SEO Specialist Job Description
An SEO specialist job description template, the ATS keywords that matter, and how the role has changed now that search results include AI answers.
SEO specialist postings have changed more in the last few years than almost any other marketing title, because the thing being optimized for has changed. A posting written in 2019 assumes ten blue links and a click. A posting written today has to account for AI-generated answer boxes that can satisfy a search without a click at all, which means a top ranking is no longer the same job it used to describe.
The title also covers two genuinely different skillsets that postings routinely conflate. Technical SEO — crawlability, site architecture, structured data, page speed — is close to an engineering problem and often sits with someone who can read a server log. Content-and-keyword SEO — search intent, on-page optimization, briefing writers — is close to a content problem. A posting asking for both at once is either a small company that needs a generalist, or a company that hasn't decided which job it's hiring for.
The honest screening question, for either side of the title, is what the team measures now that a top-of-page ranking may not produce a click. Organic traffic is still real and still matters, but a candidate who can only speak in ranking positions is describing an SEO practice that is a few years behind where search actually is.
Vellacourt · Austin, TX
Full-time · Hybrid
$65,000 – $88,000
About the role
Vellacourt is hiring an SEO Specialist to own organic search performance for our content site: technical health, keyword strategy, and the reporting that tells us whether either is working. You will sit on the content team, working daily with our Content Marketing Manager and reporting to the VP of Marketing.
This is a hybrid technical-and-content role. You will run the crawl audits and fix the architecture problems yourself where you can, and write the keyword briefs the writing team works from where you can't do the writing yourself. We are not asking you to also run paid search — that sits with a separate team.
What you'll do
- Run recurring technical SEO audits — crawlability, indexation, site speed, structured data — and prioritize fixes.
- Conduct keyword research and translate it into content briefs the writing team can work from directly.
- Own on-page optimization for existing pages: titles, meta descriptions, internal linking, header structure.
- Track organic traffic, keyword rankings, and visibility in AI-generated search answers, not rankings alone.
- Partner with engineering to get technical fixes — redirects, schema markup, page speed — actually shipped.
- Monitor algorithm updates and translate what changed into concrete action, not just a summary email.
- Audit competitor content and search results monthly to find gaps worth targeting.
- Report monthly on organic performance in language a non-specialist stakeholder can act on.
What we're looking for
- Three or more years doing hands-on SEO work, not just managing an agency that does it.
- Demonstrated experience with both technical SEO and keyword-driven content strategy.
- Working fluency with Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and at least one paid SEO tool such as Ahrefs or Semrush.
- Comfort reading a basic crawl report and explaining a canonicalization or indexation problem in plain language.
- Experience briefing writers or editors — this role rarely does all of its own long-form writing.
- The judgment to know when a ranking drop is an algorithm update and when it's a site problem.
Nice to have
- Experience with structured data and schema markup implementation, not just recommending it.
- Basic HTML/CSS literacy, enough to diagnose a rendering or crawl issue without filing a ticket for it.
- Familiarity with how generative search answers pull from and cite web content.
- E-commerce or local SEO experience, if the role will touch product or location pages.
- Experience with SQL or a BI tool for pulling search data outside the standard dashboards.
Benefits
- Medical, dental and vision coverage starting on your first day.
- 401(k) with a 3% company match.
- Annual professional development budget of $1,500.
- Hybrid schedule: three days a week in our Austin office, two remote.
- Fifteen days of paid time off plus company holidays, rising to twenty after two years.
Salary range
As posted for this sample role. Real pay varies by employer, location and experience.
$65,000–$88,000/ yr
ATS keywords for this role
The applicant tracking system (ATS) — the recruiting software a hiring team searches and filters applicants with — will screen for these. Weight shows how central each one is to this specific posting.
Required and central (3)
Important (5)
Mentioned in passing (10)
Frequently asked questions
Is SEO still worth hiring for if AI answers are replacing search clicks?
Yes, but the job has shifted. Being the source an AI answer cites, and being visible for searches that still produce a click, both matter — they're just not the same target as ten years ago. A specialist who only optimizes for classic blue-link rankings is optimizing for a shrinking share of how people actually find things now.
What's the difference between an SEO Specialist and an SEO Manager?
Mostly scope and reporting structure, not skill. 'Specialist' more often means hands-on execution — the audits, the briefs, the fixes — while 'manager' more often means owning strategy and possibly a small team or agency relationship. At smaller companies the same person does both regardless of title.
Do I need to know how to code?
Not to write code, but you need enough HTML and site-structure literacy to have a real conversation with engineering about a redirect chain or a rendering problem. Candidates who can only describe SEO issues in marketing language, with no technical vocabulary at all, struggle in the parts of this job that touch a website's actual architecture.
This was a sample. Your resume should be tailored to the real thing.
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