SEO analyst job description templates for small businesses: 6 role variants with pay benchmarks, overtime classification, and screening notes. Free DOCX.
SEO Analyst Job Description Templates for Small Businesses
6 free templates covering the in-house analyst, web analytics, ecommerce, multi-location, junior, and contract versions of the role, each with an honest overtime classification note. Download as DOCX.
The first SEO analyst job description I ever wrote was three jobs stapled together. It asked for keyword research, technical audits, content production, link building, and a dashboard nobody had specified, at a salary that matched none of those markets. Fourteen people applied. None of them were what we needed, and that was my fault, not theirs.
The problem with this particular title is that it is genuinely ambiguous. An SEO analyst at one company builds the measurement stack and never touches a page. At another company the same title ships title tags and writes content briefs. Candidates cannot tell which version you are hiring from the title alone, so they either self-select out or apply to everything.
At FirstHR we write hiring templates for companies without an HR department, where the person writing the posting is the founder or the one marketing hire. The six templates below cover the versions of this role that small companies actually hire, each with a classification note that says plainly whether the job is exempt. More are in the hiring templates library.
TL;DR
An SEO analyst measures and diagnoses organic search: keyword research, reporting, audits, competitor analysis, and recommendations. A specialist implements instead. National pay for the closest federal classification runs a median of $78,760 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Junior analysts are usually non-exempt. Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
What an SEO Analyst Actually Does
An SEO analyst measures and diagnoses organic search performance and turns the findings into recommendations. The recurring output is a report with an opinion attached: what moved, why it moved, and what should happen next, sized by expected impact.
In practice the week splits into four buckets. Recurring reporting on traffic, rankings, and conversions. Investigation when a number moves unexpectedly. Research that feeds future work, meaning keywords, competitors, and content gaps. And technical auditing, which at small companies is usually the neglected one.
The part that separates a good analyst from an expensive one is the fourth column of every report: the recommendation. Data without a recommendation is a dashboard, and a dashboard is something you can buy. Judgment about what to do next is what you are actually hiring, and it is what your job description should ask candidates to demonstrate.
Write the Primary Duty Into the First Paragraph
Candidates read the first two sentences and decide whether to keep going. If the role is measurement-first, say that the analyst owns reporting and recommendations while implementation sits with the content or engineering team. If the analyst also ships changes, say that too. Ambiguity here costs you qualified applicants who assume the job is the other version and move on to the next posting.
Analyst, Specialist, or Manager?
The three titles describe different outputs, not three rungs of one ladder. An analyst produces findings. A specialist produces changes to the site. A manager owns the strategy, the budget, and the results. Confusing them is the single most common reason a search hire disappoints.
SEO Analyst
Measures and diagnoses
Owns the numbers: keyword research, reporting, audits, competitor analysis, and forecasts. Produces recommendations backed by data. May or may not implement them, and the posting has to say which.
SEO Specialist
Executes and implements
Ships the work: on-page changes, content briefs, internal linking, technical fixes, link acquisition. Analysis is part of the job but the output is changes to the site, not a report.
SEO Manager
Sets strategy and owns budget
Decides where the channel goes, manages people or agency partners, owns the budget, and answers for the results in front of leadership. Hires the analyst rather than being one.
Fractional or agency analyst
Bought by the deliverable
The same analysis on a contract, when the volume of work does not fill a role. Scoped by deliverable and schedule rather than by duties, with a real classification line to respect.
Pick by what you are missing rather than by what sounds senior. A company with plenty of execution capacity and no idea what is working needs an analyst. A company that knows what to do and cannot get it shipped needs a specialist. A company that needs someone to own the channel end to end and answer for it needs an SEO manager.
Title inflation cuts both ways. Posting an analyst role at manager pay attracts people who want to manage and will leave when they cannot. Posting a manager role at analyst pay attracts nobody at all. Adjacent roles worth considering instead: a marketing analyst if the scope is broader than search, or a PPC manager if paid channels are the real gap.
What Belongs in the Posting
A job description does four jobs at once: it sells the company, it filters unqualified applicants, it protects you legally, and it closes the candidate. Most postings only attempt the first, which is why they generate volume without fit. Here is the full inventory.
The parts candidates read first
What the business does and where search fits
Whether the role analyzes, implements, or both
Site scale: pages, locations, or SKUs
Who the analyst reports to and works alongside
The parts that filter applicants
Named platforms and tools, not a generic tool list
Data skills stated at a real level
Years of experience marked required or preferred
Whether execution is inside the job or outside it
The parts that protect you
FLSA classification stated on the posting
Hourly or salaried pay basis
Essential functions written plainly
Equal opportunity statement
The parts that win the hire
A published salary range, not a placeholder
The reporting tools and data access provided
What success looks like at 90 days
A named person and a real timeline to apply
The most common omission is site scale. An analyst needs to know whether they are measuring 40 pages or 40,000, three locations or three hundred, because the work is completely different at each end. Our general guide to writing a job description covers the structural fundamentals that apply to every role.
6 SEO Analyst Job Description Templates to Download
Download all six as one file or copy them individually. Each follows the same structure: company overview, position summary, key responsibilities, required qualifications, nice to have, a classification note, an equal opportunity statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you need to change.
Download All 6 SEO Analyst Job Description Templates
In-house standard, web analytics, ecommerce, local and multi-location, junior, and contract scope of work. All in one download.
In-House SEO Analyst
The standard W-2 role
The general version: reporting, keyword research, audits, competitor tracking, and a monthly recommendation with impact attached.
SEO and Web Analytics
Measurement stack owner
For companies whose reporting cannot be trusted yet. Tracking configuration, attribution, dashboards, and metric definitions.
Ecommerce SEO Analyst
Catalog and category depth
For a real catalog: category and product reporting, cannibalization, faceted navigation, structured data, and revenue sizing.
Local / Multi-Location
Listings and map visibility
For multi-site businesses: listing accuracy, per-location ranking, review performance, calls, and direction requests.
Junior SEO Analyst
First or second role
Scoped for supervision: recurring reports, assigned research, audit checklists, and verification of shipped fixes.
Contract / Fractional
Scope of work, not a job
For part-time need: deliverables, term, and a plainly written contractor classification warning you should actually read.
Template 1: In-House SEO Analyst (Standard, W-2)
The general version of the role: reporting, keyword research, audits, competitor tracking, and a monthly recommendation with an impact estimate attached. Start here and cut what does not apply.
In-House SEO Analyst Job Description (Standard, W-2)
SEO ANALYST JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State] or Remote)
Reports to: [Marketing Manager / Head of Marketing / Owner]
Employment type: Full-time, W-2
FLSA status: [Exempt / Non-exempt] (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year
ABOUT [COMPANY NAME]
[Company Name] is a [industry] company in [City, State] with [team size
revenue], and we are hiring an SEO Analyst to own the measurement side of that
channel: what is working, what is not, and what we should do next.
POSITION SUMMARY
The SEO Analyst measures and diagnoses organic search performance. The role
owns keyword research, rank and traffic reporting, technical site audits,
competitor analysis, and the recommendations that come out of them. Execution
is [shared with the content team / handled by this role / assigned to agency
partners].
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Own weekly and monthly organic search reporting, including traffic, rankings,
impressions, click-through rate, and conversions
•Run keyword research and maintain the keyword map for [number] priority pages
•Audit the site for crawl, indexation, and page experience issues, and file
prioritized tickets with [engineering / the web team]
•Analyze search console and analytics data to explain movement, not just
report it
•Track competitors and identify content and link gaps
•Forecast the traffic and revenue impact of proposed work
•Build and maintain dashboards the rest of the company can read
•Recommend priorities each [month / quarter] with an expected impact attached
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in SEO, digital analytics, or a closely related role
•Working command of a web analytics platform and a search console
•Comfort with spreadsheets at a real level: pivot tables, lookups, and
cleaning messy export data
•Ability to explain a technical finding to a non-technical decision maker
•[Bachelor’s degree preferred / no degree requirement: choose one]
NICE TO HAVE
•SQL, a business intelligence tool, or scripting for data pulls
•Log file analysis experience
•Experience in [our industry / a comparable business model]
CLASSIFICATION NOTE (read before posting)
Classification depends on duties and salary, not the title. An analyst paid at
least $684 per week on a salary basis whose primary duty is analysis and
recommendation on matters of significance, exercised with real discretion and
independent judgment, generally fits the administrative exemption. An analyst
who mainly pulls scheduled reports and executes assigned tasks is non-exempt:
hourly, with overtime past 40 hours in a workweek. Decide honestly, then state
it on the posting. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume and one example of an
analysis that changed a decision.
Template 2: SEO and Web Analytics Analyst
For companies whose reporting cannot be trusted yet. Tracking configuration, attribution, dashboards, and metric definitions come first, with search analysis built on top of numbers that reconcile.
SEO and Web Analytics Analyst Job Description
SEO AND WEB ANALYTICS ANALYST JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State] or Remote)
Reports to: [Head of Marketing / Head of Growth]
Employment type: Full-time, W-2
FLSA status: [Exempt / Non-exempt] (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] runs [number] marketing channels and cannot currently say what
organic search contributes to any of them. This role owns the measurement
layer: clean tracking, trustworthy dashboards, and a defensible answer to the
question of what search is worth to the business.
POSITION SUMMARY
The SEO and Web Analytics Analyst builds and maintains the measurement stack
for organic search, validates the data behind it, and turns it into reporting
that marketing and leadership actually use for decisions.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Own analytics and tag configuration for organic search: events, conversions,
channel definitions, and campaign parameters
•Audit tracking regularly and fix attribution gaps before they reach a report
•Build dashboards covering organic traffic, rankings, conversions, and
assisted revenue
•Reconcile numbers between the analytics platform, the search console, and
[the CRM / the ecommerce backend]
•Run keyword and landing page analysis to find underperforming pages
•Segment organic performance by [page type / intent / device / location]
•Present findings monthly with a written recommendation, not only a chart
•Document definitions so a metric means the same thing to everyone
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in web analytics, SEO measurement, or marketing analytics
•Hands-on configuration experience with an analytics platform and a tag manager
•Strong spreadsheet skills and comfort with large, imperfect exports
•Clear written communication: findings, caveats, and a recommendation
•[Bachelor’s degree preferred / no degree requirement: choose one]
NICE TO HAVE
•SQL and a business intelligence tool
•Statistical testing background
•Experience defining a marketing data dictionary
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
A measurement analyst who designs the reporting approach, sets definitions, and
advises on priorities is exercising discretion and independent judgment, which
supports the administrative exemption when the salary tests are also met. Verify
both the salary level and the duties before classifying anyone as exempt. This
is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a short note on a
tracking problem you found and fixed.
Still Using Spreadsheets for Onboarding?
Automate documents, training assignments, task management, and track onboarding progress in real time.
For a real catalog: category and product-level reporting, keyword cannibalization, faceted navigation, structured data health, and recommendations sized in revenue rather than rankings.
Ecommerce SEO Analyst Job Description
ECOMMERCE SEO ANALYST JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State] or Remote)
Reports to: [Ecommerce Manager / Head of Marketing]
Employment type: Full-time, W-2
FLSA status: [Exempt / Non-exempt] (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] sells [product category] through [platform] with roughly
[number] active SKUs across [number] categories. Organic search is [share] of
revenue. We need an analyst who can tell us which categories, collections, and
product pages are earning that revenue and which are quietly losing it.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Ecommerce SEO Analyst measures organic performance at the category, product,
and template level, diagnoses the causes of movement, and turns findings into a
prioritized queue of fixes with revenue estimates attached.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Report organic revenue, sessions, and conversion rate by category, collection,
and product template
•Run keyword research for category and product pages, including long-tail and
seasonal demand
•Find and resolve keyword cannibalization across similar product and category
pages
•Audit faceted navigation, pagination, parameters, and indexation bloat
•Monitor out-of-stock, discontinued, and seasonal URL handling and the redirect
plan behind it
•Track structured data health for products, reviews, and pricing
•Watch competitor pricing pages and category structures for share shifts
•Size each recommendation in expected revenue, not in rankings alone
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years of SEO or analytics work on an ecommerce catalog
•Understanding of how faceted navigation and product feeds create crawl issues
•Comfort joining analytics data with order or product data in a spreadsheet
•Ability to prioritize by revenue impact rather than by ticket count
•[Bachelor’s degree preferred / no degree requirement: choose one]
NICE TO HAVE
•Experience on [our platform]
•SQL against an order or product database
•International or multi-currency catalog experience
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
Classify on duties and pay, not on title. An ecommerce analyst who decides what
gets measured, sets priorities, and advises on merchandising and site structure
is likely exempt if the salary tests are met. An analyst limited to producing
scheduled reports on someone else’s specification is non-exempt and owed
overtime past 40 hours in a workweek. This is general information, not legal
advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, [benefits summary], [bonus tied
to organic revenue targets, if any]
To apply, email __ with your resume and one example of a
category page analysis.
Template 4: Local / Multi-Location SEO Analyst
For businesses with physical sites: listing accuracy across every location, per-location visibility, review performance, and the calls and direction requests that search actually produces.
Local / Multi-Location SEO Analyst Job Description
LOCAL / MULTI-LOCATION SEO ANALYST JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Marketing Manager / Operations Director / Owner]
Employment type: Full-time or Part-time, W-2
FLSA status: [Exempt / Non-exempt] (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, or $_ per hour
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] operates [number] locations across [region]. Most of our new
customers find us through a map result or a local search, and no single person
currently owns how those listings perform. This role does.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Local SEO Analyst measures and improves visibility for every location:
listing accuracy, local ranking, review performance, and the share of calls,
direction requests, and bookings that search sends to each site.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Maintain accurate business listings across all [number] locations and keep
name, address, hours, and category data consistent everywhere
•Report local ranking and visibility per location and per priority service
•Track calls, direction requests, form fills, and bookings back to search
•Audit location landing pages for content, structured data, and internal
linking
•Monitor and report review volume, rating, and response rate by location
•Compare each location against its local competitor set
•Flag underperforming locations early with a written diagnosis
•Coordinate listing updates with [operations] when a location opens, moves, or
changes hours
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in local SEO, marketing analytics, or multi-location marketing
•Experience managing listings and location data at scale
•Spreadsheet skills strong enough to handle a multi-location reporting file
•Clear communication with location managers who are not marketers
•[Bachelor’s degree preferred / no degree requirement: choose one]
NICE TO HAVE
•Experience in [our industry: healthcare, home services, restaurants, retail]
•Call tracking implementation experience
•Familiarity with review management workflows
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
Many local SEO roles at smaller multi-location businesses are non-exempt in
practice, because the day is dominated by listing maintenance and recurring
reporting rather than independent judgment on matters of significance. If the
role is non-exempt, track hours and pay overtime past 40 hours in a workweek.
State the classification and the pay basis on the posting. This is general
information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per [year / hour], [benefits summary], [mileage or
travel policy if locations are visited]
To apply, email __ with your resume.
Template 5: Junior / Entry-Level SEO Analyst
Scoped for supervision: recurring reports to a set template, assigned research, audit checklists, and verification that shipped fixes worked. Written as non-exempt on purpose.
[Company Name] is hiring a Junior SEO Analyst to support our organic search
program. This is a first or second role in the field. You will learn on real
data, with a defined scope and a named person reviewing your work.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Junior SEO Analyst produces recurring reports, runs keyword research under
direction, checks the site for common technical issues, and prepares the data
that senior team members use for recommendations.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Pull and format weekly and monthly organic reporting to a set template
•Run keyword research assignments and maintain the keyword tracking file
•Complete site audit checklists and log issues with clear screenshots and URLs
•Update and quality-check title tags, meta descriptions, and internal links as
assigned
•Track competitor content publishing and note relevant changes
•Verify that fixes shipped by [engineering / content] actually resolved the
issue
•Keep documentation current on how each report is produced
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[0 to 2] years of experience; coursework, a personal site, freelance work, or
an internship all count
•Solid spreadsheet fundamentals and genuine attention to detail
•Willingness to ask a question rather than guess at a number
•Clear written English
•[Degree not required / associate or bachelor’s preferred: choose one]
NICE TO HAVE
•Exposure to an analytics platform or a search console
•Basic HTML familiarity
•A site or project you optimized yourself, in any niche
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
Entry-level analyst roles are almost always non-exempt. The work follows
established procedures under supervision rather than exercising independent
judgment on matters of significance, and the salary is frequently below the
$684 per week threshold anyway. Pay hourly, track hours, and pay overtime past
40 hours in a workweek. Unpaid internships doing this work at a for-profit
company are a serious risk area. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [benefits summary], [training budget]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a short note on
why search interests you. No cover letter required.
Template 6: Contract / Fractional SEO Analyst
A scope of work rather than a job description, for the common case where the volume of analysis does not fill a role. Read the classification warning inside it before you sign anything.
Contract / Fractional SEO Analyst Scope of Work
CONTRACT / FRACTIONAL SEO ANALYST SCOPE OF WORK
Company: __ ([City, State])
Engagement owner: [Founder / Head of Marketing]
Engagement type: Independent contractor, [number] hours per month
Term: [Number] months, renewable
Compensation: $_ per [hour / month], invoiced [monthly]
ABOUT THIS ENGAGEMENT
[Company Name] does not have enough work to justify a full-time SEO analyst but
does need the analysis done properly. This engagement covers recurring
measurement and a quarterly deep audit, delivered on a fixed schedule.
SCOPE OF WORK
The contractor delivers organic search measurement and diagnosis for
[company/site], using their own tools and methods, on the deliverable schedule
below.
DELIVERABLES
•Monthly performance report: traffic, rankings, conversions, and a written
interpretation
•Quarterly technical audit with a prioritized fix list
•Keyword research refresh each [quarter] for [number] priority topics
•Competitor review each [quarter]
•One [60] minute review call per month with [engagement owner]
•Written recommendations sized by expected impact
NOT IN SCOPE
•Content writing and publishing
•Development work and deployment
•Paid search management
•Anything not listed above, unless agreed in writing as a change order
CONTRACTOR REQUIREMENTS
•Demonstrated SEO analysis experience with references
•Own tools, own equipment, own working method and schedule
•Business insurance and a signed contractor agreement before work begins
•Completed Form W-9 on file
CLASSIFICATION WARNING (read carefully)
This is a contractor scope of work, not a job description, and the difference
has to be real. If you set the schedule, supply the tools, direct the method,
require attendance at internal meetings, and treat the person as part of the
team indefinitely, you have an employee regardless of the paperwork.
Misclassification exposes you to back overtime, unpaid payroll taxes, and
penalties. Keep the engagement deliverable-based, avoid exclusivity, and issue
Form 1099-NEC where required. If the relationship starts looking like
employment, convert the person to a W-2 role using one of the other templates
on this page. This is general information, not legal advice.
HOW TO APPLY
Send a proposal to __ with your rate, your availability,
and two examples of prior analysis work.
Exempt or Non-Exempt? Classifying an SEO Analyst
An SEO analyst can be either, and the answer turns on duties and pay rather than on the title. Under the administrative exemption the employee must be paid on a salary basis at no less than $684 per week, and the primary duty must involve discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance.
The Department of Labor sets that standard out in its fact sheet on the administrative exemption, and the underlying regulation at 29 CFR 541.200 spells out all three tests. The salary level returned to $684 per week when the department reinstated the 2019 figure in May 2026, after a federal court vacated the higher 2024 thresholds in November 2024.
The salary floor is only the first test
To treat any white-collar employee as exempt from overtime you have to clear three separate tests, and pay is only one of them. The employee must be paid on a salary basis, at no less than $684 per week, which works out to $35,568 a year, and the primary duty must satisfy the executive, administrative, or professional standard. The Department of Labor formally reinstated that 2019 salary level in May 2026, after the higher 2024 thresholds were vacated in federal court in November 2024. Paying an analyst $80,000 does not by itself make the role exempt, and neither does calling the paycheck a salary. Run all three tests before you decide, and re-run them when the job changes.
The duties test is where analysts get misclassified
The administrative exemption requires that the primary duty be office work directly related to management or general business operations, and that it include the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance. An analyst who decides what to measure, forms a view about what the data means, and recommends where budget and engineering time should go is doing exactly that. An analyst who runs the same six reports on the same schedule to someone else’s specification is not, no matter how sophisticated the tools are. The honest question is whether the person makes consequential judgment calls or executes a defined procedure. Get it wrong and you owe back overtime, not a correction going forward.
Junior analysts are usually non-exempt
Entry-level SEO analyst roles almost always fail the duties test and often fail the salary test too. The work follows established procedures under supervision, which is the textbook description of non-exempt work, and starting pay in the field frequently sits below the $684 per week threshold. That is not a problem: pay hourly, track hours, pay overtime past forty in a workweek, and price the role accordingly. The mistake is classifying a junior as exempt to avoid tracking hours, then discovering during a wage claim that two years of overtime is owed. Also treat unpaid internships doing production analysis at a for-profit company as a live risk rather than a hiring channel.
Fractional does not mean contractor by default
Small companies often want an analyst for ten hours a month, and a contractor arrangement is a legitimate way to buy that. It stops being legitimate when you set the schedule, supply the tools and accounts, direct the method, require attendance at internal meetings, and keep the arrangement running indefinitely with no defined deliverables. At that point you have a part-time employee with the wrong paperwork, and the exposure is back overtime, unpaid payroll taxes, and penalties. Keep contractor engagements deliverable-based with a defined term, let the contractor control how the work gets done, and convert to a W-2 role when the relationship outgrows the scope. This is general information, not legal advice.
If the classification is genuinely unclear, our breakdown of exempt versus non-exempt employees walks through each test with examples. The safe default for a first analyst hire at a small company is non-exempt, because the role usually starts closer to defined procedure than to independent judgment, and reclassifying upward later is far cheaper than paying two years of back overtime.
What to Pay an SEO Analyst
There is no dedicated federal wage category for SEO analysts, which is the first thing to understand before benchmarking. Search marketing files under a broader classification, so treat the federal number as the center of a band rather than as a precise figure for your role.
The Closest Federal Classification
Market research analysts and marketing specialists, the occupation that contains search marketing roles, showed a median wage of $78,760 per year, or $37.87 per hour, with the lowest 10 percent under $43,390 and the highest 10 percent above $155,480 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025). Employment in the group stood at 941,700 in 2024, with projected growth of 7 percent or higher and about 87,200 annual openings (Bureau of Labor Statistics employment projections, 2024 to 2034).
Place your role inside that band by seniority rather than by averaging to the median. The quartile figures do the work for you: the 25th percentile is roughly where a junior analyst sits, the median suits an experienced in-house analyst, and the 75th percentile covers specialized measurement or ecommerce depth.
Level or comparison role
Benchmark (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
How to use it
Junior SEO analyst
$43,390 to $58,350 (10th to 25th percentile)
Non-exempt hourly in most cases; price for training time
In-house SEO analyst
$78,760 (median)
The standard W-2 role; adjust for metro and industry
Senior or specialized analyst
$108,310 (75th percentile)
Measurement stack ownership, large catalogs, or SQL depth
Top of the classification
$155,480 (90th percentile)
Rare for a pure analyst; usually a manager title in practice
Data scientists
$120,230 (median)
The adjacent quantitative role, if your job leans that way
Web and digital interface designers
$104,000 (median)
Relevant when the role includes front-end implementation
Marketing managers
$166,790 (median)
Where the pay goes if you are really hiring a manager
The employment outlook for the classification comes from the same source, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook projects the group growing much faster than the average for all occupations. Publish a good-faith range where pay transparency laws require one, and consider publishing it everywhere else too. Analysts benchmark compensation professionally, and a posting with no number reads as a company hoping to underpay.
Companies Using FirstHR Onboard 3x Faster
Join hundreds of small businesses who transformed their new hire experience.
Interviews are a poor filter for this role because fluency with tool names is easy to fake and the actual skill, judgment about messy data, only shows in written work. Replace the second interview with a short paid exercise and grade the reasoning rather than the formatting.
Build the exercise from something real. An export of organic traffic showing an unexplained drop, a keyword file, and a page inventory is enough. Ask for a written diagnosis and one prioritized recommendation, cap it at two hours, and pay for the time. Give every finalist the same brief so the comparison is honest.
What to look for
Strong signal
Weak signal
Handling of the data
Notices the tracking gap or duplicate page set you left in
Reports the numbers as given without checking them
Stated assumptions
Names what the data cannot answer and why
Presents every figure with equal confidence
Recommendation
One prioritized action with expected impact
A list of ten generic best practices
Communication
A non-marketer could follow the argument
Tool names and acronyms substituting for reasoning
Prioritization
Ranks by business impact
Ranks by how easy each fix is
Curiosity
Asks a clarifying question before starting
Delivers exactly what was asked and nothing more
Do Not Ask for Free Work Disguised as an Exercise
There is a line between a scoped exercise on sample data and a full audit of your live site delivered for free. Strong candidates recognize the second immediately and withdraw, which means the practice filters out exactly the people you want. Keep the task under two hours, pay a flat fee for it, use anonymized or historical data, and never implement a recommendation from someone you did not hire.
Hiring an SEO Analyst Without an HR Department
Search hires fail at a small company in three predictable places: the hiring manager cannot evaluate the skill, the posting describes several jobs at once, and onboarding stalls on account access. Each one has a fix that costs less than the bad hire does.
You are hiring for a skill you cannot personally evaluate
This is the hardest part of a first analytics hire at a small company. The founder or marketing lead running the search usually cannot tell a strong SEO analyst from a confident one, because both talk about the same tools and the same metrics. Resumes are no help: everyone lists the same platforms. The fix is to stop interviewing and start testing. Give every finalist the same short, paid exercise on real or realistic data, ask for a written recommendation rather than a chart, and grade on whether they noticed the tracking problem you deliberately left in the file. Analytical judgment shows up in twenty minutes of written work and almost never in an hour of conversation.
The posting describes three different jobs at once
A small company writes one posting asking for keyword research, technical audits, content production, link building, dashboard engineering, and paid search coverage, then wonders why the applicants are thin. Each of those is a different candidate pool with a different market rate, and a posting that asks for all of them reads as a company that has not decided what it needs. Pick the primary duty, name it in the first paragraph, mark the rest as secondary or drop it, and use a separate posting when you genuinely need a second skill set. A narrower job description consistently produces a stronger shortlist than a broad one.
Onboarding an analyst means access, and access means chaos
An SEO analyst is useless on day one without accounts: analytics, the search console, the tag manager, the CMS, the rank tracker, the crawler, the business intelligence tool, and read access to whatever holds revenue data. At a company without an HR person that request list gets forwarded around and half of it stalls for two weeks. FirstHR turns that into a repeatable sequence: the onboarding wizard runs the same checklist for every hire, task workflows assign each access request to a named owner with a due date, e-signature handles the contractor agreement or offer letter and the confidentiality terms, and document management keeps the signed paperwork on the employee profile. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR. Note that FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider.
Once the offer is signed, the work becomes a repeatable sequence rather than a scramble. Our general onboarding checklist covers the fundamentals, and the marketing onboarding template handles the tool and account access list that a search hire needs on day one.
Key Takeaways
An SEO analyst measures and diagnoses organic search, while an SEO specialist implements changes; define the role by its primary duty rather than its title or candidates will self-select wrong.
There is no dedicated federal wage category for the role, so benchmark against market research analysts and marketing specialists: a median of $78,760 per year with a 25th to 75th percentile band of $58,350 to $108,310 (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
Exempt status requires all three tests: salary basis, at least $684 per week, and a primary duty involving discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance.
Junior analysts are usually non-exempt because the work follows established procedures under supervision, so pay hourly, track hours, and pay overtime past forty in a workweek.
A fractional analyst is a legitimate contractor only when the engagement is deliverable-based and the contractor controls their own tools, methods, and schedule.
Replace the second interview with a short paid exercise on realistic data and grade the written recommendation, because analytical judgment does not show up in conversation.
An analyst is unproductive until the accounts are granted, and at a company without an HR person that list stalls for weeks. FirstHR runs the same onboarding sequence for every hire, with task workflows assigning each access request to a named owner, e-signature for the offer letter and confidentiality terms, and document storage on the employee profile. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an SEO analyst do?
An SEO analyst measures and diagnoses organic search performance. The core duties are keyword research, rank and traffic reporting, technical site audits, competitor analysis, and turning all of that into recommendations with an expected impact attached. The distinguishing feature against other search roles is the output: an analyst produces findings and priorities, while a specialist produces changes to the site. In a larger company the two are separate people and the analyst hands work to the implementers. In a small business the same person often does both, which is fine as long as the job description says so rather than leaving candidates to guess. Some analyst roles lean heavily toward measurement infrastructure: tracking configuration, attribution, and dashboards. Decide which version you are hiring before you write the posting, because the candidate pools barely overlap.
What is the difference between an SEO analyst and an SEO specialist?
The difference is output, not seniority. An SEO analyst measures: reporting, keyword research, audits, competitor tracking, forecasting, and written recommendations. An SEO specialist implements: on-page changes, content briefs, internal linking, technical fixes, and link acquisition. Both understand the same concepts and use overlapping tools, so the titles get used interchangeably in job postings, which is exactly why your posting has to define the role by its duties rather than its title. The practical test is what lands on the person’s calendar in a normal week. If it is pulling data, investigating why a number moved, and writing up what to do about it, that is an analyst. If it is shipping changes to pages and briefs to writers, that is a specialist. Small companies frequently need both in one hire and should say so explicitly.
Is an SEO analyst exempt or non-exempt under the FLSA?
It depends on duties and pay, and both tests have to pass. To be exempt under the administrative exemption the employee must be paid on a salary basis at no less than $684 per week ($35,568 a year), and the primary duty must be office work directly related to management or general business operations that includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance. A senior analyst who decides what gets measured, interprets the results, and recommends where budget and engineering time go generally satisfies that. A junior analyst producing scheduled reports to someone else’s specification does not, and is non-exempt: hourly, with overtime past forty hours in a workweek. The Department of Labor formally reinstated the $684 salary level in May 2026 after the higher 2024 thresholds were vacated in federal court. This is general information, not legal advice.
How much does an SEO analyst make?
There is no dedicated federal wage category for SEO analysts. Search marketing files under market research analysts and marketing specialists, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025) puts at a median of $78,760 per year, or $37.87 per hour, with the lowest 10 percent under $43,390 and the highest 10 percent over $155,480. Treat that band as the reference and place your role inside it: junior analysts sit near the bottom quartile of $58,350, experienced in-house analysts cluster around the median, and senior or specialized analytics roles reach into the upper quartile of $108,310. For context on adjacent classifications, data scientists show a median of $120,230 and marketing managers $166,790 in the same survey. Publish a real range. Analysts research compensation for a living and a posting without a number reads as a lowball.
What should an SEO analyst job description include?
Seven things. What the business does and where organic search fits into it, so candidates can judge scale. Whether the role analyzes, implements, or both. The site scale in concrete terms: pages, locations, or SKUs. Six to ten specific responsibilities rather than a generic tool list. Data skills stated at a real level, meaning whether you need spreadsheets, SQL, or a business intelligence tool. The FLSA classification and the pay basis, hourly or salaried. And a published salary range with a named person to apply to. Add what success looks like at ninety days, which costs you two sentences and separates your posting from every other one in the results. Skip the sections nobody reads: the values paragraph, the list of adjectives, and the request for a cover letter you will not open.
How do you test an SEO analyst candidate before hiring?
Give every finalist the same short paid exercise on real or realistic data, and grade the writing rather than the chart. A good exercise takes a candidate under two hours: hand them an export of organic traffic with a visible drop, a keyword file, and a page inventory, then ask for a written diagnosis and a prioritized recommendation. Leave a deliberate flaw in the data, such as a tracking gap or a duplicated page set, and see who catches it. Strong analysts state their assumptions, flag what the data cannot answer, and recommend one thing to do first. Weak analysts produce a dashboard and no opinion. Interviews reward fluency with tool names, which is the skill you least need. Pay for the exercise, keep it under two hours, and give everyone the same brief so the comparison is honest.
Can a small business hire a part-time or fractional SEO analyst?
Yes, and for many small businesses that is the right first move, because ten hours of good analysis each month beats a full-time hire the company cannot keep busy. The risk is classification. A fractional analyst is a legitimate independent contractor when the engagement is defined by deliverables and a term, the contractor uses their own tools and methods, and they control their own schedule. It stops being legitimate when you set their hours, supply the accounts, direct the method, require attendance at internal meetings, and run the arrangement open-ended. That is an employee with contractor paperwork, and the exposure includes back overtime, unpaid payroll taxes, and penalties. Use the contract scope of work template on this page, keep it deliverable-based, and convert to a W-2 role when the work grows. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
