I'm relatively new in my career and in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for 2-3 years. However when it comes to SEO, I don't feel like there's much more knowledge to be gained the longer you work in it. And I feel like it's too early for me to get stuck in an industry where you only focus on one thing. I feel like I should be diversifying my skills, it's simply too early for me to do the same thing forever. Especially in the corporate world I find the "corporate ladder" very limited.
SEO specialist > SEO manager > SEO director.. it's hard to justify the position growth when they all do the same thing
Anybody feel the same way with SEO? Any advice on what industries would make sense to transition to from SEO if one wanted to change? 31 💬🗨
bbax However when it comes to SEO, I don't feel like there's much more knowledge to be gained the longer you work in it. That's debatable. Personally, I question the things I do in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on a regular basis. Does this or that still work? Why am I doing this or that? and so on. Keeping an open mind and constantly trying to out-SEO myself. Trying to look at own projects without bias thinking how a competitor could beat my website and working on closing those gaps.
If you're interested enough in what you do, you will try to push yourself to get better at it. If you lack this feeling, you probably need to look for a new project to work on or completely switch industries.
If you feel like SEO itself is not for you, maybe look into demand gen. It's especially interesting in the B2B space. DaniSE I went from a position as an SEO specialist to one as an Ecommerce specialist. My SEO skills are still useful at the job, but it's not what I do every day. I now also plan and manage web development, marketing campaigns, build/edit landing pages, work with Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and User Experience (UX) and a lot of other tasks that has to do with ecom and marketing. The company I currently work for is B2B and provides products and services like IT for small and medium size companies.
Edit: I worked as a SEO specialist for about 8 years before I took on this position.
CriticalCentimeter I also haven't followed the single career path OP seems to think is open to them either. As you correctly point out, A good grounding in SEO sets you up well for any Head of Ecom/Ecom Director roles along with pretty much any Head of Digital type roles too. Depending on which part of SEO you specialise in, it can open up a lot more roles too – both creative and analytical/strategic.
Buxathon I felt the same after doing SEO for the past 2.5 years that's why I decided to learn a new skill without leaving SEO completely. Now I'm doing internship in performance marketing industry as a paid media specialist.
This way I'm not completely ditching SEO and also getting to improve my skills and abilities.
I decided to do this after seeing the "skills requirements" sections of various high paying job companies on LinkedIn.
In order to live peacefully with your work you need to have some challenges. This would only happen if you're learning something new.
Doing the same work on a daily basis for years without any other activities kind of makes a person sluggish. I experienced it personally…it might be different for different personalities. NotTedCassidy I was in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) from before Google, back in the Alta Vista days. Google was great when they got a foothold because those rings which were shit finally became useless.
My speciality was real estate and travel. Ran about 20 high ranking local real estate sites in the 00s to 11 that I rented out to local Realtors. 11 is when Zillow got indexed in all 50 states so that model started to tank.
I got fed up with SEO because you are never in control. It's sweeping and you're constantly sweeping. Some of the brokers have put their influence on me to get my RE license so I did that and I've been in RE since <year>. Been pretty happy with the divorce from Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
And the funny thing is, SEO isn't that important to the top realtors in the market because they already have their marketing in place. In fact, there are a handful of realtors that don't have great websites but an extensive sphere of influence.
SEO is toxic. Sometimes a necessary evil but I f'n hate it. yosifyonder This is comical. Search engines are constantly evolving. You should be learning new skills and tactics in perpetuity. Sounds like you don't really understand the full potential of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
There are starting to be many VP of SEO positions that make $200k+. I know for a fact that Getty Images and JP Morgan Chase both have Virtual Private Server (VPS) of SEO.
SEO is only going to become more relevant as time goes on. The earning potentials are unlimited if you are good at it.
But if you're not good at it maybe you should consider something else, or just work harder to try and learn more to become better.
neoneddy I don't exactly know what I am. I'm a small / solo practice designer, developer, SEO, content writer, photographer, vlogger, producer, crazy person.
I find SEO skills set informs so much of my other tasks. When I develop a website, I do it with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in mind from the beginning. I often times come into a project mid way or near the end and it's like "You know if you'd asked me earlier this would be 10x easier" . For my own clients, our sites perform well because I can't turn that part of my brain off. It often huts our monthly SEO business because they might not even see the need.
I guess what I'm saying is, try other adjacent roles, start working with the web dev team more, or the designers. Try and make SEO look, and perform well. Or get on the sales side of it, I always hated talking with uninformed sales people who promise the moon just to get a sale. As an experienced SEO, you can speak with authority and confidence others might not.
Or do something completely different. I just started a new venture myself, made myself my own client. Been kind of fun, and might be my next chapter. NamePearls There is a proverb like "first class train doesn't wait for third class passenger". This is really merciless proverb either. The truth is that it happened because we people do the easy things difficult. This SEO has born after birthing Search Engine. In simple honest sense, every content itself has own SEO – needn't conduct SEO either. But the race of competition has appeared in digital marketers mind because of hurry to reach to the customers fastest/faster.
So, investing knowledge in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is profitable while it helps to reach faster for monetizing the effort. PriceFree You're right If you are doing only SEO.
You must learn cms, AdWords (Google, Microsoft, Facebook & LinkedIn), little PHP to develop small applications like lead management, CRM, Budget Management. All gives you more strength to your profile.
After some years, you can play a role as Internet/ Digital Marketing Manager with team.
This is what my target after 2-3 years. I am enjoying everyday about my work and learning new things about the Internet Marketing!
If you do not want to all those, better you can move on full-stack development on any one of these .Net, JAVA or PHP. arhaan Okay, I have seen the comments here and this is what I have to say:
First, you have to understand what a skill is and how that is different from a tactic/trick. A skill is something you can do that is based on "established/grounded/foundational knowledge. Your skills will always drive results.
For example: Website development is a skill because: • It is based on established knowledge. • It drives results i.e you can make websites, always.
Another example of skill would be graphic designing because: • It is based on established knowledge. Principles of design. • You can always create designs. Because you possess that skill.
Tactics, on the other hand, are tricks and insights gained from continuous experimentation.
However, they don't always work as they are based on your "historical experience". There is no established knowledge behind tactics that always work.
If you consider SEO as "ranking of keywords" then I would put it in the tactics category. In the SEO industry, you are never going to gain "knowledge", you are going to gain tactics that might fail to work sometimes. This is the reason SEO is frustrating for people who have been more than a decade in the industry!
However, there are fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and I don't think it would take more than 5 months for anyone to master it.
So yes, you are right! There's a limit to the amount of knowledge you can gain and you will gain it in less than 6 months.
People who are commenting "search engine is changing, so there's a lot to gain" are not right. Because, sure, Search Engines are changing but you are only going to gain "some insights" after continuous frustrating experimentation. Even then you can gain an only a handful of tactics and not Knowledge! Because Knowledge helps you drive results, always!
People who are commenting "search engine is changing, so there's a lot to gain" are not right. Because, sure, Search Engines are changing but you are only going to gain "some insights" after continuous frustrating experimentation. Even then you can gain only a handful of tactics and not Knowledge! Because Knowledge helps you drive results, always!
Going back to what you should do.
Make a gentle switch to an industry where SEO can help you. For example, marketing analytics is a thing, or programming, or data science related industry or website management.
