What is an SEO specialist? Why is he needed and what work does he perform?

The word "SEO specialist" comes from two parts:
1) SEO (Search Engine Optimization) - "optimization for search engines" - a set of actions to increase the visibility of a website in search engines.
2) Specialist - someone who possesses knowledge and applies it in practice in a certain area of activity.

In essence, an SEO specialist is an employee who optimizes and promotes a website on the internet. This specialist is one step below an internet marketer, who is responsible for promoting the entire business online. Therefore, an SEO specialist carries out direct instructions from the internet marketer and is responsible for attracting visitors to the promoted website from search engines like Google, Yandex, and others.

It is worth noting the direct responsibilities that a website optimizer must fulfill:

• Conducting a comprehensive website audit (technical, search engine, usability audit) to find and fix errors.
• Analyzing statistics and, based on the results, carrying out necessary actions to increase the visibility of the website or its individual pages.
• Creating a semantic core, clustering search queries, and distributing these groups across pages.
• Conducting a competitor analysis to find effective and profitable channels for delivering/realizing services/products.
• Performing internal and external optimization of pages and the website as a whole.
• Buying and controlling backlinks, placing articles, press releases, and other content.
• Thinking of and suggesting ideas for better interaction between the website and its visitors, and increasing its conversion rate.
• Monitoring changes in search engine algorithms and, if necessary, taking actions to adapt the website to them.
• When creating a new website, consulting and overseeing the work of web developers on all SEO-related issues.
• Creating a monthly report on the results of optimization and promotion of the website (where, what, how was it done?)
• Also other duties: writing technical tasks for copywriters, controlling content, removing a website from filters (in case of poor or incorrect promotion by previous specialists), and much more.

As you have already noticed, an SEO optimizer performs quite a large amount of work, but that’s not all. Due to the fact that there is often a shortage of specialized professionals in different companies, the SEO specialist takes on additional responsibilities. So, what does an SEO specialist do, and which specialists does he partially replace:

• Creating email templates for newsletters, developing an email marketing strategy for the business, sending out emails, creating or reviving a client base. This is usually handled by an Email Specialist.
• Monitoring visitor and client reviews about the company, both on the website and on external resources, and taking appropriate measures if necessary. This is the responsibility of the "Online Reputation Management" specialist.
• Monitoring the validity period and renewal of domain and hosting. This is the responsibility of technical support specialists.
• Installing and configuring optimization modules for the website.
• Writing sales copy with the use of keywords.
• Monitoring the website for viruses.

In reality, an SEO specialist not only optimizes a website to rank its search queries in the top positions of search engines, but also takes on a number of other tasks, replacing several specialists in the process.