Any business that wants to survive in today’s fast paced world needs an online presence. But establishing a foothold in the search engines and standing out from the crowd is no easy task. That’s bad news for companies, but great news for anyone interested in a career in search engine optimization (SEO).

Here are the top 7 reasons to consider a career in SEO:

1. High demand. In order to gain a competitive advantage as quickly as possible, companies don’t have time to learn the tricks of the SEO trade from scratch. That means they need to bring in specialists that can immediately plan and implement a comprehensive search engine optimization campaign.

2. It’s a proven business. Don’t let the fact that most people have never heard of SEO before fool you into thinking that no one is really making a living at this. The Internet is littered with success stories of those who dove right into this exciting new field and made a name for themselves.

3. Great pay. SEO specialists make salaries on par with and even better than marketers, designers and developers in some cases. Self-employed search engine optimization specialists can make even more. Hourly rates of $50 an hour and up are common.

4. Companies realize web design isn’t enough. This goes along with the high demand for SEO services. Companies are waking up to the fact that not all web developers pay attention to the importance of search engine optimization, which means if you can not only build websites, but optimize them for the search engines too then you can practically name your own price.

5. Natural career path for marketers and advertisers. If you’re already in the marketing or advertising world, you could easily reinvigorate your career (and your bank account) by transitioning to the world of SEO. Workers in these fields already have an excellent understanding of what it takes reach consumers, now it’s just a matter of updating those skills for the Internet age.

6. Upgrade your skills. There may be some doubts about making the switch to search engine optimization because it seems less technical, especially for someone coming from a web administration, development or design background. But the reality is that SEO can provide a huge upgrade to your skill set, making you much more valuable to prospective employers.

7. It’s going mainstream. Finally, if you had any doubts about the viability of a career in this industry, think again. Major universities and institutions now have full blown SEO courses, exams and degrees, which proves this business is here to stay.