Short answer: yes.

Learning SEO made it possible for me to start my own successful online business (actually, more than one now). If you know how to do SEO properly (especially including creating high-quality content), you can market anything that (a) people are already searching for, and (b) isn’t too competitive yet (in already-competitive niches, see if you can get uber-specific for a less-competitive micro-niche).

I’ve also consulted for and done contract work for many people. Turns out most people don’t understand how the internet works from an SEO perspective, and are super grateful to pay you a fine hourly rate to use your knowledge and expertise to help them.

Now that I’m also learning about running ads on social media, I’m appreciating the value of SEO even more. With ads, you have to keep pouring money in to get traffic.

But building a site with organic search traffic (due to good content optimized for the right KWs) is like having a piece of real estate. If there’s traffic, there is a way to monetize it. When you have a decent domain rating, people will start offering you money for sponsored posts. (Of course it’s up to you to determine whether you want to do that.) The point is, just having a high-traffic, high-DR site in itself (which is what good SEO will get you eventually) is valuable.

Having a mentor was vital for me to learning SEO. That’s what I got when I worked for a digital marketing company. If you’re interested in an SEO career path, I’d say that’s a great way to start.