A COLLEGE internship at an interactive marketing company ended up the ticket to a promising career for Nick Yorchak, 22. During the internship, he learned a skill known as search engine optimization. In August, he was snapped up by LeeReedy Creative, a public relations and advertising agency in Denver, and given the title of search engine optimization director.

“So much for everyone asking me what kind of job a history major could get,” said Mr. Yorchak, who graduated last June from the University of San Diego.

The birth of the Internet gave rise to jobs in areas like Web development and design. And as companies and consumers flocked to the Web, jobs in Internet marketing soon followed. Search engine optimization, part of Internet marketing, is what companies use to drive traffic to Web sites in the hope that consumers will buy a product or service, for example, or subscribe to a publication.

“The name of the game in S.E.O. is search-engine ranking,” Mr. Yorchak said. The job involves “actions that will land a site at or close to the top in Internet search results,” he said. Those tasks include identifying appropriate keywords for search engines like Yahooor Google to home in on, and adding them to a Web site’s programming code. So if a used-car company, for example, has used search engine tactics, and an Internet user searches a phrase like “pre-owned automobiles,” its URL may appear prominently in the search results.   CONT>