About the SEO Manager role
An SEO Manager owns a company's organic search performance. They set the SEO strategy, run keyword and competitor research, guide content teams on what to create, fix technical issues that hold rankings back, and report on how organic traffic converts into pipeline or revenue. The role sits at the intersection of content, engineering, and analytics.
The shape of the role depends on your site. E-commerce SEO leans heavily on technical work at scale: crawl budgets, faceted navigation, and product page templates. B2B SaaS SEO leans on content strategy and topical authority. Some SEO Managers are hands-on individual contributors, while others manage writers or agencies. Say which one you need.
Good candidates will want to know your starting point, so include it: current organic traffic ballpark, the CMS and tech stack, whether engineering time is available for technical fixes, and who produces content. Search evolves constantly, including how AI-generated answers reshape results pages, so look for people who show how they adapt, not just what worked in 2020.
SEO Manager job description template
Job brief
We are looking for an SEO Manager to grow our organic search traffic and turn it into qualified pipeline. You will own the SEO roadmap end to end: keyword strategy, content planning with our writers, technical audits with our engineers, and monthly reporting on traffic, rankings, and conversions. To succeed in this role, you should have a track record of measurable organic growth, fluency with SEO tooling and analytics, and the communication skills to get non-SEO teams to ship your recommendations. Success looks like sustained growth in organic traffic that converts.
Responsibilities
- Define and own the SEO strategy and quarterly roadmap
- Conduct keyword research and map keywords to new and existing pages
- Plan the content calendar with writers and brief each piece for search intent
- Run technical SEO audits covering crawlability, indexation, site speed, and structured data
- Prioritize technical fixes and work with engineering to ship them
- Optimize existing pages: titles, internal linking, content refreshes, and on-page structure
- Monitor rankings, traffic, and conversions in Google Search Console and Google Analytics
- Analyze competitor strategies and identify content and link gaps
- Develop white-hat link acquisition through digital PR, partnerships, and linkable assets
- Report monthly on organic performance against traffic and pipeline targets
- Track algorithm updates and search trends, including AI-driven search features, and adapt strategy
Requirements and skills
- Proven work experience as an SEO Manager, SEO Specialist, or similar role
- A track record of growing organic traffic with results you can walk through
- Strong command of Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and at least one major SEO platform such as Ahrefs or Semrush
- Solid technical SEO knowledge: crawling, indexation, redirects, structured data, and Core Web Vitals
- Experience briefing or editing content for search intent
- Working knowledge of HTML and how CMS platforms affect SEO
- Analytical mindset with the ability to build clear reports and forecasts
- Strong written communication for briefs, audits, and stakeholder updates
Nice to have
- Experience with international or multilingual SEO
- Basic scripting or SQL skills for large-scale analysis
- Digital PR or link building campaign experience
- Experience adapting SEO strategy for AI-generated search results and answer engines
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