Chapter 7: The Responsibilities of SEO Have Been Upgraded
Editor's Note: Since this post was originally published (on The Moz Blog in July of 2011), the responsibilities of an SEO have increased, and they vary from job to job and project to project more than ever. As Rand has since stated, the job of the SEO is to figure out how to drive traffic to a website that will achieve the marketing goals. It is not based on what anyone thinks the job of an SEO is. Period. One might say that is true of the SEO's job title, as well.
When I started out as an SEO (circa 2003), the job responsibilities weren't easy, but the list was relatively short. Over the next five years, those responsibilities increased, primarily in tactical and knowledge areas. A 2003 versus 2008 rundown might look like this:
The last two and a half years, however, have brought about substantive changes in our field. We're facing large-scale, industry-shifting trends that have upset the classic model for search engine optimization, including the following:
• Search engines favoring brands over smaller, lesser-known sites. This is the result of Google's Vince update and similar search algorithm updates.
• The release of Panda. Panda has changed what it means to do SEO, just as the Florida update did at the end of 2003.
• The shift in web user behavior toward social media. More than 20 percent of the time we spend online is spent on social networking sites.
• Fragmentation of the social media market. LinkedIn just passed MySpace to become the #2 social network in the U.S., and Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit, and StumbleUpon each have 10 million+ active users. FourSquare also just passed that mark (and Google+ will, too, IMO).
• The powerful increase in content creation as a marketing tool. Fifty-seven percent of companies in HubSpot's recent survey have an active blog!
• An overwhelming increase in mobile and local search. As a result, portals like Google Maps, Bing Maps, Yelp, Citysearch, UrbanSpoon, and FourSquare have massive potential value to local businesses and service providers.
• Lack of human resources. The recession in 2008 caused a massive change in how businesses think about employment. Human resources are nearly the last thing companies will add to their costs these days. While that's generating amazing profits, it's having a rough impact on employment. As a part of this trend, SEOs have been asked to shoulder many new burdens.
Thus, the picture of an SEO's responsibilities today looks more like this:
Author's Note: While some of the new responsibilities listed here have been added due to changes in the SEO field, others reflect the fact that many companies have expanded the job duties of employees who perform SEO in lieu of replacing/expanding staff.
If you're in the SEO field, this shift is both a positive and a negative. If you can keep up with the workload, manage all the metrics, reporting, data, and platforms, AND perform effectively in all of these spheres, you're likely able to charge outsized fees (or earn a much higher salary). If you remain tactical and niche, you're either going to be undervalued, or you'll need to find ways to make that specialization and the ROI you can deliver visible to your clients/managers.
The job of an “SEO” is so much more than what we think of when we talk about the basics of classic Search Engine Optimization. It almost feels as though we deserve a new title ... and probably a raise.
References
“Google's Vince Update Produces Big Brand Rankings; Google Calls It A Trust ‘Change'” Search Engine Land, March 5, 2009 http://searchengineland.com/google-searchs-vince-change-google-says-not-brand-push-16803
“How Google's Panda Update Changed SEO Best Practices Forever” Moz Whiteboard Friday, June 23, 2011www.moz.com/blog/how-googles-panda-update-changed-seo-best-practices-forever-whiteboard-friday
“Google's Florida Update, A Fresh Look – WebmasterWorld.com” Google News Archive Forum, Dec. 12, 2003www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/20566.htm
“HubSpot 2011 State of Inbound Marketing: Long Live Blogs!” by Tony Faustino, Social Media Reinvention Blog, June 27, 2011www.socialmediareinvention.com/2011/06/hubspot-2011-state-inbound-marketing-blogs.html
“Study: Americans Use Mobile Apps More than Full Web Now” TIME, June 23, 2011 www.techland.time.com/2011/06/23/study-americans-use-mobile-apps-more-than-full-web-now
“Despite Poor Growth, Corporate Profits Soar” The Globe and Mail, July 10, 2011 www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/despite-poor-growth-corporate-profits-soar/article599240