In 2022, no business can ignore SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) in its digital marketing strategy.
Just the first five organic results on the first page of Google receive 68% of clicks from potential customers. This means that no matter how good your other marketing and social media campaigns are, conversion rates will remain low if your site doesn't rank highly on search engines.
That's why SEO Managers devote their careers to making sure pages are optimised to show up when people search for them.
These professionals in search engine marketing are responsible for planning and managing SEO strategy. They might be employed by a marketing agency which creates strategies for clients, or they might work in-house at a company. While some SEO Managers' day-to-day job descriptions and skills may vary, their overall goal is to increase search traffic to a website, build brand awareness, and ultimately increase the conversion rate.
You might be reading this article because you're questioning whether to hire an SEO Manager for your business. Or, alternatively, you might be interested in starting your own career working in the SEO industry. Either way, this article will tell you everything you need to know about the skills of SEO Managers and how their job contributes to marketing and business strategies.
So, let's get started.
What types of SEO does an SEO Manager do?
For an SEO marketing campaign, there are three main categories of SEO that managers perform in their jobs:
On-page
On-page SEO consists of both content and technical SEO, it is essentially everything that you can control on your website to ensure it performs on search engine results pages (SERPs). As on-page SEO is such a huge topic, we’ll discuss technical SEO in its own section later on.
From a content perspective, on-page SEO is all about the content of the web pages that people and search engines see. It consists of optimising pages using relevant keywords so that it will rank highly on search engines when people search for these keywords.
There are a few different aspects of SEO on-page that an SEO Manager will practise in their job.
Creating a content strategy
Content marketing refers to the content a business makes that creates value for the reader and potential customer. A SEO-friendly content marketing strategy is all about establishing your business' website as a source of trust and quality content in the eyes of potential customers and search engines.
Google (and other search engines) consider many ranking factors which determine where it shows your business on its results page. To rank highly, your page needs to satisfy search intent (in other words, show your readers what they wanted to find when they pressed 'search'). It also needs to seem like a reliable and trustworthy source of information to the search engine.
One skill required in SEO is using keywords to optimise the content on a page. By using keywords and linking to other authoritative websites, SEO professionals can boost pages' rankings in SERPs.
To do this, SEO Managers might use software such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console to perform keyword research and analyse how pages are ranking for them. Keyword research is the process of determining which keywords a business should try to rank for.
Keyword research is useful for determining the SEO strategy which might include updating and optimising existing content, creating new blog and landing page content aimed at targeting different keywords. For example, your Leeds-based phone repair business has less chance of ranking highly for 'phone repair', but targeting more specific keywords like 'broken phone Leeds' will likely be more successful.
An SEO Manager might write content for the client's website themselves, or they might create the briefs and strategies for staff copywriters.
Adding keywords to metadata
Another place where keywords can be used to optimise the page is in its metadata. Metadata is information about what is on your page and is used by search engine crawlers to understand what your page is about.
This includes the meta description, which does not show up on the page itself but is the text you see under the title and URL when a page shows up on Google. It also includes image alt tags, which tell search engines what your images are, and title tags. An outdated practice is using meta keyword tags, which would place the focus term of your page in the coding of a page, but this is no longer supported by Google and other search engines.
SEO specialists pick keywords to put in the metadata so search engines can better understand the content of the website and show it when people search for those keywords.
Optimising URLs
One job that is part of on-page SEO strategy is to optimise URLs. People and search engines prefer when URLs are clean and simple, using keywords that relate to the content of the page, separated by hyphens. If a page URL is filled with random letters and numbers, this is something that SEO specialists will address because it doesn't tell searchers or crawlers what the page is about.
Utilising internal linking
Internal linking means links from one page of your website to other pages on your website. Links between your home page and different sections of your site such as product catalogue and blog are useful for users navigating the website. You may also have links between content on your site - these are called contextual links.
These links don't just help human users navigate your website. Linking to different pages allows search engine crawlers to index your site. If there are more links to particular pages, search engines will understand that these are the most important pages on your site. All of these elements help search engine algorithms determine where your site should appear in the ranking.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO means optimising everything about the website that isn't the content itself. This job can involve optimising:
- User interface
- User experience
- Page loading speed
- 404 errors and redirects
- How easy it is for search engines to crawl and index
- Whether it's mobile-friendly
Technical SEO is as much about people's experience of a web page as it is about the search engines' experience of the page. SEO Managers use technical SEO to make websites as accessible as possible to people and search engines.
Off-page
Off-page SEO is essentially your online reputation. A lot of off-page SEO is not in your control as it relies on external elements. A fruitful off-page SEO practice is link building - encouraging other trustworthy websites to link to your site. This makes search engines see your site as trustworthy, too. These links are called backlinks because they 'link back' to your site.
How do SEO Managers secure links to a client's site on other reliable websites? There are a number tactics that SEO experts use in link building strategies:
- Creating content that is useful and informative for a particular niche so that other sites within that niche are likely to share it.
- Sharing content on social media to encourage sites to link to it on social media and their own sites.
- Reaching out to other publications or writers to write a guest blog on their site (linking back to the client's), or to ask them to write a guest blog on yours which they will link to.
This will also likely lead to shares on social media and their website.
However, this job isn't about securing as many links as possible. SEO Managers understand that not all backlinks are created equal. Google will see a link from a reputable, well-established website as more favourable than a link on a brand new or scammy-looking site. Consequently, the high-quality backlink will have a better impact on your site's ranking in search engine results pages.
What other skills does an SEO Manager need?
There are various SEO careers. An SEO Specialist may do all of the above, but after a few years experience they might graduate to the role of SEO Manager where there are some additional roles and responsibilities added to the job description. The best SEO experts will combine their specific SEO skills with other skill sets that help in their career path.
SEO Managers need to be well-rounded because their job requires working closely with clients to manage teams in addition to using their specific SEO skills.
Here are some of the other skills and competencies an SEO manager might need in their job:
Communication
SEO Managers need to have great written and spoken communication skills. Why? No matter how good your SEO campaign is, it can take a while to show results. SEO managers therefore need to be good at presenting their strategies and results. They'll need to produce reports about the marketing campaigns to show clients or other departments how SEO is helping them meet their business goals. Therefore, being able to explain strategy clearly is a plus.
If the SEO Manager is working for an agency, communication skills are also vital for pitching strategies to prospective clients. It helps to have statistics and case studies up your sleeves, but a flair for communicating is always a plus.
Their role might also involve writing some content for clients' websites. They need good copywriting skills to write engaging guest content for clients' blog posts.
Managing
A good SEO Manager will combine their search engine optimisation skills with the skill of being a team manager. They need to direct a team's digital marketing strategy - delegating tasks, allocating resources, problem-solving, and making sure that deadlines are met.
More than an SEO Specialist, a manager job requires working with teams and clients to make sure that goals are being achieved. Therefore, good leadership and management skills are vital for the SEO Manager job.
Data analysis and analytics
SEO Managers will likely use sources like Google Analytics to look at metrics such as paid and organic search traffic and conversion rate. They might also use analytics tools to set SEO goals, create alerts, and analyse data.
Marketing
There's a lot of crossover between SEO and other types of digital marketing, so SEO Managers also have to be good marketers. This is because SEO is about businesses using their online presence to convert people into customers. Therefore, SEO managers need to be familiar with the target audience and their psychology: how do they think? What do they want? What do they search for?
PPC
PPC (pay-per-click) is another type of Search Marketing that an SEO manager might do. PPC works by bidding to show ads when a user types certain keywords into a search engine. PPC can instantly drive traffic to your site but it's less cost effective than SEO, so managers may suggest a combination of both for a business' digital campaigns.
IT expertise
The best SEO experts will have knowledge of HTML and CSS which they use to edit the technical features of the page. They might publish content on the website and do other website admin. While this expertise isn't always necessary to get a job in SEO, technical expertise is a huge benefit for people in SEO careers.
Keeping up with algorithms and trends
SEO Managers need to be adaptable. Search engine ranking factors change frequently so a career in SEO means being able to stay up-to-date with the ever-changing algorithms. In an SEO job, you have to be happy to keep experimenting with different SEO tactics because a change to a search engine algorithm can force you to change techniques.
How do you start your career as an SEO Manager?
Think a job in SEO might be for you? Here's where to start.
Education
There isn't a specific degree you need to get a job in SEO. Many SEO executives have degrees in business, communication, marketing, computer science, or IT. Some might also get a postgraduate qualification in digital marketing but these are not necessary to get a job in SEO.
Courses
If you're thinking about SEO as a career choice, there are many online courses in SEO marketing from providers like Google, LinkedIn Learning, and Coursera. There are also certified courses available from the Chartered Institute of Marketing and Institute of Data & Marketing. You can practise on your own website or blog to develop these technical skills for your career.
Working as an SEO specialist
You can work your way up to an SEO Manager position by starting in an entry-level SEO specialist or digital marketing job and then work your way up to a more senior SEO Manager job.
Where can I hire someone to manage SEO for my business?
We thought you'd never ask! Viaduct Generation are a team of SEO experts who can revolutionise your business' SEO strategy. We offer a range of SEO packages to boost your website's position in organic search.
Want to see what we can do as part of your marketing strategy? Our agency offers free, no-pressure website reviews so you can get an idea of how we can improve your position in search results.
If you're interested in chatting to our hands-on team of SEO experts, get in touch now.
