“I’m a beginner in SEO and I’m looking for job opportunities in SEO field”
Is this you? Are you looking for a job in SEO but struggling to start where? SEO is turning to be one of hottest tech jobs in 2017 and so the demand is.
SEO Career Guide for Beginners
There are a lot of scary stories, that SEO is dead. No.. no. SEO job vacancies are keep increasing, from a boutique, project centers to big eCommerce and media agencies.
I come from Dindigul (a small town) and living in Bangalore. I kick-started my SEO career at TicketGoose and landed as an SEO Consultant at Myntra(India’s Fashion eCommerce Goliath). Now, I’m working as a Digital Marketing Manager at a dream company and every month I used to get an average of 8-10 job offers in SEO & Digital Marketing domain.
let’s get in..
Q1: How to learn SEO and become a Professional?
Ans: There are tons of resources and tools for SEO available online. But, where to begin with? Here are some of the SEO blogs which I follow:
These are good for the beginner level, and I recommend Search Engine Land’s SEO Periodic table for better understanding. Subscribe to RSS feeds in your Google Reader or any RSS feeder you prefer.
Practice SEO you learn. But how?
Q2: How to Practice SEO by Yourself?
Ans: In short, Build your own Website and apply your SEO techniques.
Nothing would help you, until you apply it and see the results by yourself. I personally started blogging from Google’s Blogger.com, WordPress.com and later built a website with a custom domain name. And, that’s how you gonna learn things,
- How to buy SEO friendly Domain Name?
- How to point your Domain to Hosting provider?
- How to build website/blog? (I’m using WordPress)
- How to add Meta tags, Canonical tags, URL redirection, Schema tags, Google Analytics setup, Google Search Console etc.?
- How to do Keyword Research?
In Blogger platform, mostly things are predefined and have less control. So, I use WordPress where you will get lots to customize things on your own.
BTW, do you rank for your Name?
When you get job interviews, most HR will Google your name before an interview. So make sure you have a website and Social Media profiles in place. Involve with popular SEO communities and leave comments to show your knowledge in SEO space. With your personal blog, you build your personal branding too.
Having your own website with SEO findings, guides could give you more control in the interview. And, will definitely help them put you on the priority list.
In my interview, I’ve shown them bloghelpline(tech & how-to guides blog) and the keywords I ranked for.
Q3: No Experience? How to gain experience without Corporate experience?
There is no standard certification course for SEO but still, you can take exams from Google’s products(AdWords certification, GAIQ test etc). Again, showcase the keywords you ranked with your website.
Some other options to gain SEO experience,
- Author on authority blogs
- Pitch for freelance projects
- Cross sell your service (sell website, with SEO service)
- Rank for yourself (“SEO expert” in “your Locality”)
- Get more endorsements on LinkedIn
Q4: How to find a job in SEO and Ace Interview?
SEO is not a kinda job of attending walk-in interviews. Be smart, do a little research on finding the right company for you. I would suggest you target eCommerce, B2B, Online portals, and digital media agencies where you can learn a lot. Here’s my little story on how I won my first SEO job.
Best places to look for SEO jobs,
- Angel.co
- Naukri
Top SEO Interview questions you should be prepared for,
- What is SEO and what’s your approach?
- What are the SEO tools do you use?
- Is link building dead?
- What are your link building strategies?
- Can you tell me how Google crawls webpages?
- Tell me about NoIndex, NoFollow, Robots.txt
- How will you cross-check whether your SEO campaign is working or not?
In some cases, you might get some SEO assignments too.
So, get prepared…
All the best for your future endeavors.
