Expert SEO Strategist / SEO Manager – Long\-Term \| In\-House Campaigns \+ Team Mentorship - Contract to Hire

We are a U.S.-based digital marketing company looking for an experienced SEO Strategist / SEO Manager to join our team on a long-term basis.

This is not a junior SEO position.

We already have an in-house SEO team member/intern who is developing their skills. We are looking for an experienced SEO professional who can provide senior-level strategy, oversee execution, help train and develop our existing team member, and take ownership of SEO performance across our in-house businesses.

As our SEO systems mature, there will also be an opportunity to help lead and manage SEO campaigns for our marketing agency clients.

Primary Responsibilities

You will be responsible for developing and overseeing SEO strategy, including:

• Comprehensive SEO audits
• Technical SEO strategy
• Keyword and competitor research
• Search-intent analysis
• On-page optimization strategy
• Content strategy and topical planning
• Internal-linking strategy
• Site architecture recommendations
• Local SEO strategy
• Google Business Profile optimization strategy
• Google Search Console analysis
• GA4 analysis
• Indexation and crawling issues
• Schema and structured-data recommendations
• Core Web Vitals and site-performance recommendations
• Backlink profile analysis
• Link-building strategy and quality control
• Local citation strategy
• Conversion-oriented organic landing-page recommendations
• SEO reporting and KPI development
• Organic traffic and ranking analysis
• Identifying growth opportunities and prioritizing SEO tasks

You will also work directly with our existing SEO intern/team member to:

• Assign and prioritize SEO tasks
• Review completed work
• Provide feedback and corrections
• Help improve their technical SEO knowledge
• Teach proper research and analysis methods
• Develop repeatable SEO processes and SOPs
• Establish quality-control standards
• Help them become increasingly independent over time

We want someone who can both think strategically and develop people.

Initial Focus

The initial focus will be on our own in-house businesses and websites.

You will review our current SEO performance, identify weaknesses and opportunities, develop a prioritized strategy, and work with our internal team to execute it.

We operate businesses within competitive local and B2B service industries, so experience with local SEO, service businesses, lead generation and multi-location or geographically targeted campaigns is highly valuable.

Once our internal SEO operation is working effectively, we plan to expand the role into helping oversee SEO campaigns for our agency clients.

Who We Are Looking For

We are looking for someone with substantial hands-on SEO experience.

You should have strong experience with

• Technical SEO
• On-page SEO
• Local SEO
• Content strategy
• Google Search Console
• GA4
• Keyword research
• Competitor analysis
• WordPress
• SEO audits
• Internal linking
• Backlink analysis
• Schema
• Indexing and crawling
• Organic traffic analysis
• SEO reporting

Experience with tools such as the following is preferred:

• Ahrefs
• SEMrush
• Screaming Frog
• Google Search Console
• GA4
• Google Keyword Planner
• PageSpeed Insights
• Looker Studio
• WordPress
• Google Business Profile

Important: We Want an SEO Strategist, Not Just a Task Executor

We do not want someone who simply receives an SEO checklist and completes tasks.

We are looking for someone who can review a website and independently determine:

• What is limiting organic growth
• Which opportunities should be prioritized
• What should be fixed first
• What should not be changed
• Which keywords are commercially valuable
• Which content should be created
• Where competitors are outperforming us
• How our SEO resources should be allocated

You should be comfortable explaining why you are recommending a strategy, not simply telling our team what to do.

Team Leadership & Mentorship

An important part of this role will be working with our existing junior SEO team member.

You should be comfortable

• Training junior team members
• Reviewing their work
• Giving constructive feedback
• Assigning tasks
• Establishing SOPs
• Creating quality-control processes
• Helping develop their SEO knowledge

Our objective is to build an internal SEO department rather than remain dependent on outside agencies.

Long-Term Opportunity

We are looking for a long-term relationship with the right person.

The role may grow into

Senior SEO Strategist → SEO Manager → Head of SEO / Organic Search

As we expand our SEO client base, there may also be opportunities to oversee multiple client campaigns and help develop additional SEO team members.

Hours & Availability

40 hours per week, depending on experience and the amount of strategy and implementation required.

Some overlap with U.S. Central Time business hours is preferred for meetings, training and collaboration.

Please specify your availability and time zone.

How to Apply

Please answer the following questions

1. How many years of professional SEO experience do you have?

2. What types of businesses or industries have you managed SEO campaigns for?

3. Please describe 2–3 SEO campaigns where you personally developed the strategy. What was the starting situation, what did you change, and what were the results?

4. What is your process when taking over an SEO campaign for an existing website?

5. How do you prioritize technical SEO, content, backlinks and local SEO?

6. What SEO tools do you use regularly?

7. Describe how you use Google Search Console when diagnosing a website’s organic performance.

8. How would you investigate a website that has strong rankings but poor lead generation?

9. How would you approach a website that has lost 30–40% of its organic traffic?

10. What is your approach to link building in 2026?

11. What is your experience with Local SEO and Google Business Profile optimization?

12. Have you previously managed, trained or supervised junior SEO specialists?

13. Are you comfortable reviewing another team member’s work and providing ongoing mentorship?

14. Are you currently working with multiple SEO clients or agencies? If yes, approximately how many?

15. How many hours per week can you commit to our company?

16. What is your hourly rate?

Please begin your proposal with the words

“SEO STRATEGY”

so we know you carefully reviewed the position.

We are interested in an experienced SEO professional who wants to become part of a growing organization, help us build strong internal SEO systems, and eventually help expand our SEO services to clients.