What can SEO analysts expect in terms of growth and opportunities?
As we at ReputationDefender have stressed before, as of the emergence of the fourth industrial revolution, the digital industry has been growing unpredictably. The SEO industry, in fact, has suffered several changes ever since the term was coined: as the digital era keeps evolving, the connotations around the digital era unravel a whole new scope; SEO, when conceived as an industry, has grown up to three times what once predicted back in 2009, and it will likely continue to grow until today’s juncture comes to an end. Under today’s landscape, SEO has been serving a myriad of different purposes — “User Search” is perhaps the main beneficiary of its scope.
How can User Search be defined within this context? Users normally search across the internet in hopes of finding a solution — which is also subject to different interpretations: a solution may be either a query, a simple research or even a purchase. Given the staggering amount of Internet users (almost 3,425,000,000 by the past year and still growing), it is wise to assert that its growth has been beyond expectations. The first billion was reached back in 2005, the second in 2010. The third billion three years ago; almost every second, 40,000 queries are made on average; and people are now resorting to online and digital platforms to conduct their purchases, making the e-Commerce industry grow 15% annually.
Such reality allows to assert that every year Internet users are growing, in relation to the previous year, which suggests that there is no way User Search will end in the near future. Simply put, the aforementioned conditions allow us at ReputationDefender to assert that there is nearly no possibility for Search Engine Optimization to fade away, on the contrary, SEO is evolving at such fast pace, that year after year thousands of trends, updates, and tendencies, in general, come into the light of the digital world. There is probably not one single business that is not aware of the magnificence of search engine optimization strategies in terms of future growth; however, why do businesses, in spite of being aware of the necessity of adopting SEO strategies, fail at it? The only reason is disregarding the news around the industry. There are plenty of updates and industry knowledge that totally go unnoticed by marketers and entrepreneurs.
Every day something different is trending; a new updated is developed and launched, making the prior conditions somewhat outdated and even useless — such is the case of the use of anchor text, once considered vital alongside keyword stuffing, and that as of the past years has become rather obsolete — . If marketers do not pay special attention to how the SEO industry is evolving, well, chances are they are never going to rank as good as they desire.
In fact, another plausible explanation for this phenomenon may be the fact that some marketers are unaware of the full scope of search engine optimization. Although better rankings are a direct consequence of SEO strategies, its broad spectrum of action demands other things as well. SEO is, in fact, the combination of many other activities aside from keyword usage.
What else is considered a vital skill in the digital world? Well, as mentioned by Moz, aside from Search Engine Optimization, an analyst should be aware of the latest trends in Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Content Marketing/Inbound Marketing, Social Media Marketing, e-Mail Marketing, Conversion Rates and Optimization, Video Marketing, etc.
An analyst ought to possess a strong background, or at least be highly familiar with the aforementioned term in order to come up with effective and accurate digital marketing strategies, as they all form what is known as digital marketing. Being aware of the other parts of the vast world of marketing is certainly an asset under today’s circumstances: let us think for a second how do these channels interact with each other — every channel affects a digital marketing strategy differently: Social Media affects SEO in terms of social shares; Conversion Rate Optimization is highly linked to user engagement, which plays a vital role in every search engine optimization strategy; etc.
Simply put: all these channels help drive traffic to a specific site differently, and it is almost compulsory for a business to thrive to be aware of how do they interact with each other. Such premises suggest that even within SEO there are several areas: SEO Audit Specialist, On page Optimizations Specialist, Backlink Specialist, SEO content writer, etc. Although it is wise to be aware of the scope of the aforementioned areas, it is definitely much wiser to become proficient in just a few in order to stand out from the others. And last but not least, becoming a SEO analyst/specialist allows individuals to work as a freelancer anywhere at anytime.
