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SEO as a career in 2026
Posted by on November 8, 2025 at 8:40 amIs working as a SEO freelancer still a viable career option moving into 2026?
I have watched training, read books, forums and know the basics and a bit more, but have not yet taken the next step and proceeded with starting. This is mainly due to the sudden changes bought by AI which seems to be taking over a lot of things, where I wanted to see how that affects the sector.
I have run my own business before, so that aspect is not concerning me, and I can do other work during weeknights and at weekends while it gets going an takes off. Being able to gain clients and having enough work is a concern, as well as figuring out what I should outsource.
I am also interested to know from people who started offering SEO more recently, how they started. I have also struggled to work out how much to charge, and therefore how much I can expect to earn. I am UK based, but guess that would not stop me working worldwide as the economy in the UK seems pretty dire at the moment.
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1 Reply
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Yes it’s still valid
This community is very pessimistic, but SEO at the agencies i work at is making more than ever.
You will get a lot of “SEO is dead” “it’s just backlinks and nothing else” but it’s still a very valid career as Google still dominates
Plus optimizing for LLMs is huge right now.
Of course being independent is very difficult, so you may face difficulties that aren’t related to SEO being valid but more lack of trust in freelancers / small agencies
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If you can figure out a way to acquire links, you are good.
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Yes, go for it but treat the first year as building your foundation rather than expecting full steady income from day one. Make sure you’re clear about your value, set realistic pricing and client expectations, and avoid undercharging just to get a job.
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Yes, this is a viable career move. But treat it like a business (you already know that), not just “I’ll pick up gigs and hope”. The search/SEO landscape is evolving fast thanks to AI and changing user behaviour, so your value lies in your ability to adapt, specialise, and deliver measurable results, rather than just “get you to page 1”.
If you do that, you’ve got a good shot. If you go in thinking “old-school SEO only” you’ll find it harder.
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One thing to keep in mind if you’re considering doing SEO as a full-time gig is that SEO is a competition. It’s not like studying to be an accountant or doctor etc. No matter how competent you think you are at it you won’t have a viable career unless you’re better than most of your competition because only 1 website can be #1, #2, #10, #22 etc. Are you confident you can beat the other SEOs because if you can’t beat them then you won’t have much of a career doing it no matter how much you learn.
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