The author’s views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
I’ve heard over and over from fellow SEOs that they just “fell into” the industry and didn’t know much about it beforehand. Well, I am no exception. I searched far and wide for a marketing job prior to graduating college in 2018, but it was my sister who introduced me to the concept of SEO. She suggested I apply to the agency she worked at, so I quickly started Googling to learn more about the concept. After my brief research and a few interviews, I found myself at a large digital marketing agency.
I loved working at the agency with its fast-paced work day and continuous opportunities to learn, but after nearly three years of working with clients, managing roadmaps, and compiling deliverables, I was ready for a change. I know many people who left agencies to work in-house, and I wanted to know what the other side looked like.
Now, as I write this piece, I find myself at a high-growth media holding company, still driving SEO strategy, but with all of my focus on a single brand. With the Great Resignation still in full force, I wanted to step up and share some of my learnings from my transition from agency to internal SEO. Hopefully, if you’re considering a career shake-up, this will help you in your journey.
Similarities
While my day-to-day looks pretty different in my in-house role, some things never change. Below is a snapshot of the biggest similarities between the roles — at least from my experience.
Same SEO knowledge
Surprise, surprise! You still need the same SEO knowledge in-house and at an agency. From evaluating a robots.txt file to optimizing on-page content to recommending site speed improvements to boost Core Web Vitals, the SEO skills I need have remained the same.
Keep in mind that this may not be true for everyone, depending on the nature of your company and your daily responsibilities. For example, if you work at an agency that primarily focuses on local SEO, you may see a very different day-to-day if you were to transition to an in-house role at a large corporation. However, if you’ve taken the time to build up your content, technical, local, and international SEO skills, then you can take that knowledge and apply it in any SEO position. Being well-rounded serves you well during a career transition.
Same tools
At the agency, we had access to an array of platforms, so I really had the opportunity to pick my go-to lineup and learn those tools inside and out.
For example, we had access to at least five different keyword research tools, three different site crawlers, and multiple analytics platforms. Although there were some situations when I had no option as to what platform to use (like when working with a client’s analytics), I typically got my pick of the SEO tools.