SEO Specialist skills

Essential skills

Keyword research — Employers may ask how you find search terms that match what people need and what a site offers.
On-page SEO — Employers may review how you improve page titles, headings, content, links, and image descriptions.
Content optimisation — Employers may ask you to explain how you make content useful to readers while aligning it with search intent.
SEO performance analysis — Employers may ask how you use search and website data to assess results and decide what to do next.
SEO strategy and prioritisation — Employers may give you a site or business goal and ask which SEO tasks you would tackle first.

Technical SEO — Employers may ask how you investigate issues such as crawling, indexing, redirects, broken links, and duplicate pages.
SEO tools and analytics — Employers may ask you to describe how you use tools for search performance, traffic analysis, site audits, and keyword research.
Structured data — Employers may ask when structured data is useful and how you would check that it is implemented correctly.
Site architecture and internal linking — Employers may ask how you would organise pages so users and search engines can find important content.
Local or international SEO — Employers may ask about your approach to location-based visibility or sites serving multiple regions and languages.

Communication — Employers may assess whether you can explain SEO findings and recommendations clearly to non-specialists.
Collaboration — Employers may ask how you work with writers, developers, designers, and other teams to deliver SEO changes.
Problem-solving — Employers may give you a traffic or ranking issue and ask how you would investigate it.
Adaptability — Employers may ask how you respond when search results, priorities, or project requirements change.
Attention to detail — Employers may review how carefully you check audits, recommendations, and page changes.
Organisation — Employers may ask how you manage competing tasks, deadlines, and follow-up work.

Audited a website for crawl, indexing, and on-page issues, then prioritised recommendations by impact and effort.
Researched keywords and search intent to guide updates to landing pages and editorial content.
Worked with content and development teams to implement SEO recommendations and track performance using analytics tools.

Practise on a website: Review its pages, navigation, search visibility, and technical setup; document issues and possible fixes.
Learn the tools: Get familiar with analytics platforms, search performance reports, keyword research tools, and site crawlers.
Build a repeatable process: Use checklists for keyword research, page optimisation, technical reviews, and performance reporting.
Study search results: Compare the pages that appear for a query and note how their format, depth, and intent differ.
Work with others: Practise turning SEO recommendations into clear tasks for writers, developers, or site owners.
Keep learning: Follow changes in search guidance and test your understanding on real projects.

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