What an SEO and search marketing strategist really does
You figure out what people search for and make sure your company's pages are the answer, then prove it with numbers.
FieldBusiness
Preparation (O*NET Job Zone)Considerable preparation needed
What the work involves
What fills a typical week for SEO and search marketing strategists, built from O*NET occupation data.
- Pull and read traffic, ranking and conversion reports, then report results to marketing leaders
- Research keywords and search intent to decide what pages and content to make
- Optimize page titles, descriptions, headings, structured data and site speed
- Write tickets and work with developers on site structure and technical fixes
- Plan content with writers and designers so it fits both search and brand
- Run tests on pages and check analytics tracking is working
- Coordinate with paid search, email and social teams
What the days are like
What people in the job know
- The job is mostly at a desk with data. Spend Time Sitting: 87% continually or almost continually; E-Mail: 91% every day (O*NET Work Context)
- Deadlines are weekly rather than hour by hour. Time Pressure: 61% once a week or more, 26% once a month or more (O*NET Work Context)
- Hours are fairly normal for a marketing job. Duration of Typical Work Week: 61% 40 hours; Work Schedules: 96% regular (O*NET Work Context)
- Reporting results to executives is as central as doing the optimization. Task rank 1, importance 88, Core: manage tracking and reporting of search activities for marketing executives
- You cannot do it alone; you depend on developers to ship your fixes. Task rank 6, importance 82, Core: work with developers on site architecture and page construction for search visibility
How people get into it
Job Zone 4, but entry is flexible: 48% of new hires report a bachelor's degree, 22% an associate's and 17% some college. Many people come in from marketing, writing or web development and prove skill through results, analytics certificates or a personal site that ranks.
The Firstday trial, easy to hard
Three simulated tasks at Trailhook Outfitters, a fictional company, with AI coworkers who message you, react to your work and coach with questions. Nobody scores you.
What the trial can't show: Search results take weeks or months to respond to changes, so the trial cannot show the slow wait to see if your work paid off. You will not use live tools like Google Search Console or Analytics; data is a prepared snapshot. O*NET data for this job may also predate AI generated search answers, which are changing the field fast.
Reading about it is one thing.
Find out how the work feels to you before you spend on a degree, course or job change. Your first trial is free.
Other careers you can try
Job details on this page are built from O*NET OnLine, 13-1161.01. This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.