How To Kickstart Your SEO Career in 2024?

SEO is becoming increasingly important for digital businesses today. With over 90,000 search queries every second on Google, SEO is an integral part of creating visibility and growth for every business. As a recent graduate or young professional venturing out into a career in digital marketing, SEO could be a great niche field to explore.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization is the process of improving and tweaking different elements of websites to increase visibility on search engine pages. It drives more traffic to your website by increasing the quantity and quality of visitors through ‘non-paid’ strategies. The practice of SEO is all about understanding the target audience and the buyer personas. It involves predicting their search requirements, different content types that may be of interest to them and catering the value proposition to this audience.

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What do SEO professionals do on a daily basis?

The role of an SEO specialist is to drive and improve traffic to your company’s website through organic search results on a daily basis using prescribed best SEO practices. In order to achieve this objective, some of the major tasks which are carried out on a daily basis include:

• Keyword research to identify growing interest and trends for certain key terms
• Stay up to date with new SEO trends, patterns and algorithm changes
• Set up and maintain technical SEO infrastructure
• Generate content ideas and create SEO optimized content for the website
• Optimize the website performance
• Track SEO metrics to measure traffic, engagement, bounce rates, etc.
• Create link building strategies and opportunities

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What are the top reasons to pursue a career in SEO?

With the amount of internet and search use skyrocketing and many companies choosing to work remotely, there is a massive amount of interest and demand for SEO skills . As a fast-paced and growing industry, Here are some of the most important reasons to choose a career in SEO:

[fs-toc-omit]Increasing Web Traffic and Lead Generation

With a large number of search queries occurring every second, optimization of websites based on SEO best practices is extremely important to attract the right audience and gain visibility for your business. As one of the first customer touchpoints, the quality of SEO driven content will have a direct impact on the number of leads entering the marketing funnel. This is an integral part of the marketing strategy and makes SEO team members irreplaceable.

[fs-toc-omit]Marketing for a Niche

While SEO is a broad field under digital marketing, there are many smaller disciplines that require attention and provide scope to become a niche specialist. From technical SEO, international SEO, analytics and monitoring, creative and content, strategy and planning, these are all good options to pursue and build your career path.

[fs-toc-omit]High Demand for SEO Professionals

SEO is one of the most sought after skills within the field of digital marketing especially for young professionals and recent graduates. Expertise in technical SEO site setup, UX and web design, creative content writing, backlink creation, performance data analysis, etc are some of the important core skills required as a SEO professional.

[fs-toc-omit]Lucrative Compensation Packages 

As an in-demand skill sought after by employers, SEO specialists make between $45k – $65k on a yearly basis. These rates may differ based on the country of employment, company size, industry, etc but this is a good start for young professionals like yourself. Working as a freelancer could help you earn between $50-$150 per hour and this could vary depending on the complexity of projects. With some hands on experience and a portfolio of work, SEO could be a perfect specialty to build your career. 

[fs-toc-omit]Freelancing Opportunities and Remote Jobs

Becoming an SEO specialist will open up remote and freelance opportunities to build your portfolio and be compensated. With many freelance platforms like Upwork, Fiverr and Qureos, you could gain projects and work remotely from anywhere in the world.

Also learn, how to write your resume as an SEO Manager.

[fs-toc-omit]Continuous Learning and Improvement  

With major changes to search engine algorithms and new advancements happening within the field of SEO, there is scope to keep learning by staying up to date. It’s best to constantly learn through subject matter experts like Neil Patel and Backlinko and subscribe to their blogs, newsletters and other educational content.

What are some job positions available within the field of SEO?

Based on the size of the company and requirements, there may be many available positions under SEO. From super technical roles to creative ones, choosing this career opens up many opportunities for students and recent graduates. Check out open SEO jobs at Qureos portal.

Some of the popular designations along with a description and possible compensation packages are given below:

[fs-toc-omit]Technical SEO Specialist:

This role involves setting up, building and maintaining SEO optimized website infrastructure. From technical audits, site migrations, website speed/performance optimization and administration would be some of the major responsibilities. Technical SEO Specialist positions require technical expertise on coding software (HTML, CSS), sitemaps, schema markups, tag usage, etc.

Some of the popular roles within SEO are: Technical SEO specialists, SEO content writers, Local/International SEO specialists and SEO data analysts. 

[fs-toc-omit]SEO Content Writer 

The writer is responsible for creating well researched, valuable, engaging copy based on the various buyer personas for the business. Through keyword research and other SEO best practices, the copy should always be optimized for search engines and can include web or landing page content, blog posts, promotional marketing collateral, etc.

[fs-toc-omit]Local/International SEO Specialist 

This aspect of SEO will ensure that the content and website is optimized for highly localized searches and for international searches from different parts of the world. From creating visibility on local directories to translating content to different languages, this role is a great opportunity for recent graduates.

[fs-toc-omit]SEO Data Analyst 

The data analyst is responsible for gathering data on search programs through webmaster tools, monitor search performance results, A/B test different aspects to improve optimization, and derive insights from data.

How do you get started with SEO?

[fs-toc-omit]1. Certifications: 

If you’re interested in pursuing a career in SEO, the first step would be to learn as much as you can about this domain. There are many free courses available to help you get started with SEO like SEMRush Academy or Hubspot Academy. There are some paid certifications like Yoast SEO Training ($220) or Moz Academy — SEO Essentials Certificate ($595) as well.

[fs-toc-omit]2. Experience & Portfolio: 

After gaining some knowledge through SEO courses, the next step would be to focus on hands-on experience through freelance projects, internships and Qureos Projects. Finding a mentor to guide you along the way would help improve the quality of your work and help launch your career as a SEO specialist. If you're looking to become the most eligible candidate in any room with a stellar portfolio that is impossible to reject! Complete portfolio projects and showcase your expertise in any subject and fool-proof your application.

Build Your Work Portfolio via Qureos Projects

Good luck with kickstarting your career in SEO!