Roles we recruit
Seven practices, 27 functions. Start at the practice when you cannot yet name the title; go straight to the function when you can.
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An SEO specialist does the steady work that makes a site rank: keyword research, on-page fixes, internal links, briefs for writers and the reporting that shows what moved. Screenshots of rankings are easy to show, so we screen for pages they moved and why, how they prioritize, and how they explain it to people who do not live in Search Console.
Search results lag the work, so the first quarter is judged on the right work done in the right order. Each stage below has a signal that predicts it, and we test for that signal before you meet anyone.
The ramp, and the test behind each milestone
Weeks 1 and 2
Search Console, analytics and a crawl of the site: what ranks, what is losing ground, what is blocked or duplicated, and which pages carry the business.
On track looks like a short audit that names the ten issues worth fixing first and why, not a 200-row export.
How we test for it before you meet them
A live exercise in our screen: twenty minutes on one of your pages and its Search Console data. We score what they prioritize and how they explain it.
Weeks 3 and 4
Technical fixes, page improvements and new content ranked by likely impact and effort, agreed with the developer and content leads who will do some of the work.
On track looks like a ranked roadmap with owners and dates, signed off by the people who will deliver it.
How we test for it before you meet them
We ask how they set priorities at their last job, and who disagreed. A former manager confirms the roadmap was followed, not filed.
Weeks 5 to 8
Titles, headings, copy and internal links improved on the pages that matter, with technical fixes raised clearly enough that developers ship them.
On track looks like the priority pages improved and the first technical fixes live.
How we test for it before you meet them
We ask for a page they improved, the before and after, and what happened to its traffic over the following months.
Weeks 9 to 13
Content briefs for new and refreshed pages: the search intent, the questions to answer, the structure and the internal links, written for the content team.
On track looks like writers producing pages from the specialist's briefs without a rewrite.
How we test for it before you meet them
We read a brief they wrote. A strong one tells a writer what the searcher needs; a weak one is a keyword list.
After day 90
A monthly report on rankings, clicks, leads from organic and the work behind each change, including what did not work. Strong specialists start covering AI search answers too.
On track looks like a report the head of marketing reads, linking work done to traffic and leads.
How we test for it before you meet them
A reference call about one report they wrote and the decision it changed.
Five responsibilities. If the seat also owns strategy, budget and a team, it is an SEO manager; if it is mostly crawling and migrations, it is a technical SEO specialist.
Which searches matter to the business and what the searcher needs from the page that answers them.
Titles, headings, copy, structured data and media on the pages that carry the business.
A link structure that sends authority and visitors to the pages that matter most.
Content briefs with intent, questions, structure and links, so new pages are built to rank.
Monthly reporting on what moved, and technical issues raised so developers can ship them.
Three neighboring seats absorb work people assume belongs here. Drawing the line wrong is how an SEO hire ends up writing every page or running a migration alone.
That seat ownsCrawling, indexation, rendering, site speed, structured data and migrations.
Hire it instead whenthe content is fine and the site itself is the problem.
That seat ownsWhich topics to own and in what order: demand analysis, content architecture and the roadmap.
Hire it instead whennobody has decided what the site should rank for, and in what order.
That seat ownsWriting the pages: articles, guides and landing copy from briefs.
Hire it instead whenthe briefs and plan exist, and the bottleneck is writing enough good pages.
The title stays the same; the site does not. Pick the one that matches your situation.
Works mostly with writers: keyword research, briefs, page refreshes and internal links.
Covers on-page, technical basics and reporting for one site, often as the only SEO.
Adds answer engine and AI search visibility to classic SEO: structured answers, citations and tracking.
The questions we ask in our own screen. Use them in yours; the warning signs are as useful as the answers.
Every candidate we put forward is scored on these five, and the scores travel with the shortlist, gaps included. Four out of five with a named weakness beats a clean sweep you cannot verify.
| What we score | Weak evidence | Strong evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Pages they moved | Ranking screenshots with no work or timeline behind them. | Pages they changed, what they changed, and the traffic over the months after. |
| Prioritization | Works through audit tool output in order. | Ranks work by impact and effort, and gets developers and writers to deliver it. |
| Briefs and on-page work | Keyword lists with word counts. | Briefs that start from intent and produce pages writers do not need to rewrite. |
| Explaining results | Jargon and vanity metrics. | Clicks, leads and the work behind them, explained in plain terms. |
| Fit with your site | Only ecommerce or local SEO for a B2B content site, or the reverse. | Has worked on a site like yours: your size, your content model, your buyers. |
Public US benchmarks, read October 2026. The two main sources sit far apart: Salary.com’s employer-reported band starts at $87,333, while Built In’s self-reported median base is $50,000. Price on scope: a specialist who owns technical fixes, briefs and reporting for a whole site sits toward the first, one who runs on-page tasks from a checklist nearer the second.
Each bar runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile, the middle half of reported pay.
Base salaryWages including commission (BLS)Median base salaryAverage total pay, base plus variable
SEO Specialist
Salary.com base benchmark
$87,333 to $108,622 base
SEO Specialist, self-reported
Built In, self-reported
$50,000 median base$60,901 average total
SEO Manager
Built In, self-reported, the next seat
$75,000 median base$89,385 average total
Marketing specialists
BLS, a category that includes SEO
$58,350 to $108,310
SEO Specialist bar: Salary.com base salary, 25th to 75th percentile, United States, as of October 1, 2026. SEO Specialist and SEO Manager dots and rings: Built In median base salary and average total compensation (base plus additional cash, self-reported), reviewed September 28, 2026. Marketing specialists: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, annual wage at the 25th and 75th percentiles (SOC 13-1161), all industries. Public aggregates, not ZaphyrRecruit placement data.
An SEO specialist does the day-to-day work that makes a site rank in search: keyword and intent research, on-page improvements, internal links, content briefs for writers and monthly reporting on what moved. They also find technical issues and raise them clearly enough that developers fix them. Increasingly the role covers AI search too, structuring pages so they are used in answers as well as ranked.
Salary.com puts an SEO specialist at $87,333 to $108,622 base, with a median of $96,565 (October 2026). Built In’s self-reported figures are much lower: a $50,000 median base and $60,901 average total pay. The BLS band for marketing specialists, a category that includes SEO, runs from $58,350 to $108,310. Scope explains most of the spread, so price the seat on what it owns.
Technical fixes and on-page changes to pages that already rank can show within weeks. New content and competitive searches usually take three to six months or more, depending on the site’s authority and the competition. That is why the first quarter is judged on the right work in the right order, with the reporting set up to show results as they arrive.
An agency suits a defined project, such as a migration or an audit, or a site with little ongoing change. An in-house SEO specialist pays off when you publish often and the site changes every month: they work with your writers and developers daily, learn your buyers and protect the roadmap. Some teams keep an agency for technical depth alongside an in-house specialist. We recruit the in-house seat.
Keyword and intent research, on-page optimization, internal linking, brief writing and reporting, plus enough technical knowledge to diagnose crawl, indexation and speed issues and explain them to developers. Tool fluency in Search Console, analytics and a crawler is expected. The skill that separates candidates is prioritization: choosing the few changes that matter from hundreds an audit tool will list.
An SEO specialist does the hands-on work: research, page improvements, briefs and reporting. An SEO manager owns the channel: the strategy, the roadmap, the budget, agencies and often the specialists themselves, and reports organic results to leadership. In smaller teams one person covers both. If you need someone to set direction and defend budget, hire a manager.
Ten working days from a signed brief to a shortlist of three to five calibrated candidates, each with our live Search Console exercise scored and their past results checked. Interview speed decides the rest: good SEO specialists rarely run one process at a time, so a decision within a week of the first interview keeps them. Most can start two to four weeks after accepting.
Tell us about the site, how much you publish and who will work with the specialist. We come back within one business day with how we would run the search and what the seat pays.
We build shortlists from people doing this work now, often before a seat is advertised. Set up a job alert for SEO roles, or send your CV and we will come to you when a seat opens.
The SEO specialist is one of ten seats in this function. If the gap sits elsewhere, start there.