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The high human cost of specialized SEO skills

Posted by Michael Martinez on April 28, 2008 in SEO Theory

As the demand for experienced SEO technicians increases over the next few years, the industry may feel pressure to increase specialization. Skillset specialization offers advantages and disadvantages that don’t necessarily cancel each other out. For example, working only with specialists improves an organization’s ability to focus resources where they are most needed; thus, economies of scale help improve overall efficiencies and reduce costs. However, anyone who is caught in the specialized skill trap risks complete unemployability when the industry tops out or demands entirely new skillsets.

I have lived through two major IT recessions which each saw hundreds of thousands of people lose their jobs. In both situations many people had to acquire new skills, often changing industries completely, because the American business community is indifferent to the needs of its employees. At the height of the last IT recession, rather than retrain experienced IT professionals who were available, Bill Gates asked Congress to increase the number of B-1 visas so that Microsoft could hire foreign nationals who had already acquired the specialized skills that Microsoft needed. Other companies supported Gates’ request.

Today the SEO industry is taking off and jobs are being created faster than they can be filled by experienced SEO Technicians. But we’re already beginning to see the first signs of specialization creep into the industry. Specialization will create niche jobs that, for a while, will help almost everyone who wants to work in the industry find something they can do. But as costs increase businesses will begin looking for means of managing and ultimately reducing those costs.

By the time the demand for SEO services peaks (probably around 2011-13) we should already have available cost-effective SEO software services that actually work. I don’t mean the sleazy spam scripts that are pawned off on would-be black hats by people who have already burned through the software’s advantages. I mean there will be real SEO service bureaus that help small businesses achieve basic search and social media visibility. People have been launching these types of services for years but no one has yet brought anything to market that is really effective and automated.

There is also an increasing trend for American SEO business to look to overseas service providers. Directory submissions in India, copywriting in the Phillipines, and other discrete tasks are spawning new industries. Even PPC landing page copywriting has become a specialized skill set. American SEO technicians will eventually prove to be too expensive if they try to do everything by hand or directly. The people most likely to make the transition from hot new job market to long-term career will be the ones who can manage complex projects by developing critical resources for pennies on the dollar.

One day a typical SEO manager may only work with outsourced or contract labor. Companies that today are building up SEO departments with 5, 10, 15 people or more will eventually have to reduce those costs. The need for cost reductions arises from many different sources. The SEO service departments may very well be highly profitable units but if a large organization decides to cut labor costs as a means of improving their overall profits, even successful service departments may feel pressure. CEOs and boards of directors care more about the price of stock than they do about the impact that layoffs have on families (but keep in mind that if a stock plummets too low everyone may have to be laid off).

There is no doomsday scenario on the horizon or behind my words. Search engine optimization is a young industry and it is moving into a high growth mode. One day it will mature and there will be fewer job openings. Eventually it will cease to grow at all. Maybe somewhere in the distant future the need for SEO specialists will vanish altogether. The tasks we perform may be bundled up into other skill sets.

I think there will be long-term needs for the following types of specialists, and some of these specialized skill sets are already developing into sub-industries.

Trends Analyst - A trends analysts needs to look at more than just search trends. This kind of person should be engaged in active business intelligence, gauging marketing patterns and consumer sentiment. When you get to the point where you can project new trends before they appear with considerable accuracy, you’ll be doing the job right. A company that can afford to train and maintain a trends analyst should experience superior search and online marketing performance. Large retailers and manufacturers would want to recruit or develop trends analysts. Large agencies could also benefit from employing trends analysts.

Feature Copywriter - A features copywriter is basically an online journalist. This person can write news articles, blog articles, feature articles, etc. This kind of copy is used on general purpose Web sites, entertainment sites, news sites, etc. It can also be very useful on corporate Web sites that provide special features like corporate histories, profiles of executives, articles on corporate functions and projects, etc. A lot of people currently use feature copywriters to build out Web sites for link building. This is a research-intensive position and you want people who are creative, self-motivated, and able to work with minimal supervision.

Landing Page Copywriter - Landing page copywriters are heavily utilized for pay-per-click advertising but you can also use landing pages in organic SEO. A good landing page copywriter understands A/B testing and can put together a decent set of reports. You may be able to train a landing page copywriter for trends analysis.

Ad Copywriter - Ad copywriters should be able to work with more than just pay-per-click networks. They need to master several different copy formats and understand A/B testing, regional results analysis, and targeted keyword placements. Ad copywriters should be able to manage local search listings and niche directory listings. A good ad copywriter should be able to make the transition to trends analysis.

Meta Copywriter - Although the days when directories dominated search are long over the basic skill sets required for directory optimization are still important. You want to create good titles, meta descrptions, and page URLs for organic search results. But a meta copywriter should be capable of so much more, including organizing a copywriting team to create a massive Web site from scratch. The meta copywriter should be both section editor and copy manager, able to break concepts down into discrete articles and hand out the assignments. A meta copywriter should be able to work with all other types of copywriter, but does not necessarily have to be a senior copywriter. A good meta copywriter should be able to make the transition to project leader, Web site design guru, etc.

Today’s SEO technicians tend to double up as meta copywriters but an SEO tech has responsibilities for non-copy tasks.

Link Specialist - A link specialist should understand link theory. This is not someone who asks other sites for links but rather designs linking networks (both for internal navigation and external link promotion). The link specialist is not someone who spams social media sites with profiles for links. A good link specialist should be able to map trends and would be a great candidate for trends analysis.

Most of today’s SEO technicians fall far short of being capable link specialists. A link specialist has to understand A/B testing and scalability in testing. You can’t just throw up five Web sites for a nonsense keyword, point links at some of them, and then extrapolate how links should work in normal search results. This is a research intensive position that focuses on crawlability, indexing rates, and all things link-related.

Optimization Analyst - This person should be able to do on-page optimization in their sleep. This is the guy who laughs at people for putting “SEO toolbar” plugins in their Firesucks browser. An optimization analyst should be able to look at a Web site and rattle off a list of what can be improved. An optimization analyst should also be able to look at a link profile and estimate which links are probably helping and which are links are probably a waste of time. An optimization analyst should be able to assess the relative competitiveness of a query space.

Optimization analysts should learn trends analysis and should be good canidates for moving into a Trends Analyst position. This person should be performing quality control for the rest of the team. An SEO manager should be capable of doing everything an optimization analyst is expected to do, which is report, report, report.

Why these positions rock

All of the functions I described above could be developed into independent service models. Each one of them could be outsourced and several of the positions have already been developed for outsourcing by various firms. The process has only begun and its course will be determined by where the money flows.

If you find yourself being shaped into a specialist by your job, the best thing you can do for yourself is create opportunities for growth from that position into other areas of specialization, ultimately until you’ve got the well-rounded skills you need to be an SEO manager or a search strategist. As the industry matures you don’t want to be left behind because you can’t specialize when it’s deemed necessary, but neither do you want to find your niche has been eliminated by improved efficiencies.