SEO and AI Search Specialist

Aquent is partnering with a leading organization dedicated to shaping the future of digital engagement. This is an exciting opportunity to join a forward-thinking team where your expertise will directly influence how the organization connects with its audience across rapidly evolving search landscapes. You will be at the forefront of innovation, driving impactful strategies that redefine organic visibility and AI-powered discovery.

Are you a visionary in organic search and AI, ready to make a significant impact? We are seeking a highly skilled professional to lead the charge in optimizing our client's digital presence across traditional organic search, Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), and emerging AI search platforms. This role offers a unique blend of strategic thinking, hands-on execution, and continuous learning, placing you at the heart of digital innovation. You will be instrumental in shaping the future of their search strategy, directly influencing content visibility and user engagement in an increasingly AI-driven world.

Engagement Details

• Initial Term: 4-week project engagement
• Hours: Approximately 20 hours per week
• Potential Extension: Longer-term contract engagement and potential full-time conversion based on the work
• Tools: Semrush, GA4, Google Search Console, Looker Studio, CMS, and Asana

Key Responsibilities

SEO & AEO Strategy Leadership

• Recommend priorities and identify opportunities for both organic and AI search programs.
• Present recommendations with clear reasoning, outlining trade-offs and providing supporting evidence.
• Proactively identify areas where the organization might be lagging in industry developments or emerging search practices.
• Prioritize initiatives based on expected impact, clearly communicating any areas of uncertainty.
• Collaborate with marketing leadership to translate recommendations into a cohesive search roadmap.

Pioneering AI Search & Industry Research

• Stay at the cutting edge of AI search through continuous industry research, primary documentation, platform updates, release notes, and credible practitioner insights.
• Evaluate emerging AEO practices through hands-on testing and experimentation.
• Document test results, including inconclusive findings, and transform successful approaches into repeatable processes.
• Monitor AI visibility across platforms such as Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Copilot.
• Measure citation presence and AI visibility in addition to traditional organic rankings.

Hands-On On-Page SEO & AEO Optimization

• Take ownership of optimizing commercial, conversion-focused pages, including service, industry, and solution pages.
• Optimize title and heading structures, entities, subtopics, internal linking, schema, and extractable answer content.
• Write replacement copy when page content requires improvement, moving beyond just recommendations.
• Develop a repeatable scoring methodology for evaluating pages based on SEO, AEO, extractability, and conversion potential.
• Strategically balance AI/search optimization with the site's sales and conversion objectives.
• Provide implementation-ready recommendations to the web team.

Crafting SEO & AEO Content Briefs

• Develop detailed briefs for middle- and top-of-funnel content.
• Define target queries, search intent, entities, subtopics, heading structure, questions to answer, sources/citations, internal links, and conversion paths.
• Ensure briefs align with existing editorial standards and writer workflows.
• Coach writers and subject matter experts on SEO/AEO best practices.
• Maintain templates and standards to ensure consistency as content volume grows.

Advanced Technical SEO & Measurement

• Conduct thorough crawl and index analysis, covering crawl budget, indexation, duplicate and thin content, orphaned pages, redirect chains, canonicals, and status codes.
• Monitor AI crawler access and identify rendering or site-structure issues impacting indexing and AI citations.
• Develop and maintain schema, structured data, entity, and internal-linking standards.
• Support URL taxonomy migrations, including redirect mapping, equity preservation, and post-launch troubleshooting.
• Reconcile data across Semrush, GA4, Google Search Console, and Looker Studio to determine appropriate metrics for reporting.
• Accurately separate AI-referred traffic from traditional organic traffic and connect both to pipeline performance.

Optimizing Process & Workflow with AI

• Document SEO/AEO processes and identify opportunities to improve or automate workflows using AI.
• Develop prompts, templates, and workflows that can be adopted by the broader team.
• Maintain task status in Asana and adhere to established brand and content standards.

What We're Looking For

Essential SEO & Content Expertise

• 4+ years of hands-on organic search experience.
• Demonstrated experience optimizing commercial, conversion-focused pages such as service, product, or solution pages.
• Ability to clearly explain changes made, the rationale behind them, and the resulting impact.
• Experience developing comprehensive SEO-focused content briefs that writers can effectively execute.
• Strong understanding of how to make content extractable for AI answer engines without compromising conversion or persuasive messaging.
• Strong content judgment and the ability to provide specific, actionable recommendations to writers.

Pioneering AI & AEO Experience

• Hands-on experience using AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Claude for research, analysis, page scoring, content briefs, and drafting.
• Ability to critically evaluate AI-generated output and determine its reliability, knowing when additional validation is required.
• Experience identifying opportunities to leverage AI to improve or streamline SEO processes.
• Ability to develop and document AI-supported workflows that others can easily adopt.

Technical SEO Mastery

• Hands-on experience conducting website crawls and analyzing indexation issues.
• Extensive experience with structured data, schema, entities, and internal linking at scale.
• Working knowledge of JavaScript rendering, website architecture, and AI crawler access.
• Experience supporting at least one significant website migration or information architecture restructure.
• Working proficiency with Semrush, GA4, Google Search Console, and Looker Studio.

Communication & Collaboration Acumen

• Strong analytical and strategic thinking with the ability to clearly defend recommendations.
• Comfortable identifying uncertainty and adapting direction when evidence supports a different approach.
• Strong written communication skills, particularly for briefs, documentation, standards, and findings.
• Highly self-directed and comfortable working independently in a contract environment.

Nice to Have - Not Required

• Professional services or B2B consulting experience.
• Experience developing content strategies across the full marketing funnel.
• Experience collaborating with an external agency partner on SEO/AEO initiatives.
• Log file analysis and Core Web Vitals experience.
• Public or internal thought leadership, including presentations, writing, experiment documentation, or internal standards.

About Aquent Talent:

Aquent Talent connects the best talent in marketing, creative, and design with the world's biggest brands.

Our eligible talent get access to amazing benefits like subsidized health, vision, and dental plans, paid sick leave, and retirement plans with a match. We also offer free online training through Aquent Gymnasium. More information on our awesome benefits!

Aquent is an equal-opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics. We're about creating an inclusive environment-one where different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are valued, and everyone can contribute, grow their careers, and thrive.