How to Grow in Your First SEO Role

James Gibbons
Aug 31, 2018 · 4 min read

I didn’t study SEO in college, but my political science degree certainly taught me how to think critically. My first job out of college didn’t have anything directly to do with SEO as well; I was part of of a legal marketing startup at Lawyer.com. It wasn’t until I learned about SEO on the job that I developed my passion for the trade and it is my hope I can convey some lessons to those starting their own journey in the world of SEO (and no SEO is not dead).

This comes from the agency perspective as that is where learning can be exponential when you are starting your career. Having numerous clients means different websites, different keywords, each with their own story.

Fall in love with your client(s)

I don’t mean literally but you need to develop a passion for helping your client(s) achieve their goals. The best insights and recommendations are going to come from the expertise you develop as an SEO combined with knowledge from the client and their business goals.

Become a sponge

The first few weeks/months of any job are meant for learning and knowledge transfer. For entry-level SEO jobs you’ll normally be mentioned by a seasoned SEO. Use that time to learn and digest as much information as possible and at the same time ask questions. This will help accelerate learning and shows senior folks you are progressing with the trade.

Get your hands dirty

One of my firsts tasks working at an SEO agency was to write metadata; hundreds of pages of title tags, meta descriptions, h1 recommendations, and content expansion. While this type of activity can be automated now (hat tip to Paul Shapiro’s script for meta description creation), it shows work ethic and creates an opportunity to think outside of the box to automate tasks.

Furthermore, learning how to target a page with keywords will always be a timeless skill. It allows you to think strategically about any type of content produced online to understand if there is organic search keywords that could be a source of acquisition of content.

Don’t get overwhelmed with tools

There are a lot of them and they all do similar things. If you are at a smaller agency ahrefs or SEMrush will do wonders. If you are lucky enough to have a client that pays for Brightedge or Searchmetrics that’s cool too.

Learn that keywords are only a part of the equation. Having keyword ranks on page 2 and 3 are signs traffic is possible for example. Page 1 rankings always need to be taken with a grain of salt because Google is always changing.

With regard to links, no link tool has them all and its best to combine data from multiple sources especially for smaller sites.

Google will always be changing

When I first started out in SEO, Google showed every organic keyword and we can isolate keywords by conversions…..about a year later Google launched keyword not provided and encrypted all that data.

Search engine results pages will always be changing as well. Depending on your vertical certain keyword segments could be wiped out overnight. You’re best bet is to stay on top if this as much as possible and do manual keyword searches across a basket of core terms to see what is changing and be an expert for your client. The more you know about how Google is changing the better an SEO you will be.

Going from Agency to In-house

This is a situation unique for each SEO. The learning can be exponential in an agency environment but you don’t always get to follow through with your recommendations. I recommend you make the move to in-house when you truly acknowledge your expertise within yourself. In an in-house role you will truly be relied upon as an expert but also get the chance to become a t-shaped marketer that can jump from paid campaigns, email blasts, and back to SEO. The longer you wait to build your SEO knowledge before you jump to in-house the better in my humble opinion.

There you ago…a few tips for starting out with your first gig as an SEO. If you have any questions or looking for advice don’t be afraid to reach out….if you are looking for an in-house role and love to travel you can check out some openings at Skyscanner

This article was originally posted on LinkedIn.

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