SEO Specialist Salary in the Philippines
With the range of skills associated with and expected from an SEO Specialist and the fast-changing nature of technology, some skills will be valued more than others. For instance, SEO specialists with marketing competencies have a higher market value than others.
As with other jobs, SEO specialists are also valued based on their years of experience.
- Surveying the internet revealed that SEO specialists with one to four years of experience, categorized as those in their “early career”, have an average annual salary of ₱300,000.
- Moreover, those considered as “mid-career” SEO specialists with five to nine years of experience have an average annual salary of approximately ₱388,740.
- Lastly, experienced SEO specialists with 10-19 years of experience earn the average annual salary of ₱720,000.
Data as of September 2020
Interestingly, SEO specialists in their early careers outnumber those experienced and mid-career level combined. The reported salaries of SEO specialists are also projected to grow by 23% in five years.
Moreover, the salary of entry-level SEO specialists in the Philippines is anywhere between ₱310,466 to ₱311,720 depending on your source (as of September 2020), with early career SEO specialists earning at least anywhere between approximately ₱18,000-₱25,000 per month.
Expected Salaries for Early-Career SEOs
Editor's Note: Since you are on this website (an SEO Training Course), I assume you are just getting started in your SEO career and might be interested in knowing the salary of a beginner SEO Specialist.
According to PayScale, the average annual salary for beginner SEOs is around ₱300,000 or around ₱25,000/month. With taxes and benefits, you get around ₱22,000/month of take-home pay.
Please note that this is the average pay if you work for a local company or a BPO.
The pay is considerably higher if you work for a foreign company. In the US, for example, average entry-level salary for SEO Specialists is $40,000. If US-based companies outsource SEOs here in the Philippines expecting a 30%-40% reduction in operating costs, the salary is still going to be considerably higher than what is offered here locally.
Does SEO Pay Well?
While salary averages for a few related jobs are a little higher than that of SEO specialists, it is worthy to note that as an SEO specialist gains experience, they will be valued more than other related jobs at the same level.
For instance, digital marketing specialists’ average salaries (₱352,968) are close but still a little higher than the average salary of SEO specialists (₱321,891).
This can explain why SEO specialists with marketing competencies, such as SEM and social media marketing, also have a greater average salary.
However, in Manila, the average salaries at the experienced levels of both jobs reveal a wide gap. Experienced SEO specialists have an average salary of one million pesos, while the latter is valued at an average of ₱582,000—only 58% of the former.
Lastly, SEO specialists also have a higher average salary than other related jobs such as social media specialists, social media managers, and content writers.
It is worthy to note that the salaries mentioned here do not reflect income from SEO Specialists working for foreign businesses through a freelance arrangement, but we can assume that the numbers for dollar-earners are much higher.
That is why our training course encourages SEOs to seek foreign clients, particularly in the US, the UK, and the Oceania region.
What Does An SEO Specialist Do?
An SEO specialist ensures that website content remains relevant to real-time search trends, with the end goal of engaging its users.
The SEO specialist engineers websites to be the top search result of a specific search query and within a specific search engine. This entails that the SEO specialist understands how search engines work as well as know how to run ethical, "white-hat" Search Engine Optimization campaigns.
We have a dedicated article If you want to learn more about an SEO's job description.
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