Search Marketing Strategist

Amid millions of websites, finding exactly what you’re looking for online can seem impossible — especially if what you’re looking for is a customer, as a company’s website is the digital equivalent of the proverbial needle in the haystack: Finding it is rarely easy. That is, unless a Search Marketing Strategist is involved.

As a Search Marketing Strategist, you help your company advertise, market, and promote itself on the Internet via search engines.

Like an SEO Analyst or SEO Consultant, you accomplish that primarily with search engine optimization, or SEO. The process of “optimizing” a website so that it ranks near the top of users’ search results, SEO requires the Search Marketing Strategist to research the keyword terms that people type into search engines to find what they’re looking for, then drive Internet traffic by creating website content that effectively uses those terms.

That type of SEO, called “organic search,” is only part of your job, however. Another part is “paid search,” which requires using the same keyword research to write, purchase, and place paid advertisements — called “Pay Per Click” (PPC) ads — that appear within and alongside users’ search results.

Finally, your job has two more elements: The first is link building, which involves establishing relationships with complementary blogs and websites so they’ll link to your content (which improves search engine rankings). The second requires being a Web Analytics Specialist by regularly analyzing and reporting the performance of your website and PPC ads for the purpose of improving them.

Basically, you’re a digital Fisherman: It’s your job to bait the hook and catch the fish!