My 4 Years in Search Engine Optimisation
30th July 2010 by Pete Handley
Wow – well today is the 4 year anniversary of me joining Vertical Leap as a trainee search engine optimiser, having graduated from Portsmouth University with a degree in Entertainment Technology.
There has been a lot of change in the time – I’ve worked in 3 offices for the company, each steadily getting larger to accommodate the companies growth over time.
My personal development has also been quite astounding – I left university a somewhat nervous, hesitant person, and working full time has really brought me out of my shell in a lot of ways. When I first started in the job, I was a little nervous of answering phones, and yet now, I find that I spend large portions of the day either speaking on the phones, or answering them!
Also, this job is all about proactivity and I certainly try to be proactive wherever possible! I think that this is an important part of how we have evolved over time – there is no “hiding” behind emails here – we are all about actually speaking to the clients and gaining an understanding of what exactly they are engaging in search engine marketing for!
Face to face meetings are even better – when you get the chance, its always advisable to meet in person to really understand who you are working with.
In terms of the SEO work itself – lots has changed, and lots really, has fundamentally stayed the same. I’m still writing Titles and Meta Descriptions, but keyword tags are largely being ignored. We’re still making recommendations for site architecture and internal linking structures, but we are doing this in smarter ways than when I started out.
In my newer role as Team Leader of the SEO department, I now get to oversee the processes and plans that we implement for optimising our clients’ website, without losing the day to day involvement that a good SEO needs, of actually getting your “hands dirty” and getting on with client work.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the search world continues to develop as my career in search engine optimisation continues!
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4 Comments to My 4 Years in Search Engine Optimisation
July 30, 2010 at 11:02 am by Luke Jones
Congratulations in the four years. I hope everyone enjoyed the French Fancies.
July 30, 2010 at 11:10 am by Pete Handley
French Fancies are the ones that have been going fastest – surprisingly enough as have the carrot cake slices…
On that note, I’m off to go grab another one
August 3, 2010 at 2:12 pm by Matthew Oxley
Interesting stuff pete, and congratulations.
I was interested to hear at Brighton that you entered the industry as a fresh graduate.I gradually drifted into the industry after being involved in web projects going back almost to the last dotcom boom , and , having spoke to many others this seems quite common.
Despite this, I think SEO is an excellent choice for graduates , the beauty is that information changes so quickly that an aptitude for learning is arguably more important than one’s present knowledge.
August 16, 2010 at 9:05 am by Pete Handley
I agree – my degree also featured a large amount of project management training – and it is this, as much as any HTML and web related entertainment skills that have stood me in good stead in my time in SEO – I’ve clearly added to these since then as well.
Your point has merit though, graduates as you have quite rightly said, (should) have an aptitude for learning, and the learning never stops in this job!