Have you ever met an individual overselling their skills for employment? For a stable salary, people might say they’re experts in different sorts of things including SEO, but how does one know that a person is an expert in a specific field? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and a good SEO strategy means a lot for your business. It practically increases the chances of your website being found on the first page of a search engine such as Google, which means that your site has the most relevant information needed by a user depending on the keyword they typed and their location.

If you are unfamiliar with SEO, hiring an in-house SEO Expert might come to mind. However, anyone with some SEO knowledge will concur that a person who advertises themselves as an in-house SEO expert for employment is often a fraud.

Why should you not Hire an In-house SEO Expert?

Firstly, a person who calls themselves an expert in a particular field often has narcissistic tendencies. Some employers might dig it, and some might not. But don’t get me wrong, whether they are narcissistic or not, there are indeed SEO experts out there with proven credentials. The thing is that real SEO experts wouldn’t peddle their skills for a measly salary. They usually create their own businesses and increase scalability through SEO. 

Being considered an expert in a specific field means having extensive knowledge and experience. If an SEO Expert has these credentials, it only means they have already made a lot of money and can generate more by replicating the process. There are a lot of examples in which these experts can generate profit, such as but not limited to consultancy retainers, AdSense, Affiliate Marketing, link schemes, and guest blogging. The profit margin for these approaches ranges between 60% – 95% depending on the business size and location.

As someone who understands SEO, it’s really hard to believe that these so-called experts would settle for being hired in-house. Having said this, someone that calls themselves an in-house SEO expert is often met with skepticism. To further understand why SEO Experts are usually better off creating their businesses through their websites, read more below to learn about a few opportunities they can take advantage of.

Different sources of income for an SEO Expert

Nowadays, people who know even a little about SEO can start a business without much capital. With their expertise, even blog authoring can net them hundreds to thousands of dollars per month, depending on their niche. Here are some familiar sources of income for an SEO Expert.

Advertisements

For someone adept in SEO, earning money through advertisements is one of the most passive approaches. If your website has great content and if you are an SEO expert, a continuous flow of web traffic would be a common occurrence. Monetizing web traffic is made more accessible by different advertising companies. Google AdSense is a great example. They offer web publishers registered with the Google network a way to monetize content by serving their visitor’s text, images, video, or interactive media advertisements. These advertisements are sorted and administered by Google. An algorithm has also been developed to ensure that their visitors would be offered the most relevant advertisements based on their recent searches.

In this type of monetization, impressions and clicks are two essential things to consider. Both of which are being monetized by the publisher.

• Impressions: An impression is counted when a visitor simply views the ad. There is a term called CPI or Cost Per Impression, which means that the advertiser agrees to pay the publisher per 1,000 views. It is also called CPM (Cost Per Thousand), wherein “M” is the roman numeral for 1,000.
• Clicks: This relates to an advertising term called CPC (Cost Per Click) or PPC (Pay Per Click). This approach is where an advertiser agrees to pay the publisher for every click on the ad found on their website.

Affiliate marketing

This monetization involves directly or seamlessly recommending a product or service to an audience. An affiliate such as the web publisher can earn commissions each time someone purchases through the unique link associated with their recommendation. Many companies offer affiliate marketing programs for publishers. It is a cost-effective way to hit two birds with one stone, gain brand reputation, and increase sales. 

A website with significant traffic would highly benefit from this monetization method as it is often more lucrative than the other passive selections. Some affiliate marketing professionals even net hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, especially if they are SEO experts.

eCommerce (Physical or Digital Products & Services)

The definition of eCommerce means commercial transactions conducted electronically on the internet. If an SEO Expert has a business that sells physical or digital products & services, one way to gain income is to sell them directly from their website. They usually need to create keyword-rich content that attracts the audience to a specific page on their website to gain more sales. 

Brand Deals

This type of monetization is sometimes referred to as Brand Sponsorship. It is a marketing tactic that applies to publishers who have already gained a good reputation and substantial followers. A brand deal is a partnership between creators and brands; Creators seamlessly integrate a product or brand into their content, spreading knowledge to their audiences about the product.

It benefits the content creator, the audience, and the brand by:

• Opening up an additional revenue stream for the site
• More content for the publisher
• The audience benefits from learning about new products and services.  
• Gain access to products or services that the publisher believes in. (possibly discounts, coupon codes, or even giveaways for both the audience and publisher)
• Brands expand their target market

When a website gains a lot of followers, different brands sometimes get in touch with the publishers and offer brand deals. However, as the publisher, they must ensure that they believe in a specific brand and are transparent to their audience. Getting brand deals might be easy for SEO experts who are used to increasing web traffic and creating quality content.

Who can help you with SEO?

If you own a business and need someone to help you with SEO, there are still some options other than hiring an in-house SEO Expert.

In SEO, it is crucial to have web development knowledge. However, it is not safe to assume that all web developers have SEO knowledge. A web developer is someone who deals with the overall functionality of your site, and there are three types:

• Back-end Web Developer is someone who deals with logical formulas and algorithms. They build and maintain mechanisms that process data and perform website actions. Some of their responsibilities are maintenance of security and updating automation so that the developer team’s efforts are not heavily focused on the basics like updating plugins and third-party related services. They also coordinate with front-end web developers to ensure the page speed is optimized.
• Front-end Web Developer deals with what the users see and interact with on a website or a web application. Front-end developers are usually the best SEO.
• Fullstack Web Developer is simply a combination of both backend and frontend. However, full-stack developers with SEO knowledge are extremely rare.

Suppose you own a small business with up to 50 employees and require someone to focus on SEO. In that case, you should find someone with web development experience who recently migrated into SEO. This way, you will save a lot of costs. Web developers usually yearn for more knowledge to advance, and the field of search engine optimization is an excellent addition to their portfolio. 

Another great and possibly the best option is to find an SEO Agency. Such agencies consist of people with different expertise, usually content writers, graphic designers, web developers, and managers who are often the owners of the business and legitimate SEO Experts. These agencies are often a one-stop-shop for all things related to your website and can help you increase your rank on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).