Becoming an SEO consultant: Responsibilities, job growth and tips for success

Nancy Jaiswal

SEO is responsible for driving organic traffic to a website Source: Wikimedia

What is SEO?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a method of driving organic traffic to one's website. In the contemporary era it is also referred to as an all inclusive digital marketing process to improve a website’s position among the results of search engines. 

Top notch search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing use sophisticated algorithms which use nearly a dozen different factors when ranking search results. As a result, a great deal of analysis and effort goes into the process of ensuring that search engines understand which of these results are the most relevant ones. This analysis and knowing what to do after is an integral part of the role of an SEO consultant. With more and more businesses taking their operations online, the field and related job opportunities are flourishing. Hence, a career in the field can turn out to be a promising one.  

Who is an SEO Consultant?

When you search for anything on a search engine - you are usually given a list of options, and you are likely to click on one of the first options available. The position that the websites are given in such lists is known as their rank. An SEO Consultant is responsible for planning, implementing and looking after an organisation’s overall SEO strategy to ensure its pages rank on search engines. 

The constant evolution of Google and other search engines means that new digital marketing strategies emerge every single day - and the solutions also need to be re-evauated constantly. Hence, a SEO consultant must have a range of skills at his or her disposal to deliver the best results. 

What are the overall responsibilities of an SEO Consultant?

SEO consultants occupy a strategic position in the marketing strategy for any brand. Some of the things that look after are:

• Planning and developing SEO Strategy
• Enhancing organic search optimization 
• Performing keywords research 
• Maintaining client relationships 
• Identifying Google Trends 

What are the job growth opportunities in the area of SEO?

Being an essential part of Digital marketing, SEO is highly in demand with future business operations. Today, a large part of marketing expenditure is slowly shifting from traditional media to organic and new age media options. 

As the digital industry continues to grow, SEO is becoming a vital means of bringing visitors to a website and nearly every organisation is spending a huge amount on it. In other words, this is an area that is projected to grow as will the job opportunities in it. A person with the expertise to deliver measurable SEO services will surely find the best offers and compensation packages in the market. 

What are some tips for success in the trade?

SEO can be a bright career option for you if you are dynamic and have great analytical skills. However, with more and more people entering the industry, there is also bound to be stiff competition. Here are a few tips that can help you to stand out:

• Possessing strong research skills - the ability to look through data and find ways to deliver the best SEO results can go a long way.
• Formulating clear and clever marketing strategies - when you formulate strategies that you and the rest of the team can effectively apply, you end up adding the most value
• Ability to make the websites mobile friendly - this is the need of the hour with a large section of the audience switching to mobile for their browsing needs
• Increasing off site visibility - on site SEO refers to those strategies which are implemented on one's own site to make it rank higher on search engines. A great SEO consultant has to also have sound knowledge and understanding of off site SEO, which is when SEO is used on third party sites to drive traffic to one's own website

To conclude, Search Engine Optimization is at once an art and a science. And an individual with the knowledge and skills required to make it work should definitely pursue it as a smart career option.