SEO
7 Ps, 4 Cs, & Other Things You Need to Know
The marketing mix is a system of interconnected elements used to bring products or services to the market and effectively communicate them to the target audience. This concept is often equated with the four Ps of marketing. However, there are also other popular marketing mix models.
You can create your custom marketing mix from scratch. But to build a sustainable business, you probably shouldn’t be reinventing the wheel in this area.
In this article, we’re going to cover the following:
Marketing a product or service can become overwhelming quite fast. There are just so many things to think about and no clear place to start.
But marketing mix models put things in the right order. They provide a sort of template that helps to zero in on things that really matter and lay the foundations for a successful marketing strategy.
The marketing mix and the four Ps of marketing are often used interchangeably. We need to start by noting this is not accurate. The four Ps of marketing are just a type of marketing mix (historically, it’s probably the oldest).
So without further ado, here are the key types of marketing mixes with some examples.
The four Ps of marketing
The four Ps of marketing is a marketing mix model proposed by Jerome McCarthy in 1960. The four components of the model are:
- Product – What you sell.
- Price – How much you sell it for.
- Place – Where you sell it.
- Promotion – How you get customers.
Let’s look at how this works in practice for a SaaS product like Ahrefs:
| Element | Explanation | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Product | The product or service you offer to the consumer. This category can mean anything a business offers to its clients (including ideas or experiences). | Ahrefs: an all-in-one SEO toolset. |
| Price | The cost your clients pay for a product or service. | Subscription-based, four tiers, starting from $99 (or $83 if paid annually). |
| Place | Where and how your customers can buy your product/service. | Digital, direct distribution (SaaS). |
| Promotion | The marketing tactics and channels you use to reach your target audience. | Content marketing (main marketing tactic) and word of mouth. |
Recommended reading: How to Implement the 4 Ps of Marketing
The seven Ps and eight Ps of marketing
The seven Ps of marketing is a marketing mix model designed especially for service marketing and was proposed by Bernard Booms and Mary Bitner in 1981. The seven components of the model are:
- Product – What you sell.
- Price – How much you sell it for.
- Place – Where you sell it.
- Promotion – How you get customers.
- People – Who is involved in delivering your product.
- Process – Procedures of delivering the product.
- Physical evidence – Tangible elements of your service the customers will interact with.
In later years, the model was expanded by some marketing theorists. This resulted in the eighth P: performance, i.e., how you will measure your success.
Since the seven Ps and eight Ps of marketing are models designed for services, let’s see how a service like Uber can use this marketing mix to bring its brand to the market:
| Element | Explanation | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Product | The service you offer to the consumer. | Uber: ride-hailing, food delivery, and freight. |
| Price | The cost your clients pay for the service. | -Rides: based on time and distance. Additional options for more comfort and riding with pets. ‑Delivery: service fee (typically around 15%, min. $3) and delivery fee (ranges from $0.49 to $7.99). Optional priority delivery. ‑Freight: based on data points like distance, day of the week, time of the day, weather, etc. Additional costs apply, e.g., layover, driver assist. |
| Place | Where and how your customers can purchase your service. | Mainly through mobile apps; optionally through the website. |
| Promotion | The marketing tactics and channels you use to reach your target audience. | PR, referral programs, and advertising. |
| People | People involved in delivering your product (including support). | Service is largely automated. But people are critical to the attractiveness of the services, i.e., drivers (driving experience, communication skills, etc.). Uber offers extensive online training and has experimented with performance review methods. |
| Process | The procedures by which the service is delivered. | Self-service through apps and cashless payments. The algorithms process data and make this available to both parties (suppliers and clients). |
| Physical evidence | Tangible elements of the offer. | UX design of the apps, driver experience, the comfort of the cars, and signage of the cars. |
| Performance (P‑8) | Success metrics. | Some examples: app downloads, ride/delivery requests and cancellations, customer ratings, driver supply, and revenue. |
The seven Cs of marketing (aka the compass model)
The seven Cs of marketing (also called the compass model) is a marketing mix model proposed by Koichi Shimizu in 1981. It is based on his earlier four Cs model (1973). Here are the seven components of the model:
- Corporation – The company, i.e., the center of all decision-making.
- Commodity – The product or service you’re offering.
- Communication – How you reach your customers and how you get feedback from them.
- Channel – The distribution channels of your product/service.
- Cost – The overall cost to the consumer.
- Consumer – Needs, security, education, and wants of the consumer.
- Circumstances – Uncontrollable external factors: national/international, economic, social, and weather.
Since this is a framework that takes a lot of different physical factors into account, let’s see how the compass model can work for a hardware company like Tesla.
| Element | Explanation | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Corporation | In other words, the center of all decision-making. | Tesla |
| Commodity | The product or service you offer to the consumer. | -Electric cars ‑Solar panels and solar roofs ‑Accessories |
| Communication | The marketing tactics and channels you use to reach your audience and facilitate two-way communication. | -Live product launch events ‑Referrals ‑Word of mouth ‑PR ‑Strong media presence of Elon Musk ‑User forums ‑Test drive events |
| Channel | The distribution channels of your product/service. | -Direct distribution ‑Self-service purchasing via the website ‑Tesla physical stores |
| Cost | The overall cost to the consumer (all costs, including product price, shipping, using the product, etc.). | -Car price before tax: $44,990 – $129,990 ‑Electricity costs to charge the car (superchargers are free only for a selection of cars) ‑Costs to supply a home with renewable electricity (solar panels, wall connectors) ‑Car maintenance costs (regardless of warranty) ‑Optional extended warranty costs |
| Consumer | Consumer needs, security, education, and wants. | -Needs: less impact on the environment, the prestige of owning an EV, and “car charging” convenience ‑Wants: one-stop-shop for everything EV-related, car performance, high-tech features, and sleek design ‑Security: safety features of the products and build quality ‑Education: guides for EV owners, forums, etc |
| Circumstances | Uncontrollable external factors: national/international, economic, social, and weather. | -National: government incentives for buying electric cars, gasoline car restrictions, etc ‑Economic: increasing oil prices can increase demand for Tesla products, but they can also increase prices ‑Social: CEO’s image can greatly influence demand (and stock value); also, trend toward green energy will increase demand ‑Weather: colder months increase car energy consumption; solar panels and roofs need to withstand harsh weather; solar panels will produce less energy on cloudy days |
The four Cs of marketing
The four Cs of marketing is a marketing mix model proposed by Bob Lauterborn in 1990. The four components of the model are:
- Consumer – The needs and wants of the consumer.
- Cost – The overall cost to the consumer.
- Convenience – How you make your offering accessible.
- Communication – How you establish two-way communication with the consumer.
For this example, we’re going to look at Huel, the nutritionally complete meal replacement product:
| Element | Explanation | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer (wants and needs) | The needs and wants of the consumer. | Spend less time on meal prep and washing up, eat healthily, less food waste, eat more environmentally friendly and humane food, save money on eating out, simpler lifestyle, lose weight, and get fit. |
| Cost (to satisfy) | The overall cost to the consumer (all costs, including product price, shipping, using the product, etc.). | The core product (powder v3.0) sets the price of a meal from $2.21. There are almost no additional costs: delivery is free; also, product has a long shelf life, doesn’t need to be refrigerated, and requires only water to prepare (bottle and measuring scoop are free). |
| Convenience (to buy) | The distribution channels of your product/service. | Direct distribution through the website. |
| Communication | Ways to facilitate two-way communication with the consumer. | A strong presence on social media, an online forum for users (“Hueligans”), and product marketing addressing FAQs and misconceptions. |
These aren’t the only marketing mix models you will stumble upon. For example, I’ve also heard about the four Es of marketing, the SAVE model, and so on. But they are all more or less extensions or alterations of the types featured above.
Instead of flooding you with all of the possible marketing models, I’d like to share with you some insights on using the marketing mix.
Here are five things worth keeping in mind when designing your marketing mix.
1. Practice designing the marketing mix on competitors first
Coming up with ideas for your marketing mix is easier if you reach out for some inspiration first. There’s hardly a better source of inspiration than other companies, especially your competitors.
This way, you can learn two important things:
- You may likely find that other companies have similar problems. You can learn how they solve them, use the same solutions, or use your own remixed and improved solutions.
- This is a great exercise for understanding your competitors. After all, to win in the market, you just need to do better than them.
So just take one type of marketing mix and try to fill in the blanks with as many details as you can. You can repeat that for other companies too. After a couple of those, devising your mix won’t seem so daunting.
Recommended reading: How to Conduct a Competitive Analysis (Template Included)
2. Always start with the product/service
Seeing the various elements inside the marketing mix models, you may be wondering where to start. Or in other words, what the foundation of the entire plan should be.
My advice: start with the value you are planning to deliver to your customers, i.e., your product or service. Reason: the importance of product-market fit.
Product-market fit is achieved by a company when it has confirmed signals that its product can satisfy an existing demand in a market with high potential. It’s arguably the single most important thing in building a sustainable business and is something that should precede any scaling up of the business.
When you’re leading with your product/service in your marketing mix, you’re aligning your marketing efforts with product-market fit.
This way, if you’re developing your marketing mix pre-market fit (i.e., before validating the idea of your product), the marketing mix will help you achieve product-market fit. And if you’re developing your marketing mix post-market fit, you’ll be building on the success of your product (more on this in the next section).
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you can completely ignore the customers’ needs and wants and just put something on the market that fits your vision. In fact, the product-market fit is just as much about the idea for the product as it is about the people who will use it.
Take Ahrefs, for example. Before becoming a robust, all-in-one SEO toolset and hiring the first-ever person for marketing, we were testing the waters with one tool built just for backlink analysis. And because the product caught on, we were able to confidently focus our marketing efforts on product marketing.
In 2011, Ahrefs was a tool for one thing only. Thanks to the product-market fit of that offering, we were confident in scaling everything up. What started as a backlink database is now an eight-figure ARR business.
Recommended reading: How to Achieve Product-Market Fit (5 Steps)
3. Coherence is key
Most effective marketing mixes are those that create a coherent system of interlinked elements.
This means that a viable strategy for devising marketing mixes is to build upon elements that are either the most certain or the strongest. This way, the consequent elements of the mix can reinforce themselves. Let me give you an example.
The strongest element in Ahrefs’ marketing mix is the product. Our product is designed to help marketers and business owners rank higher on search engines and get more traffic. From that P (product), we can derive another P (promotion). There are two opportunities for us (which we, of course, took):
- Lots of people are searching Google for solutions to problems our product solves.
- By showing that we can rank our content using our very own tools, we deliver a strong message about the utility of our product and the expertise of the people who develop it.
Here, you can see some of the topics we talk about on our blog. Within them, there are hundreds of subtopics that can add to the monthly Traffic Potential (TP). Data via Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.
For us, the obvious solution to that is content marketing, namely product-led content marketing designed to rank on Google. And by choosing a marketing tactic that works well with our product, we’ve strengthened the ties between those two Ps, allowing them to reinforce one another.
We decided to go even further than that. We chose to slice out portions of our products and release them for free. This way, our product becomes our promotion. It has proven to be an effective way to bring people from search engines to us:
The write-ups of our free tools are some of the pages that bring us the most organic traffic. Data via Ahrefs’ Site Explorer.
4. Guess and test (where needed)
Market research should be the number one step to take in devising a marketing mix or any kind of marketing strategy. But this kind of research can be time consuming and expensive.
Instead, you can reach for agile market research methods. Make small bets or educated guesses based on information that is available to you and just test them. Then build upon that.
For example, instead of going in circles to search for a definitive, theoretical answer on how to price your product, you can use an agile market research tool like SurveyMonkey for price testing and get feedback from real people.
The same can be done for your product prototypes with the help of platforms like Loop11 or UserTesting.
Making educated guesses is also not completely unheard of in the world of business. After all, this is how Amazon famously started—with a single stat that the internet is growing 2,300% per year.
Founder Jeff Bezos used this information to make an educated guess that an online bookstore may likely be a viable business idea. He tested that idea, and the rest is history.
5. Review your marketing mix regularly
The factors that you build upon will eventually change. Some will change a year from now, some five years later, and others even longer than that.
To illustrate, here are the things that may change for the companies featured in our analyses of marketing mix types:
- Ahrefs – Increasing demand for all-in-one marketing platforms
- Huel – New studies of the detrimental effect of using sucralose (what Huel uses as a sweetener) long term
- Uber – Outbreak of a pandemic, e.g., COVID-19
- Tesla – Advances in hydrogen fuel and other types of alternative energy
And here’s an example of a company that made a game-changing switch after considering the circumstances: Netflix. Due to advancing web technology and increasing internet adoption, Netflix realized it made less and less sense to stick to renting movies on DVD by mail.
Did Netflix make the right choice to enter the streaming market? Just look at the volume trend of “streaming services,” and the answer becomes obvious. Data via Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.
By the way, here’s another highly successful transformation: Netflix’s decision to not only distribute content but also create content. That decision allowed it to triple its revenue.
When changes happen, it usually means that you need to tweak your mix and adapt to changes in the environment. The trick is not to get caught by surprise. So regularly review your mix.
Final thoughts
I deliberately skipped the broader historical overview of the origin of the marketing mix models. The reason is when it comes to this marketing theory, the fact that something is conceived later doesn’t make it better.
In fact, some marketers argue the original marketing mix, the four Ps of marketing, is still the best one. Well, we won’t go into that too much. But now that you know the different models, you may be wondering which best suits your business.
My advice: start with the four Ps. Because your success or failure is likely going to be dependent on a) the market fit of the product or service, b) the adequacy of the price in the context of market conditions and benefits of your offering, c) whether there’s inconvenient/faulty distribution, and d) whether there are wrong marketing strategies or ineffective tactics. All of those concerns are addressed in the four Ps.
The basic four Ps are embedded in other types of marketing mixes. So you can treat the additional elements of other types as extensions as you move along. But in essence, what you really need to nail is the product, price, place, and promotion.
Got questions or comments? Ping me on Twitter.
SEO
What It Really Is & How to Build One
Building a personal brand is undeniably hard work, but it isn’t as tricky as you might think.
I spoke with two influencers—Wes Kao and Matt Diggity—for their best tips on establishing a name for yourself online.
A personal brand is how people perceive you and what you’re known for. It’s the skills, experience, and values that give you an edge over others.
Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman is one example. He helms and hosts the science/health podcast Huberman Lab, lectures at Stanford Medicine, and has earned media mentions from the likes of BBC, TIME, and more.
Andrew’s personal brand is built on his credibility and areas of expertise. Many of his posts attract thousands of likes and hundreds of comments on X and LinkedIn.
If we want to dig deeper, Maven and altMBA co-founder Wes Kao has a somewhat alternative take on the definition:
In my opinion, it’s better to reframe ‘personal branding’ into ‘personal credibility.’ Personal branding has a superficial undertone. It assumes you have your work, then you tack on an artificial layer of ‘branding’ to shape perceptions.
She suggests that personal credibility is about substance: Showing people what you do, how you think, and how you can contribute. Wes adds:
In this way, you build deeper connections with people who believe in your work—which means stronger relationships, more control, and more opportunities.
In this podcast interview snippet with Nick Bennett, SparkToro’s Amanda Natividad echoes Wes’ sentiment:
People generally don’t like the term [personal brand] because it sounds disingenuous and icky. Acknowledging the existence of your personal brand is admitting that you care what others think about you, and that you find ways to manage those expectations at scale.
Wild as it sounds, building a solid personal brand gives you more control over your life.
A strong following could:
- Expand your realm of influence, particularly in your area of expertise (i.e., be viewed as a subject matter expert).
- Boost your credibility, in turn allowing you to promote your company/product better.
- Build a loyal following independent of the company you’re working for (or if you own that company, create more positive sentiment towards it).
- Open doors to job, networking, and investment opportunities.
Chiangmai SEO conference founder Matt Diggity shares some excellent points in his Facebook post on the topic, too.
There’s no linear path to building your personal brand.
As a precursor to the below steps, let’s first talk about finding your “voice.”
Wes and Matt both emphasize the importance of staying true to yourself. That means not crafting an online persona of who you think you should be.
I try to write like how I sound in person. Talking and writing are different media, so you shouldn’t try to match the two in a literal sense, but you want to capture your overall spirit. For example, I have a hint of snark in my writing because that’s how I sound in person.
Matt echoes this sentiment:
How I talk on the internet is how I talk IRL. If I’m not having a f**king blast on my YouTube videos, I won’t do them. It has to be fun.
Keep this idea in mind as you go through the steps below.
Step 1: Position yourself
Think of yourself as a product: What are your strengths, obsessions, and areas of expertise?
If you’re well-versed in technical SEO or a seasoned entrepreneur, these might be your unique selling points.
From there, double down on something you would be excited to think, write, and talk about for years—because “it will likely take years to get to where you want to go,” says Wes.
As an (optional) next step, consider solidifying your position with a spiky POV—a term coined by Wes, and which she cautions should be used with care.
A spiky POV is not about a contrarian hot take for the sake of it. In 2023, social platforms are flooded with hot takes and generic advice. I think about respecting the intelligence of my audience and teaching them something they don’t already know. A true spiky POV is rooted in deep expertise, including recognizing the limitations and counterpoints of your idea. This builds your reputation as someone who is rigorous and worth the time to engage with.
Here’s a LinkedIn post by Wes that combines all of the above: a unique perspective backed by her personal experiences, with a takeaway for the audience too. In other words—a spiky, worthy POV.
Step 2: Start sharing publicly
You already knew this, but social media platforms are one of the best ways to get growth and build your name. It’s your chance to build your reputation in a public arena.
Wes, Amanda, and Matt each utilized a combination of online channels to promote their voice and content. It’s one of the first things you should do—because your content is really only as good as its reach.
This is the first thing I did to build a personal brand and authority in the SEO industry, and I still do it to this day…
Take an hour a week, go to SEO social media hangouts (SEO Facebook groups, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) and go from top-to-bottom answering people’s questions.…
— Matt Diggity (@mattdiggityseo) September 27, 2023
This doesn’t mean cross-posting your content across more platforms than you can manage, of course.
Study where your target audience spends most of their time, then hone in on those platforms (ideally, stick to no more than 2-3).
In Matt’s case, his followers are primarily on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube—and that’s where his SEO-led content thrives.
If creating whole posts from scratch seems daunting, start by commenting thoughtfully in relevant online communities. Obviously, do it with heart:
This is the first thing I did to build a personal brand and authority in the SEO industry, and I still do it to this day…
Take an hour a week, go to SEO social media hangouts (SEO Facebook groups, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) and go from top-to-bottom answering people’s questions.…
— Matt Diggity (@mattdiggityseo) September 27, 2023
Here are some simple ways to start.
LinkedIn: Contribute to a collaborative article
You might have seen these articles floating around LinkedIn—perhaps even been invited to add your insights to them.
These blog posts are similar to Wikipedia pages: LinkedIn users build on each AI-generated article with their perspectives, and readers can choose to react to these additions or engage with the content.
Here’s an example of what a contribution looks like:
Reddit: Weigh in on discussions
- Go to a relevant subreddit, e.g. r/bigSEO
- Sort by “Top” and “This Week”
- Browse the questions or discussions and offer your two cents where relevant.
Ride on trending topics
Found an interesting insight on X or someplace else? Turn it into a poll, question, or post. (Be sure to also tag and credit the author!)
Bring it all together
If some of your responses or posts get traction, repurpose those answers into new content: a blog post, video, or series of social posts.
(PSST: Learn more about my process behind curating and repurposing content for Ahrefs’ X account.)
This segues into our next and final step:
Step 3: Double down on what works
By now, you should have an idea of which topics you’re most comfortable discussing at length—and what resonates most with your target audience.
You can further maximize your reach by doubling down on the things that have brought you success. Or, more specifically, by repurposing popular content in other formats and creating more content about similar things.
For instance, we turned this popular video on how to use ChatGPT for SEO into a Twitter thread and LinkedIn post—and later, a blog post.
Wes has also done this plenty with her “eaten the bear” analogy over the years. She first wrote about it in this 2019 blog post, rewrote it in 2023, and shares variations of the analogy on LinkedIn and X every few months.
Each time, these posts garner hundreds or thousands of likes
Too much backstory is one of the biggest killers of good stories.
Backstory scope creep is real. We’ve all been there: Long-winded, stream of conscious explanations—all in the name of “giving context.“
I’ve been guilty of it myself.
The solution?
Minimum viable backstory pic.twitter.com/XFe2wAJysg
— Wes Kao 🏛 (@wes_kao) October 3, 2023
Don’t let your success die there, though. You can find more content ideas that will resonate with your audience by doing some keyword research around your topic. Here’s how:
- Plug your target topic into Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer
- Go to the Matching terms report
For example, if we enter “chatgpt seo,” we see that people are searching for ChatGPT prompts for SEO and ChatGPT SEO extensions:
Given how our audience is interested in ChatGPT and SEO, these would be great topics to create content about—whether that be social media posts, videos, blog posts, or something else.
If you don’t have a paid account with us, you can plug your topic into our free keyword generator tool to view related phrases/questions.
Extra tips to build your personal brand
We mentioned some of these in some shape or form earlier, but they’re worth expanding on.
Maintain human connections
Who are you without the people who consume your content? Engage consistently with your followers and others’ content. Human connections are worth their weight in gold when you’re trying to get your personal brand off the ground.
Maintain consistency across your social media profiles
This means using the same profile picture across all platforms, and a standardized bio so others can quickly get a sense of who you are and what you often post about.
Jack Appleby is a great example. The creator/consultant is behind Future Social, an independent social strategy newsletter with 56,000+ subscribers.
Notice how he maintains consistency on X and LinkedIn:
Ahrefs’ Tim Soulo further explains the importance of your profile picture in personal branding here:
Your profile pic is your “personal branding” tool. (duh!)
My journey so far:
2009 – “I have no idea what I’m doing;“
2014 – I want to stand out & be memorable;
2018 – I want to look provocative;
2020 – I want to look professional.I can expand this into a thread if you want 😉 pic.twitter.com/W7FtZTcYGO
— Tim Soulo 🇺🇦 (@timsoulo) September 14, 2020
Be yourself
Remember how Wes and Matt shared the importance of staying true to yourself? We couldn’t emphasize that enough.
Final thoughts
These steps aren’t exhaustive, obviously. To truly stand out online, Wes suggests having a combination of these things: social proof, good design sense, strong writing, interesting insights, and a track record of contribution.
As she puts it:
All these things will make people think, ‘This person knows their craft.’
Have a thought about this blog post? Ping me on X.
SEO
SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research]
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research]](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.jpg "SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research]")
Editor’s note
Here are the top takeaways:
- The median annual salary for SEOs we polled was $49,211
- The highest annual salary we polled was $229,652
- To earn the higher salaries in SEO you need be a technical SEO expert—Heads of SEO, SEO Directors and SEO Leads all said that their main specialization was technical SEO
- Only 5.4% of respondents learned SEO through a course—most learned on the job (52.3%) or by themselves (42.3%)
- 36.9% described themselves as content specialists, 30.6% described themselves as technical specialists, 6.3% described themselves as specializing in link-building
- 49.5% of respondents worked in SEO agencies, 42.3% in-house and 8.2% were self-employed
- Most respondents (28.8%) worked in companies that had 11-50 people
- The average SEO experience of our respondents was 6.9 years
- Self-employed SEOs earned the most on average ($60,232k)—the median annual salary for in-house roles was slightly lower at $56,789, and agency SEOs had the lowest median annual salary at $44,169
There were also a few surprises:
- Few SEOs in our survey said that they specialized in link building compared to technical and content. This is despite the fact that links are still one of the most important Google ranking factors.
- The average level of experience between SEO Directors and Head of SEO is not that different—10.4 years for a SEO Director and 10.6 years for a Head of SEO—but the salary difference between the roles was ~$11,552—quite substantial.
Overview
| Role | Median annual salary ($USD) | Average experience (years) | Main specialization | Main work location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head of SEO | $92,988 | 10.6 | Technical SEO | Agency and in-house |
| SEO Director | $81,436 | 10.4 | Technical SEO | Agency and in-house |
| SEO Lead | $38,289 | 7.4 | Technical SEO | Agency |
| SEO Specialist | $49,229 | 5.8 | Content | In-house |
| SEO Account Manager | $43,850 | 4.2 | Content | Agency |
| SEO Consultant | $49,240 | 6 | All-rounder | Agency |
| SEO Executive | $31,956 | 3 | All-rounder | Agency |
| SEO Analyst | $56,393 | 5 | All-rounder | In-house |
Here’s how annual salaries broke down across our respondents:
According to the SEOs we polled, most of them learned SEO on the job or were self-taught.
Most of our respondents had a couple of years of experience under their belts. The amount of experience Head of SEOs had versus SEO Directors was not that different, at around 10 years.
- Across all respondents, the average experience was 6.9 years
- For Head of SEO, the average experience was 10.6 years
- For SEO Director, the average experience was 10.4 years
- For SEO Lead, the average experience was 7.4 years
- For SEO Account Manager, the average experience was 4.2 years
- For SEO Consultant, the average experience was 6 years
- For SEO Executive, the average experience was 3 years
- For SEO Analyst, the average experience was 5 years
Technical and Content were the two top skills that SEOs we surveyed specialized in.
The proportion of SEOs that said they specialized in links was much lower despite links being a major ranking factor.
Our survey showed an almost 50/50 split between the UK and Europe. 48.6% of respondents were from the UK—perhaps not surprising given that BrightonSEO is based in the UK.
Most of the respondents we spoke to worked in agencies or in-house. It does mean, however, that our salary data was mainly focused on these two employment types.
Across all respondents, the most common company size was 11-50. A large proportion of SEOs also worked for substantially larger companies that had over 1000 employees.
Here’s the full breakdown of each role.
Head of SEO salary
It’s probably not too much of a surprise that the Head of SEO role was our highest-paying SEO role surveyed. What’s more of a surprise was the variation in salary—our survey showed that a Head of SEO can earn anything from ~$25k to ~$229k.
Average experience
According to our survey, a Head of SEO has ~10.6 years of experience.
Type of company
46.7% of respondents worked for an agency, and 46.7% worked in-house. 6.7% were self-employed.
Education
66.7% of respondents said they were self-taught, 26.7% said they’d learned on the job, and 6.7% said that they had learned SEO from a course.
Specialization
40% said that they specialized in technical SEO, 33.3% in Content, and 13.3% said they were a generalist. The remaining 13.4% said they focused on people management.
This is surprising, as it implies that 73.3% of people in Head of SEO roles are actively providing SEO services for their clients rather than focusing on managing a team.
Company size
There were two company sizes that were most popular for Head of SEOs to work in. 40% of respondents said they worked in companies with 11-50 people, and 20% said they worked in companies with over 1001 people.
Location
40% of respondents were from the UK, 13.3% were from the Netherlands, and the remainder were from mainland Europe.
SEO Director salary
The salary variation wasn’t quite as extreme for SEO Directors, but salaries ranged from ~$42k to ~$121k—still quite a difference.
Average experience
SEO Directors in our survey had 10.4 years of experience on average.
Type of company
There was a 50/50 split between SEO Directors’ backgrounds, with 50% from agency and 50% from in-house
Education
62.5% of SEO Directors described themselves as self-taught, and 37.5% said that they learned SEO on the job.
Specialization
75% of them specialized in technical SEO, whilst 25% described themselves as generalists or Other.
Company size
According to our survey, SEO Directors typically work in medium to large companies. 25% said that they worked in companies that had over 1000 people, and 25% said they worked in companies that had 51-100 employees.
Location
Most SEO Directors we surveyed were from the UK (62.5%). The rest were equal splits between India, the U.S., and Germany (12.5%).
SEO Lead salary
SEO Leads typically have a lot of experience, but our survey shows that they only earn slightly more on average than SEO Specialists.
Average experience
SEO Leads in our survey had 7.4 years of experience on average.
Type of company
50% of SEO Leads came from an agency background, 41.7% came from in-house, and 8.3% were self-employed.
Education
69.2% learned on the job, 23.1% were self-taught, and 7.7% learned SEO through a course.
Specialization
30.8% of SEO Leads specialized in technical SEO, 23% specialized in content, and 23.1% specialized in links. 15.4% described themselves as generalists. The remaining 7.7% described themselves as specializing in SEO strategy.
Company size
46.2% worked in companies that had 1001+ people, and the remaining 53.8% worked in smaller companies.
Location
23.1% of SEO Leads came from the UK, with the remainder coming from the Netherlands, Italy, and Sweden (15.4% each) and 30.7% from other European countries.
SEO Specialist salary
SEO Specialists we surveyed had around 5-6 years of experience, but they typically got paid better than SEO Leads. Based on my experience, this may be due to in-house roles paying better than agency roles in the UK.
Average experience
SEO Specialists in our survey had an average of 5.8 years of experience.
Type of company
41.2% of SEO Specialists came from an agency background, while 58.8% said that they were from an in-house background.
Education
58.8% of SEO Specialists said that they had learned SEO on the job, 35.3% said that they were self-taught, and 5.9% said that they had learned SEO through a course.
Specialization
52.9% of SEO Specialists specialized in content, 29.4% focused on technical, 11.8% described themselves as all-rounders, and 5.9% described specialized in links.
Company size
41.2% of SEO Specialists said that they worked in companies that had 11-50 people. Only 17.6% of respondents said that they worked in companies that had 1001+ people. 23.6% said they worked in companies between 51-500 people. The remaining 17.6% worked in smaller companies with less than 10 people.
Location
23.5% of SEO Specialists said that they were from the UK, with the remainder from Europe.
SEO Account Manager salary
SEO Account Managers in our survey were one of the most consistent salary bands earning between ~$40k and ~$55k.
Average experience
SEO Account managers in our survey had 4.2 years of experience on average.
Type of company
85.7% of respondents worked for an agency, and 14.3% worked in-house.
Education
71.4% of respondents said they learned SEO on the job, and 28.6% said they were self-taught.
Specialization
42.9% said that they specialized in content, 28.6% described themselves as an all-rounder, 14.3% said they were technical SEO, and the remaining 14.2% said they specialized in links.
Company size
42.9% of respondents said they worked in companies with 11-50 people, and 28.6% said they worked in companies with over 1001 people. The remaining 28.6% was split equally between people who worked in companies with between 2-11 people or 51-100 people.
Location
85.7% of respondents were from the UK, and 14.3% of the remainder were from Europe.
SEO Consultant salary
SEO Consultants we surveyed earned up to ~$87k, which was lower than I was expecting—because our SEO pricing post suggested that SEO consultants charge between $100-150 per hour.
But as the data is UK-focused, the likely reason for this is the £85k VAT tax threshold.
Average experience
SEO Consultants in our survey had 6 years of experience on average.
Type of company
63.3% of respondents worked for an agency, and 36.7% worked in-house.
Education
45.5% of respondents said they were self-taught, 36.4% said they’d learned on the job, and 9.1% said that they had learned SEO from a course. The remaining 9% said they’d learned from other ways.
Specialization
27.3% said that they specialized in technical SEO, 27.3% in content, and 27.3% said they were a generalist. The remaining 18.1% said they focused on management and strategy.
Company size
SEO Consultants typically worked on their own or in smaller agencies according to our survey — 36.4% of respondents said they worked on their own, and 27.3% said they worked in companies with 51-100 people. The remaining 36.3% said they worked in companies with between 2-50 people.
Location
36.4% of respondents were from the UK, 27.3% were from the Netherlands, and the remaining 36.3% were from Europe.
SEO Executive salary
Average experience
SEO Executives in our survey had 3 years of experience on average.
Type of company
80% of respondents worked for an agency, and 20% worked in-house.
Education
80% of respondents said they were self-taught, and 20% said they’d learned SEO from a course.
Specialization
40% said that they specialized in technical SEO, 20% in Content, and 40% said they were a generalist.
Company size
80% of respondents said they worked in companies with 11-50 people, and 20% said they worked in companies with 1001 or more people.
Location
80% of respondents were from the UK, and 20% were from Belgium.
SEO Analyst salary
SEO Analysts typically had a few more years of experience than SEO Executives, but it looks like they earned roughly the same as them.
Average experience
SEO Analysts in our survey had 5 years of experience on average.
Type of company
33.3% of respondents worked for an agency, and 66.7% worked In-house.
Education
33.3% of respondents said they were self-taught, and 66.7% said they’d learned on the job.
Specialization
33.3% said that they specialized in technical SEO, 33.3% in Content, and 33.3% said they specialized in News SEO.
Company size
33.3% of respondents said they worked in companies with 101-200 people, and 66.7% said they worked in companies with over 201 people.
Location
SEO Analysts came from a range of locations 33% of respondents were from Portugal, 33.3% were from Brazil, and the remainder were from Serbia.
Sidenote.
We didn’t get many respondents for the SEO Analyst role—so take these results with a pinch of salt.
Final thoughts
SEO salaries aren’t often discussed in detail within the industry, so getting a snapshot of their current state from one of the biggest SEO conferences in the UK was insightful.
For our next salary survey, we’ll be opening it up to all SEOs. If you’d like to take part—you can enter here.
Got questions? Ping me on X (formerly known as Twitter)
SEO
4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples]
Many popular link building tactics produce low-quality links that don’t improve SEO performance.
Even if these techniques make an impact, it’s often for a short time, and Google can easily devalue them down the line.
Here are four tactics for building high-quality links that help you stay ahead of your competition, expose your brand to new audiences, and are less likely to be devalued in future algorithm updates.
Digital PR is the process of creating content that appeals to journalists and promoting it to them.
If they like the content, they’ll write a feature about it or include it in a piece they’re writing. This can land you many high-quality backlinks from big sites and news publications for free.
Examples
In the months following ChatGPT’s release, Fery Kaszoni and his team at Search Intelligence compiled statistics about Open AI’s popularity since launching ChatGPT and compared it to other popular platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
The result? 60+ free link placements, including mentions on Yahoo News (DR 92), The Wrap (DR 84), and Time magazine (DR 92).
In another campaign, Fery and his team calculated how much money beloved video characters would earn in real life. This campaign earned 20+ free links including a DR89 link from British newspaper, The Daily Express.
How to do it
Successful Digital PR requires some creativity, but this is the process in a nutshell:
- Find a trending topic
- Create relevant newsworthy content around that topic
- Tell journalists about it
For example, AI has been a major topic of conversation in all industries since it launched. Any new data or insights about it would go well in news cycles while it remains a topic of interest.
Once you have a topic, you need to come up with interesting content ideas that are relevant to your business.
This is the hard part. It’s really a case of brainstorming ideas until you land on something you think could be interesting.
For example, here are a few random content ideas for a company that sells furniture online:
- Have AI refurnish rooms from popular TV shows in new styles.
- Have AI design a new item of furniture, create it, and sell it.
- Ask 100 interior designers if they’re worried about AI taking their jobs, share the data.
After you find your winning idea, create the content, give it an attention-grabbing headline, and write a press release about the most interesting insights.
Then, promote your content to journalists. You can try services like Roxhill or Muck Rack to find journalists who might be interested in your content.
You can also use a tool like Ahrefs’ Content Explorer to find sites that have recently published content about your topic and reach out to them.
Here’s how to do that:
- Enter your topic into Content Explorer
- Filter for pages published in the last 90 days
- Filter for pages on DR70+ websites (big sites that you probably want links from)
For example, if we do this for the topic of “chatgpt,” we see thousands of well-known websites that have recently published about ChatGPT including Business Insider, Tech Republic, and Wired.
Data journalism is a way of enhancing or creating newsworthy content by analyzing unique data sets. It can fall under digital PR, though it typically requires more detailed research.
This technique works because reporters love a good statistic they can either quote or write an opinion piece about. Be the source of such data, and you can earn many high-quality links anytime your data becomes relevant to trending news topics.
Examples
Data journalism can be quite simple. For example, in another case study from Search Intelligence, Fery’s team used Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer as a data source for a cybersecurity PR campaign.
The study reveals the top UK banks where customers seek help with fraud, allowing journalists to report on which banks are more secure than others.
The data fuelling these insights is keyword search volume. That’s it.
This method doesn’t take very long, doesn’t need a data scientist and can very easily be replicated in other industries where search popularity can unearth interesting insights.
In another example (and perhaps one of our all time favorites), marketing firm Yard created a data study comparing the CO2 emissions of various celebrities and ranking the worst offenders.
If you follow celebrity news, there’s no way you missed reports of Taylor Swift’s private jet emissions being among the highest compared to other celebrities.
Every single one of these news stories originated from the data study.
When the study was first released, it went viral and earned links from almost 2,000 referring domains within the first month.
But that’s not all.
This topic trended in news cycles again when rumours spread that Taylor Swift attended a Jets game to bury the original negative publicity about her private jet usage, earning Yard a well-deserved second round of links.
Today, this post has 1,861 links from 1,155 referring domains, 77% of them are dofollow, and 38.4% are higher than DR 60.
Talk about drool-worthy results! That’s high-quality link building done right.
How to do it
Successful data journalism is similar to digital PR but relies on the intriguing, data-backed insights you can unearth.
In a nutshell, the process looks like this:
- Find a data-driven content angle that gets links and media attention
- Gather data to provide new or updated insights on the topic
- Tell journalists about your findings
Start by considering “your money or your life” content angles that everyday folk care about. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking too narrow or pitching ideas only a small demographic may understand.
For instance, cybersecurity is not a sexy topic journalists or their readers will likely care about. There’s also not a high degree of literacy about the topic among the general population.
But everyone cares about whether their bank is secure and how safe their money is.
This concept needs no explanation and that’s exactly why data that helps answer the question “how safe is your bank?” worked exceptionally well as a link building tactic in the example above.
You can also use Content Explorer to gather more ideas like:
- Evergreen yet stale topics that you can update with more recent data
- Data you can visualize better or repurpose into a different content format
- Trending angles in other industries you can apply to your industry
For example, on the topic of ChatGPT, we found Rand Fishkin’s post claiming usage has declined 29% between May and August 2023 and that 30% of its usage is by programmers.
You don’t need original ideas to succeed. If you’ve got the data to back it up, you can easily take the angles of a “useage patterns” or “most popular audience segments” and apply them to popular tools in your industry.
Some decent data sources you can start with include:
- Search data: Like Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer for uncovering interesting search patterns.
- Historical data: Like Google Trends for highlighting growth or decline patterns over time.
- Scientific research: Like on Google Scholar or in specific research journals.
- Public niche data: For instance, Yard’s study used the CelebrityJets Twitter page.
- Proprietary data: From within your (or your client’s) organization.
When you find an interesting insight or pattern worth sharing, write a press release about it and share it with journalists who frequently report on the topic.
Statistics pages are curated lists of facts and figures in a particular industry. These pages attract evergreen links for as long as the statistics remain relevant.
It’s one of our favorite link building tactics. Here’s how we’ve used it quite successfully over the years.
Example
We first launched a detailed list of SEO statistics in 2020 and it has been naturally earning high-quality links ever since.
Currently, the page has:
- 5,787 backlinks
- 2,282 referring domains
- 82% “dofollow” links
- 37.7% from DR 60+ websites
While we used some outreach techniques in the early days, most of the success has come from the page’s ability to maintain top position rankings for competitive keywords.
Do it right, and this tactic remains wildly effective for earning links naturally for many years.
How to do it
Start by entering a few broad topics related to your website into Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer. For example, we might enter the following for Ahrefs:
- SEO
- Content marketing
- Link building
Then navigate to the Matching Terms report and apply the inclusion filter for things like stats, statistics, facts, or figures. Make sure your filter is set to include any of these phrases.
Then it’s just a matter of checking out the results to find a relevant topic you want to write about.
We went for “SEO statistics”:
Once you pick your topic, it’s a just matter of curating linkworthy stats and publishing them on a page.
While you can earn some seed links with early outreach efforts, long term success comes down to keeping your content updated with the latest data. That’s the best way to compound performance year on year, earning many high-quality links with no ongoing outreach needed.
Relationship-based link building prioritizes long-term relationships with journalists, writers, and editors.
It is an effective addition to digital PR campaigns as you can shortcut the time it takes to find the right people to distribute your content.
Better yet, you can be a journalist’s first point of call when they write a story on topics you or your clients are experts in.
Example
Imagine having journalists contact you asking to feature your clients in upcoming stories. That’s exactly what growth marketing firm, EngineRoom, has achieved.
A journalist from Mamamia (DR 78) made a call out on Sourcebottle, the Australian equivalent of HARO, seeking expert advice on immigration law. EngineRoom’s link building expert, Don Milne, responded and won the story along with a high-quality link.
Then, the real magic started.
Instead of ending things there, Don also shared a client list with the journalist in case they ever wanted to collaborate on future stories again.
Sure enough, a few weeks later, the journalist reached out, asking to connect with another client in the drug rehab space to develop a story on heroin addiction. The client is featured in about 30% of the completed article with detailed quotes from the founder and (of course) a link back to their website.
No pitching. No outreach. Just a genuine partnership and collaboration now earning multiple high-quality links for their clients.
How to do it
This technique is all about the follow-up after you collaborate on your first story with a journalist.
If getting the first foot in the door is where you’re stuck, you can check out our detailed guide on relationship-based link building by Irina Maltseva, the former Head of Marketing at Hunter.
Once you get that first story, make sure you keep the relationship going.
If you have a list of websites or clients you represent, create a professional document with a mini bio about each client. Make sure it’s also easily searchable for writers in a hurry and makes your contact details clear and easy to access.
Then, share it with journalists, writers, and editors you collaborate with so they can refer to it in the future if they need an expert on a specific topic for their content.
Final thoughts
Earning high-quality backlinks can be much easier than many people realize and cheaper too! All the examples shared in this post earned free link placements on high-authority websites and with minimal outreach.
These techniques have more staying power. They are also far less likely to be seen as “link manipulation” or devalued in future Google updates.
And, if you get your content angle just right, they also have the potential to be earning links many months, if not years, down the track!
Got questions? Ping me on LinkedIn.
Indian Government Warns Facebook, YouTube About Deepfakes, Misinformation Violations
Whiteboard Friday Recap 2023: AI Edition
“Undercover” Case Studies: Why the Future of Marketing Is Proving Yourself in the Field
17-Year-Old Claims To Make 6 Figures A Year
Follower Count Is Not A Google Search Ranking Factor
Meta Stock: Still Room For Upside In A Maturing Market (NASDAQ:META)
X Withdraws From MRC Brand Safety Accreditation
Google Testing “Simple Search” Refinement Option
Instagram Will Now Enable All Users to Download Publicly Posted Reels Clips
X is Bringing Post Headlines Back to Link Previews In-Stream
-
FACEBOOK5 days agoIndian Government Warns Facebook, YouTube About Deepfakes, Misinformation Violations
-
MARKETING4 days agoWhiteboard Friday Recap 2023: AI Edition
-
MARKETING7 days ago“Undercover” Case Studies: Why the Future of Marketing Is Proving Yourself in the Field
-
SOCIAL6 days ago17-Year-Old Claims To Make 6 Figures A Year
-
SEARCHENGINES7 days agoFollower Count Is Not A Google Search Ranking Factor
-
SOCIAL6 days agoMeta Stock: Still Room For Upside In A Maturing Market (NASDAQ:META)
-
SOCIAL7 days agoX Withdraws From MRC Brand Safety Accreditation
-
SEARCHENGINES6 days agoGoogle Testing “Simple Search” Refinement Option
You must be logged in to post a comment Login