Elevate your SEO career by taking on greater responsibilities. One way to expand your responsibilities in SEO is by enhancing both technical and business competencies —> through increasing SEO contribution to profitability.
Recently, Ahrefs, a popular SEO tool, published two in-depth articles outlining the skills and responsibilities needed for an SEO Specialist and an SEO Manager, respectively. These articles are not only engaging but also providing valuable insights about levelling up your SEO career.
The data is quite robust quantitatively, but it’s crucial to interpret the results accurately. The methodology involved analyzing the job requirements for SEO Specialist and SEO Manager positions—there are 52 vacancies for each. The data collection includes the necessary skills, position responsibilities, and other related factors.
From this information, three key skill upgrades stand out for advancing to the next level:
Essential Skill to Upgrade
Analysis using SEO Tools
Seventy-five percent (75%) of data sources indicate that “experience with SEO tools” (like GSC and Ahrefs) is less critical for SEO Specialists compare to 80.77% for SEO Managers. Being “proficient in using SEO tools” increases along with the need for “skilled analysis and interpretation of data,” which rises from 48% (for SEO Specialists) to 84.62% (for SEO Managers), based on the data sources.
Additionally, SEO Reporting becomes more significant as one advances in their SEO career, with the necessity increasing from 67.3% for SEO Specialists to 76.92% for SEO Managers. It turns out that better data analysis and interpretation lead to improved reporting and subsequent actions.
Communication and Collaboration
SEO Managers need to collaborate at a higher level. According to available secondary data, the need for collaboration increases from 61.5% for SEO Specialists to 96.15% for SEO Managers. Similarly, communication skills are also crucial, with the need rising from 61.5% (SEO Specialist) to 80.77% (SEO Manager). If communication is about effectively exchanging ideas with others, collaboration focuses on working effectively with others.
Staying Relevant
Another important trait for SEO career is “Keeping up with the latest SEO trends”. Data sources show that this requirement increases from 61.5% (for SEO Specialists) to 76.92% (for SEO Managers). Thus, try to engage more—if there aren’t any, create them—regular discussions within the SEO team. Either internally in corporate or with the SEO community outside the office.
It’s not surprising that the skill of “strategizing SEO” is more required for an SEO Manager (100% mentioned in all job vacancies) compared to an SEO Specialist (only 55.8%). This will be feasible if SEO practitioners regularly expand their experience with SEO tools, collaborate with marketing teams, product teams, and others, and stay updated with search engine developments.
Three Other Distinctive Traits
Relying solely on keyword research skills (required by 90.4% of job vacancies for SEO Specialists) will limit your SEO career advancement. An SEO Manager is expected to identify new SEO opportunities (88.46%) and have an entrepreneurial spirit (25%).
Those three traits significantly differentiate an SEO Manager from an SEO Specialist.
In-House vs Agency
Another interesting point from the articles is the difference between SEO professionals working in agencies versus those in-house. SEO professionals in agencies often end up focusing on specific skills due to the division of SEO tasks in agencies, while in-house professionals tend to handle all SEO tasks (research, content, technical, outreach).
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