What is an seo professional?

What defines an seo professional?
Is it someone experiences or is it someone who does it for clients?
I never really come to this thread and never really cared but i just thought i would ask.

1) I think that you have to know a lot about ALL or almost all aspects of SEO and also know when to send the client to someone else who knows more than you do.

2) I think that the title is EARNED through professionalism in how you treat the people you come in contact with. You must be fair and respectful.

3) IMO I don't think that you need a client list to be a professional SEO. You could be working on salary for a company or you could own a company and define your job as the person who is in charge of the online efforts.

4) I think that there is a line between hobbyist and the real pro and that line is drawn at a productivity level that finds the person to earn a living exclusively from their SEO activities. The pro also had very broad knowledge from study of many sites or many aspects of a very large and busy site.

I consider myself a author and webmaster as my technical expertise and how I spend the bulk of my time do not meet 1, 3 and 4 - and I a actually prefer to be considered author or webmaster. I try to do #2 as well as I can.

Well, since an advertising professional is someone who works in advertising, and a marketing professional works in marketing, I'd guess that the simplest definition of an SEO Professional is simply someone who earns their living by optimizing websites.

That said, I like EGOL's description of an SEO - although that sounds to me like what a "good SEO" is

I think the definition for a SEO pro should be extended outside the being payed notion . The "professional" rank should be the distinction of the best in the biz.

I think of it as a person who makes a living working in the fields of web development and/or web site marketing.

A SEO professional is someone who keeps trying and has a lot of patience.

I was watching the woman golf the other day as you do...

The girl who was 15 came in the top 20.. can't remeber...
But should would of won something like $15k if she was a "pro" golfer...

However she has a big sponorship contract... bit like adsence..

I would define an seo professional as someone who has either:

1 - long term stable results using seo as a primary source of traffic and income.

or

2 - a webmaster who can place a website in a particular spot in the serps with minimal effort.

Some of the definitions given here are good, some incomplete, some quite restrictive. They all have good aspects to them.

That being said, it seems some overlook, albeit inadvertently, the fact that we are dealing with three distinct terms. I believe the best way to define, or at least understand, what makes someone an 'SEO professional' is to understand each of those three terms.

Term 1: SEO
SEO, as we all know (or at least should now by now), is the acronym for search engine optimization. Someone who does SEO, whether for pay or hobby, tries to understand as much as possible about how search engines work, what they do, and how to use that information within a website to maximize the results.

It has been proposed that this knowledge can be obtained in full (to know something completely, or, to know all there is to know). This is an incomplete understanding. I will discuss this in more detail under "Term 3: SEO Professional."

Anyone who spends time working on any number (from one to infinity) of websites in order to optimize the website so as to obtain high search engine results (SERPs) is practicing SEO, no matter the level of their skill.

Term 2: Professional
The term 'professional,' according to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary (www.m-w.com) has the following definitions:

1 a : of, relating to, or characteristic of a profession b : engaged in one of the learned professions c (1) : characterized by or conforming to the technical or ethical standards of a profession (2) : exhibiting a courteous, conscientious, and generally businesslike manner in the workplace
2 a : participating for gain or livelihood in an activity or field of endeavor often engaged in by amateurs b : having a particular profession as a permanent career c : engaged in by persons receiving financial return
3 : following a line of conduct as though it were a profession

As can be seen here, a professional is someone who participates in a profession, often for pay, and possibly to sustain their livelihood (main source of income). The pay and livelihood are not mandatory, but in each definition, the idea of practicing a profession is either expressed or implied.

Therefore, a proper understanding of the term 'professional' is someone who engages in a profession, either for pay or not.

Term 3: SEO Professional
This term is interesting in that there are three possible understandings: semantic, grammatical, and qualitative.

Definition 1 - the semantic definition
The semantic, or strict/legalistic, definition of an SEO professional is someone who practices the profession of search engine optimization.

Definition 2 - the grammatical definition
The grammatical definition incorporates the idea of the semantic, yet clarifies the definition further. It says an SEO professional is someone who practices SEO in order to earn money (either as the main source of income or supplemental).

Definition 3 - the qualitative definition
Some who have posted here have used this definition. The qualitative definition is not intended to express the act of an SEO professional (what and why he/she does), but rather the manner in which the act is performed. In other words, it expresses the quality with which one participates. This definition states an SEO professional behaves with a mature persona, evidences a high-level of understanding of the aspects of SEO, uses that knowledge in order to benefit himself and/or others, and the person has and/or is obtaining success in reaching high ranks in the SERPs. This would make the SEO professional a mature, respectful individual who participates in SEO and has been able to obtain good SERPs in the past, usually more than once.

It has been mentioned that a professional is seen as someone who knows most, or all, there is to know about SEO. Such a definition leaves much to be desired considering how search engines, and technology in general, have changed over time. Google, for example, has made alterations to their algorithm over time and added or removed new features. Yahoo is rumored to be changing how their search engine works. It is acknowledged by many in this forum that search engine processes and SEO techniques have changed in the past five years. Therefore, because change has occurred it is foreseeable that change will continue to occur. Because change is likely to happen, the idea of knowing 'all' there is to know is not possible since there will always be something new to learn. The concept of all incorporates the idea of an end to learning because there is no more to learn. Therefore, a more clear definition would not limit the professional to knowing nearly all or all there is to know, but rather, to having level of knowledge that allows him/her to obatain or nearly obtain the desired SERPs.

Summary
It is difficult to define 'SEO professional' in one line or to limit the definition to that of only one understanding because the nuances of the terms used do not allow for such limitations. How one perceives a professional, or chooses to define the term 'SEO Professional' is a decision of the individual. Customer A may see Jack as an SEO professional and customer B may believe Jack is not a professional, and both customers can be correct, depending on their understanding of the terms.

This post does not provide an exhaustive examination of the term, but attempts to summarize such analysis for easier mental consumption.

I can see it now... somebody will ream me for my reclarification of the term and say it shows I'm not a professional.



(I say this very lightheartedly to pick on myself... I just got through with 2 yrs of Greek grammar/syntax and I'm starting a year of Hebrew grammar/syntax this fall, so that seems to have influenced me).

Ahhh... Greek & Hebrew, the 2 most useful languages on the planet. Wise, indeed.

why not latin?

i did learn 4 y latin and 4 year greekish

Why Greek & Hebrew and not Latin? For the Master of Divinity (just a small 91 credit hour masters degree) they are required. I'll have to take another language to go for the PhD so I'm considering German for that. That will have been four foreign languages I would have taken in my life... but taking and remembering are two different things. Actually, I'll probably remember the Greek & Hebrew more because I'll use them more.

jrothra you rock, I will spread some rep around and give you some more. This defenition has made it into my bookmarks. Congratulations.