A lot of SEO work begins with a dull question: why did this page stop getting clicks? An SEO specialist opens Search Console, compares queries before and after the drop, confirms the page is still indexed, looks at whether a competitor now answers the intent better, and then decides what to fix. A content strategist works one step earlier, deciding which topics the company should own and which pages deserve to exist at all. Many Indian companies advertise the two jobs under one title, which is fine only when the ad is honest about which half carries more weight.
Here you will find a copy-ready template for a combined SEO specialist and content strategist, with notes on splitting or retitling it, followed by how the work changes with seniority, ways to test real skill, frequent ad mistakes and advice on engagement terms.
SEO specialist and content strategist job description template
Keep the whole template if one person will do both jobs, and title the post “SEO Specialist and Content Strategist”. If you need only one half, delete the bullets tagged [SEO] or [Content], and use the single title, since that is the phrase candidates search for.
About the role
[Company] sells [product or service] to [audience] and wants more of its qualified leads to arrive through organic search. As our SEO Specialist and Content Strategist, you will decide what we publish, make sure search engines can crawl and understand it, and show the [Head of Marketing] what that work returned. Our site runs on [WordPress / other CMS], and you will work from [city / remote] alongside [number] writers and one developer.
Responsibilities
- [SEO] Run keyword research in [Semrush / Ahrefs] and group terms by search intent and business value.
- [SEO] Audit the site for crawl, indexing, canonical, redirect and internal linking problems, and write tickets a developer can act on.
- [SEO] Monitor Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP and CLS) in Search Console and agree priorities with the development team.
- [SEO] Improve titles, headings, structured data and on-page copy on pages that already rank but under-perform.
- [SEO] Earn links through digital PR, partnerships and useful resources, and avoid paid link schemes.
- [Content] Plan topic clusters and keep a quarterly editorial calendar tied to stages of the buyer’s journey.
- [Content] Write briefs covering audience, intent, angle, sources and internal links for each piece.
- [Content] Review drafts from writers and refresh, merge or retire pages that have gone stale.
- Track organic sessions and key events in GA4, match them to leads in the CRM, and report monthly in Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio).
Requirements
- [X] years of in-house or agency SEO or content strategy experience.
- Pages you can show that gained rankings, along with an account of what you changed.
- Daily working use of Google Search Console, GA4 and either Semrush or Ahrefs.
- A sound grasp of how crawling, rendering, indexing and internal links affect visibility.
- Enough HTML to read page source and spot a misplaced noindex or canonical tag.
- Clear written English, and the ability to give a writer useful feedback.
- Experience working with developers, designers or product owners to get fixes shipped.
Nice to have
- Experience with international or multi-language sites, including hreflang.
- Familiarity with how Google’s AI Overviews present and cite content.
- B2B content experience in [your industry].
- Basic spreadsheet analysis of large keyword or crawl exports.
What we offer
- [Salary range] plus [bonus and benefits].
- [Hybrid, remote or on-site] from [location].
- [Budget for SEO tools and freelance writers].
How SEO and content roles change by level
SEO executive or junior strategist
Juniors work on tasks someone else has prioritised: keyword lists, meta tags, internal link suggestions, briefs from a set format. Ask for curiosity and a personal site or course project they can talk through, and do not expect them to run a site migration. A simple test of readiness is whether they can explain why a page might be crawled yet left out of the index.
SEO specialist or content strategist
At mid-level, a person owns a site or a content programme. They set the monthly priorities, argue for developer time, and connect rankings to leads. The ad should now ask for evidence of owned results and for working relationships with writers and engineers.
SEO lead or head of content
Senior people decide where organic search fits in the marketing plan. They manage specialists, writers or agencies, handle migrations and redesigns, and defend the budget to leadership. Where the work extends across paid media, email and social as well, the title has moved closer to digital marketing manager, and the requirements should change with it.
SEO skills that matter most, and how to check them
- Diagnosis. Share a real or anonymised Search Console chart showing a traffic fall, and ask for the first five things they would check. Strong candidates separate seasonality, tracking faults, algorithm updates and site changes before suggesting any fix.
- Technical literacy. Give them a short list of URLs with redirect chains, a canonical pointing elsewhere and a page blocked in robots.txt. Blocking crawling and preventing indexing are different things, and a capable specialist explains why without prompting.
- Intent reading. Hand over a keyword from your market and ask what kind of page should rank, after they have looked at the results. You want an answer based on the live results page, as opposed to search volume alone.
- Content judgement. Ask for a brief on one topic, or for a critique of a brief you provide. For strategist roles, ask which three existing pages they would merge or delete, and why.
- Attribution honesty. Ask how they know a ranking gain produced revenue. Good people describe what GA4 and the CRM can show, and say plainly where the link is only an estimate.
Look closely at ranking pages in a portfolio. Ask what the candidate personally changed, since on agency teams several people may share the credit for one result.
Common SEO specialist job description mistakes
- Promising or demanding page-one rankings. Nobody controls those outcomes, and competent candidates will distrust the ad. Fix: describe the goal in leads or qualified organic traffic, and name the pages or markets that matter.
- Merging SEO with all of digital marketing. An ad that adds Google Ads, Meta campaigns and social posts is really describing a generalist. Fix: hire a digital marketing specialist for the wider mix, and keep this role on organic search.
- Expecting a strategist to write every article. Planning and producing are separate jobs, and output suffers when one person does both at volume. Fix: state how many pieces the person writes and how many they commission.
- Staying silent on developer access. A specialist with no route to engineering cannot fix much. Fix: say who deploys changes and how tickets get prioritised.
- Listing tools without context. A row of logos tells applicants little. Fix: name the two or three tools in daily use and what you use them for.
- Measuring by keyword count. Long ranking lists can hide terms that bring no buyers. Fix: tie success to pages and intents with commercial value.
Contract, contract-to-hire or permanent: which suits an SEO specialist
A contract suits work with a defined end: an audit and clean-up, a site migration, a content refresh across an old blog, or setting up reporting after a redesign. Make sure the scope covers documentation, because the next person will inherit every redirect decision.
Contract-to-hire helps when you are unsure of the mix. Organic results take a while to show, so judge the trial on the quality of diagnosis, briefs and tickets, and not on rankings gained during those months.
Permanent hiring fits a company treating organic search as a long-term channel, where knowledge of the product, buyers and site history compounds. Zilo AI can help you hire SEO specialists in India on contract, contract-to-hire or permanent terms, screening them on ranking pages and on how they report results in GA4. The wider marketing roles appear on our non-IT talent hiring page.
Frequently asked questions
What should an SEO specialist job description include?
Say what the site is and which CMS runs it, which markets matter, and who will publish the fixes. Then list the core tools, the mix of technical, on-page and link work, and how results will be judged.
What is the difference between an SEO specialist and a content strategist?
The specialist makes pages findable, working on keywords, site health, on-page signals and links. The strategist decides what to publish and why, working on topics, briefs, calendars and editorial quality. They overlap at keyword research and intent.
How is an SEO specialist different from a digital marketing specialist?
SEO is one channel, and this person goes deep on it. A digital marketing specialist runs several channels at once, including paid search, social and email, and usually has less technical SEO depth.
Is a content writer the same as a content strategist?
No. A writer produces the piece, while a strategist decides what gets commissioned and how it serves the business. Small teams sometimes combine them, so state how much writing the job involves.
Should an SEO job description mention AI search?
Yes, if it affects your plans. Ask how candidates think about AI Overviews, AI Mode and clicks, but avoid asking for a fixed playbook, because these features keep changing and honest specialists will say so.
If you would like organic search candidates screened for you, Zilo AI can take on the search. Talk to our hiring team about your site, your content plans and the balance of SEO and strategy you need.