It is a tough question for me to answer, but I was able to gather up some stats to get us started (which you should all take with a grain of salt).
- How much does a SEO Specialist make? Glassdoor puts it at $62-112k a year
- Per Gotch SEO in early 2024 various services had these job openings:
- LinkedIn had over 3,024 then and now has 3,221 some 4 months later
- Indeed had 229 but has hidden the number now. It does appear they have ~150 jobs.
- ZipRecruiter currently shows 283 jobs.
- Things are changing at the higher levels though as Adam Audette dives into.
More SEO Hiring Trends
Remoters.net however does paint a not so great picture for SEO roles (and most roles). While overall listings on the site are down 33%, SEO roles are down 64% YOY.
What does Google Trends tell us? Well it tells us people are still searching for SEO jobs that is for sure. Not sure if that is good or bad though….
And while not data, the number of people I have seen in various groups that are tenured marketers talk about the job market being rough appears higher than I recall in the past. This is not scientific by any means but then there is also the recent news of Clearlink selling the book of consulting business and laying off the entire former Portent team.
If you are hiring here is a link to those now looking – please give it a look.
So I guess my take is that the market isn’t great or horrible, but it clearly is not the rocket ship that it once was. This along with the constant changing of SEO really made me think that this is a topic more conferences should cover….
A panel on hiring at an SEO Conference?
So now we come to the Hiring Panel at the Chicago SEO Conference and why have a session about “hiring”. I say why not and to me the data, and recent stories only make it more an even more important topic don’t you think? At some point we all are on one side of the hiring process and sometimes often if growing (or sadly looking for a new role) and it really doesn’t get covered much at digital marketing conferences.
I had the idea and then it really came together as I’ve seen more and more friends go through job changes, layoffs and just career changes. I’ve also been on the side more the past year interviewing people for roles again and just thought why shouldn’t this be a topic we cover. So I went out to try and get a great diverse panel that could cover all of the angles and think we did a great job.
The panel consists of the following:
- Recruiter
- In-house Decision Maker
- Agency Decision Maker
Not only does the panel include great people with tons of experience hiring and interviewing, but these are the people that see it at a scale most of them never touch. This is a group that likely has hired more than 100s of developers, writers, editors, front end developers, back end developers, social media marketers, project managers, ad buyers, account managers and SEOs combined.
- Recruiter – honestly can’t imagine how many resumes and people she has worked with
- In-house Decision Maker – company is over 500 people now
- Agency Decision Maker – company is over 15 years old
So what will they cover? What do you want them to cover? This is going to be a great panel at the Chicago SEO Conference in June, so I encourage you to attend and ask them your question!
