Steal Our SEO Specialist Job Description Template

SEO

SEO Specialists are marketers who are responsible for improving a website’s visibility in organic search results. If you work in an agency rather than in-house, you can assume that responsibility for multiple clients’ websites.

Sounds like someone you want to hire? We have your back.

We searched popular hiring portals like LinkedIn and Indeed for similarities in SEO Technical job descriptions. Then we asked 15 asked SEO Hiring managers – both on the agency and client side – to see if they get those responsibilities, skills and requirements. We have created a template for a job description based on their answers.

Many thanks to these people for their help:

Without further ado, here is the template.

SEO Specialist job description template

[Company name] is looking for one SEO Specialist who becomes [brief description of what they’ll be doing].

Responsibilities

  • Do keyword research and competitive analysis
  • Understand and implement technical issues SEO Audits and changes
  • Perform on-page optimizations
  • Implement changes in content management systems (CMS)
  • Manage content production by scheduling content calendars, managing authors (or collaborating with content writing teams) and contributing to them SEO
  • Develop and execute methods for tracking, reporting, analyzing and improving SEO performance
  • Collaborate with SEO Managers and other internal marketing teams
  • Working with developers and product teams to implement necessary features and changes
  • Develop something new SEO Tests and strategies
  • Present and communicate SEO Strategies and projects for customers and / or internal stakeholders
  • Serve as a key SEO Expert / lawyer
  • Stay up to date with the latest SEO Trends, strategies and algorithm changes

requirement

  • 2+ years of work experience in SEO
  • Good understanding of SEO recommended course of action
  • Passion for SEO and internet marketing
  • Ability to create, reason, communicate and implement SEO Strategies across teams and external agencies
  • Data-driven and analytical mindset
  • Attention to detail
  • Project management skills

Desirable

  • Experience working with SEO Tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Ahrefs and Screaming Frog
  • Experience with and / or understanding of code (e.g. HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
  • Experience with and / or understanding of other marketing channels (e.g. PPC)
  • Experience working with popular CMS‘(e.g. WordPress)
  • Experience with technical SEO
  • Excellent writing skills

Would you like a template of this job description? Make a copy Here.

The template is just a starting point. It’s not a gospel. Depending on whether you are an agency or an in-house team, the respective SEO Specialists you are looking for differ. Add or remove items from each section as you wish. If a skill in the “Desirable” section is critical to the position you are hiring, move it to the “Requirements” section.

There are also a few tips here.

1. Add a brief description of your company

Don’t expect people to know what your company is about. Briefly describe what your company does. You can add this part right at the beginning of your job description.

Typically, companies add the mission statement to their brand.

If you think your mission and vision add value, feel free to include them. However, try to avoid the company jargon. The job description from KlientBoost provides a good example of how this works:

You know new hires are worried about corporate culture. Instead of an empty slogan that C ‑ Suites created in their annual holiday retreat, they addressed the main concern directly.

2. Give clear instructions on how to apply

The aim of the hiring is not to get as many applicants as possible. Searching through tons of resumes is time consuming.

Instead, you should focus on finding relevant and qualified people. A great way to do this is to indicate how you would like to apply. This will put off lazy applicants whose only strategy is to bulk mail out their resumes.

In our job offer, for example, we have specifically formulated what we expect from our applicants.

3. Give the best applicants a reason to apply

Every company wants to hire A-Player. But there aren’t many of them to walk around. So you need to tell these applicants why they should choose you over other companies.

This usually means talking about the salary and the types of benefits your company offers. However, it is not limited to this. You can repeat your company’s mission, introduce the corporate culture, talk about flexibility in terms of time and / or location, and so on.

For example, this is how Perfect Keto does it.

How we created the job description template

We started by looking for similarities between SEO Subject-specific job descriptions on popular job portals. This was by no means a scientific process; We did it by eye. Then we created a survey based on these patterns and sent it to 20. Posted SEO Hiring managers. 15 replied.

The survey was divided into two sections:

  • Responsibilities
  • Skills and requirements

Let’s take a closer look at the answers.

Responsibilities

In this section we introduced SEO Hiring manager with 19 of the most common responsibilities of SEO Technical job descriptions. Then we asked if each of them had a daily responsibility for his ownSEO Specialist’.

Here are the results.

No wonder, standard SEO Tasks like keyword research, on-page SEO and technically SEO are expected daily tasks. As well as other important tasks such as working with other teams (especially content teams), reporting, presentation SEO Strategies and recommendations to internal / external stakeholders and development of new ones SEO tests.

Keeping up with the latest industry news and trends is also an expected part of the job. However, SEO Specialists are not expected to create content and build links.

Of course we didn’t presume to know everything, so we added a question:

Are there any other roles and responsibilities you’d like to add that aren’t on this list?

While a few people gave more specific examples of accountability, I thought this answer was from Jessica Levenson To be emphasized was:

To be honest, it’s a skill set. I want someone who is curious. You don’t have to have all the skills, you have to be willing to learn and constantly curious.

Jessica Levenson

Skills and requirements

In this section we have the SEO Hiring manager with 15 of the most common skills and needs of SEO Technical job descriptions. We then asked whether these skills are very important, rather important or not important to them when they are hiring an employee.SEO Specialist’.

Here are the results.

Interestingly, we can find that most, if not all of the respondents focus on soft skills (e.g. attention to detail, data-driven mindset, communication) or attitude (e.g. passion for SEO and internet marketing).

As Jessica Levenson added,

Fitness over experience is always my attitude. I can teach anyone SEO provided they are willing and able to do so. On the other hand, I can’t work off tough personalities or a lack of willingness to learn.

Jessica Levenson

Of course, that doesn’t mean that no hard skills are required. Respondents continued to agree that a good understanding of SEO Best practices, good technicals SEO Knowledge and previous experience in the SEO Industry preferred.

How many years of experience are HR managers looking for? Most of them said at least 2+ years.

In addition to years of industry experience, most respondents also preferred their SEO specialist has some experience with SEO Tools.

That’s what they said after we asked what? SEO Tools in particular:

After all, most of them said that “understanding code” was important. And here are the programming languages ​​that they said were important.

Final thoughts

Technical skills are important. But as most respondents pointed out, attitude is even more important. Finally, when you find a candidate who is coachable and has great teamwork, but lacks certain hard skills, don’t be afraid to take them on.

Marketing skills can always be taught to the right person.

If you do this as a potential employee in the SEO Industry, don’t be discouraged. Almost everyone agreed that a college degree and online certifications are not required at all. This is also in line with the experience of most of us here at Ahrefs – a large part of the marketing team has no marketing training.

Instead, focus on developing the right mindset. Here’s what you should aim for to be good, loud Saijo George:

  • Ability to learn and unlearn things quickly;
  • Curious mind;
  • Try to find a problem, but if you can’t, you should be able to ask for help.
  • Ready to share your knowledge and expertise with the wider team;
  • Most of all, be a team player. None of the skills are important if you are not a team player as most of the skills can be taught.

Whether by building your own website or doing an internship, with the right attitude and some experience, you too have the chance of one SEO Skilled work.

Have questions or comments? Let me know on Twitter.

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