indicating the rising demand of SEO Professionals.
Take a sneak peek into the following job postings to get a clear idea about SEO jobs available in the market:
http://jobsearch.naukri.com/mynaukri/mn_newsmartsearch.php
http://www.indeed.co.in/jobs?q=SEO&l=
http://www.simplyhired.com/k-seo-jobs.html
http://www.dice.com/job/results?caller=basic&q=seo&x=all&p=
SEO is also a very lucrative career option in terms of payscale. According to indeed.com, the average salary of SEO experts is $70,000. As a freelancer, one can also charge as high as $50 an hour for offering SEO services. In India, a fresher in SEO can earn anything in between 2 lacs to 4.5 lacs per year. The payscale is highly dependent upon the No. of experience, City, Company, Related qualifications, etc.
Have a look:
http://www.indeed.com/salary/SEO.html
http://www.payscale.com/research/IN/Skill=Search_Engine_Optimization_(SEO)/Salary
http://moz.com/blog/seo-salaries-how-much-should-you-make
Skills Required to become an SEO Expert:
- A solid background of SEO and how search engines work
- Good analytical and research skills, knowledge of Google guidelines
- An internet savvy person
- Expert at keyword search
- Excellent communication skills
- Good at meta tag writing and optimizing content
- Social Media freak
- Expert in Linking- Internal, External and Back linking
- Developing and executing SEO strategies
- Thorough understanding of HTML, CSS and Web programming languages.
- Passion for Digital Marketing
- Creativity and Problem Solving abilities
Some Useful Reference Materials to learn about SEO:
- Google’s SEO Beginners Guide
- Google’s Webmaster Guidelines
- Blogs and other content published by SEOmoz.
- Blog posts from Hubspot
- searchengineland
- Matt Cutts’ Blog
If you want to be an indispensible part of the online industry, then SEO is the right choice for you. Being an SEO analyst, you will get a lot of opportunity to surf the net, explore new things everyday and be a significant part of digital marketing. Because when you do SEO, what you actually do is digital or online marketing. Every company is working hard to get their website to top rankings to grow their business. Good analytical skills and marketing instinct are what is required to enter this dynamic field!
Pingback: What is Search Engine Marketing | What is SEM | Search Engine Marketing