What does a search engine optimization specialist do?

What is a Search Engine Optimization Specialist?

A search engine optimization specialist (or SEO specialist) is someone who analyzes a client's website and implements any necessary changes in order for it to be optimized for search engines. Search engine optimization specialists can be a company employee, an individual consultant, or can work for an SEO consulting firm. These specialists understand how to write specific SEO copy and have in-depth knowledge when it comes to keyword search. If a company (big or small) relies on web traffic for their sales or marketing, hiring a search engine optimization specialist is key to having a successful and profitable business.

What does a Search Engine Optimization Specialist do?

A company's website may look amazing, but if it isn't attracting targeted visitors and converting them into paying customers, then it's not doing its job and can actually have a negative impact on the business.

When reviewing a website, a search engine optimization specialist will identify the company's goals and understand who the target audience is. He or she will then put in place strategies to maximize traffic and improve search engine page rankings. This may be done by adding content that includes specific keywords or phrases, rewriting HTML title tags, fixing structural issues, obtaining quality in-bound links, testing website layouts, and experimenting with marketing and advertising techniques.

It is critical to the success of a business that the website conforms to the latest standards for SEO. Maintaining an understanding of what the search engines (especially Google) are using as criteria for SERP (the 'search engine results page') decides all of the design choices that are made.

A search engine optimization specialist needs to understand:
- marketing
- human psychology
- the social media landscape
- web design and development
- web analytics
- business models
- culture
- viral marketing
- content
- product

There are three tiers involved in search engine optimization, and a specialist approaches their strategy from all three angles to maximize success:

Technical
- involves the structure of a site, which determines how difficult or easy it is for a search engine to crawl and index a website's content

On-Page Optimization
- involves keywords, HTML tags, and original SEO copy that helps to increase traffic to a website

Off-Page Optimization
- involves the number and quality of links coming into a website

What is the workplace of a Search Engine Optimization Specialist like?

SEO improvement is imperative for any business or industry that conducts business online. There is an increased dependence on search engine optimization specialists to drive revenue for companies. This career seems to be poised for continued rapid growth in the coming years.

Search engine optimization specialists can be a company employee, an individual consultant, or can work for an SEO consulting firm. There has been a shift from marketing teams that are not that knowledgable in SEO, to increased reliance on specialized search engine optimization professionals.