What do you do if your current company is undervaluing your Search Engine Optimization skills?

Sometimes, it's easier to move on. At one company, my hiring SEO manager left soon after I joined. I applied for his position, but the role was removed. Think about that. Instead, the company chose to hire an agency to "help" me. I chose not to do the tasks of the former SEO manager, as I had plenty to do. The company had no clue what SEO work he performed, but I did. This isn't a rare situation in Enterprise SEO, particularly when rankings are steady, and there are no serious issues. You need to do your best at your level. Share your wins, as it makes your manager look good. In my case, there was no SEO career path, so I would need to change employers for any promotion. I chose to move on

If your company isn't recognizing the value of your SEO skills, it might be time to showcase your talents elsewhere. Update your portfolio with quantifiable results and seek opportunities at firms that prioritize SEO as a core component of their digital strategy. Remember, your expertise deserves appreciation and alignment with a company that understands its importance can lead to greater career satisfaction and growth opportunities.

Feeling undervalued for your SEO skills? Let's turn that around! If your current company isn't recognizing your SEO prowess, it's time to take action. Here's what you can do: Evaluate the Situation: 1. Assess how your SEO skills are being utilized within the company. 2. Determine if there are opportunities for growth and recognition. Communicate Effectively: 1. Schedule a meeting with your supervisor to discuss your concerns. 2 Present data and examples showcasing the impact of your SEO efforts. Seek Professional Development: 1. Invest in courses or certifications to further enhance your skills. 2. Stay updated with the latest SEO trends and techniques.

Assess Value: Reflect on your contributions to the company and the impact of your SEO skills on its success. Consider the results you've achieved, such as increased website traffic, improved search rankings, or higher conversion rates. Evaluate how your expertise aligns with the company's goals and objectives. This self-assessment will help you understand your true worth and advocate for fair recognition.

Assessing value in SEO involves evaluating content relevance, optimizing user experience, ensuring high-quality backlinks, effective keyword usage, conversion rate optimization, and analyzing metrics. By focusing on these areas, you can enhance SEO value, drive organic growth, and achieve sustainable results.

Open dialogue in SEO involves ongoing communication and collaboration between SEO professionals, content creators, developers, and stakeholders. It fosters a transparent exchange of ideas, feedback, and insights to align strategies, address challenges, and drive continuous improvement. This collaborative approach ensures that SEO efforts are aligned with business goals, user needs, and industry trends, leading to more effective optimization and better outcomes.

Open Dialogue: Initiate a conversation with your manager or HR department to discuss your concerns about being undervalued. Present evidence of your accomplishments and the value you bring to the company through your SEO skills. Be prepared to articulate how investing in your development and recognizing your expertise can benefit the company in terms of revenue growth, brand visibility, and competitive advantage.

Jumping from in-house to agency SEO is rarely a great move, unless the agency truly values a comprehensive approach to SEO and can limit the number of accounts (and by proxy websites) that SEO professionals need to manage. With in house SEO roles, the benefit is that you become intimately familiar with your sites, landers, quirky technical issues, linking patterns, etc. ... You can make moves quickly and oftentimes (assuming you have a good relationship with senior leadership) you can add ranking value faster with programs designed to attract links, etc. But, if senior leadership doesn't foster an environment that empowers this kind of success, then after a while many SEOs look for greener "sites" and places where programs can exist.

Skill Showcase: Proactively demonstrate your SEO skills and expertise through tangible examples. Offer to lead SEO initiatives, share case studies of successful campaigns you've implemented, or present insights on industry best practices and emerging trends. Showcasing your abilities firsthand can help your colleagues and superiors recognize the value you bring to the organization and gain their appreciation.

Professional Development: Seek opportunities for continuous learning and professional development to further enhance your SEO skills and stay ahead of industry advancements. Invest in relevant certifications, attend workshops or conferences, and participate in online courses or webinars. By continuously improving your expertise, you not only increase your value to the company but also position yourself for career advancement opportunities.

If you are bringing great results to a company with SEO, it's also understandable to want a larger pay cut. The same goes both ways, if your results are on the low-end, you should humble yourself and work harder.

Negotiate Terms: If you believe you're being undervalued, consider negotiating for better terms, such as a salary increase, bonus, or additional benefits that reflect the true market value of your SEO skills. Present data and benchmarks from industry standards to support your request and demonstrate why the company should invest in recognizing and rewarding your contributions appropriately.

Negotiating terms with your current company allows you to communicate the value of your SEO skills and potentially renegotiate your compensation or responsibilities to better reflect your expertise. It's an opportunity to advocate for yourself and ensure that your contributions are recognized and rewarded appropriately.

Negotiating terms with your current company allows you to communicate the value of your SEO skills and potentially renegotiate your compensation or responsibilities to better reflect your expertise. It's an opportunity to advocate for yourself and ensure that your contributions are recognized and rewarded appropriately.

Explore Options: If efforts to address the undervaluation of your SEO skills within the company prove unsuccessful, explore alternative options such as seeking opportunities elsewhere. Research job openings at companies that prioritize and appreciate SEO expertise, and consider networking with industry professionals to explore potential opportunities. Moving to a new organization that values your skills can be a strategic career move to ensure your professional growth and fulfillment.

I mentioned this before in another article but I think it's relevant for this one as well. Sometimes you have to think if your time and skills will be better spent somewhere else where your're skills are valued. I have experienced this recently. When the SEO is good and steadily going and there are no major problems to fix, or when is too soon to see results, it can come across as "You're not doing enough...or...you're doing nothing". But even worse is when CEO's/managers, whoever is in charge, doesn't understand what SEO is or what it does and you hear things like "SEO doen't do anything for us/doesn't bring us sales/ we don't need that". Then there is not much you can argue with, so best thing is to just move on

If your current company undervalues your SEO skills, take these steps: 1. Discuss your value with managers, using data to show impact. 2. Educate colleagues on SEO's importance. 3. Highlight successful campaigns to illustrate contributions. 4. Seek feedback to align goals. 5. Research industry standards to benchmark salary. 6. Consider taking new initiatives with SEO-related tasks to demonstrate self development commitment. 7. Network for potential opportunities. 8. Consider external certifications for credibility. 9. Evaluate options if undervaluation persists. Stay professional and seek mutually beneficial solutions.

SEO is a niche skill that spans many topics. If you feel undervalued at your current role, I would recommend finding a new position. Many try to jump agency to in-house or in-house to an agency. There are also many lateral options people don't consider. Feeling undervalued can be a discussion with your current manager but I expect one may already be considering elsewhere if they are feeling negatively about their value perception in the company. Look for roles or develop skills to work with data and many analytics teams need support from someone with web front end and marketing experience. Content writers can be assisted with data in an editorial fashion. It all depends on what part of the broad range of SEO your skill falls into.