5 Skills You Need to Land a Job in SEO

The SEO (Search Engine Optimization) market is hot, and it’s not going anywhere. If you’re one of the people looking to land a job in SEO, pay close attention to this article. We’ve gathered the top five skills you need to get into the ever-growing, ever-changing field of SEO.

If you’re just tuning into SEO, here’s the quick of it: It is essentially the process of making a website visible and rank on search engines. Being a good SEO manager means that your websites are ranking high.

These five tips give an insight into the behind-the-scenes concepts that SEO managers must keep in mind.

1. Understand What SEO Means to a Business

SEO means one thing to a business: ranking high online so that they can convert and make money. As explained by SEO by Edge Marketing, just about 80% of Aussies go online to find a product or service, and about 92% don’t look beyond the first page of Google.

With these statistics, if you want to land a job in SEO, you have to know how to rank a client’s website on the first page of search engine results. Many SEO companies charge a decent amount and promise to rank a website on the first page. You must learn how to do this. If you’re unable to deliver good SEO, clients will be going out the door.

2. Have a Passion for Research

One of the most important parts of SEO is researching information on the audience and what makes them tick. How do you do this? By starting organically. You’ll have to figure out, without any optimization, the consumer response to content that you post. From there, you’ll get curious and figure out what were the key elements that drove traffic to the post. Why? At what time? Where? All these questions play a part in research and inform the potential growth of the post. Once you have answers, then you can enhance the content.

3. Patience: Take the Time It Takes

Once you begin your research, take notice of what is making the content ebb and flow. Even as you’re cheering for its growth, realize that there will be setbacks as well. This is where your keen eye and patience come in. Don’t just get rid of the campaign because of a drawback—trace it back! Try and figure out what set it back and why. What was the trend before, during and after the drawback? Trace it if you can and use the information you’ve found to your advantage.

4. Finding the Right Keywords

Keywords and SEO are best friends. The right keywords inform your SEO campaign and make it a success. However, keywords don’t just happen. You have to (referring back to our last point) put in the time it takes to figure out the right keywords. There are hundreds, upon hundreds (to say the least) of keywords that must be analysed and figured out for content. This is where you’ll spend a chunk of your time, especially if you’re just starting out in SEO. The analysis of which keywords work has to do with many things, but especially with who’s clicking and why.

5. Be (or Hire) the Right Writer

Once you’ve done your SEO research and analysis, you’ll want to put content together that sounds appealing, without it screaming keywords every two seconds. You must be sensitive in writing the content. Too many keywords and you may get flagged. This is where the research comes in. What is the perfect percentage of keywords for this article to sound great and be found? If you’re not the right writer, there are plenty of great content writers who can help. If you concentrate on the research, they’ll take care of the writing according to the keywords and specs you give them.

Being a good SEO manager requires all of the above and the tenacity to stay on top of the changes in the industry. Take care of your clients, do the research, and put in the time. No shortcuts.