From Design to SEO: Launching My Career Before Graduation

For the past few years, I’ve been building my skills as a freelance designer, working on small client projects and honing my craft. Now, as I’m turning 18 and stepping into the next chapter of my journey, I’m beginning a transition from design to SEO, blending my design expertise with the world of search optimization.

Stepping into this next chapter at 18, I want to build skills that go beyond just visuals. Design has been an integral part of my life these past few years, but I’ve realized that most businesses need more than a pretty logo or a clean layout.

EVERY business needs visibility, and that’s where SEO becomes essential.

Evolving Industries

As I’ve worked in the freelance design industry over the years, I have seen first-hand how over-saturated the industry has become. With the rise and constant push of generative AI, competition is only getting stronger. I felt more confident in aiming for an industry that may be less damaged from this sudden change.

That led me to look forward and aim toward a field that still rewards expertise, strategy, and long-term thinking, leading me to SEO.

Personal Inspiration

Growing up, my dad (Jared Carrizales) showed me what it’s like to make a living online. As the founder and CEO of Heroic Search, I’ve watched him delegate, lead meetings, speak at events, and build a reputation through real expertise.

Although, what I remember the most, is him always being willing to answer my questions, sometimes I didn’t even have to ask :).

With him as my mentor and inspiration, I feel nothing but confidence in my potential as a junior SEO.

First Steps

Through my blog, I’ll be publicly documenting the ups and downs of my journey as I sculpt my website into an SEO powerhouse. I will be actively using my website to get my hands dirty, and build a strong understanding of the nitty-gritty of SEO.

To kick things off, I’ve already had experience writing title-tags and meta descriptions for small clients.

Although, I don’t want to be only writing titles all my career, so I’ve started educating myself whenever I can. During my spare time, in between work, and being a senior in high school: I read Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO, which helped me understand the core fundamentals and gave me the direction I needed to start improving my own site.

Starting With Content Marketing

One of the most practical ways for me to learn SEO is by creating content for my own site. I’m not here to just read theory — I want to apply what I’m learning as soon as possible. Content marketing gives me the perfect place to experiment, track data, and adjust my approach as I go.

This blog will basically be my personal playground, where I can also dive into new SEO topics and questions.

Updating My Site Gradually

I’m not tearing down my design portfolio overnight. This transition is gradual. As I add SEO-focused structure, navigation, technical improvements, and hit milestones, I’ll share with anyone willing to see my progress.

As of now, I’m building out my blog section to handle the heavy lifting of SEO traffic, and act as my portfolio in this early stage of working as a junior SEO specialist.

What I Hope to Achieve

This blog will be my first SEO portfolio, and a portfolio built solely on design mock ups is different from one built on performance metrics. This transition allows for real-world case studies:

• Documenting organic growth through live case studies: Instead of relying on theoretical examples, I will meticulously track and report the metrics that matter: organic traffic growth, keyword ranking improvements, and more.
• Self-initiated projects and experiments: Various sections of the site can be used to run controlled SEO experiments (e.g., testing title tags, optimizing site speed) and report the findings publicly.

Shift Toward SEO as My Main Skill

The eventual goal is to become an indispensable technical and content SEO specialist. My core service offering is shifting entirely from general graphic design to focused SEO strategy and implementation.

This blog post serves as my official announcement and chance to prove myself in this specialization.

My background in design isn’t being abandoned, it will become a powerful supporting strength. An understanding of UI/UX ensures that all SEO strategies implemented results in a satisfying user experience.

So, I can help create websites that are not only searchable, but also aesthetically pleasing and accessible.

Establish Credibility Early

Entering the industry means competing with perceptions about my age and experience. To counter this, my strategy relies on complete transparency and documenting my successes.

This blog will showcase my professional milestones in real time, so my learning curve and success can be visible to all viewers. Building trust through transparency is another sure-fire way I intend to catch the eyes of potential clients or employers.

Approaching Adulthood: The Urgency of Now

As I’m writing this, it’s the last week before Christmas break. In a few weeks I’ll be starting my last ever semester of high school. This isn’t just ending my education; it’s a hard deadline for launching my career.

The rapid approach of high school graduation gives a healthy sense of urgency, driving me to treat this career migration as my sole focus. Honestly, I don’t think it should be treated any differently.

It’s a busy time in my life; being a senior in high school, developing my career, while maintaining a social life is no small task, but just like I did with design, I will put in the work.

The goal is to receive my high school diploma with a functioning, traffic-generating SEO portfolio with initial client work already secured. Every piece of content I write and successfully ranking keyword is one step towards financial and professional independence.

What’s Next

This blog is the public documentation of a career pivot happening in real time and under a tight deadline. Progress will be methodical and data-driven, but every step forward will be intentional. If you’re interested in SEO, content marketing, or watching someone build from the ground up, this is where that journey continues.

Join my journey, and stay tuned for my first case study, and connect with me on LinkedIn where I’ll post smaller updates in real-time!

Thank you for taking a moment to read my first post. Building this early foundation of my career while finishing my senior year isn’t easy, and I genuinely appreciate your time. Time to get to work!