Are you interested in making your career in SEO and wondering what an SEO manager does?
If yes, then this article is for you.
In this post, you’ll come across the 15 most important responsibilities and job descriptions of SEO managers in any company. In general, SEO managers are the skilled people who are responsible for improving the ranking of a website on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
Over the period of time and Digital Marketing Trends, the job description of SEO manager and their roles and responsibilities have changed a lot. SEO is a dynamic field and that’s why the job role keeps on changing from time to time.
In this blog post, I have tried to cover all the important job roles and responsibilities of SEO managers.
So, without further ado, let’s begin.
15 Important Roles And Job Description Of SEO Manager
1. Thorough on-site and off-site analysis
One of the primary roles of an SEO manager is to do in-depth on-page and off-page analysis of clients’ websites. In fact, he/she may also be told to do an in-depth analysis of a company’s website in which they are working as an SEO manager.
On-page and off-page are the two most important types of SEO that helps in improving the ranking of a website. An SEO manager can use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to do the complete on-page and off-page analysis of any website also they must be aware of better optimization of an online store.
Following are the important on-page elements that SEO manager looks upon;
- URL optimization.
- Meta tags optimization.
- Optimizing the website’s content.
- Page speed analysis.
- Checking the site structure.
- Checking the canonical tags.
- Mobile-friendliness and much more.
Important off-page elements that SEO manager looks upon;
- Analyzing organic traffic and rankings.
- Hunting for link-building opportunities.
- Checking competitor’s top-performing keywords.
- Backlink auditing.
- Tracking keywords and position.
- Checking social media engagements and much more.
2. Sound understanding of Google Analytics and other reporting platforms
An SEO manager must have hands-on practical experience with Google Analytics. He must understand the working of this analytics tool, dashboards and must also be able to create custom reports based on several KPIs.
Using this tool, SEO managers can get important data and key points which are important for optimizing websites.
Follow are the important data that SEO managers must collect using Google Analytics;
- Organic traffic
- Visitors information
- Top-performing web pages and keywords
- Sources of organic visits
- Identify and fix slow loading pages
- Top performing keywords and much more
3. Working on App Search Optimization
Due to the increasing numbers of cell phone users, App search or store optimization is the next big thing.
Hence, an SEO manager can’t ignore this.
An SEO manager must be familiar with all the ranking factors and criteria of ranking an App in the store. He must be able to optimize an app for its better visibility in any App store.
In general, app store optimization is slightly different from website optimization. It requires different sets of skills, planning, and techniques to rank any application on the Google play store and any other app store, especially if you are working for some good IT company in India, the USA, and the UK.
Following are the important App store optimization ranking factors;
- Title and name of the App
- Description of the App
- Icon and logo of the App
- Description of video
- Positive reviews and ratings
- Local listing
4. Perform ongoing keyword discovery, expansion, and optimization.
Whether you are working as an SEO manager for a top MNC or any small digital agency, keywords will foundation of every SEO strategy. Until you haven’t prioritized your primary and secondary keywords, your SEO campaign won’t generate fruitful results.
Hence, an SEO manager must target proper keywords in order to drive traffic to websites.
He must choose keywords that meet the requirement of the website, niche and can easily go with the blog post title, meta, and other relevant tags.
Also, he needs to ensure the right balance between competition and search volume, and search intent. Apart from this, he must also be familiar with the SEO keyword research tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, MOZ Pro, and many others.
Important keyword related tasks which SEO manager must perform;
- Check competitor’s top-performing keywords
- Look for keywords in title, meta, URL, and image alt tags
- Check keywords in heading tags
- Find keywords that cannibalize content
- Track keywords and position
- Optimize content
5. Audit websites and provide technical recommendations for improving SEO
Yes, an SEO manager must check the overall health of a website.
In order to do so, a manager must perform a complete SEO audit to increase the overall health of a website by eliminating errors. Also, to increase the organic search rankings of a website.
Whatever the technical flaws and glitches found on a website, he must fix them ASAP.
Important SEO auditing factors that managers must do;
- On-page and off-page SEO audit
- Technical SEO audit
- Content audit
- Checking website redirection
- Setting preferred URL for the website
- Canonicalization checks
- HTTP checks
- Website speed optimization and a lot more
6. Develop and implement link building strategy
No matter how many times search engine algorithms change in a year, backlinks will always be a top-ranking factor. Without having good quality backlinks, one cannot think of ranking a website or content on top of Google.
I personally feel that content may be King, but backlinks are kingmakers.so, without having high-quality backlinks it is next to impossible to rank a website on Google SERP.
Hence, an SEO manager must plan and execute a proper link-building strategy. He must also be familiar with the latest and trending link-building strategies.
The important link-building task which SEO manager has to do;
- Backlink auditing of clients and competitors websites
- Finding link-building opportunities
- Disavowing toxic links
- Doing blogger outreach
- Maintaining proper link velocity
7. Work with editorial and marketing teams
Another important role of the SEO manager is to work and collaborate with internal marketing teams to get better SEO results.
For example,
An SEO manager may collaborate with a content team to create well-optimized SEO content. Also, he may contact the social team to create more social signals.
Plus, he must stay in touch with the technical and website development team in order to improve the technical SEO of a website. Plus, he might also collaborate with the PR team to launch press releases and blogger outreach campaigns.
Not to forget that he may also work with graphics and designing teams to improve the UX and UI of any website.
To put it in a nutshell, an SEO manager must collaborate with each team to deliver better results.
8. Recommend changes to website architecture
A well-organized and site structure can increase the website ranking in a short span of time.
Hence, an SEO manager must be able to create a site structure that improves indexing and crawling. He must also ensure that site navigation is not only easy for search engine bots but also for users.
A good site architecture may also get site links from Google.
When to comes to recommending changes to website architecture, an SEO manager must able to collaborate with the website development team and work closely with them.
Important task related to site structure;
- Creating proper site architecture
- Proper internal linking
- User-friendly UX and UI
- Ease of navigation
- URLs management
- Content management on the website
9. Create and Implement a blog strategy to get maximum traffic
Blogging is the most important thing when it comes to SEO.
Blogging can increase the crawl status and indexing of websites and it can spike the organic keywords and traffic as well. Also, it keeps the website fresh and updated every time.
According to Hubspot, a company that publishes 16+ blog posts in a month receives more traffic.
Hence, as an SEO manager, you’ll need to develop a blogging strategy that positively impacts the SEO campaign.
Task-related to blogging which SEO manager must do;
- Keyword research
- Blog post optimization
- Blog promotion
- Link-building and more
10. The ability to work with back-end SEO elements
Every SEO manager must have the ability to work with back-end SEO elements. These are the important and critical elements that help in improving the technical SEO of a website.
Following are some important back-end SEO elements that managers must be familiar with.
- Knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JS
- Knowledge of webmaster tools
- Ability to work with the hta-access file
- Handling CMS
- Ability to deal with canonicalization
- Must know how to create robots.txt and sitemap
11. Experience with SEO Tools
If you want to be a good SEO manager, then you should be familiar with all the SEO tools. In fact, you must have hands-on experience in working with various SEO tools.
Tools are just like important resources that will help in improving the overall SEO of a website. From on-page to off-page, to technical part, SEO tools help in every aspect of optimization of a website.
In fact, few SEO tools will also help with paid ads, social media, and content marketing.
Following are the tools that SEO managers should know how to use;
- SEMrush
- Ahrefs
- Google search console
- Keywords planner
- SEObility
- Screaming frog
- SEO minion
- Bright local
- Bing webmaster tools
12. Developing an SEO strategy
An SEO manager must plan and build a well-structured SEO strategy.
He must keep new and innovative ideas on the table and brainstorm with teams when developing an award-winning SEO strategy.
Ideally, a manager must develop an SEO campaign that is easy to implement and delivers results.
Some SEO strategies that managers must opt for;
- Creating long-form content
- Linking to authority sites
- Getting back-links from high DA and PA websites
- Ranking site for long-tail keywords
- Increasing website speed
- Optimizing website for mobile
- Updating content and more
13. Monitor and report important metrics
Until and unless a manager does not monitor and track his SEO effort, he won’t know whether his strategy is working or not. Therefore tracking and monitoring of the results is important.
One can easily track the performance of their SEO campaign with the help of SEO tools. Managers and track important SEO KPIs like keywords rankings, domain authority of a website, and increase in organic traffic since the implementation of SEO strategies. It’s also a responsibility of a manager to build an SEO report for clients.
An SEO manager must track and monitor the following important metrics.
- Organic traffic
- Keywords ranking and position
- Bounce rate
- Backlinks and referring domains
- Website speed
- Security
- Mobile-friendliness
- Social signals
- 404 pages and other errors
By tracking all these metrics, an SEO manager can easily identify the success and failures of his strategy.
14. Strong background in cracking Search Algorithms
In order to rank on the first page of Google, SEO managers must be familiar with all algorithm updates of Google.
From Penguin to Panda, to Pigeon, all the algorithms must be known by the SEO manager by heart. He must also keep an eagle’s eye on important updates and changes happening in the search engine industry.
In order to stay updated with all the latest Google algorithms, I would recommend you to read industry blogs and follow some well-known SEO experts on social media.
Conclusion:
SEO is one of the most amazing and dynamic jobs in this world. It will give 100% satisfaction and good pay, provided that you are interested in making your career in this field. Through this article I have tried my best to give an overview of what SEO job profile looks like and what does SEO professionals do in their daily work life.
Of course, the job roles and responsibilities of SEO managers and executives may differ from company to company. But the overall job of any SEO professional revolves around the 15 roles and responsibilities mentioned in this blog post.
