SEO
Navigating The SEO Career Landscape: Degrees, Myths, And Realities
In the dynamic realm of search engine optimization (SEO), my career spans nearly two decades, starting in 2004 when I started working for an agency and just two years later moved to in-house SEO for a large company.
Since then, I’ve held various in-house SEO roles at esteemed organizations, including Classmates.com, Concur, Smartsheet, ADP (usedcars.com), Nordstrom, Groupon, GitHub, and my most recent role at RingCentral – experiences which have deepened my understanding of the field and allowed me to shape SEO within different business contexts.
I began my career as an SEO specialist at the agency; my role involved understanding website optimization, keyword research, and refining on-page and off-page strategies.
When I moved to management, I had to understand how to lead a team properly.
As my journey progressed, transitioning to roles like SEO manager involved overseeing SEO strategies, developing comprehensive plans, educating and leading teams, and ensuring alignment with overarching business goals.
These roles collectively form the backbone of SEO, showcasing its dynamism and emphasizing each position’s indispensable role in driving effective digital marketing strategies.
My journey isn’t that much different from that of many SEO professionals, aside from the fact that some SEO pros may decide to stay with an agency or focus on consulting rather than working for another company.
There are so many avenues one could go down when choosing their career path for SEO, so let me help break it down.
SEO Roles
As someone immersed in the SEO field for many years, I fully understand today’s many diverse SEO roles.
Let’s explore these roles, the average salaries in the US, and advice I have for anyone looking to move into these roles, considering both their nuances and the path ahead for aspiring SEO professionals:
SEO Specialist
Embarking on the SEO journey often starts as a specialist. In this entry-level role, one will dig into the complexities of optimizing websites to boost rankings.
As a specialist, my early days involved conducting keyword research, analyzing website performance, and implementing strategies that enhanced organic visibility for clients.
This foundational role serves as a stepping stone to grasp the fundamentals of digital marketing in both the agency and in-house environments.
- Salary*: $63,699 per year (Indeed).
- Duties: Focus on entry-level content optimization, conducting keyword research, and honing on-page and off-page strategies.
- Advice: This is a great role to grasp the fundamentals, immerse yourself in various facets of digital marketing, and adapt to evolving trends.
SEO Content Strategist
Transitioning to a content strategist role within SEO reveals the creative side of drafting engaging, search-engine-friendly content.
Most SEO pros in this position are expected to sharpen their writing skills and plan and optimize content calendars based on comprehensive keyword research.
As an SEO content strategist, creating informative and captivating content is paramount to retaining readers and adhering to evolving SEO best practices.
Technical SEO Manager
My background in engineering has allowed me to focus heavily on the technical aspects of SEO. The position as a technical SEO manager requires a solid knowledge of coding, engineering processes, and database management.
The role of a technical SEO professional involves handling site structure, indexing, and resolving intricate technical issues that impact search performance.
Responsibilities extend to collaborating with engineering teams, ensuring effective communication, and mitigating risks associated with technical SEO.
This role requires a unique blend of technical acumen and collaborative skills.
- Salary*: $99,548 per year (Indeed).
- Duties: Tackle technical aspects impacting search performance, focusing on site structure, indexing, and technical troubleshooting.
- Advice: Understand what goes into the development of a website, including the various coding languages (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, Python, React, Angular, etc.), database connectivity, and server administration, followed by the specifics of what Google expects and recommends for the benefits of SEO. In addition, SEO pros are expected to cultivate collaboration skills and have a solid understanding of using tools like Botify to aid in effective communication with engineers, which is pivotal for project success and seamless cooperation.
Link Building Specialist
As a link building specialist, the focus shifts to acquiring high-quality backlinks to enhance website authority and rankings.
This role demands persistence in building relationships, performing strategic outreach, and executing link-building strategies.
SEO pros interested in pursuing a career focused on off-site SEO must demonstrate the meticulous effort and specialization required in acquiring valuable links, making this role a dynamic and rewarding part of the SEO landscape.
- Salary*: $63,699 per year (Indeed).
- Duties: Acquire high-quality backlinks from relevant sites to enhance website authority, involving relationship-building and strategic outreach.
- Advice: Develop persistence and relationship-building skills; the role demands time and specialization in acquiring valuable links while avoiding what could be considered spammy links. It would be very detrimental to a link building specialist’s career if they were to get a website banned by Google for using bad practices.
Local SEO Specialist
Optimizing websites for local searches can be a specialized avenue in any SEO journey.
Local SEO specialists manage local citations and Google My Business profiles and ensure consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) data for region-specific platforms.
This role highlights the importance of attention to detail and local nuances for businesses aiming to attract nearby customers.
- Salary*: $62,852 per year (Indeed).
- Duties: Optimize websites for local searches, manage local citations and Google My Business profiles, and ensure NAP data consistency.
- Advice: Understand the nuances of local SEO; attention to detail and consistency are key for localized online visibility. Learn the various tools available to help manage these listings, such as RenderSEO and Yext.
Ecommerce SEO Product Manager
Working at ecommerce companies brings a unique challenge of its own.
SEO product manager roles require an SEO pro to specialize in optimizing online stores; the focus shifts to product optimization, category pages, site structure, and enhancing user experience.
Balancing SEO knowledge with product management skills becomes essential in navigating this niche, offering both challenges and lucrative opportunities.
- Salary*: $117,277 per year (Indeed).
- Duties: Specialize in optimizing online stores, focusing on product optimization, category pages, and user experience.
- Advice: Combine SEO knowledge with product management skills; leveling up enhances prospects in this unique and lucrative niche.
SEO Consultant
My role as an SEO consultant involved advising businesses on enhancing online visibility. Analyzing websites, developing customized strategies, and offering guidance on effective SEO became integral.
The SEO consultant role offers relief when I find myself out of work in my in-house roles due to a layoff or if the company culture isn’t a good fit.
While my consulting is a second and infrequent role, many SEO pros decide that consulting is what they prefer to do full-time.
Either way, providing optimization services to companies neglecting SEO is a great way to make a substantial income.
- Salary*: $63,298 per year (Indeed).
- Duties: Advise businesses on improving online visibility, analyzing websites, developing strategies, and offering SEO guidance.
- Advice: Gain diverse optimization experience; providing services to companies neglecting SEO can yield rapid improvement.
SEO Account Manager
Anyone interested in an SEO account manager role will experience the dynamic facet of serving as a bridge between clients and staff.
Meeting clients to understand their needs and relaying information for improved optimization efforts is the cornerstone of this position.
Performance-driven account managers could earn additional commissions, adding an incentive-driven layer to the role.
- Salary*: $68,314 per year (Indeed).
- Duties: Serve as a company’s point of contact, meeting clients and relaying information for improved optimization efforts.
- Advice: Understand industry standards; performance-driven account managers can earn additional commissions, boosting income.
SEO Data Analyst
An SEO data analyst role involves collecting and interpreting website performance and search rankings data.
Using tools like Google Analytics, Semrush, and Botify while obtaining knowledge of running SQL queries provides insights to inform strategic decisions.
This role underlines the significance of data analysis, specifically focusing on SEO-related metrics and their implications.
- Salary*: $76,575 per year (Indeed).
- Duties: Collect and interpret website performance and search rankings data, offering insights for strategic decisions.
- Advice: Know how to run SQL queries and manipulate data in Excel. Focus on SEO-related data analysis and understanding traffic from various search engines to improve decision-making.
SEO Manager
The majority of my roles in my career have been under the SEO manager title.
Those roles involved overseeing entire SEO strategies, developing comprehensive plans, managing teams, and ensuring alignment with overarching business goals. This mid-to-senior-level management position requires a diverse skill set.
- Salary*: $74,494 per year (Indeed).
- Duties: Oversee entire SEO strategy, develop comprehensive plans, manage teams, and ensure alignment with business goals.
- Advice: Understand what it takes to be a team leader. Nurture your team, build relationships in the organization, and articulate the benefits of what you’re asking to accomplish SEO growth. Management books like StrengthsFinder 2.0: Gallup by Don Clifton and Radical Candor by Kim Scott are great resources for becoming a good leader. If an SEO manager can tap into effective communication and leadership, the senior positions can lead to higher earnings of up to $210,000.
Notes:
The salary for the link building and local specialist roles are the same as that of an SEO specialist, since they tend to be at the same level.
In addition, the SEO product manager’s salary is taken from what a standard product manager makes since the roles are very similar.
Also, note that consultants can make upwards of $200,000 per year or more as they decide what to charge clients and how many clients they choose to take on.
*US National average salary reported by Indeed.com as of January 2024
Is SEO A Good Career Choice? Debunking Myths And Realities
Having navigated the dynamic landscape of SEO for over two decades, I have found that, while choosing a career in SEO has been rewarding, there are many things I would have done differently if I had the chance to do it all over again.
The good part about the SEO career path is that it unfolds across various roles, each offering unique challenges and opportunities for growth.
Starting from entry-level positions to assuming leadership roles like SEO manager, professionals gain a diverse skill set and invaluable experience.
However, it’s crucial to understand that the journey rarely leads to executive positions like director of SEO in larger companies and even more rarely to vice president positions.
The salaries of roles that SEO pros work with (i.e., product managers, engineers, growth managers, etc.) are much higher than what SEO pros usually make. So if it’s money you’re after in an SEO career, then you may be on the wrong path.
Agencies often embrace SEO professionals in executive roles, highlighting the need for a blended approach to SEO strategy involving in-house and agency collaboration. Still, the salaries tend to be less than for in-house roles.
Most SEO professionals should begin their journey as specialists and envision their desired position in 5 to 10 years.
If aspirations lean towards engineering, take the initiative to learn to code and acquire the necessary skills expected of an engineer. Collaborate closely with engineering teams, expressing a keen interest in contributing to their projects to transition to an engineering role.
For those eyeing executive roles in large corporations, strategically plan a career trajectory that navigates beyond SEO and aligns with roles leading to executive positions.
Typically, chief marketing officers (CMOs) have backgrounds in product marketing or growth marketing, progressing from directors to VPs in those domains before making the leap to CMO.
While SEO expertise enhances marketability, transitioning from SEO to these roles can be challenging. Therefore, be prepared to undertake the necessary steps to facilitate a smooth transition when the time comes.
For those contemplating an SEO career, embrace the diverse roles within SEO, each contributing to a robust skill set.
Junior roles provide foundational knowledge, strategists refine creativity and analytical abilities, and managers oversee comprehensive SEO plans.
It’s essential to evaluate personal preferences – whether one aspires to be a specialist excelling in a specific area or climb the ladder to managerial roles.
Be aware that large companies might not offer executive SEO positions, leading to the importance of understanding the industry’s dynamics and considering agency opportunities.
Education In SEO: Unveiling The Reality of Degrees
After spending over two decades submerged in SEO, a formal degree is not a prerequisite for a successful career in SEO.
My journey began with college, where I majored in English and Art History. However, realizing the potential in web design and development, I dropped out to focus on freelance work.
The SEO industry thrives on practical skills and hands-on experience, making degrees less significant.
Numerous online resources and guides offer a wealth of information to aid in mastering SEO techniques. It’s a field where continuous learning is integral, and personal initiative often surpasses the value of formal education.
The insights shared by others resonate with my own experiences. SEO is a realm where proven expertise often outshines academic credentials.
The industry includes individuals with diverse educational backgrounds, from MBAs to those without formal education. What matters most is the ability to adapt, learn, and implement effective strategies.
For aspiring SEO professionals, the key lies in taking the initiative, exploring online resources, and gaining practical experience.
Whether starting a business or pursuing a career, hands-on learning and staying updated with industry trends are the real benchmarks of success. While a degree might be a plus, it’s not mandatory for carving a rewarding path in SEO.
The Diverse Paths Of SEO
The potential routes within the SEO career landscape are numerous, starting with opportunities at agencies that provide an excellent learning ground, exposing individuals to various aspects of digital marketing.
Alternatively, one could enter an in-house position at a company where guidance from an experienced SEO professional is crucial.
Freelancing or working as an independent consultant presents another viable option, offering flexibility in the work environment and schedule.
The SEO career path encompasses a spectrum of roles, from entry-level to junior roles, strategists, managers, and senior managers, each with distinctive responsibilities and salary ranges.
Agency
One significant route involves commencing the journey at agencies, which serve as excellent learning grounds.
Working at an agency exposes individuals to various facets of digital marketing, offering a dynamic environment where skills are honed through hands-on experience.
This path allows for a comprehensive understanding of SEO within the broader context of marketing strategies.
In-House
On the other hand, individuals may choose to embark on an in-house position within a company.
The crucial guidance characterizes this path experienced SEO professionals provide in the corporate setting.
The in-house route often entails a deeper integration with the company’s goals and strategies, requiring a specialized skill set tailored to the organization’s needs.
Freelancing
For those inclined towards independence and flexibility, freelancing or working as an independent consultant represents a viable option within the SEO career landscape.
This path allows individuals to shape their work environment and schedules according to personal preferences.
Freelancers have the opportunity to work with a variety of clients, gaining diverse experiences that contribute to their professional growth.
Conclusion
In this exploration of the SEO career landscape, I am reminded of the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of SEO.
From my humble beginnings as a freelance developer optimizing websites to my most recent work as a consultant, each step has presented unique challenges and learning opportunities, adding to my comprehensive grasp of SEO.
These experiences have enriched my understanding of various business environments.
I hope this article helps readers interested in a career in SEO carve out a path for themselves.
More resources:
Featured Image: New Africa/Shutterstock
SEO
Leverage Search Intent & Boost Your Visibility With These Expert SEO Strategies
Struggling to rank for your target keywords? You’re not alone.
The SEO landscape is more complex than ever, with search intent evolving and SERP features constantly changing.
So, how do you make sure your content aligns with Google’s evolving expectations?
Check out our webinar on September 25, 2024: “Navigating SERP Complexity: How to Leverage Search Intent for SEO.”
Tom Capper of STAT will discuss the role of search intent in SEO and how to use it to climb in the right SERPs for your brand.
Why This Webinar Is A Must-Attend Event
Ranking isn’t just about keywords anymore—it’s about understanding the intent behind each search.
We’ll cover:
- How intent is nuanced, and many keywords can support multiple intents.
- Why the same keyword can have a different intent depending where it was searched from, and on what device.
- The differences in SERP features depending on intent, and how this impacts your content strategy.
Expert Insights From Tom Capper
Leading this session is Tom Capper from STAT Search Analytics.
Capper will dive deep into searcher motivations using first-party research data and provide actionable insights to help you improve your site’s organic visibility.
Reserve your spot and find out more about how these insights can impact your ranking.
Who Should Attend?
This webinar is perfect for:
- SEO professionals looking to take their strategies to the next level
- Content managers and strategists wanting to increase the effectiveness of their work
- Enterprise professionals and digital marketers looking to blend branding, marketing, and SEO for a unified customer experience
- Anyone interested in search results and consumer behavior
Live Q&A: Get Your Questions Answered
Following the presentation, Tom will host a live Q&A session.
This is your chance to clarify misconceptions surrounding the intersection of content, search intent, and the SERPs and get expert advice on optimizing your strategies.
Don’t Miss Out!
Understanding search intent is critical to staying competitive in SEO. Reserve your spot today to ensure you’re not left behind.
Can’t attend live? Sign up anyway for the recording.
Get ready to unlock new SEO opportunities and boost your rankings. See you there!
SEO
How to Manage Local SEO for Businesses with Multiple Locations
As your business grows, the idea of expanding to multiple locations and tapping into new markets eventually becomes a possibility. And getting to this point can be exciting for business owners– but it’s also a complex process that involves the application of different strategies, especially when it comes to your SEO.
Managing SEO for multiple locations is tricky. You will want each location to show up in local searches and catch the attention of potential customers in its specific area. And this is where optimizing local SEO for multiple locations comes into play.
Understanding the Importance of Multi-Location SEO
Beyond brand consistency and quality products and/or services (which are always important), you have to consider how your new business branches can be found by an increasingly digital consumer market.
As an SEO expert, I’ve seen firsthand how important a well-crafted multi-location SEO strategy is for businesses, becoming the key to making sure that each location can attract local customers through organic search.
Multi-location SEO is more than just search engine ranking improvements. It is about connecting with local audiences on a deeper level – ensuring that your business is visible to potential customers exactly when they are searching for services or products in their area.
- Improve local search visibility. Optimizing each business location individually with relevant keywords can guarantee that your stores appear at the top of local search results – making it easier for potential customers in specific areas to find and visit your locations.
- Target qualified local audiences. Customizing multi-location SEO strategies to meet the specific needs and search behaviors of local customers can help businesses attract highly relevant and engaged customers, which may then lead to higher engagement and better conversion rates.
- Improved search rankings. Earning backlinks from local websites enhances the authority and relevance of each location, boosting your search engine rankings.
- Competitive advantage. A well-optimized multi-location SEO strategy sets your business apart from your competitors who may not be as focused on local SEO, giving you an edge in attracting local customers.
- More in-store foot traffic. Increased local visibility translates to more people discovering your business’ physical locations, driving more foot traffic, which eventually convert into more sales.
Create Separate Pages for Each Location
Instead of putting together and stuffing all the necessary information of your business onto a single page, separate pages allow you to highlight specific details unique to each location – from local addresses, contact information, down to the services and offerings available at each site.
While creating separate pages, it is important to:
- Ensure that all these pages are hosted on a single domain to consolidate your SEO efforts and boost rankings as a whole.
- Embed a Google Map for each location to enhance local visibility, user convenience, and relevance for local searches.
- Target geotagged keywords and mention the specific city or area on each page to establish your business’ presence across multiple locations.
- Include complete contact details and create location-specific content to help each location rank well in search results and drive more local traffic and engagement.
- Make sure that each of the pages have unique, optimized content, and not identical copies. Avoid simply changing just the city and state names on each page to prevent duplicate content penalties, and ensure a more targeted user experience.
- Add photos and videos to give users a better feel for each location.
Precise and localized information for each of the pages you will be creating for multiple business locations can help potential customers quickly find what they need, creating a richer and more engaging user experience. This shall improve your chances of ranking highly in search results as well.
Optimize Google My Business Listings
Each location of your business should have their own Google Business Profiles complete with accurate details – from address details, business hours, contact information, to the correct website URLs for specific business locations. This helps control how your business is displayed on both Google and Google Maps.
By the time you have created variations of GMB profiles customized to each business location, optimizing each of them follows. This involves uploading high-quality photos and videos, creating posts and publishing updates consistently, and managing and responding to reviews actively.
Of course, it is important that you encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews – and respond to it. This not only resolves issues, but builds trust among users too. It can even help boost local rankings significantly.
Keeping Google My Business listings detailed, up-to-date, and packed with positive reviews, you promote your business not only for potential customers to find and choose you, but also signals Google that each location is active and trustworthy – which further leads to higher visibility and more exposure in the search results.
Ensure Consistency in NAP Across All Listings
Consistency is key—ensure your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) are uniform across all listings. With same business names, it may signal Google that these locations belong to the same business, while the address and phone number will let them know they are simply different branches.
The more accurate your information is across the web, the higher Google’s trust in its accuracy, making it more likely for you to earn a spot in the search results.
Create Local Business Schema
Local business schema, a type of structured data markup, is a powerful strategy for optimizing local SEO, particularly for businesses with multiple locations. Schema markup is a further addition to your location pages that allows you to describe your business more accurately to search engines as you provide them with detailed information.
This makes it easier for search engines to understand and display your business in relevant search results.
Gather Customer Reviews
Reviews are successful indicators of effective business strategies, providing potential customers with genuine, unbiased insights into your business. They influence customer perceptions while playing a role in how Google ranks your business in local search results. Reviews are also great social proof because people generally trust what other customers have to say about your business more than the information that we provide on the listings.
It is then important that you make review collection part of your business practices in optimizing local SEO for multiple locations by encouraging satisfied customers to provide feedback, not just on your GMB profiles, but to other review platforms too.
How to Get Positive Customer Reviews
Getting positive feedback from customers may be tricky, but it is an effective strategy for boosting both your business’ reputation and local SEO performance. Reviews like these will ensure that you stand out in local search results while attracting a steady stream of new customers.
- Ask for reviews, especially right after a positive experience. Do not hesitate to ask satisfied customers to leave reviews by asking them directly after a purchase or service.
- Let customers know how easy leaving reviews is. Simplify the review process by providing direct links to your Google My Business, and other review sites that your business is in. QR codes on thank you pages, receipts, or in-store displays can also be effective.
- Respond to reviews. May they be positive or negative customer feedback, make sure to respond professionally. This will show that you value their insights and opinions as much, and may even establish relationships with them. When these customers see that you are taking the time to interact with them, they will feel valued and appreciated.
- Highlight positive reviews on your website. Showcase the customer reviews on your website, especially for each location. This can further boost your local SEO, and may even encourage other satisfied customers to share their experiences as well.
How to Deal with Negative Reviews
Negative reviews cannot be avoided. Yes, they can be challenging, but they also present opportunities to make improvements on your business, and even demonstrate responsiveness to customer feedback.
- Reply to negative reviews as quickly as possible. Engaging promptly demonstrates a proactive approach to customer feedback and highlights your commitment to resolving issues. This also plays a key role in preserving the reputation of your business, fostering trust with your customers, and signals to search engines that your business values and prioritizes customer relations.
- Maintain professionalism. Always respond to customer feedback in a calm, polite, and professional manner, regardless of the tone of the review. Avoid becoming defensive or confrontational, since it may discourage potential customers. Then, from here, address the issue raised by thinking and providing a solution.
- Acknowledge the issue. Always begin your response by acknowledging and recognizing the customer’s concern, and expressing genuine empathy. This helps validate their feelings and show them that you actually mind. Do not forget to offer a sincere apology for any inconvenience or difficulty they have encountered as well, regardless of who was at fault.
- Encourage positive reviews. Even with negative reviews, continue to encourage satisfied customers to share their positive experiences. Increasing the volume of this positive feedback can help in enhancing your overall rating. And the more positive reviews you get, the less impact any individual negative review will have.
Collect as many testimonials as you can, and respond to both positive and negative ones. Actively doing so shows that you value customer feedback, and are committed to excellent service – further strengthening your local SEO efforts too.
Earn Backlinks from Local Websites
Link building remains to be an important strategy for optimizing local SEO across multiple locations. Backlinks act as endorsements from reputable sources that boost business’ visibility, relevance, and authority in local search results – all of which are important ranking factors.
Focus on getting listed in local directories and citations. Create listings for each business location, keeping each information complete and accurate, to help establish your local presence within the area. You may also reach out to local bloggers for guest posting opportunities, sponsor community events, or engage with local publications by sharing newsworthy updates about your business.
Backlinks from local websites drive targeted traffic from potential customers who are geographically close to your locations, increasing the chances of conversions. This local relevance is particularly important for businesses in multiple locations, as it ensures each site gains visibility in its respective area.
Link Your Social Media
Aside from separate web pages, your different business locations also need their own social media profiles. Actively maintaining these pages can boost local SEO through location-specific content, engagement with local audiences. These profiles will also enable you to run location-targeted ads to reach potential customers in each area. Once you have this set up, remember to link your social profiles to your location pages to increase relevance.
Look at Local Competition
Want to know what’s working? Look at the top-ranking businesses in your area. Use tools like SE Ranking, Woorank, and the like to see what strategies they’re using to rank well in local search. This should give you things like content ideas, backlink profiles, citations, reviews, and other opportunities you can apply to your own location pages.
Key Takeaway
Optimizing local SEO for multiple locations really takes a lot of work – a demanding but rewarding process. If we take this approach with these strategies, it will not only ensure that each location ranks well in the appropriate searches but also build a strong digital footprint for your business. The result is a stronger connection with local customers, increased foot traffic, and ultimately, greater business success.
Implementing this multi-location SEO strategy may actually sound like a tricky approach to expand your customer base and drive growth to your business in the online market. But with these strategies that I have laid out, you can tailor your SEO efforts to suit the multiple locations of your business without spreading your resources too thin.
SEO
9 HTML Tags (& 11 Attributes) You Must Know for SEO
HTML is a markup language that forms the basis of most webpages.
It is arguably one of the most fundamental parts of technical SEO.
Using HTML elements, SEO professionals are able to communicate information about the page to users and search bots.
This can help to clarify the importance, nature, and order of content on a page, as well as its relationship to other webpages.
What Are HTML Attributes?
Attributes are additional information added to HTML elements. They sit within the element, such as:
They are values that are used to modify the element, giving additional context about it.
In the case of the HTML tag above, the attribute, rel=”canonical” modifies the link tag to say to the search bots that this URL should be considered the canonical of a set.
Format Of HTML Attributes
HTML attributes consist of a name and a value.
For example, when defining an image, the name “src” is used and the value is the file name of the image. The “alt” attribute specifies an alternative text to show if the image cannot be displayed.
Types Of HTML Attributes
Attributes are usually classified in four ways; required, optional, standard or event.
Required attributes are ones where their absence from a tag means that tag would not function correctly.
Optional ones are, as the name suggests, not required for the tag to work but can be used to specify additional information or behaviour for that tag.
There are attributes that can be used with most HTML elements, and some that are very specific.
For example, the “style” attribute can be used to define the look of an element like the colour or font size. These universal attributes are known as “standard” or “global” attributes.
There are other attributes that can only be used with certain elements. Commonly, ones that are used for SEO will modify a link tag. These are elements like “rel” and “hreflang.”
Event attributes are added to an element to define how that element should behave in response to certain actions like a user mousing over a button. These attributes define how a function should be executed.
For example, an “onclick” attribute would define what a JavaScript function should do when a user clicks a button. These attributes allow developers to create more interactive pages from HTML tags.
Why HTML Attributes Are Important
HTML attributes are important because they allow developers to add additional context and functionality to websites.
They are particularly important for SEO because they give much-needed context to tags. They are critical in how we guide the search bots in crawling and serving webpages.
Attributes allow us to easily prevent the following of certain links, or denote which pages in a set should be served to users in different countries or using other languages.
They allow us to easily signify that a page should not be indexed. A lot of the fundamental elements of technical SEO are actually controlled through HTML attributes.
Common Attributes Used In SEO
1. Name Attribute
The name attribute is used with the tag.
It is essentially a way of specifying to any bots that may visit the page if the following information applies to them or not.
For example, including means that all bots should take notice of the “noindex” directive.
You will often hear this called the “meta robots tag.”
If the following were used , only Google’s bot would need to take notice of the “noindex” directive.
This is a good way of giving commands to some search bots that are not needed for all.
2. Noindex Attribute
The “noindex” attribute is one commonly used in SEO.
You will often hear it being called the “noindex tag,” but more accurately, it is an attribute of the tag.
It’s formulated:
This piece of code allows publishers to determine what content can be included in a search engine’s index.
By adding the “noindex” attribute, you are essentially telling a search engine it may not use this page within its index.
This is useful if there is sensitive content you want to not be available from an organic search. For instance, if you have areas on your site that should only be accessible to paid members, allowing this content into the search indices could make it accessible without logging in.
The “noindex” directive needs to be read to be followed. That is, the search bots need to be able to access the page to read the HTML code that contains the directive.
As such, be careful not to block the robots from accessing the page in the robots.txt.
3. Description Attribute
The description attribute, better known as the “meta description,” is used with the tag.
The content of this tag is used in the SERPs underneath the content of the
The tag is used to link a resource to another and appears in the
of the page.
These links are not hyperlinks, they are not clickable. They show the relationship between web documents.
5. Rel=”nofollow”, rel=”ugc” And rel=”sponsored attributes”
The rel=”nofollow” attribute tells bots that the URL within the href attribute is not one that can be followed by them.
Using the rel=”nofollow” attribute will not affect a human user’s ability to click on the link and be taken to another page. It only affects bots.
This is used within SEO to prevent search engines from visiting a page or from ascribing any benefit of one page linking to another.
This arguably renders a link useless from the traditional SEO link-building perspective, as link equity will not pass through the link.
There are arguments to say that it is still a beneficial link if it causes visitors to view the linked-to page, of course!
Publishers can use the “nofollow” attribute to help search engines determine when a linked-to page is the result of payment, such as an advert.
This can help prevent issues with link penalties, as the publisher is admitting that the link is the result of a legitimate deal and not an attempt to manipulate the rankings.
The rel=”nofollow” attribute can be used on an individual link basis like the following:
anchor text of link goes here
Or it can be used to render all links on a page as “nofollow” by using it in the
like a “noindex” attribute is used:
You can read more here about when to use the rel=”nofollow” attribute.
6. How Google Uses The Rel=”nofollow” Attribute
In 2019, Google announced some changes to the way it used the “nofollow” attribute.
This included introducing some additional attributes that could be used instead of the “nofollow” to better express the relationship of the link to its target page.
These newer attributes are the rel=”ugc” and rel=”sponsored.”
They are to be used to help Google understand when a publisher wishes for the target page to be discounted for ranking signal purposes.
The rel=”sponsored” attribute is to identify when a link is the result of a paid deal such as an advert or sponsorship. The rel=”ugc” attribute is to identify when a link has been added through user-generated content (UGC) such as a forum.
Google announced that these and the “nofollow” attribute would only be treated as hints.
Whereas previously, the “nofollow” attribute would result in Googlebot ignoring the specified link, it now takes that hint under advisement but may still treat it as if the “nofollow” is not present.
Read more here about this announcement and how it changes the implementation of the rel=”nofollow” attribute.
7. Hreflang Attribute
The purpose of the hreflang attribute is to help publishers whose sites show the same content in multiple languages.
It directs the search engines as to which version of the page should be shown to users so they can read it in their preferred language.
The hreflang attribute is used with the tag. This attribute specifies the language of the content on the URL linked to.
It’s used within the
of the page and is formatted as follows:
It’s broken down into several parts:
- The rel=”alternate,” which suggests the page has an alternative page relevant to it.
- The href= attribute denotes which URL is being linked to.
- The language code is a two-letter designation to tell the search bots what language the linked page is written in. The two letters are taken from a standardized list known as the ISO 639-1 codes
The hreflang attribute can also be used in the HTTP header for documents that aren’t in HTML (like a PDF) or in the website’s XML sitemap.
Read more here about using the hreflang attribute correctly.
8. Canonical Attribute
The rel=”canonical” attribute of the link tag enables SEO professionals to specify which other page on a website or another domain should be counted as the canonical.
A page being the canonical essentially means it is the main page, of which others may be copies.
For search engine purposes, this is an indication of the page a publisher wants to be considered the main one to be ranked, the copies should not be ranked.
The canonical attribute looks like this:
The code should sit in the
of the page. The web page stated after the “href=” should be the page you want the search bots to consider the canonical page.
This tag is useful in situations where two or more pages may have identical or near-identical content on them.
9. Uses Of The Canonical Attribute
The website might be set up in such a way that this is useful for users, such as a product listing page on an ecommerce site.
For instance, the main category page for a set of products, such as “shoes”, may have copy, headers, and a page title that have been written about “shoes.”
If a user were to click on a filter to show only brown, size 8 shoes, the URL might change but the copy, headers, and page title might remain the same as the “shoes” page.
This would result in two pages that are identical apart from the list of products that are shown.
In this instance, the website owner might wish to put a canonical tag on the “brown, size 8 shoes” page pointing to the “shoes” page.
This would help the search engines to understand that the “brown, size 8 shoes” page does not need to be ranked, whereas the “shoes” page is the more important of the two and should be ranked.
Issues With The Canonical Attribute
It’s important to realize that the search engines only use the canonical attribute as a guide, it is not something that has to be followed.
There are many instances where the canonical attribute is ignored and another page selected as the canonical of the set.
Read more about how to use the canonical attribute correctly.
10. Src Attribute
The src= attribute is used to reference the location of the image that is being displayed on the page.
If the image is located on the same domain as the container it will appear in, a relative URL (just the end part of the URL, not the domain) can be used.
If the image is to be pulled from another website, the absolute (whole) URL needs to be used.
Although this attribute doesn’t serve any SEO purpose as such, it is needed for the image tag to work.
11. Alt Attribute
The above image tag example also contains a second attribute, the alt= attribute.
This attribute is used to specify what alternate text should be shown if the image can’t be rendered.
The alt= attribute is a required element of the tag, it has to be present, but can be left blank if no alternative text is wanted.
There is some benefit to considering the use of keywords within an image alt= attribute. Search engines cannot determine with precision what an image is of.
Great strides have been made in the major search engines’ ability to identify what is in a picture. However, that technology is far from perfect.
As such, search engines will use the text in the alt= attribute to better understand what the image is of.
Use language that helps to reinforce the image’s relevance to the topic the page is about.
This can aid the search engines in identifying the relevance of that page for search queries.
It is crucial to remember that this is not the primary reason for the alt= attribute.
This text is used by screen readers and assistive technology to enable those who use this technology to understand the contents of the image.
The alt= attribute should be considered first and foremost to make websites accessible to those using this technology. This should not be sacrificed for SEO purposes.
Read more about how to optimize images.
The More You Know About How Webpages Are Constructed, The Better
This guide is an introduction to the core HTML tag attributes you may hear about in SEO.
There are many more that go into making a functioning, crawlable, and indexable webpage, however.
The crossover between SEO and development skill sets is vast.
As an SEO professional, the more you know about how webpages are constructed, the better.
If you want to learn more about HTML and the tag attributes that are available with it, you might enjoy a resource like W3Schools.
More resources:
Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock
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