Web editor job description templates for the person who owns your website: 6 role variants with overtime, accessibility, and BLS pay guidance. Free DOCX.
Web Editor Job Description Templates for Small Business Websites
6 templates covering a marketing site, an hourly CMS publishing role, a regulated services site, an ecommerce store, a senior web content lead, and a contract editor. With overtime and pay guidance. Download as DOCX.
Most small company websites have no owner. An agency built the site, someone in marketing has the login, and four departments push things live when they need to. Two years later the pricing page is wrong, three services no longer exist, half the team page has left, and nobody can say who is responsible for any of it.
That is the moment a web editor job description gets written, usually in a hurry, and usually as a wish list. I have read a lot of them. They ask for a writer, an editor, a search specialist, and a front-end developer in one person at one salary, which tells every strong candidate that the company has not yet decided what the job is.
At FirstHR we write hiring templates for companies with no HR department, where the founder or the marketing lead writes the posting personally. The six below cover a general marketing site, an hourly publishing role, a regulated services site, an ecommerce store, a senior governance role, and a contract engagement, each with the classification note the generic versions skip.
TL;DR
A web editor owns what your website says: writing, editing, publishing, and retiring pages. The role is exempt when the primary duty is independent editorial judgment and non-exempt when it is loading and formatting approved copy. The Editors classification lists web editor as a reported title, at a $77,920 median (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
What a Web Editor Actually Owns
A web editor owns the content of a website end to end: what each page says, how it reads, when it gets updated, and whether it is still true. The job is defined by accountability for pages that already exist, not by output.
That is the line that separates it from every adjacent role. A content writer is measured on what they produce. A web editor is measured on the state of the site, which means removing, merging, and refreshing pages counts as much as adding them. Most postings never say this, so most web editors never do it.
The site is the sales channel
Ecommerce, SaaS, marketplaces
Every page is either earning or leaking. A web editor pays for themselves in product copy accuracy and category pages that convert, and the job is measured in revenue rather than in words published.
The site is a credibility document
Healthcare, legal, financial, trades
Claims, credentials, and disclaimers have to be right, and someone has to own the review workflow that keeps them right. This is where an unowned website becomes an actual liability.
Too many people can publish
Any team past a certain size
Once marketing, sales, support, and product all have CMS access, the site drifts into duplicated pages and four different voices. A web editor is the answer to sprawl, not to volume.
The site was built and then abandoned
The most common case
An agency shipped it, it was accurate on launch day, and nobody has touched it since. Old pricing, retired services, dead links, and staff who left. This is the reason most small companies finally hire.
Write the Percentage Split Before You Write Anything Else
Before the responsibilities list, decide four numbers that add to a hundred: the share of the week spent writing new copy, editing copy other people wrote, publishing and formatting in the content management system, and auditing or cleaning up what is already live. Those four numbers determine the seniority, the pay band, the overtime classification, and the kind of candidate who will be good at the job. Every posting that skips them ends up describing four different jobs, and the applicants who fit best self-select out.
Web Editor vs Developer, Designer, and Digital Editor
A web editor owns what the site says, a developer owns how it works, and a designer owns how it looks. Those three are genuinely different hires with different pay bands, and combining them into one posting is the most expensive mistake on this role.
The confusion with editorial titles is subtler. A digital editor owns a publication and its output. A web editor owns a site and its state. Both live in a content management system, which is why the titles blur, and they diverge on almost everything else.
Role
What they own
Hire this one instead when
Web editor
The state of the site: page content, accuracy, publishing standards, retirement
Your site has drifted and nobody is accountable for what is live
Web developer
How the site works: code, templates, integrations, performance, security
The problem is the build, not the words
Web designer
How the site looks: layout, visual system, page templates, user flows
The pages read fine but the site looks and moves badly
Digital editor
An editorial output: commissioning, story selection, contributors, volume
You are running a publication or an editorial content program
Content manager
Content strategy across all channels: web, email, social, campaigns
The website is one channel of several and the job is coordination
A web editor posting has to answer four questions a generic template never asks: what the scope actually is, how the week splits, what authority the role carries, and how it is classified. Miss those and you will interview five people who each imagined a different job.
The scope facts candidates need
Which CMS, named
How many live pages the site has
How many pages or updates ship in a week
Who else can publish, and whether the editor approves them
The split that defines the job
Share of the week that is writing new copy
Share that is editing other people’s copy
Share that is publishing and formatting
Share that is audit, cleanup, and retirement
The parts that protect you
FLSA classification stated on the posting
Whether the role approves or only recommends
Named reviewer for legal or regulated claims
Equal opportunity statement
The parts that win the hire
Pay or a good-faith range
Authority to retire pages, not just add them
Who they work with in design and development
A named person and a real deadline to apply
The scope facts do the most work. Naming the content management system, the number of live pages, and the weekly publishing volume tells an experienced candidate more in one line than three paragraphs of adjectives. Our guide to writing a job description covers the general structure, and the rest of the hiring template library follows the same shape.
6 Web Editor 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, 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 Web Editor Job Description Templates
Marketing site, hourly CMS publisher, regulated site, ecommerce, senior lead, and contract. All in one download.
Web Editor
Small business marketing site
The general version: page ownership, the quarterly review cycle, on-page SEO for pages that already exist, and an honest classification note.
Web Content Publisher
Hourly, non-exempt
For a production role that builds and publishes approved copy in your CMS, written as non-exempt on purpose and with the pre-publish checklist built in.
Regulated Site Editor
Healthcare, financial, legal
For sites where every claim needs a named reviewer, an approval record, and disclosure language that stays current.
Ecommerce Web Editor
Product and category pages
For a store: product descriptions, specification accuracy, seasonal cycles, review moderation, and redirects for discontinued items.
Senior Web Editor
Governance and contributors
For the stage where several teams can publish: standards, workflow, permissions, the content inventory, and contributor management.
Contract Web Editor
1099, fixed scope
A scope of work for a defined project, with acceptance terms, an IP assignment, and the contractor status warning small teams skip.
Template 1: Web Editor, Small Business Marketing Site
The general version, with page ownership, the quarterly review cycle, on-page search maintenance, and a classification note that makes you decide rather than guess.
Web Editor Job Description (Small Business Website)
WEB EDITOR JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Marketing Manager / Founder / Head of Communications]
FLSA status: [Exempt / Non-exempt: decide on duties, see classification note]
Compensation: $_ per [year / hour]
ABOUT [COMPANY NAME]
[Company Name] is a [industry] company in [City, State] with a website of roughly
[number] live pages built on [CMS]. The site is [our main sales channel / our
main credibility channel / the front door for every inbound lead], and we are
hiring one person to own the words on it.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Web Editor owns the content of our website end to end: what goes on each
page, how it reads, when it gets updated, and whether it still says something
true. This is an ownership role, not a request queue.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Write, edit, and publish page content in [CMS], including [landing pages,
service pages, resource pages, blog posts]
•Maintain a live inventory of every page, its owner, and its last review date
•Run a quarterly content review: remove, merge, or refresh pages that are stale,
duplicated, or no longer accurate
•Apply on-page SEO to existing pages: titles, meta descriptions, headings,
internal links, and image alt text
•Enforce the style guide and keep voice consistent across contributors
•Fix broken links, outdated pricing, retired products, and stale team pages
•Coordinate with [design and development] on page templates and new components
•Report monthly on page performance and on what changed as a result
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years editing and publishing web content in a CMS
•Portfolio of pages you edited, with what you changed and why
•Working command of on-page SEO for existing pages, not just new ones
•Comfort with basic HTML and with the accessibility basics: headings in order,
alt text, link text that means something out of context
•Clear written English and the judgment to say no to a bad page request
CLASSIFICATION NOTE (read before posting)
Classification turns on the actual primary duty, not the title. A web editor
whose day is independent editorial judgment over site content, or who exercises
discretion over the content program itself, may meet the creative professional
or administrative exemption at the federal salary floor of $684 per week
($35,568 per year). A web editor whose day is loading, formatting, and
publishing content that other people write and approve is doing production work
and is non-exempt: hourly, with hours tracked and overtime past forty in a week.
Several states set a higher salary floor. 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]
To apply, email __ with your resume and two examples of
pages you edited, including the version before your edit.
Template 2: Web Content Publisher / CMS Editor
For a production role that builds and publishes approved copy, written as non-exempt on purpose, with the pre-publish checklist built into the responsibilities.
Web Content Publisher / CMS Editor Job Description (Non-Exempt)
WEB CONTENT PUBLISHER / CMS EDITOR JOB DESCRIPTION
Template 3: Web Editor, Regulated or Professional Services Site
For healthcare, financial, legal, and insurance sites: a named reviewer for every claim, a recorded approval, and disclosure language that has to stay current.
Web Editor, Regulated or Professional Services Site Job Description
WEB EDITOR JOB DESCRIPTION (REGULATED / PROFESSIONAL SERVICES)
Reports to: [Marketing Director / Compliance Officer / Practice Manager]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: [Exempt / Non-exempt: decide on duties, see classification note]
Compensation: $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] operates in [sector], where a sentence on a web page is a claim
we have to stand behind. We are hiring a Web Editor who can write clearly for a
general audience and route every claim through the review it requires before it
goes live.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Web Editor produces and maintains site content inside a documented review
and approval workflow, keeps required disclosures and disclaimers correct and
current, and maintains an auditable record of what was published, when, and who
approved it.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Draft and edit page content for [service lines / products / practice areas]
•Route every claim, statistic, outcome, and comparison through [reviewer role]
before publication, and hold the page until approval is recorded
•Maintain required disclosures, disclaimers, and licensing language on every
page where they belong
•Keep a versioned record of approvals: who approved what, on what date
•Review testimonials, reviews, and endorsements against our disclosure policy
•Retire or update pages when a service, credential, or regulation changes
•Maintain accessibility standards across all published pages
•Run a scheduled audit of the whole site against the current policy set
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years editing web content in [sector] or another regulated field
•Demonstrated experience working inside a legal, medical, or compliance review
workflow, with examples
•Plain-language skill: the ability to make required language readable without
changing what it means
•Documentation discipline and comfort being audited
•[Relevant certification or subject background, if you require one]
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
Two separate questions. First, classification: an editor who exercises
independent judgment over content that goes live may meet the creative
professional or administrative exemption at the federal floor of $684 per week
($35,568 per year), while an editor who only formats and publishes approved copy
is non-exempt. Second, the content itself: advertising claims on your website
are subject to the same truthfulness and substantiation rules as any other
advertising, endorsements and testimonials require clear disclosure of any
material connection, and your sector likely adds its own rules on top. Do not
make the editor the last line of defense on a legal question. Give them a named
reviewer and a written workflow. 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, [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume and one example of
content you took through a formal review process.
Template 4: Web Editor, Ecommerce Store
For a store: product and category copy, specification accuracy, seasonal cycles, review moderation, and a redirect on every discontinued item instead of a dead page.
Web Editor, Ecommerce Store Job Description
WEB EDITOR JOB DESCRIPTION (ECOMMERCE STORE)
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Ecommerce Manager / Marketing Manager / Owner]
FLSA status: [Exempt / Non-exempt: decide on duties, see classification note]
Compensation: $_ per [year / hour]
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] sells [product category] through [platform], with roughly
[number] active products across [number] categories. Product pages are where the
sale happens, and right now they are [inconsistent / thin / written by whoever
uploaded the product]. We want one person who owns that copy.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Web Editor owns product, category, and supporting page content across the
store: writing and editing descriptions, keeping specifications accurate,
maintaining category and landing pages, and updating the site for each
promotional and seasonal cycle.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Write and edit product descriptions, titles, bullets, and specification tables
•Maintain category and collection pages, including intro copy and filters
•Keep every stated fact accurate: dimensions, materials, compatibility,
shipping, returns, and warranty terms
•Publish seasonal and promotional page updates on the merchandising calendar
•Apply on-page SEO to product and category pages, including structured data
fields the platform exposes
•Manage image alt text, naming, and the visual consistency of listings
•Moderate reviews and questions per our published policy
•Retire pages for discontinued items with the correct redirect, never a 404
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years writing or editing ecommerce content on [platform]
•Portfolio of product or category pages you wrote or rewrote
•Command of on-page SEO for product and category pages
•Precision with specifications and a low tolerance for approximate facts
•Comfort with spreadsheets and bulk product uploads
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
Ecommerce content roles land on both sides of the line, so classify on the real
day. Someone who owns the content program, decides what gets written and how the
store reads, and exercises discretion over merchandising content may meet an
exemption at the federal floor of $684 per week ($35,568 per year). Someone
whose day is bulk uploads, spec entry, and publishing approved copy is
non-exempt production work: hourly, with overtime past forty in a week. Seasonal
peaks make this expensive to get wrong, because that is exactly when the hours
run long. Product claims on your pages are advertising and must be truthful and
substantiated, and review moderation has its own rules. 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], [peak season
expectations]
To apply, email __ with your resume and two product pages
you wrote.
Template 5: Senior Web Editor / Web Content Lead
For the stage where several teams can publish: standards, workflow, permissions, the content inventory, contributor management, and budget. Pair it with the content manager templates if the scope reaches past the website.
Senior Web Editor / Web Content Lead Job Description
SENIOR WEB EDITOR / WEB CONTENT LEAD JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Head of Marketing / Founder]
Direct reports or contributors: [number]
Employment type: Full-time, exempt
Compensation: $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] has outgrown the stage where one person can write every page.
[Number] people can now publish to the site, across [marketing, sales, support,
product], and the result is drift: different voices, duplicated pages, and no
one accountable for what is already live. This role owns the whole surface.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Senior Web Editor owns web content governance: the standards, the workflow,
the contributors, and the state of every page on the site. The job is judgment
and accountability, not volume.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Own the site content standard: style guide, page templates, metadata rules,
and the definition of a page that is allowed to stay live
•Own the publishing workflow and CMS permissions, and decide who can publish
what without review
•Edit and approve contributions from [marketing, sales, support, product]
•Run the content inventory and the review cycle, with a documented decision on
every page: keep, refresh, merge, or retire
•Own the accessibility standard for published content and train contributors
on the parts they control
•Set the on-page SEO standard and measure whether it is being followed
•Manage [freelance writers / agencies] including scope, quality, and budget
•Report on site content health and on the business outcomes it moves
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number]+ years editing web content, including time owning a full site
•Experience running contributors who do not report to you
•A content governance model you built and can describe in detail
•Evidence you retired pages, not only added them
•Budget and vendor management experience
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
This role is written as exempt, and the duties support it: independent judgment
over content standards, authority to approve or reject publication, and
management of contributors and budget. Confirm the salary clears the federal
floor of $684 per week ($35,568 per year) and any higher floor your state sets,
and confirm the actual day matches the description. An exempt title over
production work is a wage claim waiting to happen. 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, [bonus], [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a short note on a
content standard you set and enforced.
Template 6: Freelance / Contract Web Editor
A scope of work for a defined project with a defined end, including acceptance terms, an intellectual property assignment, and the contractor status warning small teams skip until it costs them.
Freelance / Contract Web Editor Scope of Work
FREELANCE / CONTRACT WEB EDITOR SCOPE OF WORK
Company: __ ([City, State])
Engagement type: Independent contractor (1099)
Term: [start date] to [end date], or [number] pages
Rate: $_ per [page / hour / project], invoiced [schedule]
ENGAGEMENT SUMMARY
[Company Name] is engaging an independent web editor to [audit and rewrite our
service pages / clear a backlog of stale pages / relaunch our site content].
This is a defined project with a defined end, not an ongoing staff role.
SCOPE OF WORK
•Audit [number] existing pages and deliver a written recommendation per page:
keep, refresh, merge, or retire
•Rewrite [number] pages to the agreed brief and style guide
•Deliver each page as [document / CMS draft], with title, meta description, and
internal link recommendations
•Provide [number] rounds of revision per page within [number] business days
•Hand over a final inventory of what changed, what was retired, and what
redirects are required
DELIVERABLES AND ACCEPTANCE
Deliverables: [list]. A deliverable is accepted when [named person] confirms in
writing, or automatically after [number] business days without written comment.
COMMERCIAL TERMS
•Rate and payment schedule: [detail]
•Expenses: [reimbursable items, or none]
•Late payment terms: [detail]
•Termination: either party may end this engagement with [number] days written
notice; work delivered up to that date is payable
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND CONFIDENTIALITY
All content delivered under this agreement is a work made for hire to the extent
permitted by law, and the contractor assigns all remaining rights to [Company
Name] on payment. The contractor confirms the work is original, that any third
party material is properly licensed, and that they will keep unpublished
business information confidential.
CONTRACTOR STATUS NOTE (read before signing)
The contractor controls how and when the work is performed, uses their own
equipment, may work for other clients, and is responsible for their own taxes
and insurance. Write the engagement that way and honor it. A worker you schedule
by the hour, supervise day to day, seat in your CMS with a staff account, and
keep on indefinitely is an employee whatever the agreement says. The federal
test looks at economic reality across several factors, and several states apply
a stricter test in which the work being part of your usual business is enough to
make the worker an employee. Misclassification is assessed with back overtime,
back taxes, and penalties. This is general information, not legal advice.
SIGNATURES
Company: __ Date: ___
Contractor: __ Date: ___
Overtime and the Production Trap
A web editor is exempt from overtime when the primary duty is independent editorial judgment, and non-exempt when the primary duty is production. Both outcomes are normal, and the title on the offer letter has no bearing on which one applies.
The creative professional exemption covers work requiring invention, imagination, originality, or talent in a recognized artistic or creative field, and the regulation on creative professionals is explicit that the test is the nature of the work rather than the job title. Loading approved copy into a template does not meet it. The alternative exempt path is administrative, which requires discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance. Either way the salary must clear $684 per week ($35,568 per year) under the federal rule, and several states set a higher floor.
The Job Is Exempt at Hire and Production by Christmas
Nobody misclassifies a web editor on day one. It happens over two quarters, as the newsletter build, the image resizing, the event landing pages, and the CMS tickets from three departments all land on the one person who knows how to do them. Judgment work quietly drops to a quarter of the week while the exempt label and the salary stay exactly where they were. Audit the real week at ninety days. Either move the production work off the role, or reclassify honestly: switch to hourly, track hours, and pay overtime.
Anyone outside an exemption needs hours tracked and overtime paid past forty in a week, with the underlying obligations sitting in the Fair Labor Standards Act. Our breakdown of exempt versus non-exempt classification works through both tests in full. This is general information, not legal advice.
The contract version carries a separate risk. A freelance web editor you schedule by the hour, supervise daily, and seat in your CMS with a staff account for two years is an employee whatever the agreement says, and the cost of getting it wrong is back overtime, back taxes, and penalties. Our guide to worker misclassification covers the federal and state tests.
What to Pay a Web Editor
Benchmark against the Editors classification, because it is an exact match rather than an approximation. There is no separate Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation called web editor, but Editors (SOC 27-3041) lists web editor among its sample of reported job titles, which is as close to an official number as this title gets.
Editors, SOC 27-3041: The National Ladder
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), editors earned a national median annual wage of $77,920 ($37.46 per hour). The 10th percentile earned $41,250, the 25th $57,300, the 75th $106,100, and the 90th $153,700 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS, Editors).
That spread is wide because the classification holds everything from a junior publisher to an editor-in-chief. A first web editor at a small company usually lands between the 10th and 25th percentile, particularly where the week is heavy on publishing and light on judgment. A senior role owning governance, contributors, and budget sits near or above the median.
Classification
National median (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
How it relates to a web editor
Editors (27-3041)
$77,920 per year
Exact match: web editor is a reported job title in this classification
Writers and authors (27-3043)
$76,910 per year
Closer when most of the week is writing new pages
Public relations specialists (27-3031)
$74,750 per year
Overlaps when the site is one channel inside a communications job
Market research analysts and marketing specialists (13-1161)
$78,760 per year
Where a marketing-owned web content role often gets benchmarked
Technical writers (27-3042)
$90,390 per year
The bar for documentation, product, and support content sites
Web developers and digital interface designers (15-1255)
$104,000 per year
The build side; do not benchmark an editor against it
Two adjustments before you set the range. Publish a good-faith range where pay transparency laws apply, and add for scope rather than for years: authority to retire pages, approval rights over other teams, and contributor management move pay more than an extra year of experience does.
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Four duties come attached to the publish button, and none of them appear in a generic web editor template: accessibility, advertising accuracy, page retirement, and the maintenance side of on-page search. Each belongs in the responsibilities list, because each is a decision the editor makes and nobody else does.
Accessibility is content work, not only code work
Roughly half of what makes a page accessible is decided by whoever writes and publishes it, not by whoever built the template. Heading levels in order, alt text that describes the image rather than repeating the file name, link text that means something read on its own, tables used for data instead of layout, captions and transcripts on video, and color that is never the only way information is conveyed. The Department of Justice takes the position that the accessibility obligations of a business open to the public extend to what it offers on the web, and it has not issued a detailed technical regulation for private businesses, pointing instead to published guidelines as helpful reference. Put the content half of that into the job description and into the pre-publish checklist, because it is the half a web editor actually controls. This is general information, not legal advice.
Everything on your site is advertising
A service page, a comparison table, a customer quote, and a pricing note are all advertising, and they carry the same truthfulness and substantiation expectations as a paid ad. That means claims need support you could produce if asked, comparisons need to be accurate on the day someone reads them, and testimonials and endorsements need clear disclosure of any material connection between the endorser and your business, including when the endorser is an employee. Most small business sites break this quietly rather than deliberately: an outcome stated as typical when it was the best case, a price that changed two years ago, a certification that expired. A web editor with a review cycle catches all three before a customer does.
Retirement is half the job
Every website accumulates pages that should not still be live: services you no longer sell, staff who left, an office you closed, a promotion that ended, a policy that changed. Nobody is ever assigned to remove them, because adding a page feels like progress and removing one feels like loss. Write the authority to retire pages into the job description explicitly, and require a decision on every page in the inventory: keep, refresh, merge, or retire. Then require a redirect on anything retired, because a dead URL that used to earn traffic is worse than the stale page it replaced. This is the single duty that separates a web editor from a content writer.
On-page SEO for pages that already exist
The search work in this role is maintenance, not campaigns. Titles and meta descriptions that match what the page actually delivers, one heading structure per page instead of three, internal links added when a new page makes an old one relevant, image alt text, and a duplicate check before publishing something the site already says. It is unglamorous and it compounds. If your posting instead describes keyword research, technical audits, and search strategy, you are hiring for a different job and should benchmark and title it accordingly, because the candidates who do that work well are usually not the candidates who edit well.
The accessibility half is worth stating explicitly in the posting. Department of Justice guidance on web accessibility and the ADA takes the position that what a business open to the public offers on the web is covered by its accessibility obligations, while noting that no detailed technical regulation has been issued for private businesses. Whatever standard you choose, the content half of it belongs to the editor.
The advertising half matters just as much on a small site. Federal endorsement guidance for businesses requires clear disclosure of any material connection between an endorser and the business, which covers the customer quotes and testimonials sitting on your homepage right now. Put review and testimonial policy in the job description rather than assuming someone checked.
How to Screen a Web Editor
Screen for judgment about existing pages, not for writing samples. Almost every candidate will send a portfolio of things they wrote, because that is what they have been asked for their entire career, and it says nothing about whether they can look at a site of two hundred pages and decide what should not be there.
The highest-signal exercise is a paid audit of ten of your own live pages, capped at two hours with a fixed fee. You will learn more from the ten recommendations than from four interviews, and you get a usable deliverable either way.
Ask for this
What it actually tells you
A paid two-hour audit of ten of your live pages
Whether they can judge a site they did not build
Which three of those ten they would delete, and why
Whether they will retire pages or only accumulate them
A before and after on a page they edited elsewhere
Whether they improve structure and clarity or only grammar
How they would set up a review workflow for four publishing teams
Whether they can govern contributors without becoming a bottleneck
Their pre-publish checklist, from memory
Whether publishing standards are habit or improvisation
What they check before deleting a page that gets traffic
Whether redirects and link equity are instinct or an afterthought
A page they wrote that they would now rewrite
Whether they hold standards over their own work
If a candidate is strongest on new copy rather than on the state of the site, they may be a better fit for the copywriter role, and one whose instinct is the whole content program across channels probably belongs in the content manager posting. Neither is a worse hire. Hiring one while advertising the other wastes a quarter for both sides.
Hiring a Web Editor Without an HR Department
Small team hiring on this role fails in three predictable places: the posting describes four jobs, the exempt title fills up with production work, and the new editor spends three weeks hunting for access. Each has a fix, and none of them requires an HR department.
The posting describes four jobs and hires none of them well
The most common small business web editor posting asks for a writer, an editor, an SEO specialist, and a front-end developer in one person, at one salary, because nobody wrote down which of those the week actually consists of. Strong candidates read that and assume the company has not decided, which is usually correct. The fix is a percentage split written into the posting: what share of the week is new writing, what share is editing other people, what share is publishing and formatting, and what share is audit and cleanup. Four numbers that add to a hundred will do more for the quality of your applicant pool than another paragraph about culture, and they force the internal decision you were avoiding.
The role is titled exempt and then filled with production work
This is the expensive one, and it rarely happens at hire. It happens over the following two quarters. The editor is hired to own the site, then the newsletter build lands on them, then the image resizing, then the event landing pages, then the CMS tickets from three departments. Judgment work drops to a quarter of the week, the job becomes production, and the exempt salary stays where it is. Audit the real week at ninety days and again at a year. Either move production off the role, or reclassify honestly: switch to hourly, start tracking hours, and pay overtime. Reclassifying a role you got wrong costs a conversation. Being told to reclassify it costs back overtime, back taxes, and penalties.
The new editor spends three weeks hunting for access instead of editing
A web editor cannot start until a stack of access and context exists: CMS account at the right permission level, analytics, the search console, the style guide, brand assets, the domain and hosting contacts, the agency relationship, and a straight answer on who approves what. At a small company those live in six people’s heads and nobody has written them down. This is exactly the gap FirstHR closes. The onboarding wizard runs the same sequence for every hire, task workflows assign each access request to the person who actually controls it with a due date, e-signature handles the contractor agreement and the IP assignment, and document management keeps the style guide and the approval policy against the employee profile instead of in a chat thread. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Once the offer is signed, the work shifts to a repeatable onboarding checklist. For a web editor that means more than a laptop and payroll forms: the CMS account at the right permission level, analytics and search console access, the style guide, brand assets, the domain and hosting contacts, and a written answer to the question of who approves what. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR, and until then the candidate side of this stays in whatever spreadsheet you already trust.
Key Takeaways
A web editor owns the state of a website rather than a volume of output, which is why authority to retire and merge pages belongs in the posting alongside the authority to add them.
The single most useful line in the posting is a percentage split of the week across writing, editing, publishing, and cleanup, because it decides seniority, pay band, and classification at once.
Independent editorial judgment can support the creative professional or administrative exemption at the federal floor of $684 per week ($35,568 per year); loading and formatting approved copy is non-exempt hourly production work.
Editors (SOC 27-3041) lists web editor as a reported job title, giving an exact benchmark of a $77,920 median with a 25th percentile of $57,300 and a 75th of $106,100 (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
Four duties arrive with the publish button: the content half of accessibility, advertising accuracy and endorsement disclosure, page retirement with redirects, and on-page search maintenance.
Screen with a paid audit of your own live pages rather than a writing portfolio, and ask which pages the candidate would delete.
A web editor cannot start until a stack of access and context exists, and at a small company that lives in six people's heads. FirstHR runs the same onboarding sequence for every hire, assigns each access request to the person who controls it with a due date, handles the contract and the IP assignment with built-in e-signature, and keeps the style guide and approval policy on the employee profile instead of in a chat thread. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a web editor do?
A web editor owns the content of a website: what each page says, how it reads, when it is updated, and whether it is still true. The daily work splits four ways: writing new page copy, editing copy other people wrote, publishing and formatting in the content management system, and auditing what is already live. That last part is what separates the role from a content writer. A web editor is expected to remove, merge, and refresh pages, not only add them, which is why the authority to retire a page belongs in the job description. The role also carries the maintenance side of on-page search work (titles, meta descriptions, headings, internal links, alt text) and the content half of accessibility. At a small company the same person usually owns the publishing calendar and the style guide, and approves what other teams push live.
What should a web editor job description include?
It should include seven things most postings leave out. Name the content management system, state how many live pages the site has, state how many pages or updates ship in a week, and give a percentage split of the week across writing, editing, publishing, and cleanup. Then state who else can publish and whether this role approves them, whether the role has authority to retire pages, and the FLSA classification with the pay or a good-faith range. Add the standard parts: reporting line, required experience, an equal opportunity statement, a named person to apply to, and a deadline. The percentage split matters more than anything else on the list. A posting that asks for a writer, an editor, a search specialist, and a developer in one person tells strong candidates that the company has not decided what it needs.
Is a web editor exempt or non-exempt from overtime?
It depends entirely on the primary duty, and both answers are common. A web editor whose day is independent editorial judgment over what goes live may meet the creative professional exemption, and one who exercises discretion over the content program itself may meet the administrative exemption. Either path requires a salary of at least $684 per week ($35,568 per year) under the federal rule, and several states set a higher floor. A web editor whose day is loading, formatting, and publishing copy that other people write and approve is doing production work, which does not require invention, imagination, originality, or talent in a recognized creative field. That role is non-exempt: hourly, with hours tracked and overtime paid past forty in a week. Classify on the actual week rather than on the title, and re-audit at ninety days, because production work tends to accumulate on this role after hire. This is general information, not legal advice.
How much does a web editor make?
There is no separate Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation called web editor, but the Editors classification (SOC 27-3041) lists web editor among its sample of reported job titles, which makes it the correct benchmark rather than an approximation. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), editors had a national median annual wage of $77,920, with the 10th percentile at $41,250, the 25th at $57,300, the 75th at $106,100, and the 90th at $153,700. Adjacent classifications give useful bounds: writers and authors at a $76,910 median, public relations specialists at $74,750, technical writers at $90,390, and market research analysts and marketing specialists at $78,760. A first web editor at a small company typically lands between the 10th and 25th percentile, especially where the role is heavy on publishing and light on judgment, while a senior role owning governance and contributors sits near or above the median.
What is the difference between a web editor and a web developer?
A web editor owns what the site says; a web developer owns how it works. The editor writes, edits, publishes, and retires content inside the system a developer built, and needs enough HTML to fix a broken heading or an image tag rather than the ability to build a template. A developer writes code, builds pages and components, handles integrations, performance, and security, and rarely wants to own copy quality. Pay reflects the split: web developers and digital interface designers had a national median annual wage of $104,000 (BLS OEWS, May 2025) against $77,920 for editors. Hiring one and expecting the other is the most common mistake on this role. If the job is mostly building, hire a developer. If it is mostly writing and judgment, hire an editor and give them a developer to call. Asking for both at one salary produces a shortlist of people who are mediocre at each.
What is the difference between a web editor and a digital editor?
A web editor owns a website; a digital editor owns a publication. The distinction is what each is accountable for. A web editor is responsible for the state of a site: page inventory, accuracy, publishing standards, accessibility, on-page search maintenance, and the decision to retire a page. A digital editor is responsible for an editorial output: commissioning, story selection, headlines, publishing volume, and often contributors, at an online publication, a news desk, or an in-house brand content team. The two overlap in the content management system and diverge everywhere else. If your company is not publishing on an editorial calendar and the job is really about the state of your own site, write it as a web editor. If you are running a publication or a content program with contributors and a commissioning budget, the digital editor version is closer to the work.
Can one person be the web editor and the content manager at a small company?
Yes, and at a small company it is usually the same hire. The distinction is scope rather than seniority: a content manager typically owns strategy across channels including email, social, and campaigns, while a web editor owns the website specifically. Below roughly a dozen people those are one job, and combining them is fine as long as the posting is honest about the split and the pay reflects the wider scope. What does not work is combining them silently: hiring a web editor at web editor pay and then adding the newsletter, the social calendar, and campaign copy over the following quarter. That is how the role drifts into production work, how the exemption becomes questionable, and how a good hire leaves in a year. Write the combined scope into the posting from the start, or keep the role narrow and mean it.
