Why I Love SEO

I’m fortunate insofar as I have a job that I love. Like really, really love.

In my role as Digital Marketing Manager at Tecmark I oversee SEO, PPC, Social Media and wider Internet and mobile app marketing campaigns.  I genuinely enjoy all of those aspects but specifically want to talk here about why I love SEO.

Disclaimer

I don’t love it every single day. Yes, even those of us in SEO are, on occasion, vaguely human. I have bad days. I have days I curse Google. I have days with my head stuck in link spreadsheets trying to work out why, why, why the spam fest from Hell is outranking a site I’m working on. But those days are few and far between.

Here’s what keeps me gripped.

You NEVER Know It All

SEO is always changing. Constantly. Any SEO who reckons they know everything there is to know about it is either misguided or lying. There is always something to learn. The algorithm is continually developing – hundreds of changes a year. The market is moving quickly. There’s mobile to consider, there’s how social media integrates to consider and while these two particular areas are massive at the moment, who knows what will be the ‘new thing’ two years from now. SEO is a dynamic industry, continually changing.

How can you get bored when things are never the same for too long?

A critical part of my job is making sure I’m up to date – lots of reading, lots of researching and lots of running tests. I’m always learning.

A Result Feels Like Winning

I’m competitive. I’m a poor loser (and not a particularly graceful winner either to be honest). This makes SEO perfect for me. Achieving target rankings, beating your client’s competition – that feels like a win.

Measurable Results

With SEO, you can actually see the results clearly and visibly. You can see how much of an impact your work has had on a client’s profits and the positive effect this has overall on their business.

Challenging

SEO is challenging. It’s not a simple, ‘here’s a site, let’s buy some links, yay, we won!’ It’s not about manipulating an algorithm – at least not if you want a sustainable campaign. It’s about creating a brilliant website with a brilliant link profile that’s varied and organic. It’s always a challenge to continually identify ways in which you can make a site better, then better still and even better again. But if it weren’t a challenge, I’d be bored.

[Cliché Warning} Content is King

I know that’s a really overused and abused cliché but it’s never been truer than it is now. As someone who loves to write and create content, this lends itself perfectly to SEO and with every major algorithm update geared around improving user experience, more emphasis is placed on content.

I love SEO. Most of the time at least. It’s a job and a hobby for me and, given how completely immersed you have to be to keep up to date, I genuinely don’t believe SEO can ever really be ‘just a job’ for anyone.