How Do I Become a Search Engine Marketing Specialist?

Search engine marketing specialists are people who take a website, optimize its content for search engines and, thus, help the website gain traffic. To become a search engine marketing specialist, applicants should have experience in coding languages, the two most common being hypertext markup language (HTML) and cascading style sheets (CSS), and must know how search engines work. Formal education usually is not needed to get such a position, because successful experience is what businesses seek. A variety of skills, including being adept at writing, social networking and understanding blog platforms, are all needed to become a search engine marketing specialist.

Formal education is usually not necessary to become a search engine marketing specialist. Instead, businesses want to see applicants with search engine optimization (SEO) experience. To gain this experience, the applicant can either work on other websites or start a website from scratch. By showing before-and-after traffic reports or by displaying how quickly traffic rose for a new website, the hiring business will get an idea of the specialist’s abilities.

Understanding how search engines work is of optimal importance if one is to become a search engine marketing specialist. This knowledge will come either from interning at an SEO firm or simply reading books on the subject. Knowing how to do keyword research, create incoming links and write content that matches appropriate keywords are skills that will be needed to garner a web presence.

Along with keyword research and links, there are other abilities a search engine marketing specialist will be required to know. Knowing how to work HTML and CSS and improving them for search engine presence will be a strict requirement. Other coding languages may be required, as well. Being able to write well and not create sloppy posts will also help one gain such a position. The ability to work with social networks and blogging platforms will be needed because social networking helps search engine rankings and blogging platforms are commonly used by businesses to rank in search engines.

Search engines are always changing; so, to become a search engine marketing specialist, the applicant must be able to change, as well. He or she must be able to change a website on the-fly to ensure it stays in top-ranking positions. To become a search engine marketing specialist, the applicant must have analytical skills, be able to read website traffic reports and understand trends. Understanding trends will help the marketing specialist achieve higher rankings.