This research has been updated. View the most recent results here.

Does where you live affect your odds of getting a job in SEO? Do large metropolises only seemingly have more SEO career opportunity until you adjust for population size?

Supply and demand – that’s ultimately what I’m after with this exploration. And while there has been research posted on the subject, it didn’t take into account the number of individuals vying for those jobs.

And why settle on “SEO” jobs, anyway? After all, there’s been legitimate acknowledgement of SEO becoming less of a job title and more of a key skill to have in a Swiss Army type of role. 1 Well, I’m glad you asked.

This research is about the present, not where we’re headed. Take a look at the number of United States job title postings from Indeed.com pulled in June 2016.

• title:”inbound marketing” OR title:”inbound marketer”- 61
• title:”content marketing” OR title:”content marketer” – 481
• title:seo – 899

In closely related fields, “SEO” is still the heavy favorite when it comes to job titles.

OK. Let’s skip to the good stuff. I’ve added anchor links below so you can jump around as you wish, but I do have one last thing to help set the stage.

I know. This is an oddly specific title for just my third post 1. Am I running out of ideas already?

Why write about the Seer Interactive Q&A chats on Google Plus that were put to bed over two years ago?

Besides having a minor man crush on Seer’s CEO, Wil Reynolds, the truth is I think this company is legit. I imagine it has its flaws like any other place, but from an outsider’s perspective, Seer seems to have the complete package.

• Great leadership – Take a look at Wil’s hiring philosophy, example of humility and challenge to the SEO community
• Great content – The IFTTT Recipe, How Tech Companies Make Money and Screaming Frog posts come to mind.
• Great company values – From social responsibility to their alumni network, they stand out in this area. 2
• Great results – Check out their case studies page.
• Great people – Here’s what a few employees have to say about their company culture.

Okay, let’s get back to the Q&As. I always appreciated them, not only because of the knowledge shared, but what it said about Seer as a company. First, it shows they care about the SEO community. While helping people do SEO better certainly has an indirect impact to their bottom line, it’s not like Seer’s target audience consists of SEO professionals. No, it’s companies that need SEO professionals. Secondly, it shows Seer is committed to excellence. Want to make sure someone knows their stuff? Make them answer really tough questions, without any preparation and put it on display for the world to see. It’s hard to fake that. So let’s move past this love fest and get to what I actually learned.

The only constant is vicious, rampant change in the world of SEO. While that’s the reality we know all too well, some facts do remain. Here are a few:

• Keyword Planner 1 is a PPC tool.
• Keyword Planner is made for PPC keyword research.
• Keyword Planner is NOT intended for organic keyword research.

STOP using Google’s Keyword Planner to measure organic competition!

Ok, that was a little much. The point is it’s imperative to understand where Keyword Planner can be an effective tool for SEO keyword research and where it can lead you astray. One of those ways it can trip you up is by misunderstanding the “competition” score from the tool.

Straight from the mouth of Google, the Keyword Planner competition is: