Many web business owners think of Search Engine Optimization consultants (aka SEOs) as geeky, technical specialist.  They envision SEOs hunched over a computer all day, floundering around in a secret world of nerdy activities like keyword research, meta tags, link building, directory submission or (ugh) keyword density.

Just a few years back the SEO nerd label was justified.  However, in 2011 the skills and functions of a SEO consultant are much more diverse, complex and generalized.

What is the job description of the SEO consultant in 2011?

Today an SEO must understand a broad array of search optimization tactics spanning keyword discovery, competitive analysis, blog management, local search, mobile search, social media, user generate content and much more.

On top of all juggling the long list of search optimization tactics, the modern SEO must also constantly stay abreast of the latest “new thing” in online technology, interactivity and social interaction.  Facebook constant changing alone is enough to drive most SEOs crazy.

Oh and one more thing, a smart SEO must closely monitor his/her SEO behavior to ensure their aggressive SEO tactics to not cross the “Google Sniff Test” and trigger a search engine penalty.

The following, in no particular order, is my list of “things SEOs do” for 2011.  Warning, the following SEO job description subject to certain and constant change.

SEO Consultant Job Description for 2011

• Keyword Discovery - This classic task is still typically the first thing I do for a client after I understand their industry, target market and competition.

• SEO Content Creation - Google loves regular, high quality content updates.  For my SEO clients this involves me finding, hiring and managing a copywriter to create weekly articles for my clients website blog.  It also include managing the creation of videos, news, images, etc.

• Guest Blogging - Google loves it when other websites post recurring, high quality, industry related articles that link to your website (with keyword rich anchor text links of course). For every article I post on my clients website I post on a guest blog a related article with a link to my clients article.

• Social Media - For several years now SEO consultants have sought to obtain quality links from social news, social bookmarking and social hosting websites like Delicious, Digg, Reddit and others.  In 2011, it has become a common SEO task to ensure Twitter and Facebook are buzzing about your website.  After all it only makes sense that Google wants to reflect whats hot in social media on the Google search results pages.

• Analytics - For the SEO to gauge the success of the search optimization efforts, the SEO must monitor visitor behavior and how traffic is being driven to the website.  I am constantly in Google analytics looking at the Traffic Sources reports as well as the landing page and bounce reports.

• Local Search - Now a few years old, Local Search is a key function for SEOs.  Typical tasks are creating/maintain Google Place page, Facebook local info, Bing Local profile, Yelp! profiles, etc.

• Mobile Search - Some experts predicts searches perform on smart phones and tablets will dominate search in the very near future.  SEOs will need to both optimize for mobile search and help their clients create mobile friendly versions of their websites.

• On-Page Optimization - Apply classic SEO features to the clients website. For example, title tag, H1 tag, meta tags, keyword usage, link strategy, canonical tags, redirects, load speed, no bad links, and a host of other things.

• Dozen More Things - Other search related task that the  SEO usually takes on can include landing pages, accessibility, increasing social followers/friends, Youtube, press releases, and many more things that will be invented in the 2nd half of 2011.