Anecdotal reports and an SEO jobs study describe a search marketing industry undergoing profound changes, not only in the skills in demand but also in hiring practices that may be making it difficult for experienced SEOs to get the jobs they are well qualified for.
Short History Of SEO Jobs
Twenty five years ago getting into SEO and earning a living was relatively easy. Many top corporations across all industries were hiring freelancers and agencies for specialized SEO assistance. I suspect that marketing departments didn’t view SEOs as a subset of marketing and that many didn’t have SEO staff. That gradually changed as more organizations hired dedicated SEO staff with third party SEOs providing specialized assistance.
What’s Going On With SEO Jobs?
A recent report on the state of SEO jobs provided by SEOJobs.com shared the state of SEO jobs in 2024.
The following insights show that the job of SEO continues to evolve:
- SEO job openings declined in 2024
- Median SEO salaries dropped
- 65% of SEO jobs are in-house
- Remote SEOs jobs dropped
- SEO job titles related to content strategy and writing dropped by 28%
- SEO Analyst job titles dropped by 12%.
- Technical SEO and related titles dropped by a small percentage
- Senior level titles like manager, director, and VP had the strongest increases.
The report says that job titles related to Technical SEO dropped:
“Positions in the Technical SEO and related title group represented 5.8 percent of all SEO jobs during the first quarter of 2024, falling slightly to 5.4 percent by the end of the fourth quarter – a decrease of seven percent.”
But the report also states that Technical SEO is still an in-demand skill:
“…demand for skill in technical SEO grew at the fastest rate of any skill during the fourth quarter, rising to 75 percent from 71 percent the previous quarter.”
Experienced SEOs Having Trouble Getting Hired… By AI?
Keith Goode read the above referenced report and commented that he believes the reason many highly experienced SEOs are failing to get a job is because of a poor implementation of AI into the hiring process.
He shared his insights on a LinkedIn post:
“I have seen superior SEOs languish amongst thousands of candidates, immediately rejected for a lack of experience (??) or funneled through multiple rounds of interviews and work assignments, only to be rudely ghosted by the recruiters.
The cause? I guess you could blame AI if you wanted to shoot the messenger. But the reality is that companies have overinvested in an unproven technology to handle things that it’s not yet ready to handle. I get that recruitment teams are deluged with thousands of resumes for every opening, and I understand they need a way to streamline the screening process.
However, AI has proven to be more of an enemy within than a helper. Anecdotally, I’ve heard about a hiring manager who applied for their own job opening (presumably one they were more than qualified for) only to receive an immediate rejection from the AI-powered ATS. That person fired their hiring team.
(By the way, I’m not anti-AI. I’m anti-foolishness, and a lot of companies are acting like fools.)”
Experienced SEOs Are Getting Ghosted
It may be true that SEOs with decades of experience are being left behind by poor AI vetting. A glaring example is the one shared by Brian Harnish, an SEO with decades of hands-on experience.
Brian recently published the following on LinkedIn and Facebook:
“In this job market, for me it simply appears that nothing matters.
- You can apply at 6:15 a.m. the day the job posting pops up and be one of the first.
- You can change your resume 15 times like I have.
- You can use ResumeWorded. com for an ATS version of your resume.
- You can write your resume yourself until you’re blue in the face.
- You can follow up on the interview with thank yous immediately after.
- You can follow up on interview decisions later.
- You can agree to their salary ranges exactly. Even when it’s a pay cut for you.
- A/B testing long vs. short resumes yield the same results.
- You can tie in all of your achievements with task > impact > website statements on your resume.
- You write an entirely customized LinkedIn profile.
- You can know all the right people.
- You can network up the wazoo.
- You can have the greatest interview that you feel you’ve ever put forth.
But companies don’t provide feedback. It’s always the same form letter: “while your qualifications are impressive, we went with another candidate.” Or you’re ghosted.
This market is brutal. I really want a job. Not a handout. But nobody appears to want to hire me. At all. Despite doing EVERYthing right. I used to get hired on the spot. Now it’s just crickets.”
What The Heck Is Going On?
I know of other SEOs, also with decades of experience across all areas of SEO who should have just bounced to a new job in a matter of days but took months to get hired. I’m talking about people with SEO director level experience at top Fortune 500 companies.
How does this happen?
Are you experiencing something similar?
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Ollyy
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