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I am not sure how much the role of SEO or Search Engine Optimization expert is relevant to the role of web developer anymore. I still occasionally see open positions for web designer or web developer that are more about marketing than web development. I first was exposed to seo early back in the late 90's or early 2000's in Houston Texas. I had more interest in graphics and 3D modelling and that sort of thing. I was a bit more interested in Flash than actual HTML or Javascript. I did have an interest in PHP only because I knew I needed to get dynamic data to a Flash website and also I suppressed the Flash installation when the server header matched up with known search engines. This was for seo purposes. Early on seo was more about keywords and links. I would suggest that this is still the case to some degree. Google still uses incoming links and keywords and phrases. The difference now has to do with content relevance and actual traffic to the website. You might ask, "How can I get people to the website if it doesn't have a position to begin with". And that would be social media. Through marketing the website receives traffic and this gets a better position which translates to a better position. It's a cascading effect. So anyways I used to detect search engines through the header and feed the website an HTML document filled with relevant text. This worked quite well actually.
Now as a web programmer in Wildomar near Temecula in California I try to concentrate more on social media and relevant content. But I still sometimes use some of the old techniques I learned when I was a web programmer in Murrieta California. This was when penguin and Hummingbird were introduced.