If you’re looking to move into a career that’s only getting bigger and more influential in the IT industry, then look no further than SEO and digital marketing agencies. The industries are growing rapidly, with more and more opportunities for passionate computer and content enthusiasts to make a difference to the online world.

SEO – or search engine optimisation to give it its full title – is the process of creating websites that are viewed favourably by Google and meeting the requirements of its algorithm. Get on Google’s good side, and you’ll find the site you’re working on ranks in the highest positions, but get it wrong and the consequences could be disastrous.

Getting it wrong could be anything from over optimizing the page with key terms and phrases that you want the site to rank well for, as Google will see this as an almost ‘spammy’ attempt at manipulating the rankings; or linking to poor authority or frowned upon websites, such as adult entertainment or gambling.

Digital marketing is an area of SEO that has grown out of the main search campaigns, and become one of the most influential strategies going at improving web traffic. In the past, it was a case of blogging on the site itself being crucial, to show that the site is being regularly updated with high quality content on a frequent basis, as opposed to a flash in the pan campaign around peak times.

Now, it’s all about creating the high quality content and distributing it to high authority websites with strong domain rankings, page rankings and more, and linking back to the site you’re working with to build up a backlink profile that Google’s crawlers take one look at and think – yes, I like what this site is about and doing, they can rank highly.

These two areas of the tech world open up a variety of career opportunities for a wide range of people. From those sitting at home having graduated from University or left college, searching the web for jobs in Portsmouth in an attempt to get their foot on the ladder; as well as those in the big city already established in online or ICT careers. For those with a passion for writing, there are content writing positions springing up – either as full-time or freelance positions – and also opportunities for those looking to do something more pro-active with websites and the Internet, challenging yourself to overcome the challenges set by the site owners and Google to achieve what your client demands. This is usually the number one ranking for their “key term”, or the first page of the search results.