A search engine optimization (SEO) specialist is a digital marketing professional who specializes in website optimization. They help websites rank better on Google’s search engine to get more visibility and traffic.
As an SEO specialist, your responsibilities include conducting keyword and competitor research, analyzing algorithm data, and determining the best SEO strategies for the business. When working with a new client, you have to analyze their current performance and determine the best way to move forward.
If you want to be successful in this industry, you have to become a lifelong learner to keep up with the constant algorithm changes. It is important to demonstrate you are current with the latest updates. You should also have an online presence on different platforms and ideally, have your own optimized website.
Ideally, you should have a bachelor’s degree in IT or marketing. However, this industry is more about the experience and being up-to-date with the current trends. That’s why it’s a good idea to highlight your experience in your resume.
If you want, you can also include any relevant certifications on your resume to improve your performance. This will help you demonstrate your competencies.
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An SEO specialist improves a company’s website visibility through organic techniques or advertising campaigns. It is a good idea to include PPC campaign management skills on your resume. Other responsibilities include negotiating backlinks with other websites and coordinating content creation with writers and designers.
Essentially, SEO doesn’t require coding. However, some basic programming knowledge can help you with website optimization. You should also be familiar with UX techniques. In case you are not familiar with programming, you can make suggestions to the web development team.
It is crucial to include keywords in your resume. Since most employers are using ATS software to scan resumes, yours must have related keywords that help you move your resume up the stacks.
An SEO manager coordinates strategies with the marketing team to boost a website’s performance. They delegate tasks, interpret data, and determine the best strategies to follow. Notice that your resume should Indicate your ability to run backlinking campaigns. Backlinks play a huge role in the SEO process. They increase the website’s domain authority and traffic.
One of the positive things about your role is that you have a lot of data to demonstrate your accomplishments: more traffic, domain ratings, engagement, etc. Use that in your favor to make your resume stand out from competitors.
An SEO analyst evaluates and interprets data to identify actionable insights that help boost the SEO campaign. They also conduct keyword research and stay on top of algorithm trends to drive more traffic to the website. It is worth mentioning your deep knowledge of search engines on your resume.
SEO analysis is the process of gathering and interpreting data to help the team make more informed decisions. It is a crucial aspect of an SEO analyst’s role, so you should definitely highlight this skill on your resume. You should also include any relevant analytic tools you are familiar with, such as Ahrefs, MOZ, or SEMrush.
Keyword research is the process of identifying words users enter on their search engines with the purpose of using them in the website’s content to drive more traffic. This is an essential duty of SEO analysts, so it’s crucial to include this ability in your resume.
As a hiring manager who has recruited for SEO roles at companies like Google, Amazon, and Etsy, I have reviewed hundreds of resumes. The best ones always stand out by showcasing the candidate's skills and experience in a way that is tailored to the specific job they are applying for. In this article, we'll cover some key tips to help you create a strong SEO resume that will catch the attention of hiring managers and increase your chances of landing an interview.
Hiring managers want to see that you have the technical skills needed to excel in an SEO role. Make sure to include specific examples of your SEO technical skills on your resume, such as:
By highlighting your technical skills, you show hiring managers that you have the knowledge and experience needed to drive SEO success.
When writing a resume for an SEO position, the summary section is optional. While it's not a requirement, a well-crafted summary can provide additional context and highlight your most relevant skills and experiences. This is especially useful if you're a career changer or have a diverse background that may not immediately align with the SEO role you're targeting.
It's important to note that you should never use an objective statement in your resume. Objectives are outdated and focus on what you want, rather than what you can bring to the company. Instead, use the summary to showcase your value and tailor it to the specific SEO position you're applying for.
The work experience section is the core of your resume. It's where you show hiring managers how you've applied your skills to make an impact for your previous employers. For an SEO role, this section needs to demonstrate your ability to drive organic traffic, optimize content, and implement effective search strategies.
In this section, we'll break down step-by-step how to write compelling work experience bullet points that will help you stand out to employers. Let's dive in.
The education section of your SEO resume should be concise and relevant to the job you're applying for. It's important to highlight your relevant degrees, certifications, and coursework that demonstrate your knowledge and skills in the field of search engine optimization.
As an SEO specialist, you must be familiar with the term “readability.” It refers to a reader’s ability to easily scan the text. Good content has strong readability. You should think of your resume as a piece of content. That’s why it’s important to implement a simplified structure and vocabulary, and here are two allies that can help you improve your readability: bullet points and action verbs.
Your resume should be concise and precise. That’s why bullet points on your work history are helpful; they make you go straight to the point. The same goes with action verbs, they help you implement word economy while accurately describing your role. Below, you will see our selection of action verbs for SEO resumes.
For a full list of effective resume action verbs, visit Resume Action Verbs.
You should treat your resume as you would with a website; it needs keywords. Most employers nowadays use ATSs (applicant tracking systems) to identify potential candidates in a fraction of the time this process usually takes. Now, what this means for candidates is that you need to optimize your resume with an easy-to-read structure and keywords.
One of the best places to include keywords in your resume is in your skills section. You should add competencies that demonstrate your knowledge of SEO techniques and tools such as Google Analytics and Market Samurai.
You can include the above skills in a dedicated Skills section on your resume, or weave them in your experience. Here's how you might create your dedicated skills section:
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on SEO job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more 'important' it is.
Thank you for the checklist! I realized I was making so many mistakes on my resume that I've now fixed. I'm much more confident in my resume now.
