How to Find SEO Experts in the UK
Pubished 18th February 2020
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to a website from organic search results pages (SERPs). An SEO professional aims to optimise online content so that it appears at the top of SERPs for a certain keyword.
There are currently 6542 SEO professionals in the UK and 30% of them have changed jobs in the last year. The average contractor daily rate is £400 while the average permanent salary is £38,000.
Fast stats on SEO professionals
LinkedIn Insights, January 2020 | www.itjobswatch.co.uk
SEO professionals in the UK
Changed jobs in the last year
Avg. Contractor daily rate
Avg. perm salary
Gender breakdown
The SEO workforce in the UK has a male majority of 66% whilst 34% are female.
What schools are producing SEO talent?
Among the universities where most graduates are placed into SEO roles in the UK, Manchester Metropolitan University comes out on top with 72 professionals. The University of Leeds comes in second with 68 professionals followed closely by University of Nottingham with 67.
Top 3 fields of study for SEO professionals
33% of SEO professionals have studied in the Marketing field, while 13% equally have studied in either Economics or Media Studies.
University degrees
Most of the UK's SEO professionals have a bachelor’s degree (67%) while nearly a quarter (24%) have a master’s degree.
Top 3 most common skills among SEO professionals
The number of SEO professionals that list the skill on their LinkedIn profile
SEO
Digital Marketing
Google Analytics
Most common skills among SEO professionals
The top three skills that SEO professionals list on their LinkedIn profile are SEO (99%), Digital Marketing (37%) and Google Analytics (31%).
Fastest growing skills among SEO professionals
Technical Audits, Google Search Console and Ahrefs are the top three fastest-growing skills among SEO professionals.
Top companies hiring SEO professionals
The top companies in the UK that have grown their SEO teams in the last year are Blue Array SEO (85%), ForwardPMX (75%) and UK Home Office (46%).
Industries hiring SEO professionals
The industries where the most SEO professionals have been hired are Marketing & Advertising (2214), Internet (986) and IT & Services (643).
One year growth in industries hiring SEO professionals
In the last year, Financial Services has experienced the biggest growth (39%) in hiring SEO professionals, followed by Staffing & Recruiting (34%) and Civic & Social Organisation (30%).
Industries hiring SEO professionals, gender breakdown
The industries with the smallest gender gaps among SEO hires are Staffing & Recruiting and Civic & Social Organisation.
Top locations for SEO professionals
The areas of the UK that have experienced the biggest growth in SEO professionals over the last year are Liverpool (12%), Tyneside (12%) and Leeds (10%).
Top locations for SEO professionals, gender breakdown
The locations with the smallest gender gap among SEO professionals are Bristol and London.
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