The Changing Role of the SEO Marketer in 2015

You will find it no secret that the SEO of today is nothing like what the job requires just a few short years ago. Some things about the SEO’s job don’t change – your job is still driving organic traffic, leads and conversions. However, the definition of how to get that done is significantly more cross-functional, harder in a sense.

Today, ‘doing SEO’ is much more than link building, and all the other tasks that were in your purview in the past. The following is an almost accurate description of what being an SEO in 2015 is about:

1. Content development

Content creation and marketing has become more important in SEO, given the fact that it’s now nearly impossible to get near the top without in-depth, relevant content in your chosen field. Today’s SEO teams are integration of more copywriters, and in many cases non-technical SEO work solely boils down to content creation. Creation of quality content is at the very least time consuming, and not always the most exact science on the block.

2. User experience advocacy

SEO today is almost nothing about optimization for search engines and everything about optimization for users. Where in the past user experience (UX) and SEO were not in the same camp, Google has forced SEO and UX teams to play nice, because search engines are elevating sites/pages/content that gives users a good experience.

3. Digital strategy

SEO and SEO marketing in particular, are more involved in website development and design, right from the start. Given that the SEO is in constant interaction with the site, it’s fair to say that they know a bit about what’s good for the site, meaning that they should be included as early as possible into the process of site design and development. SEO doesn’t come in at the end after everything has happened.

4. Creative marketing

Link building today is about quality more than quantity, which means that SEOs need to move from the easy, mindless techniques of yesteryears and into building content that will naturally attract links from the right source. That calls for more than a little creativity, with the main point of focus being what the user needs. That means the SEO must think more and more like a marketer rather than a technical practitioner on the backend of things.