An SEO specialist needs over 10 years of experience with search engine optimization, Google and Bing tools, link building, and technical SEO skills. They must keep up with current trends, have experience with content marketing, social media strategies, and reporting metrics. An SEO specialist should also have skills in local SEO, auditing websites, competitive analysis, paid search, and digital marketing tools.

1. What an SEO Specialist,Expert,ConsultantandOnline MarketingManagerneedstoknow today in 2015:
 SearchEngine Optimization(10+years),
 Experience withGoogleandBing’sservices,includingAnalyticsandWebmasterTools(10+
years),
 Experience withGoogle’sKeywordTool (10+ years),
 Expertlinkbuilder(10+ years),
 A functional understandingof HTML and CSS (10+ years),
 The abilitytoworkwithback-endSEOelementssuchas.htaccess,robots.txt,metadata,site
speedoptimization, andrelatedskills(10+years),
 Provensuccessinlinkbuildingandviral strategies(10+years),
 The abilitytodeployaneffectivelocal andlong-tailsearchstrategy(10+ years),
 A deepunderstandingof mobilestrategyandhow itrelatestoSEO (10+ years),
 A solidgraspof how blogging,pressreleases,social media,andrelatedstrategiesgohand-in-
handwithSEO (10+ years),
 Experience inbuildinginboundorganicsearchtrafficandimprovingSERPs(10+ years),
 A backgroundincreatingreportsshowingwebanalyticsdataandsite evaluations(10+years),
 An up-to-date,workingknowledgeof current,past,andprojectedtrendsinthe SEOindustry
(10+ years),
 Familiaritywiththe besttoolsinthe trade (10+ years),
 Supplementaryskills:PHP,UX,IA,CRO,SEM, ContentStrategy,Social Media(10+ years),
 Mobile AppSearch(5 years),
 Responsive WebsiteDesign(5years),
 CloudComputing(4years),
 InformationArchitecture (4years),
 Mobile-FriendlySEO(5years),
 Lead Management(6years),
 LatentSemanticIndexing(7years),
 Actionable Analytics(6years),
 Conversational Queries(4years),
 StructuredData Markup (5 years),
 Online Security(5years),
 Big Data (2 years),
 Social Signals(3years),
 KeepSEObudgeton track – Manage campaignbudgetexpenses,helpestablishpriorities,
performprojectmanagement,documentchanges.(10+years),
 Become knowledgeableaboutthe customer’ssearchmarketingobjectives,industry,business
niche,products,brandattributes,andcompetitive position.(10+years),
 Optimize webpages –Integrate keywordphrases,execute on-page SEOmechanical elements
(H-tags,Images,Textattributes).(10+years),
 Keywordresearchdiscovery+analysis – Prioritize keywordstargetingstrategyforheadkeyword
verticalsandlong-tailedkeywordphrases.Identifyexistingkeywordrankingsandpotential new
keywordtargets.(10+ years),
 KeywordMapping – Map keywordstospecificpagesstrengtheningcontentsilos.(10+years),

2.  Compose effective headlines and subheadings. Write compelling unique title tags and
descriptionmetatagstoinduce more clicksinsearchresults.(5years),
 Attainmultiple Googletoptenrankingspositionsformoneykeywordsonhome page,internal
and landingpages,andblogpostslonger-termstrategies.(10+years),
 Improve userexperienceonwebsite:Increase ClickThroughRates(CTR) insearchengine results
listings,minimize page abandonment,increasepage views.(10+years),
 Diagnose technical SEOissuesandresolve:Canonicalization,pagination,404errors,301/302
redirects,crawl errors,servererrors,duplicate content,robots.txtfile,XMLsitemapandHTML
sitemapproblems,brokenlinks,testandresolvewebsitepage loadspeedissuesandconduct
mobile-friendlytestforreadabilityandusabilityproblemsondifferentwebbrowsersandscreen
resolutions.(10+years),
 PerformLocal SEO marketingcampaigns – Google+,Local Places,Regional andLocal citations.(5
years),
 Conducta full SEO website audit–documentbaselinesandbenchmarks.(8years),
 Complete anonline competitiveanalysis.Reverse engineercompetitors’websites.Reverse
engineercompetitors’backlinkprofile.(6years),
 Keepinformedonindustrytrends,SEObestpractices,andGoogle algorithmupdates.Thisability
includesadvancedknowledge on‘whatspamis’andhow to avoidit.(10+ years),
 Write original unique content,identifycontentgaps,offercopywritingcoachingtips,raise
contentqualitystandards,remove orupdate outdatedcontent,consolidatethincontent,find
and fix duplicate content.(4years),
 Demonstratesproficiencyinmakingcontentadjustmentsandtweakingcontentbasedupon
measurable data.(4years),
 RecommendCall toActionfeaturesandCTA buttons.Improve conversionrates.(4years),
 Knowoperational featuresof ContentManagementSystems:Wordpress,Joomla,Drupal.(4
years),
 Have general understandingof webdevelopment,webdesign,HTMLcoding,Javascript,and
CSS.(7 years),
 Understandkeyaspectsof e-commerce websites,shoppingcarts,andphotogalleries.(5years),
 ImplementGoogleAuthorshipintegrationforgainingrichsnippets.Make richcontentand
schemamarkuprecommendations,publishstructureddatamarkup.(4years),
 Use SEO,ContentMarketing,Digital MarketingandConversionRate Optimizationtools
effectively:Google WebmasterTools,GoogleAnalytics,GoogleKeywordPlanner,Google SERP
SnippetOptimizationTool,Google StructuredDataTestingTool,BingWebmasterTools,
MajesticSEO, Ahrefs,SEOQuake,HubSpot,Bitly,Buffer,Buzzstream, Wordpress,Copyscape,
IFTTT, Linkstat,MozCast,Social Mention,Ubersuggest,XenuLinkSleuth,ScreamingFrog,Yoast,
YouTube Analytics,nTopic,OpenSiteExplorer,Piktochart,Trello,SEMrush,Optimizely,Visual
Website Optimizer,Raven,Wordtracker,ClickTale,Kissmetrics,SurveyMonkey,Canva,Spyfu,
Quantcast,Alexa,Compete,Marketo,Aweber,iContact,ConstantContact,MailChimp,
Hootsuite,SpoutSocial,ScribbleLive,PRNewswire,Brightcove, Slideshare,Buzzsumo,
GoToMeeting,WebEx,InboundWriter,Scribe,AtomicReach,Unbounce,andmanymore.(8
years),
 The abilitytoworkwithback-endSEOelementssuchas.htaccess,robots.txt,metadata,site
speedoptimization,andrelatedskills(10+years),
 Run pay-per-clickcampaigns(7years),
 Buildsystemsandprotocolsinternallythatensure all contentisoptimizedacrossall platforms
and userexperiences(websites,mobile,social,video,blogs,retail portalsetc) (5years),

3.  Executing various inbound marketing activities such as SEO, link building and link outreach. (4
years),
 Identifyingareasforgrowthandimprovementinsite structure,keywordselection,content
development,andon-page optimization.(4years),
 Brainstorminganddevelopingcreative contentdesignedtoattractlinksandnew readersaswell
as drive qualifiedleads.(4years),
 Regularbloggingandguestblogging.(4years),
 Writingand maintainingcontentandprovidingupdatestocompanywebsite.(6years),
 Social mediamarketingeffortsincludingupdatingandmaintainingourFacebook,Google+,and
LinkedInpresences.(4years),
 Developingandimplementingtestsata rapidpace. (4 years),
 Monitoringbrandmentionsandreputation.(6years),
 Participatinginvariouspublicrelationsactivities,includingwritingpressreleasesandmedia
outreach.(4 years),
 Monitoringperformance metricstounderstandorganicsearchperformanceacrossmultiple
global marketsandmeasure the impactof changes.(8 years),
 Executionof weeklyandmonthlyreportingacrossmarketingprograms,leveraging
Salesforce.com,MarketoandGoogle Analytics.(2years),
 Conductingwebsitepenaltyaudits(2years),
 Image optimizationforSEO(7years),
 GoogleBotoptimization(5years),
 Multilingual markup(5years),
 Google Local Placesoptimization(5years),
 National SearchEngine Optimization(10+years),
 International SearchEngine Optimization(5years),
 Citationbuilding(5years),
 SettingupconversionfunnelsinGoogle AnalyticsandKissmetrics(5years),
 SEO copywriting(6years),
 OptimizingCSSandJavafiles(5years),
 Google AdvancedSearchOperators(5years),
 Internal linkingwithSmartLinks(3years),
 Harvestingemail addresses(5years),Social listening(5years),
 UsingproxiesandVPNs(6 years),
 Keywordranktrackingand reporting(10+ years),
 Trackinginternal site search(5 years),
 Linkbuildingwithimages(5years),
 LinkbuildingwithPDFfiles(5years),
 Capturinglinkswithbrandmentions(5years),
 Linkearningvslinkbuilding(5years),
 Brokenlinkbuilding(5years),
 Findinglinkworthydomainstolinkto(5 years),
 Linkoutreach(5 years),
 Recoveringlostlinks(5years),
 Secondlevel /tierlinkbuilding(5years),Identifyinghighconvertingreferrals(5years),
 Secondlevel linkprospecting(5years),
 Linkprospecting(5years),

4.  Optimizing online slideshows (6 years),
 FacebookOpenGraph(2 years),
 Create click-to-tweetsforlinkbuilding(1year),
 GettingFollowandNoFollowlinks(7years),
 Google Alerts(5years),
 FamiliaritywithGoogle's200 differentorganicrankingfactorsandthe fact that theymake 500 -
600 minorandmajor changesto theiralgorithmyearly;Andkeepingupand preparingforall the
changes.(6 years),
 FamiliarwithYouTube rankingfactorsandvideooptimization(5years),
 Videoeditingandproduction(5years),
 Familiarwithviolationsandsearchengine spampenalties(5years),Linkbait,linkbombs(3
years),
 Paidlinks(4years),
 Guestpostingforlinkbuilding(4years),
 Anchortextdistributionaudit(5years),
 Linkrelevancy,page level relevancy,linkdiversity(5years),
 Usingquizzesaslinkbuildingtools(1year),
 .eduand .govlinkbuilding (5years),
 Buildinglinksthoughinfluencerbloggeroutreach/recognition(5years),
 Resource page linkbuilding(5years),
 Relationshipbasedlinkbuilding(4years),
 Identifyingandconnectingwithinfluencers(3years),
 Infographicproduction,marketing/syndication(4years),
 IdentifyandrecoverfromaGoogle penalty(3years),
 A/Btesting(2 years),
 Multivariate testing(2years),
 Landingpage optimization(2years),
 Google+,Facebook,Twitter,LinkedIn,Klout,Kred,Inbound.org,Pinterest,Instagram(5years),
 ContentDevelopment:Articles(lists,how-to's,Buzzfeed/Upworthytype),Videos(explainers,
animated,cartoon,businesspresentations),Infographics,Whitepapers,Ebooks,Newsletters,
etc.(4 years),
 ContentManagement(2years),
 ContentManagementSystems(2years),
 ContentCreation(2years),
 ContentMarketing(2 years),
 ContentStrategy(2 years),
 BusinessDevelopment(10+ years),
 Branding(5 years),
 Email Marketing(4 years),
 Fast Learner(10+ years),
 Graphic Design(6years),
 Google Adwords(5years),
 Google Docs (5 years),
 InternetResearch(10+ years),
 Internet(10+ years),
 MicrosoftOffice (10+ years),

5.  New Business Development (10+ years),
 ProblemSolving(10+ years),
 Research(10+ years),
 Sales(10+ years),
 UsabilityTesting(2years),
 UX (2 years)