Ah yes, SEO’s and dating. This is a look and synopsis of the reactions our dates have when we explain our profession.

Why are you looking at me like I’m a garbage man?

We’ve all been there. It’s your first date out with that special someone and he or she asks you what you do for a living. The fun part comes after you describe your role as a Search Engine Optimization professional.

“We’re very important…we have many leather bound books”

SEO’s know how important our industry is, how much our efforts can help our clients and how the industry has been growing over the last few years.

It’s also fair to say that a career in SEO (or any kind of internet marketing) can be fairly lucrative. Our industry is growing and businesses are still realizing how SEO can help them. Experienced SEO’s are in high demand and new roles continue to appear at agencies, corporations, and other organizations.

We are catches, right?

Because our industry is fairly new, it’s safe to assume that our special someone has no idea about what we do. With telling our dates what we do, there are a variety of reactions that come. Explaining what we do can bring about a cornucopia of reactions from those who are not in the know. Our Sixth City Marketing team exchanged stories at a recent happy hour about these reactions. With that we present to you:

Common reactions when telling a date we do SEO

1. Deer in the headlights

You’ve lost them already. This commonly happens after saying your title and a sentence or two into the description of what you do. If things have gone well to this point, change the subject and backtrack to it on future dates.

2. Baffled

Like Ben Stein in Ferris Buehler’s Day Off, you’ve lost the class. This is the more visible look. They’re perplexed. If her next question is “You do this full time?”, then it’s time to tell her you live with your parents. Like a tall shot of Robitussin, this line instantly gets them tired and ready to go home.

3. The gold digger

Overly interested. She may not know what you do but she assumes you’re making bank. Proceed with caution there, big cat.

4. Too good to be true

She knows exactly what you do and even finishes the sentence for you. This one event can transcend your date into something that could be a short story written by Nicholas Sparks. We’ve found that this most likely occurs by meeting people though www.farmersonly.com.

5. The stalker

Her normal look changes into a determined and twisted stare and she exclaims “Oh I already know…I know everything.”  This may or may not be followed by a twitch. Our collective advice: find a distant relative in another part of the country and lay low. A bonus to this is that our profession should allow you to work remotely. This is a lead-in to our next blog post – SEO’s and Stalkers: Remote Areas With Great Wireless Connections. If you feel yourself wanting to be with her, be sure to watch Fatal Attraction first.

What have your experiences been? What did we miss?  We haven’t forgotten the female perspective either, which we are saving for a future blog post.

Why “Sixth City” Marketing? I decided to name the business after my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. In the early 1900′s Cleveland’s population soared to make it the sixth largest city in the country. Proud of this achievement, Clevelander’s embraced “The Sixth City” as a nickname. I’ve always been fascinated with the history of the city. I got to hear some amazing stories about the evolution of the downtown area while working at Playhouse Square during the mid-2000′s.

As much as the nation likes to joke about Cleveland, it’s an amazing place to visit and live. The town is filled with great people, food and beer.

Although our main office is located in Columbus, Ohio (another great city) we serve clients all over the globe.