Its always better to know in advance what you can expect from a career in SEO.
Some Good Reasons to Choose SEO as Your Career
1High demand for SEO services
Once SEO was not a separate
profession – Web masters performed some basic SEO for
the sites they managed and that was all. But as sites began to grow and make money, it
became more reasonable to hire a dedicated SEO specialist than to
have the Web master do it. The demand for good SEO experts is high
and is constantly on the rise.
2A LOT of people have made a successful SEO career
There are many living proofs that SEO is a viable business. The list is too
long to be quoted here but some of the names include Rob from
Blackwood
Productions, Jill Wahlen from High Rankings, Rand Fishkin from SEO Moz and many
others.
3Search Engine Optimizers make Good Money !
SEO is a profession that can be practiced while working for a company
or as a solo practitioner. There are many jobboards like Dice and
Craigslist that publish SEO job advertisements. It is worth noting that
the compensation for SEO employees is equal to or even higher than that
of developers, designers and marketers. Salaries over $80K per annum
are not an exception for SEO jobs.
As a solo SEO practitioner you can make even more money. Almost
all freelance sites have sections for SEO services and offers for $50
an hour or more are quite common. If you are still not confident that
you can work on your own, you can start a SEO job, learn a bit and then
start your own company.
If you already feel confident that you know a lot about SEO, you can take this quiz and see how you score. Well, don't get depressed if you didn't pass – here is a great checklist that will teach you a lot, even if you are already familiar with SEO.
4Only Web–Designing MAY NOT be enough
Many companies offer turn–key solutions that include Web
design, Web development AND SEO optimization. In fact, many clients
expect that when they hire somebody to make their site, the site will
be SEO friendly, so if you are good both as a designer and a SEO
expert, you will be a truely valuable professional.
On the other hand, many other companies are dealing
with SEO only because they feel that this way they can concentrate
their efforts on their major strentgh – SEO, so you can
consider this possibility as well.
5Logical step ahead if you
come from marketing or advertising
The Web has changed the way
companies do business, so to some extent today's marketers and
advertisers need to have at least some SEO knowledge if they want to
be successful. SEO is also a great career for linguists.
6Lots of Learning
For somebody who comes from design, development or web administration,
SEO might look not technical enough and you might feel that you will
downgrade if you move to SEO. Don't worry so much – you can learn a LOT
from SEO, so if you are a talented techie, you are not downgrading but
you are actually upgrading your skills packages.
7SEO is already recognized as a career
Finally, if you need some more proof that SEO is a great career, have a
look at the available SEO courses and exams for SEO practitioners.
Well, they might not be a CISCO certification but still they help to
institutionalize the SEO profession.
Some Ugly Aspects of SEO
1Dependent on search engines
It is true that in any
career there are many things that are outside of your control but
for SEO this is a rule number one. Search engines frequently change
their algorithms and what is worse – these changes are not
made public, so even the greatest SEO gurus admit that they make a
lot of educated guesses about how things work. It is very
discouraging to make everything perfect and then to learn that due
to a change in the algorithm, your sites dropped 100 positions down.
But the worst part is that you need to communicate this to clients,
who are not satisfied with their sinking ratings.
2No fixed rules
Probably this will change over time
but for now the rule is that there are no rules – or at least
not written ones. You can work very hard, follow everything that
looks like a rule and still success is not coming. Currently you
can't even rely on bringing a search engine to court because of the
damages they have done to your business because search engines are
not obliged to rank high sites that have made efforts to get
optimized.
3Rapid changes in rankings
But even if you somehow manage to get to the top for a particular keyword, keeping the
position requires constant efforts. Well, many other businesses are
like that, so this is hardly a reason to complain – except
when an angry customer starts shouting at you that this week their
ratings are sinking and of course this is all your fault.
4SEO requires Patience
The SEO professional and customers both need to understand that SEO
takes constant effort and time. It could take months to move ahead in
the ratings, or to build tens of links. Additionally, if you stop
optimizing for some time, most likely you will experience a considerable
drop in ratings. You need lots of motivation and patience not to give
up when things are not going your way.
5Black hat SEO
Black hat SEO is probably one of the
biggest concerns for the would–be SEO practitioner. Fraud and unfair
competition are present in any industry and those who are good and
ethical suffer from this but black hat SEO is still pretty
widespread. It is true that search engines penalize black hat
practices but still black hat SEO is a major concern for the
industry.
So, let's hope that by telling you about the pros and cons of
choosing SEO as your career we have helped you make an informed
decision about your future.