SEO Manager
Position Overview:
SEO Managers must identify opportunities for growing organic traffic and improving SERP rankings through optimization of site architecture, keyword selection, on/off-page factors, and scalable content. You will be responsible for researching, designing, implementing, monitoring, and revising SEO Programs for dozens of clients. Thus, you must possess a thorough understanding of SEO best practices and be able to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
You will work closely with our in-house teams of SEO Content Writers, Web Designers, Web Developers, and Social Media Specialists to ensure that each team works toward common goals. And you’ll be tasked with managing third-party partnerships to execute additional SEO deliverables.
As part of their responsibilities, SEO Managers will also lead a small team of SEO Content Writers. Thus, you’ll need to be a team player who can coach others to bring out their bests. In addition to coaching team members to encourage their growth, you will also monitor team output to confirm that clients receive the appropriate deliverables in a timely fashion and that team members maintain productivity.
To ensure the effectiveness of each SEO program, applicants must possess a keen attention to detail and proficiency in recording and analyzing performance data. And, to maintain effectiveness, applicants must stay up to date with emerging SEO trends, best practices, and shifts in the industry.
Responsibilities:
- Keyword research
- Utilize client-supplied priorities and optimize keywords most likely to attract potential leads and drive organic traffic growth.
- Group and assign keywords to specific URLs.
- Set up keywords for tracking with appropriate tags.
- Prioritize content needs
- Rank service-geo pairs in order of importance.
- Analyze client priorities, search volumes, keyword difficulty, and target SERPs to determine content & other optimization priorities.
- Record priorities for each client to enable SEO Content Writers to identify the greatest needs each month.
- SEO audits
- Analyze the effectiveness of SEO programs
- Compare the successes/failures of SEO programs to other, similar programs
- Report findings and recommend improvements as needed
- Create SEO proposals for new and existing clients
- Research and utilize competitor data to highlight organic opportunities
- Design SEO programs within budget constraints to provide maximum value
- Coordinate efforts from content, design, dev, and third-party teams
- Ensure that all teams execute the designed SEO deliverables monthly
- Provide feedback and direction to team members to ensure SEO deliverables are executed to a high standard.
- Monitor and maintain Technical SEO health
- Identify technical issues via Search Console and similar tools
- Assign issues to relevant team members to resolve and track through resolution
- Optimize NAP for client locations
- Add client locations to our Listing Management tool and optimize local business listings including Google Business Profile and Apple Maps
- Maintain an understanding of current SEO best practices
- Design, implement, and track A/B tests of new SEO strategies
- Perform competitor analysis to identify organic opportunities by uncovering the strengths/weaknesses of our SEO programs and determining the most important ranking factors for specific industries and SERPs
- Assist in client calls to explain SEO strategy and progress
- Perform competitor research to inform decisions about SEO programs and proposals
- Lead a team of SEO Content Writers by prioritizing the needs of each SEO program and coaching team members through group training and 1:1 feedback sessions
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Journalism, or a related field.
- 2 years of SEO experience, 1+ year leading teams
- Exceptional organizational and analytical skills
- Demonstrable knowledge of local SEO ranking factors and strategies
- Exceptional keyword research abilities with tools such as SEMrush and SERanking
- Familiarity with Google Analytics and Google Search Console
- Capable of analyzing a website’s SEO performance and client goals to drive action
- Experience leading teams and managing cross-functional and vendor relationships
- Excellent time management skills and ability to meet tight deadlines
- A proactive attitude toward enhancing SEO knowledge and self-development
- Ability to learn new technologies quickly to simplify existing responsibilities
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Preferred Skills:
- Experience with SEO A/B testing and a solid understanding of statistics
- Basic knowledge of HTML, CSS
- Strong understanding of structured data e.g. Schema.org’s microformat
- Knowledge of industry-specific challenges faced by SMBs
- Experience managing social media platforms, including Google Business Profile and/or Apple Business Connect
- Link building experience
- Work Environment:
- This will be a hybrid-remote position for anyone in the Chicagoland area, requiring at least three days a week in our West Loop office.
To Apply:
If you have a passion for SEO, understand ranking factors inside and out, and instinctually see organic opportunities when visiting websites, we would love to hear from you! Please submit your resume and a cover letter detailing your suitability for the role.
