Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most rapidly emerging career options nowadays. With everything getting online, there’s a great demand for SEO professionals to improve the performance of sites and increase their visibility. Even the evolution in SEO techniques has increased the importance and need for professional SEO experts in the market.
In 2022, SEO has become a great career option as almost every small-scale and large-scale business needs an SEO expert. The requirement of the companies can vary according to their budget. For instance, a small-scale business owner will opt for hiring a freelancer or consultant. On the other hand, large-scale businesses will hire an expert professional on a salary basis to look after their digital marketing strategies.
So, without any further dues let’s read about making a great career as an SEO specialist!
Who is an SEO Professional?
SEO professionals work to create an online presence. They use online marketing strategies to rank the websites on Google listing. An SEO specialist is responsible for unlocking the potential advantages of an online presence. Here’s a list of services of an SEO expert:
- Generating traffic to the website.
- Reviewing the content structure of the website.
- Creating a positive user experience through page optimization.
- Lead generation and brand awareness through deep keyword research.
- Managing online business development campaigns.
Types of SEO Professionals
There are three types of SEO professionals:
- White Hat SEO Expert
- Black Hat SEO Expert
- Grey Hat SEO Expert
White Hat SEO Expert
As the name suggests, white hat SEO expert uses optimization tactics as per guideline without breaking the rules. Failing to use these tactics may be harmful to the website. The recognition of wrong strategies may result in banning the website from Google and other search engines. White hat SEO expert uses the following techniques for Google rankings:
- Providing unique and quality content.
- Proper keyword research as per the topic.
- Technical techniques of optimization without crossing the terms and conditions.
Black Hat SEO Expert
Talking about the black hat SEO expert, he is just the opposite of a white hat. He uses fraudulent acts to gain search engine rankings. Black hat SEO is extremely risky for the reputation of the website. It includes:
- Duplicating and spamming the content.
- Cloaking.
- Purchasing leads and links.
- Stuffing wrong and undescriptive keywords.
Grey Hat SEO Expert
Grey hat SEO expert uses the combination of techniques used by the white hat experts and the black hat experts. These techniques are risky as the grey hat expert can go beyond the guidelines to increase the ranking of the website, but they are not illegal. Moreover, these techniques can get the website banned. Grey hat SEO experts use:
- Expired domains.
- Multiple Social Media Accounts
- Private Blog Networks
Skillset for Becoming an SEO Expert
Gone are the times when SEO was just limited to generating links. Nowadays, search engines use different algorithms that upgrade over time. So, it has become necessary to continue learning the new and upgraded techniques to make a place in the market. The following skills are useful for becoming an SEO expert:
- You must know some of the coding languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.
- You should also have an understanding of digital marketing techniques.
- You must be an expert in conducting proper keyword research, link building, lead generation, and creating a content calendar.
- An understanding of search engines and their algorithms is a plus.
- A great and creative mindset to understand the needs of the consumer.
Advantages of Making a Career as an SEO Professional
Now that you know about the skillset and importance of becoming an SEO expert let’s read further about the advantages of making a career as an SEO professional. Following are some of the popular advantages of choosing SEO as a career path:
- It allows flexible working hours and remote working.
- One of the greatest advantages of being an SEO professional is that you can start earning on a very small scale with almost zero investment.
- With the right skillset and work experience, you can make your career as a freelancer.
- For 9 to 5 service people, SEO can be a great option to start a side hustle to gain financial freedom.
Income of an SEO Expert
The income of an SEO expert varies according to the level of expertise and experience. Many people work part-time with small businesses as SEO consultants and freelancers. Also, some high-level professionals grab large projects and lead their teams to manage the SEO strategies.
Small scale or part-time SEO professionals can easily make around $20,000 – $80,000 per annum. While the person leading large SEO firms can expect a 6-figure revenue per annum. The average salary of SEO directors lies between $75,000 – $120,000 per annum.
Impact of AI on Future SEO
The introduction of Artificial Intelligence in the market has resulted in making things easier. AI doesn’t apply static techniques for SEO; rather, it keeps on evolving according to the latest trends, algorithms, and consumer requirements. Nowadays, almost all the search engines are largely using artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques for improvement in user experience.
AI is very beneficial for eliminating the black hat SEO practices. It identifies the duplicate and spammed content and analyses the unrelated keyword stuffing. Moreover, AI is a great tool for voice search optimization. It can be said that AI is affecting the future of SEO positively and creating more opportunities for better search engine optimization. AI techniques are providing great advantages to future SEO, resulting in an evolution in digital marketing techniques and strategies.
Further, AI is also helpful for marketers to form a better content strategy for marketing purposes. It helps the content creators and digital marketers for a better reach towards their target audience. AI also helps marketers to understand their customer behavior.
The applications of AI will impact the future of SEO in the following ways:
Video Content Optimization
Video suggestions have become common nowadays. AI is a tool great for the improved analysis of images and other visual content. It uses different optimization factors to improve and gain traffic on YouTube and other visual content sites. These optimization factors include the description, video length, keywords, tags, etc.
Web Optimization
AI is making web optimization easy with mobile and voice search. According to the latest research data, it is observed that most of the searches are done through smartphones and voice searches. This creates a better opportunity for businesses and content creators to make their content more user-friendly for a better reach.
Search Ranking Factors
Earlier, keyword density used to be the most important factor for search engine optimization. But with the introduction of artificial intelligence, the quality and context of the content have become more important search ranking factors.
It focuses on the value and the knowledge of the content. Google and other search engines compare the content of different websites on the same niche before ranking them.
Relevant Link Building
Along with the quality of content, the quality of backlinks is also necessary for search engine optimization. Search engines analyze the number of people reading and spending time on your blog through your backlinks. Hence, providing quality and relevant backlinks is an important factor for SEO. SEO professionals should ensure to provide the backlinks from similar content sources for a better ranking.
Conclusion
SEO is one of the most competitive career options today. So, if you are looking forward to making a career as an SEO professional, you should focus on improving your skillset. Standing out of the crowd as an SEO expert requires a lot of practice and knowledge about the latest SEO trends. Nowadays, SEO is not just about generating links; it’s much more than that. You need to continuously work on your skillset to understand and optimize the creative strategies of SEO. With the transformation of SEO, upgrading your skillset is the key to success.