Resources
Post a Job
 Special Offer 

Jumpstart your hiring with a $75 credit to sponsor your first job.*

Sponsored Jobs posted directly on Indeed with Urgently Hiring make a hire 5 days faster than non-sponsored jobs.**
  • Visibility for hard-to-fill roles through branding and urgently hiring
  • Instantly source candidates through matching to expedite your hiring
  • Access skilled candidates to cut down on mismatched hires
*The $75 Sponsored Job credit offer is only available for new accounts in the US that post a job and expires one year after account creation. Upon expiration of the credit, users are charged based on Sponsored Job budget. Terms, conditions, and quality standards apply **Indeed data, based on median United States, Q2 2024

SEO Specialist Job Description: Top Duties and Qualifications

Edited by Indeed Employer Content Team
Last updated November 6, 2025
Our mission

Indeed’s Employer Resource Library helps businesses grow and manage their workforce. With over 15,000 articles in 6 languages, we offer tactical advice, how-tos and best practices to help businesses hire and retain great employees.

Read our editorial guidelines
5 min read

An SEO Specialist helps companies create and optimize their content for better reach and ranking in search engines. The duties of these professionals include researching trends and best practices on the web, building links with companies that complement their business and writing engaging content that includes the right search engine terms to get brands and their web pages noticed.

SEO Specialist duties and responsibilities

SEO Specialists analyze companies’ websites to ensure they follow best practices for search engine optimization. Their duties include reading through all the current content to find room for improvement, formatting the site properly for smooth navigation on smartphones and desktop computers and tracking backlinks and keywords already in place that may be underperforming.

SEO Specialists perform research to see the best keywords for a particular web page and then create content that embeds those keywords while providing value to the potential customers who view the page. This position requires someone who plans on staying up to date on search engine trends so the websites they optimize can maintain their search engine rankings. Other duties include the following:

  • Spotting trends and gleaning insights from testing, plus data collection and analysis

  • Creating and initiating pay-per-click ads and then tracking, reporting and analyzing results

  • Researching new and emergent keywords and integrating them into content

  • Keeping track of what competitors are doing and how well it’s working for them

  • Developing strategies to team with high-value sites and implement cross-links

  • Collaborating with marketing and advertising teams to create SEO content

  • Suggesting changes to sites that improve positioning via content and linking

Hire your next SEO Specialist today.

Build a job description

Hire your next SEO Specialist today.

Build a job description
Close

SEO Specialist Job Description Examples

Example 1

We are only able to hire a candidate residing in South Dakota for this position.



Primary Objective of Position:To create, implement, and analyze customer digital marketing campaigns that exceed customer expectations and ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Customer Relations
  • Serve as the digital marketing expert for assigned accounts
  • Work with the client to gain a thorough understanding of digital marketing needs; documenting conversations in CRM software.
  • Follow up with customer while campaign is underway to review and to assess customer satisfaction
  • Troubleshoot issues quickly and work toward a complete resolution the first time; documenting issues and resolution
  • Analyze, forecast, and report digital marketing results. Extract insights from campaign data, identify relevant trends, and provide well developed, proactive recommendations to enhance and exceed overall client marketing goals and objectives
  • Provide the analysis and insight report to the customer and/or the sales consultant monthly

Marketing Strategies and Tactics
  • Develop and present marketing strategies and campaigns to customer
  • Implement customer approved strategy and campaign by creating and managing tactics such as:
  • paid search,
  • paid social,
  • display marketing,
  • e-mail marketing, and
  • video marketing
  • Test and optimize bids, keywords, text ads, image ads, video ads, and landing pages during the campaign to improve campaign performance.

Department Operations
  • Build and maintain internal, high-trust relationships with department team and those outside the department who impact the department’s results
  • Maintain accurate listings and digital profiles for customers
  • Maintain working knowledge of system and be able to provide training on use of system
  • Maintain Google AdWords Certification
  • Stay up-to-date on latest trends in online search, social, and display, and email marketing and recommend changes to department operations to create efficiencies, and products and services offered to expand revenue and profit

This job description is a general outline of responsibilities and may change at any time with or without notice. I understand this is not a contract of employment and that I may be requested to perform other duties not listed here. I have read and understand this job description.

Work Location:
  • Multiple locations
  • Work Remotely

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: From $20.00 per hour

Benefits:
  • Dental insurance
  • Health insurance
  • Health savings account
  • Life insurance
  • Paid time off
  • Retirement plan
  • Vision insurance
Schedule:
  • Monday to Friday



Location:
  • South Dakota Location: Remote

Example 2

Job Overview:
We are seeking a talented SEO Specialist to join our team. As an SEO Specialist, you will be responsible for optimizing our website to increase organic traffic and improve search engine rankings. This candidate will be responsible for supporting organic search efforts of a 9+ location in southern California. Some of these responsibilities will be monitoring rankings, working closely with the marketing department on strategy, technical execution of SEO campaigns, content production or outsourcing, and a variety of other related tasks.

Duties:
- Conduct keyword research and analysis to guide content optimization
- Optimize website content, meta tags, and on-page elements for improved SEO performance
- Monitor and report on website traffic and performance using tools like Google Analytics
- Implement technical SEO strategies to enhance site speed and user experience
- Collaborate with content creators to develop SEO-friendly content
- Manage Google Search Console for website indexing and performance tracking
- Utilize social media management for SEO benefits
- Stay updated on industry trends and algorithm changes to adjust strategies accordingly

-Manage and oversee all SEO implementation including on-page technical optimization, back/internal linking, and content creation across desktop and mobile

- Conduct keyword research, competitive analysis, content optimization, meta-tag creation, link development and other SEO related activities

- Work closely with organization stakeholders to research, plan, and execute on various SEO strategies to improve our overall metrics

- Manage directory listings (yelp, google business profile)

-Build reports that summarize web performance for both local SEO and website search rankings

-Utilize strong analytical ability to evaluate end-to-end customer experience across multiple channels and customer touch points

- Identify trends and insights, and optimize webpages based on the insights

-Instrument conversion points and optimize user funnels

-Collaborate with agencies and other vendor partners

-Evaluate emerging technologies. Provide thought leadership and perspective for adoption where appropriate



Qualifications:
- Proven experience as an SEO Specialist or similar role at least 3 years of experience.
- Proficiency in E-commerce SEO strategies

-Attention to detail and a proven ability to manage priorities are also essential
- Strong understanding of CSS, metadata, and content management systems
- Knowledge of search engines and their ranking factors and on top of all the latest SEO industry trends
- Familiarity with conversion optimization techniques
- Experience with SEM (Search Engine Marketing) . Excellent problem-solving skills and communication skills

-Analytics skills such as web analytics (Google Analytics/Adobe), dashboarding tools (Data Studio/Tableau), data manipulation (Excel/SQL), SEO platforms (Ahrefs/SEMrush/Screaming Frog/Google Search Console), and project management tools
- Ability to conduct in-depth research and analysis for SEO improvements
- Familiarity with Google Search Console for monitoring website performance

Nice-to-have Skills:
- Experience in social media management for SEO purposes

-Spanish Speaker is a PLUS

This is a paid position with opportunities for growth within our dynamic team. If you are passionate about SEO and have the skills to drive organic traffic, we encourage you to apply.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $25.00 - $30.00 per hour

Expected hours: 36 per week

Benefits:
  • Flexible schedule
  • Health insurance
  • Paid time off
Schedule:
  • 8 hour shift
  • Day shift
  • Monday to Friday
  • No weekends



Experience:
  • Keyword research: 2 years (Preferred)

Ability to Commute:
  • Woodland Hills, CA 91367 (Required)

Ability to Relocate:
  • Woodland Hills, CA 91367: Relocate before starting work Location: In person
Our mission

Indeed’s Employer Resource Library helps businesses grow and manage their workforce. With over 15,000 articles in 6 languages, we offer tactical advice, how-tos and best practices to help businesses hire and retain great employees.

Read our editorial guidelines
Job Description Best Practices
Optimize your new and existing job descriptions to reach more candidates
Get the Guide

What does a SEO Specialist do?

SEO Specialists typically work for digital advertising agencies, assisting businesses in expanding their reach through optimizing their search engine presence. These professionals manage content creation and ensure it includes frequently searched terms to lift the company within leading search engines. They also evaluate any problems that prevent businesses from reaching their full potential when it comes to search engine rank, manage the needs of individual clients and use coding techniques such as CSS, HTML and Java to ensure background processes and platforms play well with the SEO techniques they use.

SEO Specialist skills and qualifications

An SEO Specialist typically has a bachelor’s degree in a field like communications, information technology or marketing. A communications background helps these professionals convey their ideas to other interested parties in layman’s terms, and information technology experience provides familiarity with a variety of programming languages. Their understanding of digital marketing should include experience with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, key performance indicators (KPIs) and how search engine algorithms work. Other skills and qualifications essential to an SEO Specialist include:

  • Ability to keep up on digital marketing trends

  • Experience conducting thorough keyword research

  • Analytical skills, especially in regard to analyzing websites to identify opportunities for improvement

  • Strong organization skills

  • Basic programming ability, especially for technical SEO tasks

  • Creativity and outside-the-box thinking

SEO Specialist experience requirements

A good SEO Specialist usually has experience in researching keywords and optimizing websites and blogs to include the high-performing terms they discover. They should understand every facet of digital marketing and stay up to date on trends affecting search engine rankings and algorithms. These professionals should also have great communication skills that let them explain complex topics in simple terms in order to help decision-makers understand why changes to search engine strategy are necessary. You can add an SEO Specialist as a standalone position or as a team member working in tandem with Digital Marketing Specialists.

SEO Specialist education and training requirements

While no formal education is usually required to perform the role, an SEO Specialist may hold a bachelor’s degree, typically in a field such as information technology or marketing. These types of backgrounds can give candidates a firm foundation in coding and an understanding of what drives sales. 

These professionals may also have special SEO certifications in addition to their degrees. SEO Specialists committed to their profession may also hold certificates for attending workshops and conferences that help them stay up to date on industry trends.

SEO Specialist salary expectations

According to Indeed Salaries, the average salary for an SEO Specialist is $62,764. Keep in mind that salary expectations may vary from $41,987 to $93,822, depending on the company and on the candidate’s experience and location.

Job description samples for similar positions

If SEO Specialist isn’t the marketing role you need to fill within your organization, these similar positions may be what you’re looking for:

SEO Specialist FAQs

What businesses need an SEO Specialist?

Any company doing business online is likely to need an SEO Specialist to ensure they rank highly in search engines. While large companies may need national reach, many businesses only serve customers and clients locally, so an SEO Specialist can help them get their sales material in front of local audiences.

What are some tips for hiring an SEO Specialist?

When hiring an SEO Specialist, look for those with experience handling all three SEO levels — technical, on-page and off-page optimization. A professional who understands all three knows how to maintain the structure of the site, how to promote it internally and how to advertise by using other sites such as Google My Business.

What are some interview questions for SEO Specialists?

The best interview questions to ask SEO Specialist candidates relate to the specifics of your company’s needs. Some general questions to ask, however, include:

  • How do you track the success of your SEO campaigns?

  • Can you explain how SEO and SEM differ and how to utilize both?

  • What tools do you use to glean your SEO recommendations?

  • Do you understand how to use long-tail keywords and optimize URLs?

  • How familiar are you with the Google Search Console and Google Analytics?

Job Description Best Practices
Optimize your new and existing job descriptions to reach more candidates
Get the Guide

Three individuals are sitting at a table with a laptop, a disposable coffee cup, notebooks, and a phone visible. Two are facing each other, while the third’s back is to the camera. The setting appears to be a bright room with large windows.

Hire your next SEO Specialist today.

Build a job description

Job Description Examples

Need help writing a job description for a specific role? Use these job description examples to create your next great job posting. Or if you’re ready to hire, post your job on Indeed.

No search results found

    Related articles

    20 Interview Questions to Ask Candidates
    Read article
    How To Hire Employees: A Step-by-Step Guide
    Read article
    Roles and Responsibilities Template (With 3 Samples)
    Read article