What Does an SEO Specialist Do? Goals, Tasks, and Skills

Key takeaways

• SEO specialists are responsible for optimizing websites to enhance their visibility and improve their ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).

• As an SEO specialist, you can be self-employed and take on multiple clients, or join an in-house digital marketing team to optimize a company's online presence.  

• After gaining experience as an SEO specialist, you can explore advanced roles such as SEO analyst, SEO manager, or Director of SEO.

Learn more about what an SEO specialist does and how to become one. Afterward, develop job-ready SEO and content marketing skills with IBM's Digital Marketing and Growth Hacking Professional Certificate.

What is an SEO specialist? 

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a digital marketing channel focused on driving brand awareness through organic traffic. An SEO specialist optimizes a company's website to ensure it ranks high on search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords associated with the company and its products. The goal, essentially, is to increase organic search visibility on search engines such as Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo.

Key goals of an SEO specialist

• Increase organic traffic: By improving search rankings, SEO aims to drive more non-paid traffic to a website.

• Enhance user experience: SEO practices often involve improving site structure, speed, and content quality, which benefits both users and search engines.

• Boost brand awareness: Higher search rankings increase a brand's visibility to potential customers.

• Generate quality leads: By attracting users actively searching for relevant information or products, SEO can help generate more qualified leads.

• Improve conversion rates: SEO can help attract more targeted traffic, potentially leading to higher conversion rates.

• Establish authority and credibility: Ranking well for industry-related terms can position a brand as an authority in its field.

• Gain a competitive advantage: Effective SEO can help businesses outrank their competitors in search results.

• Adapt to changing user behavior: As more people rely on search engines to find information and make decisions, SEO helps businesses stay relevant and accessible.

What does an SEO specialist do?

SEO specialists connect companies with their target audience at the moment they're searching for relevant information, products, or services. Some day-to-day tasks might include:  

• Researching and optimizing relevant keywords to use on an organization's website

• Tracking a website's daily metrics for trends and other insights 

• Making websites more accessible and user-friendly

• Creating and sourcing high-quality content for a website alongside an editorial team

• Continuously updating and evaluating a website's content, links, user experience, and mobile optimization 

• Staying up to date on all things SEO and search engines to optimize strategy performance and improve search engine rankings 

• Coming up with and operating a link-building strategy

Important SEO specialist skills

As an SEO specialist, you must possess a range of workplace and technical skills that directly relate to your position. While every job is different, explore some of the top skills you must master to be successful as an SEO specialist. 

1. Technical SEO knowledge

A strong understanding of website architecture, HTML, and how search engines crawl and index sites is crucial. This includes skills in optimizing site speed, mobile-friendliness, and implementing structured data.

2. Data analysis and interpretation

SEO specialists must be adept at analyzing data from various tools like Google Analytics and Search Console. They need to interpret this data to derive insights, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions to improve SEO strategies.

3. Content optimization

The ability to create and optimize content for both search engines and users is essential. This includes skills in keyword research, understanding user intent, and crafting compelling meta descriptions and title tags.

4. Link building

Successful SEO specialists need to know how to develop effective link-building strategies and conduct outreach to acquire high-quality backlinks, which are crucial for improving domain authority and search rankings

5. Continuous learning

The SEO landscape is constantly evolving with frequent algorithm updates—and now the growing presence of genAI. SEO specialists must stay current with industry trends, adapt their strategies accordingly, and continuously expand their knowledge and skills.

How to become an SEO specialist

Follow the guidance below to get started as an SEO specialist.

Earn a degree.

Many employers require a bachelor's degree for this role. According to Zippia, nearly 70 percent of SEO specialists have a bachelor's degree [1]. Common majors include marketing, communications, business, or IT. While many schools won't have an SEO major, you can participate in activities through clubs or volunteering that can help you hone your skills.

Build your skill set.

Being an SEO specialist requires strong technical skills. Review the list of skills above and identify one or two to begin building or strengthening. As your abilities improve, return and consider developing other skills on the list.

Gain experience 

Look for entry-level marketing jobs, especially roles focusing on digital or content marketing to gain relevant experience. Even if your role does not involve working directly on SEO, see if there are cross-functional projects you can participate in. Outside of work, offer services to local businesses to add to your portfolio.

From an SEO specialist, learn about other SEO jobs and how you can advance in this career.

Stay on top of new developments.

SEO as a field tends to evolve due to the ongoing development of search algorithms and other features, such as Google's AIO and LLM chatbots. Staying up-to-date with new developments through research, podcasts, and popular SEO sites can be beneficial.

Consider certificates.

While it's not required, gaining SEO certification or a relevant certificate can be advantageous in this field. These programs can be an opportunity to gain new knowledge or formalize what you already know, demonstrating to employers the extra steps you've taken. They can also be useful credentials to add to your resume.

SEO specialist: salary and job outlook

According to Glassdoor, the median total pay for SEO specialists in the US is $86,000 per year [1]. Notably, the demand for all types of digital marketers, including SEO jobs, is high. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the marketing industry is expected to grow at a rate of 6 percent between 2023 and 2033, indicating a favorable job outlook and a faster-than-average growth rate compared to other industries [2]. 

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