SEO specialist: what is it, what does it do, salary and how to become one?

The SEO specialist has the mission to ensure that a website is well positioned in internet search engines. In this article, we’ll explain how he does it and what are the steps to follow in this career.

You’ve probably already used Google to do some kind of research. There are also high chances that you clicked on the first result you saw in the tool or that you did not get past the first page of suggested results.

This is one of the most common behaviors among search engine users. This is because the first result that appears on Google has a click-through rate of about 30%, while the second page of results is not visited by about 45% people.

This shows how important it is to have a website on the first page of search engine results, such as Google. This is precisely the mission of a professional SEO specialist .

Therefore, to understand a little better about what makes an SEO specialist and how to become such a professional, we consulted Amit MM , tutor of the SEO course at EBAC.

What is SEO and what is it for?

SEO, or search engine optimization , can be defined as a set of techniques and best practices that seek to improve the positioning of websites on search engine results pages such as Google and Bing.

We use SEO because every time a user does a search, a platform like Google displays a ranking with results that match that search. The platform itself organizes these results from the “best”, that is, the most relevant to the search, to the worst, in this case the least relevant but still connected to the question.

However, this classification is done by the platform automatically, through “little robots” that scour the internet and analyze practically all websites in search of information that they understand as relevant to the searches.

SEO techniques consist of including on websites precisely this information that search engine robots need to find in order to classify your website as relevant for certain searches.

Our tutor, Lica Ornelas, also highlights the importance of content quality as part of SEO techniques. Content that meets the needs of “Google robots”, but which lacks coherence and generates a good user experience, is not beneficial to the site and may receive penalties from Google.

What is an SEO specialist?

The person specializing in SEO is responsible for knowing how search engines work, what are the best practices and the correct techniques to make a website have a good ranking on these platforms.

Therefore, the SEO specialist is the one who plans and applies these techniques and good practices on websites and their contents. In addition, this professional must also monitor the performance of the sites, being able to identify any need for improvement so that the site rises in the ranking.

What Should I Know to Become an SEO Expert?

The professional SEO specialist works within the marketing team and is directly related to writing, strategy and content production. Therefore, anyone who wants to be an expert in SEO must master some knowledge of marketing and writing to work in the area.

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This should, in fact, be the central learning focus of anyone who wants to be an SEO specialist. In order to master the techniques that will make a website occupy the best positions on the results pages, it is necessary to know well how search engines work and what they look for in websites to place them in the best results.

This is a very important part of the job, as platforms like Google are always undergoing updates. Therefore, what is considered an essential factor for good ranking today may no longer be relevant in a future update.

By understanding how search engines work and what the company’s goals are, the SEO specialist can conduct research properly and develop strategic plans to optimize the company’s positioning in search engines.

content marketing

Content marketing is based on the concept of producing content to inform, educate and entertain users. For example, this very article you are reading now could be part of a content marketing strategy. The goal is for users to start to see relevance in your brand for certain subjects and, at some point, consider purchasing your products or solutions.

Here, SEO techniques are used both for content planning, identifying the best opportunities for terms and keywords that can be advantageous for the company, and for content production, using the best formatting and text composition.

In this sense, we can think of a CRM software company . In content planning, she should conduct a search for terms related to her product that can be addressed in the content. Already in execution, your content should take into account these terms, their distribution through the content and how the text is structured.

Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing , also known as attraction marketing, is a type of strategy that seeks to make the customer look for the company, instead of the company going to the customer, as in more traditional marketing practices.

Traditional marketing normally uses more invasive campaigns that seek to create a need in their customers, such as commercials on television programs or advertisements in magazines. Inbound , on the other hand , seeks to present information, so that the user discovers that he has a need that can be solved with the services offered by the company.

Its actions are also based on the production of content, such as blog texts, e-books , e-mails, among other types of content that make sense for the company. In fact, content marketing is one of the strategies used in inbound marketing . Many say that content marketing is the fuel for inbound .

The concepts of SEO, content marketing and inbound marketing tend to always appear together as they complement each other. Therefore, anyone who wants to work as an SEO specialist must understand very well about the three subjects.

Tools that will help you in your daily life as an SEO specialist

Nowadays, the professional who works with SEO can count on the support of several tools in his day to day. In fact, many of these tools are free, or have free plans, and make all the difference in planning and monitoring performance with data and reports.

In a previous article, we listed the 14 best SEO tools in 2023 , explaining a little better about each of the tools most used by professionals in the field. Below we separate some recurring demands of a specialist who benefit greatly from the use of these tools.

keyword search

Finding the ideal keywords to work on in your content and tracking your performance for searches with these terms is a fundamental part of the work of an SEO specialist.

This task involves identifying the search volume for this term, how many companies are using it and analyzing the level of competition, finding related or similar terms that may also be relevant, and even identifying whether your site has terms that stand out.

All of this can be done with the help of some tools, such as Google’s Keyword Planner , Ubersuggest and Semrush .

Analysis of the company and the competition

Benchmarking your company’s performance against the competition is an important part of an SEO specialist’s job. That way, you can track what can be improved to gain better positions in search engines, new content opportunities and what is going well.

Remembering that in the case of SEO, your competitors are the sites and brands that work with the same keywords as you, which does not mean that they are, necessarily, the same brands that compete in the same market as your company.

For this demand, it is possible to use tools such as Google Analytics , Google Search Console , Ahrefs and WooRank .

Content trends

Topics that are trending, that have high search volume, are also important topics in terms of SEO. For example, it is normal for subjects about sports to be on the rise in the year of the Olympics, or for subjects about cinema and entertainment to be addressed at the time of awards such as Oscars and Golden Globes.

Keeping up with trends that relate to your audience and the subjects you address in your content is a way to produce new content, with topics that are trending and can generate good engagement.

To monitor these trends, it is possible to use tools such as Google Trends or Google Alerts .

How much does an SEO specialist make?

Although it is not a recent practice, nowadays there are more and more companies looking for professionals who are specialists in SEO to help compose the teams that elaborate their marketing strategies.

According to the Glassdoor platform, for SEO analyst positions the average salary is $3,000, while for SEO specialist positions the average salary is approximately $5,800.

How to become an SEO expert?

Working with search engine optimization requires, as we have seen, a lot of technical knowledge about search engines and text production. In addition, you also need to develop analytical skills to understand what data about a site or keyword performance means.

These technical knowledge and skills can be developed over time through study, practice and experience. For example, in the EBAC SEO course , over 3 months you have the opportunity to learn about website optimization, developing SEO strategies, working with content, driving high quality traffic and creating visual reports through classes theoretical and practical exercises to fix the content.

You can also take your first steps by consulting information that search engines themselves or professional support tools provide for those who are starting out, such as the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Guide for Beginners that Google provides.