SEO Specialist Job Description Template

Job Title

Seo Specialist — [Full-Time / Part-Time / Contract] · Remote

About the Role

An SEO Specialist drives organic search visibility and traffic by managing the three pillars of modern search optimization: technical SEO (crawlability, Core Web Vitals, indexation), on-page optimization (keyword targeting, content structure, schema markup), and off-page authority (link building, digital PR, and competitive positioning). They use tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, and Google Analytics 4 to audit current performance, identify high-impact opportunities, build implementation roadmaps, and measure the revenue impact of organic growth — translating ranking improvements into business language, not just keyword positions.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct a full technical SEO audit using Screaming Frog, Google Search Console, and PageSpeed Insights — identifying and prioritizing crawl errors (4xx, 5xx, redirect chains), indexation issues (pages accidentally noindexed, canonical errors, duplicate content), and Core Web Vitals failures (LCP above 2.5s, CLS above 0.1, INP above 200ms) with estimated traffic impact per issue.
• Perform keyword research using Ahrefs or SEMrush to identify target keywords by search intent (informational, transactional, navigational), search volume, keyword difficulty, and current ranking position — building a keyword map that assigns primary and secondary target keywords to existing or planned pages without creating cannibalization.
• Optimize on-page elements for each target page: title tags (55–60 characters, primary keyword in first 30 characters), meta descriptions (150–155 characters with compelling CTA), H1–H3 heading hierarchy, internal link anchor text, image alt attributes, and URL structure — documenting every change in a shared implementation tracker for developer handoff and post-change monitoring.
• Implement and maintain structured data (schema.org markup) for appropriate page types: Product, Article, FAQ, LocalBusiness, BreadcrumbList, HowTo, and Review — validating in Google's Rich Results Test and monitoring impression share for eligible rich result types in Search Console's Performance report.
• Build and execute a link acquisition strategy through a mix of digital PR (pitching data studies and original research to industry publications), resource link building (identifying broken links and outdated resources on authoritative sites), and content-based outreach — tracking all prospecting, outreach, and acquired links in a shared Ahrefs or Pitchbox project.
• Manage XML sitemap accuracy: ensuring the sitemap contains only canonicalized, indexable, 200-status pages — removing noindexed URLs, redirect targets, and paginated pages that should not be indexed; submitting updated sitemaps to Search Console after any significant site restructure.
• Analyze Google Search Console data weekly: monitoring impressions, clicks, average position, and CTR by page and query — identifying pages with high impressions but low CTR (title/meta optimization opportunity) and pages ranking 5–15 (close-to-first-page optimization priority) for targeted quick-win content updates.
• Coordinate with developers on technical implementation using detailed specification documents: specifying exact HTTP status codes for redirect mapping during migrations, providing canonical tag placement rules for CMS template updates, and QA-ing staging environments before production deployment to catch SEO regressions before they go live.
• Produce monthly SEO performance reports in Looker Studio or Google Sheets showing organic traffic by landing page cluster, keyword position distribution changes, domain rating / DR trend, new backlink acquisitions versus lost links, and estimated revenue impact using GA4 goal completions and average order value data.

Requirements

• 2+ years of in-house or agency SEO experience with demonstrable organic traffic growth results — candidates should be able to present a case study showing a specific site's keyword position improvements, traffic growth percentage, and the technical or content changes that drove the results.
• Proficiency in Google Search Console at an advanced level: using the URL Inspection tool to diagnose individual page indexation, interpreting the Coverage report to distinguish soft 404s from redirect errors, and building custom Performance reports filtered by page type, device, and country.
• Hands-on experience with Ahrefs or SEMrush: conducting keyword gap analysis between a domain and its top competitors, auditing backlink profiles for toxic link patterns, building content briefs from search intent and top-ranking page analysis, and setting up automated rank tracking for target keyword clusters.
• Practical knowledge of Core Web Vitals optimization — able to read a PageSpeed Insights report, identify which specific resource (render-blocking script, unoptimized hero image, third-party widget) is causing an LCP failure, and write a developer-ready specification for the fix.
• Understanding of technical SEO concepts at implementation level: crawl budget management via robots.txt and XML sitemaps, canonical tag logic for faceted navigation and paginated content, hreflang implementation for multi-language sites, and JavaScript rendering considerations for React/Next.js sites.
• On-page optimization discipline: able to write and rewrite title tags, meta descriptions, and heading structures that improve CTR in search results — with examples of pages where title/meta rewrites produced measurable CTR improvement without significant ranking position change.
• Experience with a website analytics platform (GA4 preferred) beyond traffic counts: setting up conversion events for organic traffic, building segments to isolate organic traffic behavior, and creating attribution models that show organic search's role in assisted conversions.

Nice to Have

• Experience managing an SEO site migration (platform change, URL restructure, or domain consolidation) — including pre-migration crawl baseline, redirect map creation and QA, and post-migration monitoring protocol to catch traffic drops within 48 hours of launch.
• Local SEO experience: Google Business Profile optimization, local citation building, NAP consistency auditing, and managing review response strategy for multi-location businesses — relevant for service businesses and retail brands.
• Content strategy experience: building topic cluster models, developing content briefs from first-page SERP analysis, and collaborating with writers to produce pillar pages and supporting cluster content that builds topical authority in a defined subject area.
• Familiarity with log file analysis using Screaming Frog's log file analyzer or Python-based parsing: comparing bot crawl behavior against expected crawl patterns to identify crawl budget waste, confirm JavaScript rendering is working correctly, and catch crawl anomalies invisible to standard audit tools.