Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a continual process of making a website more noticeable to search engines and ultimately driving more traffic towards it. Since a lot of businesses are heading online to increase their audience and promote new products, implementing techniques to drive organic traffic to their website or social media becomes important.
SEO employs various techniques to go higher up on SERP(Search Engines Result Page) and generate pageviews. There are various metrics with which we can convert the visitors who go through the buyers funnel and successfully turn into a sales lead.
Why does SEO work though? The simple answer is data. With the use of Google Analytics and a host of SEO tools (SERPelevator, Ahrefs, SEMrush, etc) we can literally track who visits, from where, how they engage & what makes them click on the call to action (for eg, buy, subscribe).
For an online generation, a career in SEO looks like a safe bet. Because the number of websites that want people to visit them isn’t going down any time soon. We suggest you get hands-on with the best SEO certification possible and get right into it.
There are a variety of certifications that get you familiarized with the tools and techniques of SEO, both free and paid. Let’s take a quick look at them.
Best SEO Certificates in 2022
- SEO Training Certification Course By HubSpot Academy – Beginner to Intermediate (Free)
- Google Analytics Academy – Beginner to Intermediate (Free)
- SEMrush Academy’s SEO courses – Beginner to Advanced (Free)
- SEO Starter Guide by Google – Advanced (Free)
- Search Engine Optimization Specialization at Coursera – Beginner to Intermediate (Paid)
- The Blueprint Training – Advanced (Paid)
Taking courses on SEO will help you get your foot in the door. The real test lies with its application. We suggest you check the SEO metrics of some websites to get to know what they’re doing right and where they’re going wrong.
Your best bet on getting practical experience is either starting your own website or getting into an SEO internship in the beginning of your career. Being an intern will give you the exposure to learn from the best.
There are various stages that an SEO career aspirant will see in their lifetime. With more experience and the skills acquired along the way, your earning potential will invariably rise. From the beginning as an intern to an SEO Director, your income could go from 10k per month to 1.5 lacs per month.
Multiple variants including the size of your organization, years of experience, particular skill set, knowledge of a wide range of tools, etc will decide how much you get paid. We will take a look at the SEO designation ladder. .
Designation | Salary (per month) |
SEO Intern | Upto 15k |
SEO Executive | 20-25k |
SEO Analyst | 25-32k |
SEO Specialist | 30-35k |
SEO Consultant | 30-50k |
SEO Trainer | 55-65k |
SEO Manager | 45-55k |
SEO Director | 1-1.5 lacs |
To really understand what the responsibilities of each of these designations are, we need to take a deep dive into their roles within an organization. And we will do just that.
SEO Intern – The first step towards a career in SEO can be as demanding as it seems easy. As a newbie, you’ll be expected to absorb all the knowledge you can from the SEO team. It’s time to match what you learned, in theory, to watch it take place in practice. An intern might be assigned simpler tasks like writing SEO blogs, working on off-page SEO (for eg, sharing, promoting content).
SEO Executive – Ranking only above the intern, an SEO executive can be held responsible for slightly more advanced functions depending on the organization. This might include analyzing the content for optimization, conducting on-page SEO(keyword visibility, writing the title, description, and meta description) & off-page SEO(commenting, sharing, and promoting content).
SEO Analyst – The key skills required for an SEO analyst are networking, the capacity to analyze data and implement various SEO techniques. Depending on how large an SEO team within the organization is, an SEO analyst would be responsible for looking over SEO executives, conducting thorough keyword research, monitoring website traffic, backlinking, keeping up with SEO best practices, etc.
SEO Specialist – This is a position of responsibility. An SEO specialist is expected to keep up with the ins and outs of organic web traffic. They are also responsible for SEO campaigns like pay per click, display ads, etc, and coordinating with any third party to get the best result. They are expected to have basic knowledge of programming to ensure a better user experience and coordinate with the developers to make that happen.
SEO Consultant – They are consultants within a digital marketing agency who will coordinate with the clients to drive organic traffic, ensure UX, conversion rates, run sponsored advertising campaigns, etc. They are responsible for employing a range of SEO and analytical tools to create more brand engagement and generate leads online.
SEO Trainer – As the name suggests, an SEO trainer will act as a mentor to the team. They make sure that the entire is onboard with the latest SEO trends and hands-on with the necessary tools. They will also access the performance of campaigns and try to make improvements wherever required.
SEO Manager – Required to have an in-depth knowledge of SEO techniques and organic traffic, an SEO manager stands ahead of the entire SEO to lead them towards a common goal. They will also monitor the success of campaigns and carry out various managerial functions within the team such as leading review meetings and tracking employing performance.
SEO Director – This is a leadership position, an SEO director is the captain of the ship. They take ultimate responsibility for all successes and failures of their team. Their job includes seeing through the achievement of set goals and being answerable to higher management and stakeholders.
These are the general roles and responsibilities along with their expected salary. All this might differ from organization to organization, country to country, and even city to city. In any case, a career in SEO is the right choice as a high-demand position in a highly digitalized world.