Working for a SEO Agency?

[simplygetfit]

Hi Everyone

Does anyone have any feedback on what it's like to work at a SEO/Digital Agency?

After working as an IT Support guy, I'm being made redundant next month.

Is it enjoyable, or as tedious as IT Support with clients wanting things now! and not realising what needs to be involved. Half of me says apply for jobs but then the other half thinks.. it could be boring as you making someone else money... so I'm curious if anyone has any experiences..

Thanks everyone

Rob

 

[zigojacko]

This will largely depend upon who your employer is.

Working for an agency that actually gets the digital/seo industry and what it's all about can be very interesting, exciting and rewarding.

Unfortunately, the industry is littered with idiotic companies that haven't got a clue and train their staff all completely wrong and those individuals/the company often end up on the receiving end of a lot of stick on the web.

 

[simplygetfit]

Thanks for your reply

Looks like it maybe a .. go there and see then..

I have noticed alot of jobs appearing online, from companies that didnt exist even before I got into SEO so can see where you are coming from...

could be a little dodgy if they lost clients and came unstable

Intriguing all the same

Thanks again

 

[fisicx]

What they want is sales people. The actual SEO work is usually outsourced or you get paid a pittance to create worthless links.

 

[searchsouth]

I think that it's fair to say that the experience will tend to vary from one agency to the next.

Although the comment above (regarding outsourcing) may be true in some agencies, I know plenty of others where they are doing some really innovative stuff and have a great working environment too. It's much like any industry I guess.

 

[WebMeUp]

it could be boring as you making someone else money... so I'm curious if anyone has any experiences..

SEO, as a sphere, is very interesting and intriguing.

It's an ever changing field that will always be shifting and morphing into something it wasn’t. So in case you like challenge, and if you are open to learning new things and change, SEO is for you.

As for money making aspect, you know, wherever you may start your career (regardless of the sphere), you will always be making somebody's else money. But with the course of time you can progress in it, master the trade, sharpen your skills and start working as a freelancer or even launch your own SEO business.

So I advise you to go for it.

If you decide to apply for an SEO job, this set of useful tips and instructions will help you to successfully pass your job interview.

Also, here you can find more info about what career is SEO actually is.

 

[zigojacko]

@fisicx is spot on with his earlier comment. Once an agency gets so large, most of them don't care about results, retention of even hiring the best in the industry, they'll just focus on quantity, driving as many clients through the door as possible only recruiting salesmen to sell the SEO services, they know absolutely nothing about SEO and just read from a script. Then they just outsource the actual work to cheap labour offshore to produce absolute junk.

Finally though now, we're starting to see these agencies that fall into this category disappearing down the rankings fast (only as short as a year ago, you could search for 'SEO' in Google and it would be all these agencies propping up the first page). All their mass buying of links and auto link spam is catching up with them and as for the poor reviews building up now, they speak for themselves.

But of course, we'll not name them as they're very quick to scour the web for any bad mouthing of them and throw emails your way threatening legal action.

 

[HazelC]

I worked for an SEO Company and found it really beneficial, I was there about 18months and learnt loads that has really helped me - great learning curve!

 

[ForumJunkie]

I worked for an SEO agency, they knew absolutely nothing. It was painful, I'm suggesting one way (in my opinion the right way) they're doing the opposite and their clients are going down the ranks, in the end I was told "I talk to much" and was asked to leave. I check on their clients progress and it seems the £5,000 they're spending per month is going no where - just on £10 500 word articles for their website and the occasionally acquired link the rest in the pockets on the directors. But don't worry they tell the clients they go to all the best SEO conferences.

 

[UseYourWeb]

I also worked for an SEO agency, charged clients a lot of money for a small amount of work. Hired most of their staff fresh from uni where they dont teach SEO so I was the only one who understood the field. Its why I left and went it alone

 

[Ade Vitan]

Hey! I'm also working in the SEO sphere, actually for a company that develops and SEO software that companies later use. So, what I can say is that we're working with great SEO companies, that are professional and understand their job and are committed to giving their clients the best solutions. But, on the other hand, we're encountered our fair share of SEO agencies that don't focus on their clients, or on realistic strategies. However, my advice to you is that you should try this path as well.

SEO is a fascinating niche, you can learn a lot, and there's no harm done in checking out the opportunities out there. Go to interviews, get in touch with people who work in the industry and you'll probably be able to make a decent decision and analyse a potential employer before accepting a position.

 

[DexSmart]

I think is something simple at the end. Going with a great company like "moz" will be a good thing for you, and i think that the payment will be good as well. So, who ever gets a chance to work for a big company should not miss the chance!

 

[webgeek]

I think is something simple at the end. Going with a great company like "moz" will be a good thing for you, and i think that the payment will be good as well. So, who ever gets a chance to work for a big company should not miss the chance!

As if you're going to learn anything working at Moz you can't get by simply playing Matt Cutts videos from youtube. They teach the Google party line and wouldn't know innovation if it bit them on the backside.

Find a guy/gal like Slawski, latch onto them, imitate, emulate, improve upon, step beyond, thank and leave.

Some of the biggest digital agencies in the north anyway, are the ones who should be raked over the coals and regularly sued for malpractice, given the way their seo teams resemble monkey humping footballs. There is almost an inverse relationship between digital agency size and SEO skills. I'm basing this off of two recent refugee client experiences who needed pre-litigation audits done (after having been nearly bankrupt by two of the larger agencies with a presence in Glasgow).

I don't claim to be the best thing since sliced bread, know more than Barry Schwartz, or have all the answers but I do know a cowpie when I step in one.

 

[DexSmart]

I like that you try to be honest and point out some existent problems on the market but still, what would we be without some professional SEO agency or people who know why sites can rank for tag instead title tag. There is more then what we see at the surface, and that's the real SEO work, for that you need some good time, experience that you can either get it from working at a great company, or self Developing. My point is that good managers are always hard to find, and "Moz" is just a good example of being a good Pheonix bird on the SEO agencies. They started low and they got big. I admire that !

 

[jdluckhurst]

What they want is sales people. The actual SEO work is usually outsourced or you get paid a pittance to create worthless links.

Bit of a generalisation, but probably true with the bigger firms. Some of us smaller ones actually do good work and make real differences to our client's businesses

Working in SEO can be fun, although you are unlikely to be able to get away from clients that want it now. As with any industry it depends on the company, your peers and your boss.

 

[seomasters1]

I have an agency and it really depends on what area you are working in. Onsite SEO is highly technical and off page SEO is about being creative and developing relationships. What are you interested in?

 

[Michael Nguyen]

You need to get with an agency that will teach you the whole spectrum of SEO, more importantly the technical side of SEO. I became a better SEO when I had the day job. My suggestion, get the job, learn the trade, then start your own business and be the service provide that everyone wants and trust. All about trust in this industry.

 

[greyheart]

Ok, having worked at a lot of agencies I need to argue with @zigojacko and @fisicx not all agencies outsource everything, in fact the only thing I've seen outsourced in a long time is link removal... and even that was stopped once Rmoov was released.

(Well that and content when there's a need) but generally I've always found part time uni students are a better solution to get good value on that if you need to shrink costs. (And we can all assume that a final year journo/english student is going to be better than someone overseas).

But, I will also say generally it sucks. If you're senior ie Head of Dept and up, you spend half your life playing politics and babysitting juniors and the rest dealing with clients and lying about why performance has dropped which is usually because the directors have trimmed budgets, because some other part of the company entirely unrelated to your department is losing money/clients etc usually because they had their budget trimmed.....

The problem is that a lot of companies grew because they were in a market boom and demand grew as opposed to them being managed by good businessmen. The managing director of any company shouldn't meddle in the day to day tasks of his managers unless there's something wrong, but unfortunately "seagull" management is all too common in SEO agencies.

But, really it depends what you want to do, if you want to transfer into marketing in the broader sense later it's a good entry path, but staying solely in the field will probably become sole destroying after a while. The bit that's actually good about it is at least you'll have a variation in tasks.

And yes clients do want everything now, but that's usually because most SEO account managers are bad, and don't get expectations right.

But, if you need a job..... there are worse things to do.

Obviously none of this applies to my own company but there's a reason I set greyheart up and left previous companies

My question is as an IT guy can you code? Because SEO companies typically don't have enough dev support and you'll end up as a hybrid between the two.

(sources - years in industry, owns an online marketing firm, also unfortunately hang around with a lot of other guys unhappy in SEO because that's where I started)

 

[sirearl]

As for money making aspect, you know, wherever you may start your career (regardless of the sphere), you will always be making somebody's else money. But with the course of time you can progress in it, master the trade, sharpen your skills and start working as a freelancer or even launch your own SEO business.

.

Or better still launch your own e-commerce sites and make a mint.