Establishing and maintaining a presence on the Internet is a key aspect of every modern marketing strategy. Creating a foothold online is an important aspect of every business endeavor, regardless of the scale of the company and which industry it is a part of. With this in mind, it’s no wonder that companies are looking for employees that could take their SEO game to the next level.

So what do you have to do to get hired in an SEO position? Naturally, you need to present prospective employers with a stylish and professional-looking CV – that’s a given nowadays. CV building services such as Purple CV can help you with designing your own unique and striking CV.

But what exactly do you need to put on that CV to get noticed and chosen as an SEO professional?

 

Write Your CV With HR Bots in Mind

HR is automated now. The first review your CV is likely going to get is going to be done by sorting software looking to separate the cream of the crop.

Applicant tracking software (ATS) bots are usually set up to look for particular industry phrases, and if your CV doesn’t have them, the chances of your application going forward are negligible. Therefore, you need to make sure you include SEO terminology in your CV so that you can pass that initial test.

 

Mind the Six Seconds Rule

In business, time is money, and the fact of the matter is that HRs can’t afford to spend all that much time on each individual job application – even the ones that pass the bot test. Studies have shown that, on average, a recruiter spends between six and thirty seconds reviewing an application that makes out through the AI sorting process.

Job applicants need to write their CVs with this fact in mind. A CV needs to be as structured and browsable as possible. Laconic and concise is the name of the game, with bullet point lists definitely being preferable to large chunks of text.

Naturally, this doesn’t mean that you should omit important information from your CV. By all means, put every relevant detail in it – just make sure that the CV is structured in a way that allows HRs to review it at a glance.

 

Present Your Credentials Well

Most companies that are in the market for an SEO specialist tend to look for people with very specific education to fill that role. Businesses tend to prefer applicants who have a formal education in marketing, IT, business, or communications.

When applying for an SEO position, you need to put your credentials in any of those areas front and center – even if the ad didn’t imply that they would be important. Any diplomas, degrees, and certificates you have in any of the aforementioned fields are likely going to be a benefit when your CV is reviewed.

 

List All Your Technical Skills

To be successful at SEO, you need to have a firm grasp of how search engines work, and have a good understanding of SEO ranking factors. You also need to be on top of technical SEO and on-site SEO, as well as off-site SEO and link building.

SEOs aren’t necessarily always expert web developers. However, working knowledge of CSS, HTML, and JavaScript, Python, OOP, C#, PHP, Java is sometimes necessary for them to do an SEO-related job well.

This is why when writing a CV, you need to emphasize all the technical skills you have that may assist you in doing your job. Basically, everything related to tech and IT is going to be a benefit for you – so make sure you list all your tech skills, proficiencies, and experience, even if you lack certification.

 

Emphasize Your Soft skills

After you create a comprehensive list of all your technical know-how you should also consider the soft skills you want to put on your CV.

SEO experts often need to work together with copywriters and managers to synchronize ideas, goals, projects, and tasks. As such, creativity and the ability to guide people in producing interesting and engaging content are going to be qualities that an employer would appreciate.

Discipline, communication skills, positivity, ability to work in a team and get along well with people are evergreen soft skills – practically every company appreciates them. Resilience, the ability to work under pressure and deal with stressful situations are also going to be even more important going forward – so make sure you include them when you write your CV.