An SEO specialist does the hands-on work that gets a website ranked: fixing technical problems, optimizing pages, building links, or managing local listings. The title is loose. At a small company, the SEO specialist may be the only person doing SEO and handle a bit of everything. At a larger one, it usually means one area, such as technical SEO. Either way, where an SEO strategist decides what to do, the specialist does it. The rough US average salary for a technical SEO specialist is around $70,000.
What does an SEO specialist do?
The work depends on the specialty, but most SEO specialists spend their weeks on some mix of these:
- Optimize pages: titles, meta descriptions, headings, internal links and images, so each page clearly answers the search it's meant for.
- Keep the site crawlable and indexed: run site crawls, fix broken links and redirect chains, and check Search Console for pages that drop out of the index.
- Make pages fast, on phones as well as laptops, working with developers on what slows them down.
- Add structured data so search engines know what each page is: a product, an article, a business, a list of questions.
- Research keywords for pages and brief or edit the content that targets them.
- Earn links from sites in the industry, through outreach, partnerships and content worth linking to.
- Manage local listings, such as Google Business Profiles, for a business with locations.
- Track rankings and traffic, and report what changed.
The main kinds of SEO specialist
| Kind | Focus | Typical tasks |
|---|---|---|
| Technical SEO specialist | How search engines crawl, render and index the site | Crawls, redirects, site speed, structured data, site structure, JavaScript rendering |
| On-page or content SEO specialist | What each page says and how it's built | Keyword targeting, titles and headings, internal links, content briefs and updates |
| Local SEO specialist | Searches with a place in them | Business Profiles, location pages, consistent listings, reviews |
| Link building specialist | The site's authority | Outreach, digital PR, partnerships, finding and fixing lost links |
| Ecommerce SEO specialist | Stores with large catalogs | Product and category pages, filters, duplicate pages, product data |
"SEO specialist" with no qualifier usually means a generalist who does on-page and technical work and some reporting. Check the job description rather than the title.
Skills and tools an SEO specialist needs
- Google Search Console, for indexing, performance and the problems Google reports.
- A site crawler, such as Screaming Frog or Ahrefs Site Audit, to find broken links, redirects and missing tags across a whole site.
- A keyword and backlink tool, such as Ahrefs or Semrush.
- HTML basics, and how pages render with JavaScript, enough to see what a search engine sees and to brief a developer precisely.
- Writing and editing, since much of on-page SEO is choosing the right words for titles, headings and copy.
- Spreadsheets, for crawl exports, redirect maps and keyword lists.
- Patience and records. Changes take weeks to show in search, so a specialist writes down what changed and when, and checks back.
A week of SEO specialist work
A typical week for a generalist specialist might include:
- Checking Search Console for new indexing errors and pages with falling clicks.
- Rewriting the titles and descriptions of a few pages that are seen often in search but rarely clicked.
- Mapping redirects for pages a team plans to move or retire.
- Adding internal links from strong pages to a new page that needs to be found.
- Reporting what moved since the last change, and what didn't.
SEO specialist job description
A sample to adapt for a generalist role. For a technical or local role, weight the responsibilities toward that area.
SEO specialist
We're looking for an SEO specialist to carry out our SEO plan: optimize our pages, keep the site healthy in search, and show what the work achieved.
Responsibilities
- Optimize titles, descriptions, headings and internal links across the site.
- Run regular site crawls and fix crawling, indexing and redirect problems with our developers.
- Add and maintain structured data.
- Research keywords and brief or edit content to target them.
- Monitor rankings, organic traffic and Search Console, and report on results each month.
Requirements
- Hands-on SEO experience on a live site.
- Fluency with Google Search Console and a site crawler such as Screaming Frog.
- A working knowledge of HTML and how search engines render pages.
- Careful, organized work, with a record of what changed and when.
SEO specialist salary
The rough US average for a technical SEO specialist is around $70,000. Specialists whose work is mostly content sit nearer the content roles: around $65,000 for an SEO content manager and $60,000 for an SEO copywriter. All of these vary a lot by city, seniority and company size.
SEO specialist vs. SEO strategist vs. SEO analyst
Specialist vs. strategist. The strategist sets direction across the whole SEO program: which searches to win, which pages to build or fix first, and why. The specialist carries out a part of that plan, and goes deeper into it than the strategist does. Our guide to what an SEO strategist does covers that role.
Specialist vs. analyst. Both work with data, but for different ends. The analyst measures and reports: rankings, traffic, conversions, and what they mean. The specialist changes the site, and uses data to decide what to change and to check that it worked. Strong spreadsheet skills matter more for an analyst; knowing how pages are built matters more for a specialist.
| Role | The question they answer | Rough average salary |
|---|---|---|
| SEO strategist | What should we do next, and why? | $70,000 |
| SEO specialist | How do we do this part well? | $70,000 (technical SEO specialist) |
| SEO analyst | Did it work? | $74,000 |
For all five SEO roles side by side, see SEO roles: strategist, analyst, specialist.
How to become an SEO specialist
- Learn the fundamentals. Google's SEO Starter Guide explains how Google finds, reads and ranks pages.
- Set up Search Console on a site you control, even a small one, and learn its reports.
- Crawl real sites. The free version of a crawler such as Screaming Frog covers a small site, and every crawl teaches you what goes wrong.
- Pick a direction. Technical SEO suits people who like how things work; content SEO suits writers; local SEO suits people who like working with businesses directly.
- Keep a record of what you changed and what happened. Before-and-after numbers from real pages are what get you hired.
Hiring an SEO specialist or an agency
If your site's problems are mostly technical, a technical specialist, in-house or at an agency, is usually the first hire. An agency also gives you the strategist and the writers when you need them, without hiring each one. Our technical SEO services cover the crawling, indexing, speed and structure work described here.
