You may already have some experience of search engine optimization and a belief that you could work in this area on a more permanent basis. One of the great things about SEO is that experts are judged on their results, rather than their academic record.
This means that there’s certainly an opportunity for you to have a significant impact. Digital marketing is growing each year and many businesses now see this as being central to their future successes. If you’re able to demonstrate that you can get results, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be successful.
So how do you go about behaving like an SEO professional? What skills will you need?
The ability to manipulate data
A lot of my time is spent working on Excel spreadsheets. I use them for a range of tasks, including recording information about client websites and also carrying out analysis on competitors. As a result, I’m pretty good at using Excel.
My view is that this seemingly simple piece of software is one of the most powerful elements available to you. If you know your way around Excel, then you’ll become far more productive. This means that you’ll be able to produce better results for clients.
A network of contacts
Link building can be pretty dull at times, so it helps if you’re able to take a few shortcuts along the way. This is a lot easier if you already have some great contacts. By building up a suitable network of contacts, you’ll be able to ensure that you already have some potential link placements in mind for each client.
A constant approach to learning
I’ve been working as an SEO professional for 12 years. Do I consider that I have managed to learn everything that there is to know? Far from it! The truth is that this is an industry that’s constantly evolving. As a result, there are always opportunities to learn more and to discover more about the ways in which the search engines work.
As an example, the growing importance of social media has led to a transformation in the way in which SEO is carried out. If you want to build a career, then it’s important to remember that you’ll need to make time for learning new skills along the way.
The ability to write well
Are you confident that you have great writing skills? I spend many hours of each day writing articles, blog posts and website content. Most SEO professionals that I know will tend to do the same.
What this means is that you need to have an appropriate, creative approach. If you think that you would struggle to write more than 2 or 3 articles each day, then you really need to consider how you are going to get results for your clients.
SEO is all about making use of a combination of skills. This is one of the great things about working within the industry. It’s never boring and it’s constantly changing!
You can click here to find out about Search South, the digital marketing consultancy. Keith Barrett is one of their main SEO experts.



Keith, you have very rightly noted the fact that the yardstick to measure the SEO professional is results produced by his or her . SEO is also one sort of marketing and for that reason the credentials of SEO are not useful only the concerns and the results are most important . If you are able to produce good results then you have no reasons to worry about.
As very rightly mentioned by you, now a days the use of social networking is increasing in SEO and so a professional involved in it should also try to learn techniques of using social networking well. This is an indication that the SEO should be very much prepared to try new things.