21 SEO Leaders Share Their Best SEO Career Advice

Consider the client: It's easy to just say 'here's the problem.' But also take the time to provide the solution with your client's level of understanding in mind. Speak their language and make sure they can walk away knowing exactly what to do."
-Laura Lippay, President of How's Your Pony

"Be honest at all times and with everyone."
-Debra Mastaler, President of Alliance-Link.com

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"Learn your craft. Consider getting training like the SEMPO Institute's Insider's Guide to Search Marketing. Read the blogs of SEO industry experts. Follow the SEO experts on Twitter and read the content in the links they post. Attend a conference or two. Join a user group (like the Seattle SEO Network). Study the available SEO tools and learn how to use them and understand what they do. Check out a great list of SEO resources I've collected on these very items.

Push your comfort boundaries. Make yourself uncomfortable by asking questions of industry experts, tweeting about your lessons learned, writing blog posts to help others learn, and speaking at events when you have learned valuable information to share (depending upon the audience you'll address, if they are not SEO-savvy, such as typical webmasters, developers, designers or business owners, you could do this pretty early in your career development process). The work you'll want to do to be prepared for these efforts will help you learn more quickly. Ask, write, and speak!

Volunteer to help a non-profit. There are non-profits galore on the web who are barely scraping by, if that, and nearly all of them have websites in desperate need of optimization. They will likely be grateful for any volunteer assistance you can offer, and you'll get a chance to learn new skills earlier in your career that you wouldn't otherwise be able to do in a paid job you might not yet be qualified to get. You'll be doing a great thing for a needy cause, and you'll be learning on the job! Best of all, if you spend any money on PPC campaigns in behalf of a 501c3, these are likely charitable contributions for you!

Just do SEO. Optimize a site you own (create one if necessary, so if you screw up, there's no harm done). Earn your reputation through high-quality, white-hat SEO work. You can also ask if you can help with the company website at work (it could lead to a great career move). Look for opportunities to do more, and eventually become a resource for others who will follow in your footsteps."
-Rick DeJarnette, Website Optimization, Search Engine and Social Media Marketing, & Content Development at The SEO Ace

I want to thank everyone who contributed for being so generous with their time. Hopefully you can take away some insights to help your career. And if you have advice to share for being successful in the SEO field please add it below in the comments.