SEO Job Description

What is a SEO Specialist?

The mission of an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Specialist is to maximize the volume of inbound organic traffic from search engines to a website. This is accomplished through a combination of on-page and off-page techniques, including link-building, social media strategy, viral marketing, metadata sculpting, site speed optimization, content strategy, information architecture, and more.

As a result of the daily changes in the search algorithms of Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other leaders in search, an SEO expert works in a dynamic environment that requires them to be continually learning, fine-tuning their skills, and experimenting to discover how the industry is shifting.

Education Requirements

• No college program exists to train an SEO Specialist
• Break into the positions through experience, success, research, and trial and error

SEO Specialist Essential Skills

• Experience with Google and Bing’s services, including Analytics and Webmaster Tools
• Experience with Google’s Keyword Tool
• A functional understanding of HTML and CSS
• The ability to work with back-end SEO elements such as .htaccess, robots.txt, metadata, site speed optimization, and related skills
• Proven success in link building and viral strategies
• The ability to deploy an effective local and long-tail search strategy
• A deep understanding of mobile strategy and how it relates to SEO
• A solid grasp of how blogging, press releases, social media, and related strategies go hand-in-hand with SEO
• Experience in building inbound organic search traffic and improving SERPs
• A background in creating reports showing web analytics data and site evaluations
• An up-to-date, working knowledge of current, past, and projected trends in the SEO industry
• Familiarity with the best tools in the trade

SEO Specialist Roles & Responsibilities

• Develop optimization strategies that increase the company's website search engine results rankings
• Execute tests, collect and analyze data and results, identify trends and insights in order to achieve maximum ROI
• Manage the expenses of SEO campaigns, staying on budget, estimating monthly costs and reconciling differences
• Work with editorial and marketing teams to drive SEO in content creation and content marketing
• Research and implement search engine optimization recommendations
• Create and execute link building strategy
• Determine measurable goals that demonstrate improvement in marketing efforts
• Write compelling and high-quality website content, including blog posts and page descriptions to improve website search results

Day-to-Day Duties

• Conduct page optimization for search engine marketing
• Monitor daily performance metrics with SEO tools such as Google analytics to understand SEO strategy performance
• Collaborate with others within the marketing department to manage SEO strategy
• Perform ongoing keyword research, discovery and optimization for new SEO keywords to use throughout the company website and marketing materials
• Closely collaborate with web development team to ensure SEO best practices are properly followed throughout website content
• Change website architecture, content, linking and other factors to improve SEO positions for target keywords

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