SEO Jobs: How to Build a Career in Search Marketing

SEO jobs are booming.

The global SEO industry is projected to reach $157 billion by 2032.

(Up from $68 billion in 2022.)

Why is this happening?

Businesses NEED skilled SEOs to compete in the digital space.

And they’re willing to pay top dollar for that expertise (more on that later).

In this post, you’ll learn:

• How to land your first SEO job (even with zero experience)
• The skills you need to succeed in SEO
• How to grow your career from entry-level to leadership roles
• Where to find the best SEO job opportunities

Plus, expert tips from seasoned SEO professionals on how to stand out.

But before we get into the how-to, let’s look at why SEO is such an attractive career path.

Why Choose a Career in SEO?

Is SEO worth learning in 2024?

Absolutely.

Here’s why:

High Demand for SEO Jobs

Are SEO jobs in demand?

Well, there are currently over 150,000 SEO jobs live on LinkedIn worldwide right now:

And over 5 million LinkedIn members have “SEO” in their job title:

This means there’s plenty of demand for SEO experts right now.

Those jobs pay well, too.

According to Indeed, SEO Specialists earn $64,314 on average, with salaries topping out at $109,005:

And an SEO Manager’s average base salary is $78,225 and can rise as high as $125,845:

Continuous Learning and Adaptability

A career in SEO will keep you on the cutting edge of those strategies and tactics—whatever they end up being.

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

Now we’re competing against AI-generated content for clicks in search engine results pages (SERPs).

And more searches are happening on YouTube and TikTok every day.

Who knows what SEO will look like in the future.

What we do know is that there’s always going to be a demand for knowledge.

And there will always be marketing strategies and tactics that help you capture that demand.

Ample Career Growth Opportunities

There’s plenty of room to grow once you’ve got your foot in the door of the SEO industry.

If you’ve got ambitions of climbing the corporate ladder, your career path could look like:

1. SEO Strategist: Individual contributor executing the day-to-day SEO work
2. SEO Manager: Building, managing, and training a team of SEO Strategists
3. Head of SEO: Setting the overall SEO strategy and managing a team of SEO Managers
4. Vice President of Growth/Marketing: Overseeing the entire SEO team—as well as all other teams that fall under the growth/marketing umbrella
5. CMO: Leading a company’s entire marketing strategy—and entire marketing department

You’ll also be well placed to strike off on your own as a consultant or pivot to an adjacent industry—like paid media or product marketing—at any point along the way.

This means there’s plenty of room for growth in SEO jobs.

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

There are typically three different career paths you can take in SEO:

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

Each path comes with its own pros and cons. Let’s explore.

Agency SEO

At an SEO agency, you’ll work on many client websites across different industries. You’ll be part of a team tackling diverse SEO projects.

Pros

• Learn quickly by tackling different SEO problems
• Build a diverse skill set
• Work alongside experienced SEOs who can mentor you

Cons

• Lower pay compared to in-house roles
• Limited client interaction, making it harder to build soft skills

In-House SEO

As an in-house SEO, you focus on one company’s website. You’ll work with other teams like marketing and development to improve the company’s online presence.

Pros

• Develop deep expertise in a specific industry and tech stack
• Gain experience collaborating with teams outside of the SEO silo
• Higher pay compared to agency roles

Cons

• Exposed to less varied SEO problems, meaning your hard skills might not grow as fast
• Potentially pigeonholed into a certain role, such as ecommerce SEO or local SEO

SEO Consulting

SEO consultants work for themselves, helping multiple clients with their SEO needs. You’ll handle everything from SEO strategy to finding new clients.

Pros

• Dramatically increases the amount you can earn as an individual contributor
• Allows you to choose which projects you work on—and which you pass on
• Completely autonomy on where you work and how long you work for

Cons

• Need to find—and keep—your own clients
• Managing sales, marketing, operations, and accounting yourself—while also doing all the work

Where to Find SEO Roles

Wondering how to find SEO jobs?

The two best ways to find SEO roles are through job boards and your network.

Here’s how to get the most from each:

Use Job Boards

There are general job boards, like LinkedIn Jobs and Indeed. And there are specialist job boards, like SEOjobs.com.

Using both will give you the best chance of finding the right job for you.

For example, a quick search on LinkedIn Jobs and Indeed is a great way to understand what SEO jobs are available in your area right now.

Some good search terms to use are:

“SEO analyst”

“Technical SEO”

“SEO specialist”

“SEO manager”

It’s a good idea to set up email alerts for these terms so you’re updated every time an SEO job goes live you might be interested in.

Searching specialist job boards like SEOjobs.com is also a smart strategy.

This targeted approach can enhance your chances of finding opportunities that align closely with your experience and career goals.

Build Your Network

SEO is no different from any other industry.

A lot of the time, you land a job because of who you know, not what you know.

The more senior the role, the more true this is.

For instance, you rarely see a CMO or VP of SEO role appear on a job board. Company leaders usually approach people they already know and trust for those roles.

Here’s how to grow your network in SEO:

Attend Conferences and Meetups

SEO conferences and local meetups are one of the most effective ways to grow your network.

You just can’t beat meeting other SEOs face-to-face.

For even better results, you might want to take a leaf out of SEO consultant Nick LeRoy’s book and arrange your own meetup around the event.

Get Involved with Online Communities

Want to quickly build the kind of relationships that can change your career?

Join an SEO community.

One notable example is Traffic Think Tank (TTT), a private SEO community.

Joining the conversations going on in communities like TTT is another great way to build your network and stay on top of what’s happening in SEO.

Plus, it’s a great insight into the struggles top-level SEOs are facing, and how they’re overcoming them.

Post on Social Media

You can also grow your network by posting about what you’re learning about on LinkedIn and X (formerly known as Twitter).

This can be scary—especially when you feel like you’re still just learning SEO.

But so much good can come from hopping on to LinkedIn and saying something like, “I was looking at our website’s Google Search Console after our migration. Here’s something I learned.”

Nervous about sharing your thoughts on social media?

That’s perfectly normal.

Essential Skills and Tools for a Successful SEO Career

To succeed as an SEO, you need to know how to optimize a site for search.

Plus, you’re going to need to be able to get buy-in on your strategies.

Not to mention collaborate effectively with the teams who’ll need to help you execute those strategies.

Here’s a closer look at some of the skills you’ll need in an SEO career:

Keyword Research

Understanding search intent and identifying high-value keywords are foundational to any successful SEO strategy.

Gain proficiency in tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, and Google Keyword Planner to master this skill.

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

On-Page SEO

To secure a top spot in Google results, your content needs to cover everything searchers are curious about.

It should effectively demonstrate Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).

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

Don’t forget to craft compelling title tags and meta descriptions that drive clicks.

Check out our definitive guide to on-page SEO to explore this process.

Site Audits

You’ll need to learn how to use a web crawler like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb—or Semrush and Ahrefs’s site audit tools—to audit a site’s SEO performance.

Plus, you’ll need to analyze the data available to you in Google Search Console (GSC) and Google Analytics.

You can refer to our 18-step SEO site audit checklist to learn how to audit a site quickly and effectively.

An SEO competitor analysis will uncover which search optimization strategies and tactics are working for your competitors—and which aren’t.

These insights will help you reverse engineer your competitions’ successful strategies, capitalize on any opportunities they’ve missed, and prioritize which keywords and topics to target.

Tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, and Moz will help you quickly analyze your competitors’ search performance.

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

Read our guide to performing an SEO competitor analysis to understand the strategies and techniques used by top-ranking sites.

How to Stand Out in SEO Job Applications

You’ve found the perfect SEO job.

It’s time to pull together an application.

Here’s what you can do to set yourself apart from the rest of the people who’ve applied for the job.

Show Your Passion for SEO

Be sure to highlight anything you’ve done to experiment with what you’ve learned about SEO in your resume.

The projects you launch don’t need to rack up millions of views or make you thousands of dollars a month.

Nick’s blog didn’t.

Employers want to see that you’re not just passively reading about SEO tactics—you’re actively applying them in real-world scenarios

Showcase Specific SEO Achievements

As SEOs, we have direct access to the data that shows how big of an ROI our campaigns drive.

We can showcase the results we’ve driven through traffic graphs:

Screenshots of where our content is ranking in the SERPs:

And even the revenue you’ve driven through Organic Search in Google Analytics:

Include this data in your resume to instantly demonstrate your hands-on experience delivering real results.

Highlight SEO Certifications and Tool Proficiency

It’s a big plus for an employer if you’re proficient in the tools in their tech stack.

So, list all the SEO tools you’re familiar with in your resume.

It’s also well worth mentioning any SEO certifications you’ve earned over the years.

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

Applying for a role that requires a skill you don’t have?

Find and take a relevant course before the interview to show you’re eager to learn it.

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

There are some SEO fundamentals that haven’t changed in decades.

But every algorithm update changes what it takes to hit the top of the SERPs.

This means you need to keep on top of what’s happening if you want to succeed as an SEO.

Here are some of our favorite resources for staying on top of the SEO strategies and tactics that work right now:

Newsletters

Subscribing to a handful of SEO newsletters will help keep you on top of what’s happening in SEO.

A few of our favorites at Backlinko are:

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

Blogs

SEO blogs are great if you’re looking to take a deep dive into a new topic.

Some of our favorites:

• Backlinko publishes comprehensive guides on all aspects of SEO to help you level up your skills
• Detailed offers insights into effective SEO strategies used by major brands dominating the SERPs
• The Semrush blog covers a wide range of topics, including SEM, PPC, and content marketing, alongside SEO

Podcasts

Podcasts are another great way to go deeper into a topic.

We recommend:

• Search Off The Record for the Google’s Search Relations team’s take on the latest changes to SEO
• SEO 101 for helpful information for beginners that doesn’t overwhelm you with technical details
• The SEO Mindset for guidance on how to navigate a successful career in SEO

Additional Learning Strategies

It’s well worth keeping an eye on the big three SEO subreddits: r/SEO, r/bigseo, and r/TechSEO.

This will help you stay up to date with what other SEOs are thinking about and working on.

It’ll also help you keep up with the latest trends—such as innovative strategies and what their tech stack looks like:

Take the Next Step in Your SEO Career

A career in SEO can be fulfilling—if you take the right steps along the way.

By applying these tips, you’ll be well-prepared to land your first SEO role and build a successful career.

Ready to take the next step?

Brush up on the most common SEO interview questions so you’re fully prepared when you secure that interview.