Is becoming an SEO a viable career choice?

I get asked often if someone can actually make a career out of Search Engine Optimization, also known as SEO? The answer is a resounding YES!

Then I begin to follow up with what the person needs to know and how to get around the 'bad wrap' the entire field has gotten over the years.

Lets start with what you need to know to have a successful Search Engine Optimization job:

• a solid background in web design techniques is extremely helpful
• an understanding of the search engine spiders
• a good track record of your own search engine optimization
• the ability to direct people and help them understand the 'process' you are about to take them through
• how to find the keyword phrases that WILL bring qualified traffic to a site
• advanced techniques that allow you to compete with highly competitive phrases
• training and/or certification; anyone can say they do SEO, a certification lets the client know you have a baseline of knowledge

Why has Search Engine Optimization received such a bad reputation?

About 5 years ago it was extremely easy to optimize a website, just enter the keywords into your meta-tags and off you go. Then came competition and spammers that changed the entire face of the industry; but during that period of time the buzz word 'meta-tag' became very well known. And unfortunately there are still a LOT of people selling the services of putting keywords in meta-tags and promising the moon to boot!

As you probably know, the keyword meta-tag isn't valued at all anymore in the larger search engines. And a lot of people have paid out good money for nothing.

To make things worse there are consultants that promise a client they know the latest 'tricks' to put that website at the top and charge hundreds if not thousands with little to no success. So remember when you walk in that door you need to be prepared for that potential clients history with other Search Engine Optimizers.

How do I start an SEO career and get around these issues?

Honesty and integrity!

• Get your ducks in a row first; what I mean by that is make sure you have had verifiable, repeatable success of your own. This step alone will give you the experience to have conversations with.
• Get your training and/or certification from a trusted source, the Search Engine Academy has associates across the USA, Canada and the UK.
• Promote yourself as understanding the pitfalls and have a toolbox of examples to show how your system works right now for yourself and other clients.
• Be willing to educate the public on what SEO is, it is still very new to the majority
• Have your pricing pulled together and clearly laid out, security in your own pricing structure will go a long way in the client knowing your worth it!

As a former business coach I would always ask my clients: What would it open up for you to focus on the best area of your business?

The purpose for that question is two-fold; first to get them to see how spending time on a niche area of business is less stressful and secondly how that focus will be far more productive. That relates directly to starting an SEO career, it is a niche market with a great potential payoff.

Like any career or job choice, you need to have some background and education in the field. There is a tremendous need for Search Engine Optimizers today, and employers and small business owners are actively seeking the ones that have formal training and will give them real success.

Emily Leach has opened a Search Engine Academy and teaches a 3-day intensive, hands-on search engine marketing workshop in New Mexico and Arizona.