What Does an SEO Strategist Do? Everything You Need to Know
The Glorious Company Team
SEO is the process of optimizing your website, so that your customers can find you in organic search on the web. An SEO strategist is the specialist—typically working at a content marketing agency, freelance, or in-house—tasked with devising and executing the plan to ensure that your website is found by your target audience and optimized for conversions.
Demand for roles of this type have exploded in the last 20 years, as budgets at businesses both small and large have shifted to online marketing and generating demand and leads from the internet.
Expert SEO specialists will provide a positive impact to your sales and revenue numbers since driving more organic traffic to your website, from their optimization campaigns, results in more brand awareness.
What Is an SEO Strategist?
A search engine optimization strategist is a professional whose expertise lies in improving the online visibility of websites, so that they rise in the search engine results page (SERP) rankings. They accomplish this with a combination of on- and off-page optimization strategies and techniques, whether for Google or Bing.
The goal of these strategists is for your target audience of leads and customers to find your website organically. This is done by getting a website’s webpages—like blog posts, landing pages, and service pages—to rank for specific keywords and keyword phrases that your target audience is searching for on the web.
By driving this relevant and qualified organic traffic to your website, an SEO strategist ensures that people looking for your product or service can find those solutions on your website.
What Does an SEO Strategist Do?
There are numerous roles and responsibilities that these online marketing specialists have to excel in to do a stellar job for their clients. The SEO strategist job description includes a strong mix of hard and soft skills. Let’s look at the requirements in more detail.
What Are the Responsibilities of an SEO Strategist?
Their primary responsibility is to develop and implement strategies that optimize websites for search engines. They analyze various aspects of a website, such as its content, structure, and user experience to identify areas that need improvement.
One of the key tasks of an SEO specialist is conducting keyword research. By identifying relevant keywords and phrases that users are searching for, they can develop SEO-friendly content that increases the website's chances of appearing in search results and climbing the SERP rankings. Additionally, they optimize the website's meta tags, headings, URLs, and internal linking structure to make it more attractive to search engines. This increases the chances of more webpages being indexed by Google or Bing and, therefore, ranking in organic search.
Another responsibility involves monitoring and analyzing website performance. SEO strategists use traffic analysis tools to measure the website's visibility, organic traffic, and conversion rates. They identify the keywords and pages that are driving the most traffic and make adjustments to improve overall performance. Some examples of well-known tools that SEOs uses include:
SEO strategists are also involved in developing and managing search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns. They create and optimize paid search advertisements to drive targeted, paid traffic to the website. They continuously monitor the performance of these campaigns and make necessary adjustments to maximize results.
Collaboration with other marketing professionals is another important aspect of an SEO strategist's role. They work closely with content creators, web designers, and social media managers to ensure that all aspects of the website are aligned with the overall marketing strategy.
What Are the Required Skills of an SEO Strategist?
An SEO specialist needs to embody a balance of hard and soft skills to excel in the role of SEO strategy. Hard skills are those technical skills that are essential for specialists to provide their service to clients; they are skills unique to their roles in the SEO industry. Soft skills, in contrast, are those personal attributes and non-technical skills necessary to move work forward when working with teammates.
Here’s a list of hard skills that an SEO strategist needs:
Competitor analysis — Researching competitors, both on their websites and through SEO tools, to determine what keywords a website should rank for and what it’s missing.
SEO strategies — This includes keyword research, keyword gap analysis, building backlinks, split-testing webpages, and studying organic traffic and website analytics data.
Analytical thinking — Once they’ve assembled this data about competitors, SEO strategists have to critically think about how to put together a keyword plan and content strategy to increase the organic traffic of their client’s website. This includes planning for both local search and national SEO campaigns.
Project management — SEO technicians need to manage numerous projects simultaneously and be well-organized. They need to be proficient with a slew of project management tools like Asana, Todoist, Notion, Clickup, Monday, and Trello.
Computer coding — We decided to include coding here just to be complete, but it’s not an essential skill that all SEOs need. Of course, having this hard skill will only help one’s career and job prospects.
Marketing knowhow — SEOs have to understand how online marketing works beyond just SEO. This includes everything from content marketing (using content to build relationships with your target audience) to social media marketing and digital marketing (including tactics like PPC or paid ads).
Here’s a list of soft skills that SEO strategists require:
Good communication skills — The ability to clearly communicate with colleagues, clients, and teammates is essential to SEO professionals. They work with many other specialists, so communication is crucial to completing projects successfully.
Patience — This is so underappreciated that it’s not even funny. SEO is a long game, which means you won’t see results overnight. Your SEO pro needs to have the patience to see things through until they produce results.
Ability to work in teams — Teamwork is a massive component of online marketing. SEO is no exception. An SEO savant needs to demonstrate good teamwork with clients and fellow marketing professionals.
Good listening skills — SEOs have to be receptive to what their clients are telling them with regard to the goals they want for their websites. Designing a successful SEO plan incorporates client feedback.
Problem solving skills — SEO is about outcompeting numerous other websites that are vying to rank for the same keywords you are. By definition, SEO is about problem solving, so anyone working in this job description needs to be comfortable with overcoming obstacles online.
What Are the Necessary Traits of an SEO Strategist?
There are certain aspects of character that will make one a better SEO professional. Let’s look at some of them here, in detail:
Leadership — Believe it or not, leadership is a trait that experts in this industry need to exhibit. They need to lead on developing a keyword plan and getting buy-in from their clients, as well as putting together a content strategy to tie the whole thing together.
Confidence — This goes together with leadership, in a way. SEOs need to have confidence in the keyword research and content strategy, as well as on- and off-page recommendations, that they make.
Strong work ethic — SEO involves long hours of research, analysis, iteration, and optimization. To power through, they require concentration on the work and projects to be done.
Honesty — They need to be able to accurately assess if a campaign isn’t working and change course if necessary. Similarly, they need to be frank with clients if something isn’t going the way it should. Both require honesty.
Competence — Finally, competence is a trait that’s always great to have, especially when you’re working in teams comprised of fellow online marketers and clients. This is a trait that results in more achievements and a higher quality of work.
Do You Need Professional Certifications and Qualifications as an SEO?
This is an interesting question, but the short answer is no. Many successful SEOs work in their capacity with full competency without professional certifications. No university really offers an SEO degree, so certifications are offered by marketing agencies, education platforms, and SEO-industry businesses.
These are some examples of professional certifications available:
As far as qualifications go, SEO strategists need to be well-qualified in a number of tools and processes, which include:
Using SEO analytics tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz, SE Ranking, Mangools, and Serpstat
Using word processors like Microsoft Word and Google Docs
Familiarity with website analytics tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4
While professional certifications aren’t necessary, nor are they a reliable predictor of job performance in this industry, SEOs still need a number of qualifications to provide good service to their clients and work well together in online marketing teams.
How Much Can You Earn as an SEO Strategist?
Strategists make more money as they advance in their careers, with those who have more experience naturally earning more than those who are just getting their careers off the ground. Overall, they make pretty good money, with estimated total pay being $85,393 per year in the United States and the average annual salary being $74,000, again in the United States, according to Glassdoor. Overall, the total pay range is between $68,000 and $109,000 per year in the United States.
Should Your Business Hire an SEO Strategist With an Agency or Go In-House
That’s the question: Should you partner with a strategist at an agency or directly hire one at your business or organization? Both are viable options for you, if you want to bring an expert SEO into your online marketing operations.
It depends on a number of factors.
If you want to partner with a team of specialists and strategists that you have access to beyond just one strategist, go with the agency model. Strategists at an agencies work in a network of fellow marketers, so it’s almost like having the value of numerous strategists working with you, which means more experts advising you. An agency model is easily renewable on a monthly basis with content marketing packages.
On the other hand, you can hire a strategist to come work for you in-house. Refer back to the salary of the average SEO, above. You can see that this is actually more expensive in the short and long term because you have to pay the strategist’s salary plus the budget you need for the SEO and content marketing campaigns, on a monthly basis.
Frequently Asked Questions
To clear up any misconceptions about this specialist’s role, let’s delve into some common questions that you might have as a business owner.
Q: Is SEO a Good Career Choice?
A: Skills and expertise required in this field are highly valued. Proficiency in SEO strategies, keyword research, data analysis, and content optimization provides professionals with a range of capabilities that are sought after by companies of all sizes.
The industry demand for SEO specialists is consistently high. In an era where online visibility is crucial for businesses, the need for experts who can improve website rankings and drive organic traffic is only growing. As more companies invest in digital marketing, the demand for skilled SEO professionals will continue to rise.
As professionals gain experience and demonstrate success in their campaigns, they can secure more challenging projects and take on larger responsibilities. Additionally, as the online landscape evolves, SEO professionals can expand their expertise to include new and emerging techniques, enhancing their value in the job market. Job availability is another compelling aspect of an SEO career. Businesses across industries, from e-commerce to technology to healthcare, all require SEO specialists to optimize their online presence. The vast range of job opportunities ensures that SEO professionals have a diverse selection of positions and industries to choose from.
Q: Does SEO Require Coding?
A: No, SEO does not require coding. Most SEOs don’t know how to code, and they do a fine job increasing organic traffic and brand awareness for their clients. That’s because SEO requires a skill set that’s more focused on keyword research, competitor analysis, backlink building, and content optimization.
However, it never hurts to understand the basics of code, even if that stops short of knowing how to code. Working with websites, a baseline understanding of code is always helpful.
Q: Is It Hard to Learn SEO?
A: While it’s not hard to learn SEO, per se, there is a lot of material to absorb to get a sound understanding of this concept. Working on real-life SEO campaigns provides the biggest learning opportunity, but it takes years to wrap one’s head around many of the nuances and possibilities surrounding SEO. Throw into the mix all the tools and software SEOs need to do their jobs well, and you’re talking about years of learning. SEO is an industry where learning never ends. So while it’s not hard to learn, it takes years to become good at this combination of art and science called SEO.
Partner With an SEO Strategist at Your Business to Maximize Your Revenue
Organizations typically don’t have the time to always handle SEO campaigns all by themselves. This is true of businesses large and small. That’s why a strategist is crucial to helping you achieve your online brand awareness goals, as well as your organic traffic and conversion goals.
If you’re searching for an SEO agency you can partner with to spearhead your SEO management at your SaaS company, then reach out to us today. Contact The Glorious Company today for a no-obligation consultation and estimate.
Have any questions? Keep the conversation going by leaving a comment below.
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