What do people who do SEO do?

They learn the ways in which search engines and advertising algorithms select what to display:
- to whom
- to which geographic areas,
- when, and
- in what context.

They then use that knowledge to "game" the algorithms into pushing their clients to their target audience(s) more often. (Or pushing their clients down, if they're trying to repair bad PR.)

On the practical side this is accomplished with simple stuff like tagging and meta/inline keywords, to publishing pages on other domains which link back to the target (search engines rate sites according to how often others mention them), all the way to buying sponsored content about market segments so that people will perform very particular searches/see very particular ads that lead to their clients.

>>59785256
Thank you. So how do you get a job in that field and do you have any reccommendations regarding literature, sites, education etc?

>>59785256
So not much different from clickbait? Doesn't this necessarily drive down the quality of, say, news website or any other 'literary' content?

>>59785256
This. Most jobs that involve SEO are often mixed with other responsibilities. My title is Digital Content Manager. Fancy title for SEO/social media/other digital marketing guy.

Few companies have these kind of positions and all their duties well defined yet especially because it's so dependant on the nature of the business. Like I work for a construction company that does business in a 5 state area. We don't have a need for a large digital workforce with a grandiose set of guidelines for the seo/social media/etc strategies.
If the person in the position is competent (and I like to think I am), they can usually gauge what is needed and how to maintain and grow the online presence.

Now some business that is heavily web based like an online retailer or an online service company likely might employ a singular SEO person.

Your first response well captures what most SEO positions entail. It can be something that only takes 1-3 hours up of a workday for one business and can be a daily 10 hour workload for another.

>>59785277
I got a degree in communication: digital marketing and advertising / digital imaging. A weird new degree at my UNI that was honestly half bullshit. Did learn some things though.

Employers hiring for a digital work force from my experience love it though. I haven't had any issue getting job offers when searching.
Especially once you Get it topped with 1-2years of real work experience on Your resume - I feel it helps you become pretty safe from unemployment for the future.

Most positions don't pay a ton. But they pay enough to be comfortable and above average income verse other careers in most areas currently.

>>59785277
Ask this Anon:
>>59785394

>>59785293
Clickbait just scratches the surface. Good SEO doesn't just entice you to click, it closes your awareness of there being anything else to possibly click. It not only suppresses your competition, it frames the topic in a way that drives all attention toward you. To make a hyperbolic example, it would be like a wooden countertop manufacturer saturating ads/searches to the point where new homeowners don't even know that countertops can be made from stone. Because when they search for countertops on Google, the entire first page of results is:
- the manufacturer's homepage
- a bunch of smaller links below that to specific product rangers
- a couple of home renovation websites showing how to install wooden countertops (native advertising)
- YouTube videos about the countertops (tagging)
- major distributors and retailers which carry this company's countertops (cross-linking)

Search results and ads actually teach people about their associated markets. You can control everything that any consumer knows about something just through good SEO. That's more than just their attention.

>>59785522
So it can actually muddle the search in a way that it's harder to get what you're actually looking for due to 'good' SEO from one source? So the other, source that makes a countertop that you're actually searching for would have to start a SEO war to get noticed?

That being said, it seems to me that SEO is something that feeds directly into clickbait model that suffocates online content.

>>59785394
does your job include shilling?

>>59785189
Fug, that's Kristen Stewart? Wtf haircut and trash tattoos

>>59785872
I know, she's great now.

>>59785894
Lol? No

>>59785894
indeed

long hair and lack of tattoos or otherwise distinguishing features is just so goddamn boring and plain.

quirky kinky girls with relative oddities like short cut or brightly dyed hair ftw

>>59785894
Holy shit she's ridiculously hot now that she's pregnant

>>59785189

They analyze the html and other characteristics of website so Google rates your website better. There are a bunch of bullet points that most dev's miss when making a site. For example proper meta headers. Proper meta info for images and image names.

>>59785189
people who actually do SEO are banking lot of money on their own projects

people that claim to do SEO are working for others

>>59785189
What happened to her?

>>59785752
wut

>>59787332
so google bots go into html and read these meta headers? any good book / info i can read about this process?