Exploring a Career in Search Engine Marketing

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Exploring a Career in Search Engine Marketing

If ever there was an interesting career path today, it would be in the line of Search Engine Marketing or SEM. Even with other technology based bubbles bursting, the SEM industry is perhaps at its hottest at the moment. The growth curve of the search engine industry today means the intricacies of a job in the search engine marketing industry is no longer the reserve of the geeks. It has now burst into the mainstream and can be pursued by almost anyone as a career. Search engine giants like Google, Yahoo and Bing never fail to make money because almost everyone wants a bit of search engine action.

Those interested in the search engine marketing industry will be happy to know that it has been named among the top cutting edge careers not only in the technology world but overall. This is mainly driven by the much more popular Search Engine Optimization, a subset of SEM. Search engine optimization, or SEO, improves the traffic that flows towards a site by improving its ranking. In the web driven the world of today, this is important because most of the time the first contact with a company is usually online. However, despite this, there is a general shortage of experts in this sector, so an SEO or SEM expert is likely to receive a lot of job offers.

Even more interesting in this field is the fact that one does not strictly require a college degree to be able to succeed in this industry. Many search engine practitioners are self-taught experts, learning the trade through experimentation with their own sites, attending conferences and joining discussion forums. Many times, one will find that employers do not require a tertiary institution based qualifications for this line of work. Still, a degree in marketing or a certification in search engine optimization will likely give an applicant the upper hand.

Perhaps the reason why there is no strict need for a college degree is the fact that a lot of what one needs to be an expert is the search engine optimization field can be learned online. All the information is out there and easy to find. There are forums, newsletters, blogs and eBooks on SEO and SEM, as well as the opportunity to put the learned skills into practice on one’s site without necessarily requiring specialized equipment. Even though programming knowledge is not strictly a prerequisite, it might help to learn a bit of basic HTML.

A skilled individual in the SEO and SEM industry will benefit from the fact that their skills are portable on a global scale. This means they can be their own boss, and do not necessarily have to sit at a desk all day. All one requires is a computer and a stable internet connection and they are in business. The Internet is the ultimate equalizer, and through it, one can be able to serve clients anywhere regardless of their location. Additionally, it is a stable and growing business, what with search engines gaining larger significance in the industry.