SEO: A Career with a Future - What is SEO?
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Basically, search engine optimization means making adjustments to a web site so that it scores high on the search engine results pages for particular key words and key phrases. This calls for making a variety of changes to the pages of a web site; some of these will be visible to those who view the site, and others won’t. But that’s only the beginning.
Since Google’s algorithm counts links to a web site from other sites as “votes” for that site, one of the jobs of an SEO is to build back links. There are a number of ways to do this, from buying links to soliciting reciprocal links; the rise of blogging, web 2.0, social search/bookmarking sites offer other ways of building back links. One tried-and-true method involves building “linkbait” – content that is so useful and compelling that visitors to your site naturally want to link to it and tell others.
The idea of linkbait brings up another point. Search engine optimization can embrace a number of skills. Creating good linkbait, for example, may require excellent writing skills, some programming skills (if your linkbait is interactive, like a mortgage calculator), and an intuitive knowledge of what visitors to your (or your client’s) web site would find useful. A good command of HTML and related skills for building web sites will also come in handy for any SEO.
Indeed, for those who argue that search engine optimization is simply a skill set, this is just the beginning. To quote one contributor to an SEO forum, “SEO is a skillset. Analytics is a skillset. Web Authoring/Publishing is a skillset. Paid Search Marketing is a skillset. Coding is a skillset. Web Design is a skillset (and an art). Business Analysis is a skillset. You need ALL of these to be successful in Internet/Search Marketing. I think Search Marketing has a bright future, but if you don’t have a multidisciplined approach, you are hosed.”
Are we going too far, though, by lumping SEO in with search marketing? Aren’t search engine optimization and search engine marketing two different things? Not according to some of the contributors to the SEO Chat forums. One of them argued very simply that “SEO is a subcategory of Search Engine Marketing (SEM). SEM is a subcategory of Internet Marketing. Internet Marketing is a subcategory of (you guessed it) Marketing.” As a field, marketing isn’t going away any time soon, which implies that SEO is a good career choice. But it presents anyone entering the field with some special challenges.
Next: Challenges of an Evolving Field >>
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