6 Internet Marketing Skills in Increasing Demand (& 2 Losing Steam)
June 11, 2013
As Google continues to update its algorithm and social networks such as Facebook gain popularity, we can expect the demand for various skills to change accordingly. No one knows who’s going to be the major search engines or social networks of tomorrow, so we must have dynamic skill sets that can change with the ever changing internet world. Having the type of skills that can survive shifts in the web is essential to a successful internet marketing campaign. Below are several skills that are on the rise and should continue to become of critical importance as the web changes.
1. SOCIAL COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
A Social Community Manager (Above) is pretty much synonymous with Social Media Manager (Below) except social community manager is a term used at higher level corporations and agencies.
Social Media Jobs
There are many companies starting to realize that it’s more important to have a social media manager than any other position in the internet marketing niche. Social media used to be in a completely different department as SEO, however with today’s algorithm, SEO now encompasses social media. So if companies still want to rank on the search engines, they need the help of social media pros.
2. ONPAGE SEO
Originally (pre-2006), SEO was all about content and keyword placement. Then Google with its PageRank algorithm got huge and backlinks became gold. Google used links to help them determine the value of websites by counting them as votes. Overtime, they accredited different point systems to links (and still) do, but recently they lowered the emphasis of backlinks and put more weight on the actual website. Someone that can help a website meet all the Google Webmaster Guidelines, and help make a site worthy of getting shared, linked and visited, is becoming far more valuable to a company than a basic link builder.
3. LOCAL SEO
We thought local SEO was hitting its peak several years ago. However, with Google switching up the SERP’s to include the 7-pack, local listings pretty much own the 1st page of Google for localize search terms. Although the theory behind local SEO is similar to SEO, the implementation and strategy is vastly different. Someone that specializes in helping websites get found in their locale will always be needed, regardless if it’s on Google, or some future search engine.
4. ANALYTICS
The need for Google Analytics (or any analytics software) specialists is increasing because internet marketing professionals needs to be able to dissect the traffic they are currently getting to identify various metrics and opportunities.
These metrics & opportunities include (but not limited to):
- Identifying where most traffic is coming from
- Identifying demographic of current visitors
- Recognizing what brings conversions
- Finding long tail keywords that could bring more traffic
- Deciding where to put efforts
- Identifying pages within the site that needs optimizing
- Tracking social media stats
- And so much more.
An analytics expert can bring more to the table because they can tell you how to make the most of what you already got and where to channel your current efforts.
5. CONTENT MARKETING
Because link building is still a factor and because good content will always be king, we can count on content marketing to continue on its rise. Someone that can produce content to distribute to blogs, content to get people to return to your website, or can write catchy things on social places to attract visitors is another valuable team member. That person should be a natural. Someone that loves to write. Someone creative enough to pretty much create (forgive the old-school term) link-bait. This skill is also important because it attracts authority sites and helps you with guest blogging and other content marketing strategies.
6. CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATION
Conversion optimization is another great skill because businesses need help turning their website into conversion generators. After all, what good is a website if it doesn’t convert? A specialist that can help you get more conversions is pretty much a specialist that knows how to put money in your pocket. Conversion optimization includes onpage conversion optimization as well as offpage conversion optimization (IE: A/B Split Testing, Analytics Measuring, etc) A conversion rate specialist is arguably the most valuable player on the team.
Skills Losing Traction
Now that we’ve talked about the skills and positions that we have seen an increasing demand for, let’s look at the specialists with skills loosing traction
1. WEBSITE SUBMISSIONS
Google has been working on phasing out website submissions. They are veering away from counting links from sites that don’t include another webmaster’s approval or actual desire to place the link. And if the link isn’t on a page that can get shared it’s pretty much becoming useless. This doesn’t mean all submitted links aren’t any good. It just means if you are just submitting to a site for a link, instead of because you think people in that niche actually use that directory to find what they are looking for, then you’re wasting your time. Remember Google’s Reasonable Surfer Model?
2. LINK BUILDING SERVICES
Even though the chart shows link building services dropping and we all know links are loosing value, the reality of it is links are even more important today. You still need an expert to make sure you are building the right links and connecting you with other websites in your niche. Link building experts also help with strategy. In a way, some of the increasing skills above are ‘new’ forms of link building (IE: Content Marketing). Companies are realizing that link building should be done in-house or in other forms, which is why link building services appears to be dropping. Eventually link building will be a skill of the past, but in the meantime, it’s still a valuable skill that requires true experts with deep history from 2006 to today’s most recent algorithm updates.
Conclusion
As you search the internet, you’ll see that website submissions and link building is a dime a dozen. It’s over-saturated with these skills and supply and demand makes these twice as cheap while the new skills are in high demand. If you are a internet marketing specialist wondering where to channel your skills and efforts, I recommend considering one of the above 6 more demanding fields. These skills are going to be needed for a very, very long time.