One of the more interesting challenges that I find as a search engine optimizer is succinctly describing what I do when people who are not savvy in the fields of web design or e-commerce ask me about my job. I don't want to ramble on, since a long spiel about our exciting (well, to most of us at least) world will bore them.  Cutting off all future discussions about my profession with family, friends, associates, and complete strangers is not my intention.

When asked about what I do, I fear that the title of search engine optimizer leads people to think that I work for a company like Google or Yahoo!  "How do you optimize for those?" is a common question.

Typically, I tell them that I basically make websites sexy to search engines.  Then I go on to explain that if they have a website about apples, my job as an SEO is to make sure when someone types "apple" into a search engine that their site is as close to the first site listed as possible.  They usually ask me, "How do you do that?"  I mention that Google claims that it considers over 200 factors when it ranks sites, and those factors include stuff like page titles and various types of links before I mumble another factor. Then I stop, since boring them is the last thing I want to do. Other times, I cautiously continue to say that I help site owners try to figure if "apple" is a good keyword or not.

This has led me to wonder about how we could describe our field while sounding intelligent and useful but not pretentious.  How should we sum up the complex role of SEO in a simple resume or CV blurb or in a chat with a friend?

Perhaps we should look at our field's history for help.  How have we successfully and quickly convinced a business or organization that some SEO help will help them greatly?  Sometimes an "elevator pitch" is all the opportunity we have or had to snag a potential client.

Perhaps we need to develop standard job and service descriptions so that we can enhance the understanding of the general public -- including family members and potential clients who don't know that they need us yet -- about the SEO field.  What do you think?