SEO Manager

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Salary

£32,000 - £48,000

Hours and location

This is a full-time role based in Leeds, UK. We offer hybrid working and flexible hours to everyone in the team, but this is not a fully remote opportunity, and we require you to be in the office at least 3 days a week.

Benefits package

As part of our commitment to making Engage a great place to work, we’ve built a comprehensive benefits package that fuels our thriving culture and delivers an exceptional, well-rounded employee experience. Some of our most popular perks are:

• We're employee owned
• 25 days holiday + bank holidays (rising after 5 years)
• Company performance linked bonus scheme (this is depending on the business’ performance and is not a contractual benefit)
• Comprehensive private health insurance
• 5% company pension scheme
• Access to financial coaching
• A company culture that promotes work-life balance
• Access to mental health support
• Free on-site gym
• Hybrid working
• An award-winning office
• Your birthday off
• Regular socials, epic Summer parties and more…

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What we're looking for

As an SEO Manager, you will be responsible for planning, managing and delivering SEO activity across a range of client accounts. You will work across technical SEO, content strategy, on-page optimisation, authority building, Digital PR, analytics and reporting to help clients improve organic visibility, search performance and commercial outcomes.

This role requires someone with strong agency-side SEO experience, or equivalent exposure across multiple websites, sectors and business models. You will be expected to manage your own accounts, prioritise activity effectively, communicate clearly with clients, and turn search data into practical recommendations that can be delivered by clients, developers, content teams and wider agency specialists.

The SEO Manager will need a strong grounding in traditional SEO fundamentals, including technical audits, content visibility analysis, link profile assessment, migration planning, structured data, indexation, keyword strategy and performance reporting. GEO / AEO and LLM visibility analysis are now also part of the role, but should build on strong foundational SEO skills rather than replace them.

Reporting to

Head of SEO / Senior SEO Manager

Vision for the role

This is a key role for someone who wants to take ownership of SEO accounts within a fast-paced agency environment and develop into a trusted strategic lead for clients.

The SEO Manager will play an important part in delivering effective, commercially focused SEO work across retainers, projects, migrations, audits, content strategies and integrated search activity. They will work closely with the Head of SEO, Senior SEO Manager, Account Directors, developers, content specialists, Digital PR teams and Paid Media colleagues to ensure SEO is joined up with wider performance marketing activity.

The role offers the opportunity to work across a broad range of sectors, websites, CMS platforms and search challenges. The successful candidate will be expected to stay close to industry developments, understand how search behaviour is changing, and contribute to how the agency evolves its SEO, GEO and AEO services.

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Responsibilities

Reporting

• Deliver client reporting aligned to SLAs, using GA4, Search Console and SEO tools to analyse performance across visibility, traffic, rankings, engagement and conversions.
• Provide clear, commercially relevant commentary that explains performance changes, identifies risks and outlines next actions.
• Contribute to integrated reporting across channels, including dashboards and cross-channel insights where required.
• Diagnose performance drivers such as technical issues, content gaps, demand shifts, algorithm updates or competitor activity.
• Ensure reporting aligns to client KPIs and focuses on meaningful outcomes rather than vanity metrics.
• Improve reporting efficiency through templates, automation and reusable frameworks.

Tools

• Confidently use core SEO and analytics tools to diagnose issues, identify opportunities and measure performance.
• Demonstrate strong experience with Screaming Frog, SEMrush, Ahrefs, Google Search Console, GA4, GTM and Looker Studio.
• Use tools to validate recommendations and support data-driven decision making.
• Maintain working knowledge of additional tools such as rank tracking platforms, outreach tools, behavioural analytics and CRM integrations.
• Stay up to date with emerging tools, including those supporting automation and AI-led analysis.

Strategy

• Develop tailored SEO strategies covering technical SEO, content, authority building, Digital PR, local and international SEO.
• Translate client objectives into clear roadmaps with defined actions, ownership and success metrics.
• Conduct audits across technical SEO, content visibility, link profiles and structured data to identify opportunities and risks.
• Plan and brief content strategies including keyword research, page mapping, content gaps and internal linking.
• Manage migrations and major SEO projects end-to-end, including planning, QA and post-launch monitoring.
• Align SEO with CRO, UX and Paid Search insights to improve overall performance.
• Contribute to GEO / AEO strategy, ensuring LLM visibility builds on strong SEO fundamentals.

Client and account management

• Manage SEO accounts effectively, including planning, prioritisation, communication and delivery.
• Maintain clear roadmaps aligned to objectives, KPIs and budget constraints.
• Build strong client relationships through proactive, commercially aware communication.
• Present recommendations and performance updates clearly and confidently.
• Identify growth opportunities and challenge low-value requests with practical alternatives.
• Escalate risks early and work with Account Directors to manage expectations and outcomes.

Web builds, migrations and technical delivery

• Lead SEO input during web builds, redesigns and migrations.
• Define SEO requirements including site structure, URLs, metadata, structured data and tracking.
• Conduct pre- and post-launch QA to identify and resolve technical risks.
• Collaborate with developers, designers and project teams to ensure SEO best practice is implemented.
• Support performance, accessibility and page experience improvements where relevant.

GEO, AEO and emerging search behaviour

• Analyse client visibility across AI-led search environments and answer engines.
• Understand how SEO, Digital PR and structured content contribute to LLM visibility.
• Recommend improvements to content structure, FAQs, entity clarity and authority signals.
• Stay up to date with evolving search behaviour, SERP features and AI developments.
• Communicate GEO / AEO opportunities clearly without overstating impact.

New Business

• Support new business opportunities with SEO audits, insights and recommendations.
• Contribute to proposals, pitch decks and presentations.
• Identify key organic growth opportunities across technical SEO, content and authority.
• Help position SEO within integrated marketing strategies alongside Paid Search and Digital PR.
• Support development of case studies and materials demonstrating SEO value.

Process

• Follow and contribute to SEO processes, templates and quality standards.
• Improve workflows to increase efficiency, consistency and scalability.
• Maintain documentation, checklists and frameworks for team use.
• Share knowledge on SEO updates, tools and successful client work.
• Identify opportunities for automation and AI-driven efficiencies.

Management of people and advisory

• Support development of junior team members through guidance and feedback.
• Review work to ensure accuracy, clarity and quality.
• Help build skills across technical SEO, content strategy and client communication.
• Contribute to internal training and knowledge sharing.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams across the agency.

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Dimension, authority and risk

Client Retention and growth

As part of client retention, you will be responsible for:

• Creating strong client relationships
• Become a senior figure on your SEO accounts
• Implement strategies for clients working towards KPIs and objectives, ensuring the team is delivering against these.
• Support the team to resolve any client issues

For client growth, you will be responsible for:

• Supporting the new business development team with new business opportunities, proposals, and pitches.
• Provide an SEO approach for new business opportunities, working collaboratively with other departments where necessary.
• Work with the new business development team to develop outbound opportunities.

Authority

Within this role, you will be responsible for key day-to-day decisions across your SEO accounts, including prioritisation, recommendations, reporting commentary and roadmap management.

You will be expected to advise clients and internal teams on SEO best practice, technical risks, content opportunities, migration requirements, tracking needs and authority-building priorities.

You will be responsible for the quality and accuracy of your own work, and for ensuring recommendations are realistic, commercially relevant and deliverable.

More complex strategic, commercial or client relationship issues should be escalated to the Head of SEO, Senior SEO Manager, Performance Marketing Director or Account Director where appropriate.

Due to the client-facing nature of the role, you need to be able to problem-solve, communicate clearly and explain recommendations in a way that different stakeholders can understand.

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Person Specification

Skills and abilities

• Ability to effectively communicate, both verbally and in writing.
• Demonstrate initiative and be respectful towards everyone. 
• Able to deal with emergencies and difficult situations calmly and professionally.

Experience and Knowledge

• Over 3 years of SEO experience.
• Over 1 year experience line managing an individual.
• Experience supporting and running new business.
• Experience creating successful SEO strategies.
• Knowledge of:
  • SEMrush
  • Ahrefs
  • Screaming Frog
  • Moz
  • AWR
  • Search Console
     
• Proficient use of following reporting tools:
  • GA4
  • Google Tag Manager
  • Looker Studio
     
• Knowledge of following reporting tools:
  • Hotjar
  • Clarity
     
• Experience of running digital PR campaigns, use of tools (or similar to):
  • Cision
  • Roxhill

Education and Training

• Able to provide training to clients and internally. 
• Able to provide training to clients around different areas of SEO. 
• Able to find training courses to enhance your own learning, furthering your own skill set. 

Attitudes

• Have a positive attitude to enhance the experience of staff and SEO team and strive to reach the highest standards of customer service. 
• Willingness to communicate and work with other teams within the agency.
• Understand others perspectives and offer supportive guidance. 
• Take constructive feedback onboard and look to improve in those areas. 

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What does success look like in this role?

The SEO Manager’s performance will be measured against their own goals as well as the following criteria:

• Strong client retention, satisfaction and relationship management.
• High-quality, accurate and commercially relevant SEO recommendations.
• Clear ownership of roadmaps, delivery plans and reporting.
• Delivery of work within agreed timeframes, budgets and KPIs.
• Effective management of audits, migrations, content strategies and retainers.
• Identification of risks and opportunities, with proactive recommendations.
• Contribution to account growth, team collaboration and process improvement.