SEO jobs are booming.

The planetary SEO manufacture is projected to scope $157 cardinal by 2032.

(Up from $68 cardinal successful 2022.)

Why is this happening?

Businesses NEED skilled SEOs to vie successful the integer space.

And they’re consenting to wage apical dollar for that expertise (more connected that later).

In this post, you’ll learn:

• How to onshore your archetypal SEO occupation (even with zero experience)
• The skills you request to win successful SEO
• How to turn your vocation from entry-level to enactment roles
• Where to find the champion SEO occupation opportunities

Plus, adept tips from seasoned SEO professionals connected however to basal out.

But earlier we get into the how-to, let’s look astatine wherefore SEO is specified an charismatic vocation path.

Why Choose a Career successful SEO?

Is SEO worthy learning successful 2024?

Absolutely.

Here’s why:

High Demand for SEO Jobs

Are SEO jobs successful demand?

Well, determination are presently implicit 150,000 SEO jobs unrecorded connected LinkedIn worldwide close now:

And implicit 5 cardinal LinkedIn members person “SEO” successful their occupation title:

This means there’s plentifulness of request for SEO experts close now.

Those jobs wage well, too.

According to Indeed, SEO Specialists gain $64,314 connected average, with salaries topping retired astatine $109,005:

And an SEO Manager’s mean basal wage is $78,225 and tin emergence arsenic precocious arsenic $125,845:

Continuous Learning and Adaptability

A vocation successful SEO volition support you connected the cutting borderline of those strategies and tactics—whatever they extremity up being.

In the 2000s, SEOs were keyword stuffing and spinning up idiosyncratic blog networks (PBNs).

Now we’re competing against AI-generated contented for clicks successful hunt motor results pages (SERPs).

And much searches are happening connected YouTube and TikTok each day.

Who knows what SEO volition look similar successful the future.

What we bash cognize is that there’s ever going to beryllium a request for knowledge.

And determination volition ever beryllium selling strategies and tactics that assistance you seizure that demand.

Ample Career Growth Opportunities

There’s plentifulness of country to turn erstwhile you’ve got your ft successful the doorway of the SEO industry.

If you’ve got ambitions of climbing the firm ladder, your vocation way could look like:

1. SEO Strategist: Individual contributor executing the day-to-day SEO work
2. SEO Manager: Building, managing, and grooming a squad of SEO Strategists
3. Head of SEO: Setting the wide SEO strategy and managing a squad of SEO Managers
4. Vice President of Growth/Marketing: Overseeing the full SEO team—as good arsenic each different teams that autumn nether the growth/marketing umbrella
5. CMO: Leading a company’s full selling strategy—and full selling department

You’ll besides beryllium good placed to onslaught disconnected connected your ain arsenic a advisor oregon pivot to an adjacent industry—like paid media oregon merchandise marketing—at immoderate constituent on the way.

This means there’s plentifulness of country for maturation successful SEO jobs.

Ways to Advance Your SEO Career: Agency, In-House, oregon Consulting

There are typically 3 antithetic vocation paths you tin instrumentality successful SEO:

1. Working for an agency
2. Working in-house
3. Becoming a consultant

Each way comes with its ain pros and cons. Let’s explore.

Agency SEO

At an SEO agency, you’ll enactment connected galore lawsuit websites crossed antithetic industries. You’ll beryllium portion of a squad tackling divers SEO projects.

Pros

• Learn rapidly by tackling antithetic SEO problems
• Build a divers accomplishment set
• Work alongside experienced SEOs who tin mentor you

Cons

• Lower wage compared to in-house roles
• Limited lawsuit interaction, making it harder to physique brushed skills

In-House SEO

As an in-house SEO, you absorption connected 1 company’s website. You’ll enactment with different teams similar selling and improvement to amended the company’s online presence.

Pros

• Develop heavy expertise successful a circumstantial manufacture and tech stack
• Gain acquisition collaborating with teams extracurricular of the SEO silo
• Higher wage compared to bureau roles

Cons

• Exposed to little varied SEO problems, meaning your hard skills mightiness not turn arsenic fast
• Potentially pigeonholed into a definite role, specified arsenic ecommerce SEO oregon local SEO

SEO Consulting

SEO consultants enactment for themselves, helping aggregate clients with their SEO needs. You’ll grip everything from SEO strategy to uncovering caller clients.

Pros

• Dramatically increases the magnitude you tin gain arsenic an idiosyncratic contributor
• Allows you to take which projects you enactment on—and which you walk on
• Completely autonomy connected wherever you enactment and however agelong you enactment for

Cons

• Need to find—and keep—your ain clients
• Managing sales, marketing, operations, and accounting yourself—while besides doing each the work

Where to Find SEO Roles

Wondering however to find SEO jobs?

The 2 champion ways to find SEO roles are done occupation boards and your network.

Here’s however to get the astir from each:

Use Job Boards

There are wide occupation boards, similar LinkedIn Jobs and Indeed. And determination are specializer occupation boards, similar SEOjobs.com.

Using some volition springiness you the champion accidental of uncovering the close occupation for you.

For example, a speedy hunt connected LinkedIn Jobs and Indeed is simply a large mode to recognize what SEO jobs are disposable successful your country close now.

Some bully hunt presumption to usage are:

“SEO analyst”

“Technical SEO”

“SEO specialist”

“SEO manager”

It’s a bully thought to acceptable up email alerts for these presumption truthful you’re updated each clip an SEO occupation goes unrecorded you mightiness beryllium funny in.

Searching specializer occupation boards similar SEOjobs.com is besides a astute strategy.

This targeted attack tin heighten your chances of uncovering opportunities that align intimately with your acquisition and vocation goals.

Build Your Network

SEO is nary antithetic from immoderate different industry.

A batch of the time, you land a occupation due to the fact that of who you know, not what you know.

The much elder the role, the much existent this is.

For instance, you seldom spot a CMO oregon VP of SEO relation look connected a occupation board. Company leaders usually attack radical they already cognize and spot for those roles.

Here’s however to turn your web successful SEO:

Attend Conferences and Meetups

SEO conferences and section meetups are 1 of the astir effectual ways to turn your network.

You conscionable can’t bushed gathering different SEOs face-to-face.

For adjacent amended results, you mightiness privation to instrumentality a leafage retired of SEO advisor Nick LeRoy’s publication and put your ain meetup astir the event.

Get Involved with Online Communities

Want to rapidly physique the benignant of relationships that tin alteration your career?

Join an SEO community.

One notable illustration is Traffic Think Tank (TTT), a backstage SEO community.

Joining the conversations going connected successful communities similar TTT is different large mode to physique your web and enactment connected apical of what’s happening successful SEO.

Plus, it’s a large penetration into the struggles top-level SEOs are facing, and however they’re overcoming them.

Post connected Social Media

You tin besides turn your web by posting astir what you’re learning astir connected LinkedIn and X (formerly known arsenic Twitter).

This tin beryllium scary—especially erstwhile you consciousness similar you’re inactive conscionable learning SEO.

But truthful overmuch bully tin travel from hopping connected to LinkedIn and saying thing like, “I was looking astatine our website’s Google Search Console aft our migration. Here’s thing I learned.”

Nervous astir sharing your thoughts connected societal media?

That’s perfectly normal.

Essential Skills and Tools for a Successful SEO Career

To win arsenic an SEO, you request to cognize however to optimize a tract for search.

Plus, you’re going to request to beryllium capable to get buy-in connected your strategies.

Not to notation collaborate efficaciously with the teams who’ll request to assistance you execute those strategies.

Here’s a person look astatine immoderate of the skills you’ll request successful an SEO career:

Keyword Research

Understanding search intent and identifying high-value keywords are foundational to immoderate palmy SEO strategy.

Gain proficiency successful tools similar Ahrefs, Semrush, and Google Keyword Planner to maestro this skill.

Consider taking Semrush Academy’s Step-by-Step Keyword Research Course oregon Moz’s Keyword Research Certification for a deeper dive into keyword probe techniques.

On-Page SEO

To unafraid a apical spot successful Google results, your contented needs to screen everything searchers are funny about.

It should efficaciously show Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).

Additionally, optimizing for featured snippets and secondary keywords is essential.

Don’t hide to trade compelling rubric tags and meta descriptions that thrust clicks.

Check retired our definitive usher to on-page SEO to research this process.

Site Audits

You’ll request to larn however to usage a web crawler similar Screaming Frog oregon Sitebulb—or Semrush and Ahrefs’s tract audit tools—to audit a site’s SEO performance.

Plus, you’ll request to analyse the information disposable to you successful Google Search Console (GSC) and Google Analytics.

You tin notation to our 18-step SEO tract audit checklist to larn however to audit a tract rapidly and effectively.

An SEO rival investigation volition uncover which hunt optimization strategies and tactics are moving for your competitors—and which aren’t.

These insights volition assistance you reverse technologist your competitions’ palmy strategies, capitalize connected immoderate opportunities they’ve missed, and prioritize which keywords and topics to target.

Tools similar Semrush, Ahrefs, and Moz volition assistance you rapidly analyse your competitors’ hunt performance.

They’ll uncover which keywords they’re ranking for, which pages are ranking for them, and however they’ve earned their backlinks.

Read our usher to performing an SEO rival analysis to recognize the strategies and techniques utilized by top-ranking sites.

How to Stand Out successful SEO Job Applications

You’ve recovered the cleanable SEO job.

It’s clip to propulsion unneurotic an application.

Here’s what you tin bash to acceptable yourself isolated from the remainder of the radical who’ve applied for the job.

Show Your Passion for SEO

Be definite to item thing you’ve done to experimentation with what you’ve learned astir SEO successful your resume.

The projects you motorboat don’t request to rack up millions of views oregon marque you thousands of dollars a month.

Nick’s blog didn’t.

Employers privation to spot that you’re not conscionable passively speechmaking astir SEO tactics—you’re actively applying them successful real-world scenarios

Showcase Specific SEO Achievements

As SEOs, we person nonstop entree to the information that shows however large of an ROI our campaigns drive.

We tin showcase the results we’ve driven done postulation graphs:

Screenshots of wherever our contented is ranking successful the SERPs:

And adjacent the gross you’ve driven done Organic Search successful Google Analytics:

Include this information successful your resume to instantly show your hands-on acquisition delivering existent results.

Highlight SEO Certifications and Tool Proficiency

It’s a large positive for an leader if you’re proficient successful the tools successful their tech stack.

So, database each the SEO tools you’re acquainted with successful your resume.

It’s besides good worthy mentioning immoderate SEO certifications you’ve earned implicit the years.

Anything from a GA4 certification to the courses you’ve completed successful the Semrush Academy are worthy mentioning here.

Applying for a relation that requires a accomplishment you don’t have?

Find and instrumentality a applicable people earlier the interrogation to amusement you’re anxious to larn it.

How to Stay Updated successful the Ever-Changing World of SEO

There are immoderate SEO fundamentals that haven’t changed successful decades.

But each algorithm update changes what it takes to deed the apical of the SERPs.

This means you request to support connected apical of what’s happening if you privation to win arsenic an SEO.

Here are immoderate of our favourite resources for staying connected apical of the SEO strategies and tactics that enactment close now:

Newsletters

Subscribing to a fistful of SEO newsletters volition assistance support you connected apical of what’s happening successful SEO.

A fewer of our favorites astatine Backlinko are:

• #SEOFOMO for keeping up with the biggest SEO news
• Core Updates for actionable SEO tips
• Rich Snippets for the latest developments successful tech SEO

Blogs

SEO blogs are large if you’re looking to instrumentality a heavy dive into a caller topic.

Some of our favorites:

• Backlinko publishes broad guides connected each aspects of SEO to assistance you level up your skills
• Detailed offers insights into effectual SEO strategies utilized by large brands dominating the SERPs
• The Semrush blog covers a wide scope of topics, including SEM, PPC, and contented marketing, alongside SEO

Podcasts

Podcasts are different large mode to spell deeper into a topic.

We recommend:

• Search Off The Record for the Google’s Search Relations team’s instrumentality connected the latest changes to SEO
• SEO 101 for adjuvant accusation for beginners that doesn’t overwhelm you with method details
• The SEO Mindset for guidance connected however to navigate a palmy vocation successful SEO

Additional Learning Strategies

It’s good worthy keeping an oculus connected the large 3 SEO subreddits: r/SEO, r/bigseo, and r/TechSEO.

This volition assistance you enactment up to day with what different SEOs are reasoning astir and moving on.

It’ll besides assistance you support up with the latest trends—such arsenic innovative strategies and what their tech stack looks like:

Take the Next Step successful Your SEO Career

A vocation successful SEO tin beryllium fulfilling—if you instrumentality the close steps on the way.

By applying these tips, you’ll beryllium well-prepared to onshore your archetypal SEO relation and physique a palmy career.

Ready to instrumentality the adjacent step?

Brush up connected the astir communal SEO interrogation questions truthful you’re afloat prepared erstwhile you unafraid that interview.

The station SEO Jobs: How to Build a Career successful Search Marketing appeared archetypal connected Backlinko.