What is the work of an SEO specialist?

The scope of an SEO specialist’s duties can vary greatly depending on which company he works for. He may have completely different responsibilities when working „on the client side” (i.e. directly for the company whose sites he is positioning) than when working for a large online marketing agency. His job is also likely to look very different if the agency he works for is small. 

Additionally, much depends on the seniority and experience of a particular specialist. Obviously, the duties of a person in a „senior” position will be quite different from someone who has worked in the industry for much less time. However, regardless of the company and the „status” of the positioner, one thing remains the same – working on websites. 

Building an organic action strategy 

Before starting any SEO activities, it is necessary to create a strategy that covers the client’s needs, takes into account the technological capabilities of the website, the budget possible to use and the current requirements that Google has. 

The role of the SEO specialist in creating the strategy is first to define what organic action goals and target groups the client has. The next step is for the positioner to propose possible variants of actions with the help of which, in a given budget, you can achieve as much as possible of the established goals. 

The SEO specialist’s role in creating a strategy is to define the goals and target groups.

Analysis of the website in terms of positioning

One of the most important tasks of a positioner is SEO audit of websites. It forms the basis for further actions and is the first point of any strategy. The SEO audit consists of three main parts – on-site analysis, off-site analysis, and implementation instructions/support for the relaunch along with the re-audit. 

Audit consists of a thorough analysis of the various elements of the site and its performance in terms of the Webmasters Guidelines. This allows the specialist to detect any irregularities occurring on the site and prepare a recommendation for their changes. Often, he also implements some of the recommended changes himself in the content or code of the site, but usually programming work as such, is not within the scope of his duties. 

Support-in-building-content-on-page

Another of the SEO specialist’s tasks, of course, is to build content plan and provide direction for content development to give the site the highest possible organic visibility. The specialist commissions copywriters to write content that will most effectively implement the established strategy, and then reviews it for optimization for Google search engine requirements. 

In many cases, he also provides support to clients who prefer to produce content on their own because, for example, they are in a very specialized industry. As part of such support, he sends possible article topics, lists of keywords and optimizes the finished content. 

Link acquisition

An important role of any SEO specialist is acquiring valuable links leading to client sites from various sources. As part of link building, the specialist, selects publication sites, orders the creation of dedicated content, determines the number of links and anchor texts with which they should appear on the site. 

As part of link building, the positioner also keeps an eye on the overall picture of a given site’s link profile. He or she analyzes incoming and lost links, and tries to maintain a balance between SEO activities and what Google deems acceptable. 

The link building process is also a part of the SEO process.

Customer contact, that’s-the-basis-of-guiding-projects

Another element that appears in the work of every SEO, regardless of what company they work for, is contact with the client, which is a very important element of SEO. Changes to the site, the implementation of new ideas or recommendations for further strategy usually require close cooperation with the client, without this the project may come to a standstill. 

Meetings, emails or reports are a big part of every week of the SEO specialist’s work, they allow to maintain a good relationship with the client, order in the ongoing project, but also allow to run the whole SEO process dynamically. 

What additional duties can a SEO specialist have?

All the duties listed so far, to a greater or lesser extent, are carried out by every specialist regardless of whether they work in a large, small company or on the client side. However, there are quite a few other tasks that are already conditioned by the job:

• Participation in the sales process – many companies involve SEO specialists to act already at the sales stage, where they take an active part in creating offers, participate in sales meetings or answer questions and concerns of potential customers.
• Publication of own articles on industry portals – this is primarily a PR activity working to the advantage of both the company and the specialist himself. Statements in the trade press on topics broadly related to SEO are very good for building the image of a particular company (and a particular positioner) as specialists in the eyes of potential customers. 
• Education – that is, participation in workshops, gaining new knowledge, but also conducting training for both clients and other professionals.

Summary

As we can see, the work of an SEO specialist does not focus only on the website itself, but covers many different aspects. These are not just technical activities, the positioner also does a lot of managerial work, sometimes also participating in other processes in the company, such as selling services. 

A good SEO specialist, therefore, must have not only technical knowledge and skills, but also a wide range of so-called „soft” competencies that will allow him or her to establish a relationship with the client and smoothly execute the positioning strategy.