Career guide
SEO Manager Job Description: Template, Duties and Skills
An SEO manager job description should say what organic results the role owns, which teams the manager will work through, whether they'll manage people or an agency, and how success will be measured. Below is a template you can adapt, notes on senior and agency versions, and how candidates can use one when applying.
Key takeaways
- An SEO manager job description should name the organic results the role owns, the teams it works through and the people or agency it manages.
- SEO manager postings differ from SEO specialist postings by asking for strategy, prioritization, influence with engineering and reporting to leadership.
- Good SEO manager job descriptions say how much engineering time SEO work gets, because most fixes are shipped by teams the manager doesn't run.
- SEO manager job descriptions now often include AI search visibility, and Google says its SEO best practices remain relevant for AI Overviews and AI Mode.
What goes in an SEO manager job description?
An SEO manager job description should make four things clear: the organic results the role owns, the teams it depends on, the people it manages and how it will be judged. Those four answers tell a strong candidate whether the role is a real ownership job or a specialist job with a bigger title.
If you’re a candidate, read every SEO manager posting for those same four things. Our guide to what an SEO manager does explains the role itself.
SEO manager job description template
Copy this and replace the [brackets]. The most useful line to get right is the first-six-months goal: it tells candidates what you actually need.
Job title: SEO Manager, [Focus or area: e.g. Ecommerce, Content, International, Product-led] About [Company] [Two sentences: what the company sells, to whom, and what organic search contributes to the business today.] About the role We're hiring an SEO Manager to own organic search for [site, section or market]. You'll report to [title] and work closely with [engineering / product / content / design / analytics]. You'll [manage [number] SEO specialists / manage our SEO agency / be our first dedicated SEO hire]. In your first six months you'll [one concrete goal, e.g. set the SEO roadmap for our product pages, ship the top technical fixes from our audit and grow non-brand organic sign-ups]. What you'll do - Own the SEO strategy and roadmap for [site or section], based on search demand, competitors and our own data. - Prioritize technical fixes, new content and page improvements by impact, and get them shipped with engineering and content teams. - Write clear requirements for engineers and briefs for writers, and review work before it goes live. - Review launches, redesigns and migrations for search risk before release. - Track organic traffic, conversions and visibility, including how [company] appears in AI-generated answers. - Diagnose drops and changes, and explain causes and next steps to leadership. - [Manage, coach and hire SEO specialists / manage our agency's scope, budget and results.] - Report organic performance to [audience] each [month / quarter]. What you'll bring - [X]+ years in SEO, including ownership of results for a site or major section. - A track record you can explain: what you prioritized, what shipped and what happened. - Strong technical SEO understanding: crawling, indexing, rendering, site architecture, structured data, migrations. - Content strategy experience: matching topics and page types to search demand. - Experience getting SEO work built by engineering and product teams. - Daily use of [tools: e.g. Google Search Console, GA4, a crawler, a keyword and backlink tool]. - Clear writing and presenting for both technical and executive audiences. - [For people managers: experience managing or mentoring SEO specialists.] Nice to have - Experience with [site type: e.g. large ecommerce catalogs, marketplaces, publishers, SaaS]. - [A specific skill: e.g. international SEO, JavaScript SEO, SQL, programmatic pages]. How we'll measure success - [Metric 1: e.g. non-brand organic sessions to priority pages] - [Metric 2: e.g. organic sign-ups, leads or revenue] - [Metric 3: e.g. visibility for priority topics, in classic results and AI answers] - [Metric 4: e.g. roadmap items shipped each quarter] Pay and benefits [Salary range], [benefits], [location / hybrid / remote].
Notes for hiring managers using it:
- Say how much engineering time SEO gets. A manager with a dedicated developer and one who files tickets into a shared backlog will get very different results.
- Be honest about the team. “You’ll manage two specialists” and “you’re our first SEO hire” attract different people.
- Measure outcomes, not rankings alone. Rankings for terms nobody searches don’t help the business.
- Include the pay range. A growing number of US states require one in postings; Cooley’s summary of state pay transparency laws is a good place to check.
What are the main SEO manager duties?
The duties group into five areas. Most postings list all five, but the order tells you which one matters most.
| Area | What the manager does |
|---|---|
| Strategy | Finds the biggest organic opportunities and sets the roadmap |
| Execution through others | Gets fixes, pages and content shipped by engineering, product and writers |
| Protection | Reviews launches and migrations so nothing breaks search |
| Measurement | Tracks traffic, conversions and visibility; diagnoses changes |
| Leadership | Manages specialists or an agency; reports to leadership |
How is an SEO manager posting different from an SEO specialist posting?
A specialist posting asks for skilled hands-on work; a manager posting asks for ownership. Look for verbs like “own”, “set”, “prioritize” and “lead” in a manager posting, and “research”, “audit”, “optimize” and “support” in a specialist posting.
| SEO specialist posting | SEO manager posting | |
|---|---|---|
| Main verbs | Research, audit, optimize, report | Own, prioritize, lead, ship, advise |
| Results | Tasks done well | Organic traffic and conversions |
| Stakeholders | The SEO manager, writers | Engineering, product, leadership, agencies |
| People | Rarely manages anyone | Often manages specialists, writers or an agency |
The SEO specialist job description has the hands-on template if you’re hiring at that level instead.
How do senior and agency SEO manager roles differ?
Senior SEO manager or head of SEO postings add whole-site strategy, a seat in company planning, budget and hiring. They ask for programs at scale: large migrations, international expansion, programmatic pages.
Agency SEO manager postings spread the same work across several clients. Expect client presentations, monthly reporting, scoping new work, keeping projects to budget and helping win new business. Our guide to billable hours explains how agency time is tracked.
How does AI search show up in SEO manager job descriptions?
Many postings now ask the manager to track and improve visibility in AI-generated answers as well as classic results. You’ll see phrases like “AI search”, “answer engine optimization” or “generative engine optimization.”
Google’s own guidance is that SEO best practices remain relevant for AI features like AI Overviews and AI Mode. So a reasonable posting treats AI search as part of the SEO manager’s job, with new measurement, rather than a separate discipline that replaces the fundamentals.
How do you use an SEO manager job description when applying?
Read the posting for the results it owns, the teams it works through and the size of the team, then show matching results you led.
- Find the ownership. What site, section or market will you own, and how big is the team?
- Match one program to it. Pick a program where you set the plan, got it shipped and moved a result, and put it near the top of your resume. Our SEO specialist resume page includes senior and manager bullet examples.
- Show influence. One line on how you got engineering or product time for SEO work is worth a lot.
- Prepare for the audit. Many SEO manager interviews include a quick review of the company’s own site; see our SEO manager interview questions.
When you prepare your own story for the interview, tell it the way you’d tell a colleague over coffee: what the problem was, what you decided and why. A hiring manager wants to hear your judgment, so let your own reasoning, and your own voice, come through rather than reciting a polished script.
Recon can help with step 2: paste the posting and your resume, and it suggests line-by-line rewrites that use only facts already on your resume.
FAQ
What qualifications does an SEO manager need?
There’s no required qualification. Postings often ask for a bachelor’s degree and several years of SEO experience, but owned results you can explain matter most.
How many years of experience does an SEO manager need?
Postings commonly ask for several years in SEO, with at least some time owning results for a site or section. The exact number varies by company size and whether the role manages people.
Does an SEO manager manage people?
Often, but not always. Some SEO managers lead specialists and writers; others manage an agency; at smaller companies, the SEO manager is the only SEO and “manager” means owning the channel.
What tools should an SEO manager job description list?
The ones the team really uses: usually Google Search Console, an analytics platform, a site crawler and a keyword and backlink tool. Listing specific brand names can screen out people who use a similar tool, so many postings name categories instead.
What’s the difference between an SEO manager and an SEO director?
An SEO director usually owns organic search across several products, sites or markets, with budget and headcount, and sits closer to company planning. An SEO manager owns a site or section and the roadmap for it.