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Career after SEO
Hey fellow SEOs,
I feel a bit stuck in my in-house SEO position so I have been flirting with a thought to start applying to different companies. But all this AI craziness got me thinking maybe it’s time to move out of SEO or at least learn a different skill to feel more secure in a job market.
I’m now attending SMX online and what the experts are saying (even though they don’t say it directly) just confirms my insecurities.
The question is – what direction should I take?
1. My first thought was to go into Web Dev. I’m fairly savvy in tech seo, so diving deep into js frameworks and/or python feels logical. However I’m in my late 30s and the thought of starting over as a junior front-end… well you know, awkward ????
2. Digital Analytics is a great field and SEO has trained my analytical skills quite well but all the DAs I’ve met (at least in my company) have background in math and I dont, so I kinda fear I won’t make it in this field
3. Learning SEM (or PPC) feels like the most logical thing to do. Switching to it is the least of a change as you still scroll through searchenginejournal and get to attend SMX ???? Unlike Digital Analytics I’m pretty confident I can master it but then again I would have to start as a freshman in this field and compared to Web Dev and DA it kinda does not feel challenging enough.
I’m a Senior SEO now and simply changing the company is also an option. But I am so tired of dealing with shrinking SEO opportunity and with Gen AI I am on the pessimistic side – as I believe organic traffic will be declining further. So the thought of explaining to a new C-level in a new company why we are getting less clicks is just meh…
Sorry for such a long post and thank you to those who got through it. If you are or have been in the similar situation, your words of wisdom would be much appreciated.
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1 Reply
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I’m in the same boat, and I will probably go the python route. You’re not limited to web dev with either js or python, so why not.
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if you can do SEO & PPC, there are lots of general “Senior Digital Marketing Exec” jobs you could apply for.
I did both in my last job, was relatively easy to learn PPC but made a few f*ck ups too
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SAME!! I am going to divert my career to either Python web development (because I already know Python) or to Digital Analytics because it seems like growing now, and then from there I can easily move to Data Science or AI and ML stuff
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Are you me? Fellow senior SEO here who does have reservations about “starting again”. I currently work agency side but also worked many years in house. If digital is my future I want to go back to being a full round digital marketer. Gonna try and get back into PPC and strategy. I’ve always been decent at writing content but with AI content will be first on the chopping board.
What non marketing or digital jobs do you think SEO experience would transfer into well? Getting a bit tired of marketing overall really but no idea where I can go next at the age of 39 with bills to pay ???? -
Why do people feel they will not be able to compete with AI? You all seem to be assuming AI will replace Actual Intelligence.
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There’s always going to be a need for SEO. It will include an understanding and proficiency in AI/machine learning so it will be important to have experience there bout SEO will likely always be around.
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You wrote exactly what I had in my mind.
I just started SEO 1,5 year ago, first job and just went from junior to normal.
I went into SEO just before the IA “revolution” and I’m now in charge of the IA transition of our entire team. I feel really bad doing presentations to Senior SEO managers cause I can see how different things are going to be, they see it as well. We all see how our job is going to be impacted and how less energy and money is going to be involved in this market. Tech SEO seems to be safer for now but the IA transition has only started. I feel like most mid-level jobs in every positions are impacted.
I’m not even fully formed in SEO yet and I’m already thinking “what now”, everything I’ve learned so far seems to be now completely different and I really think I should change my set of skills before it’s too late.
Don’t know anything about coding but I know I would love it, hate “strategic marketing” stuff as it’s often a load of bullsh*t, I’m really lost and don’t really know what to do..
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Also a senior SEO here and I feel like Generative AI is not going to replace the need for SEOs but just like any other major update or advancement it will require SEOs to adapt. LLMs and Generative AI still rely on some form of information retrieval to work properly. Even in the paper “Rethinking Search” published by Donald Metzler he talks a little about how an index-less search engine would work and it would still require somebody to optimize content on websites.
Plus not everybody is going to use Bard exclusively. The generated answer only has one chance to fulfill the users need, if it fails the user will swipe past it and go to the normal SERPS. An experienced SEO will be needed and then if you become familiar with structured data, knowledge graphs, QA optimization and even neural re-ranking models you can set yourself up for adapting to Generative AI and LLM IR.
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PPC used to be fun but I don’t really enjoy it anymore. The AI content at SMX has been abundant and terrible, most of these people should not be wasting their time making stuff up about ChatGPT. Do you foresee the job you currently have being eliminated by ChatGPT?
From your choices, Analytics is what I would choose because of the # of orgs either grappling with GA4 or switching.
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Weird that content marketing or editing isn’t on your list. I always felt like I had dual skills and could go back to being an editor or general content manager if I wanted to.
That said, while AI is certainly going to shake things up I don’t think the profession is disintegrating tomorrow. If anything, leveraging AI content and adjusted SEO tasks for an AI-adapted algorithm will be part of the job.
Every year that I’ve been in SEO, there’s been some ominous algorithm change that was supposed to change everything and it was never as bad as people hyped. I remember mobile-first indexing was supposed to be the biggest deal ever, then, Core Web Vitals. Sure this is different, but hype is still hype. Wait and see.
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I run my own thing but have been looking for other SEO’s to team up with. It’s been difficult.
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So many entrepreneurs with ideas need SEO help. I would find a co-founder your aligned with and use your skills to grow a business for yourself.
My website is http://www.rentsmart.fyi and that’s one of the things I need, as an example
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I’m about to cross train in PPC with h our senior guy. I’m pretty excited! PPC is such a nuanced thing, and I’ll get to ask SO MANY questions.
Do which seems interesting. Anything you’re as excited about as I am PPC?
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It’s kind of interesting seeing how people overact to new technological advancements. I’m not saying the market won’t be impacted, but there’s a lot involved in SEO that software cannot do 100%.
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I’m in the same boat. Currently learning SQL and going to transition to data analytics
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