SEO Specialist Resume Writing Guideline (20+ Resume Examples & Templates)

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) professionals develop strategies to improve search engine rankings, which means making a company's websites or content appear at the top of user search results, increasing organic traffic and the chances of attracting potential customers.

With numerous positions available in search engine optimization, it is crucial to understand how to structure an effective SEO resume to impress hiring managers. Read this article to learn how to write an outstanding SEO resume. Make sure to read until the end to learn from our resume examples.

Who is an SEO Specialist, and What Do They Do?

SEO Specialists are digital marketing professionals who develop and implement SEO strategies to improve website search engine rankings. Their ultimate goal is to enhance the brand's visibility. They utilize various SEO software and tools to monitor and optimize performance, ensuring that content effectively reaches its target audience.

By continuously analyzing and adjusting tactics, an SEO specialist drives significant improvements in search engine rankings, ultimately boosting organic traffic and contributing to the overall success of digital marketing efforts.

An SEO specialist's daily tasks are diverse and focused on improving a website's search engine rankings. They perform regular website analytics using SEO software like Ahrefs and SEMRush to track metrics like organic traffic, keyword rankings, and conversion rates. Based on these insights, they update or refine the SEO strategy to align with the latest search engine algorithms.

They conduct keyword research to identify valuable search terms and optimize website content, including meta tags, headers, and internal linking structures, to enhance relevancy and visibility. An SEO specialist also performs technical SEO audits to identify and fix issues like broken links, slow page speeds, and mobile responsiveness problems.

Additionally, they work on building high-quality backlinks through outreach and collaboration with other websites. Monitoring competitors' SEO performance and strategies is also a key task, allowing them to stay ahead in the digital marketing landscape. Regularly reporting on SEO performance to stakeholders and suggesting improvements ensures that their strategies lead to successful SEO campaigns and sustained growth in search engine rankings.

How do you write an SEO resume?

The first step in creating an SEO resume is organizing the items to be included. Each section of the resume should be structured to effectively highlight the applicant’s skills and abilities.

Personal Information

The first step in creating an SEO resume is to fill out your contact information in the resume header. However, it is generally recommended to avoid including sensitive information.

Contact information that can be included: 

• Full name 
• Email address
• Phone number
• Domicile: Include the city name only
• LinkedIn: To make it easier for the hiring team, insert a link
• Social media accounts: These are optional. Make sure the account contains your work portfolio and is not related to your personal life.

Contact information that can’t be included:

• Gender: Including gender is not relevant for SEO positions. Moreover, omitting gender information helps to reduce gender discrimination in employment, which companies are actively striving to eliminate.
• Date of birth: Including age and date of birth in an SEO resume can also lead to discrimination. By omitting this section, it demonstrates that you are qualified for the SEO Specialist position based on your skills and abilities, regardless of your age.
• Full mailing address: To minimize the risk of exposure, it's best to be cautious about giving out your full home address. Companies usually ask for a full address only if the candidate is certain to be accepted for work there.
• Familial status: Whether or not you are married should not affect your credibility in the workplace. This information is irrelevant and tends to create bias, so it is best not to include it.

Resume Summary or Resume Headline

A resume headline provides a brief introduction to your professional background and work experience, typically in 80 characters or less. On the other hand, an SEO resume summary covers a wider range of things, ranging from accomplishments, skills, and also goals for the future.

Let's look at some resume summary and headline examples on SEO resumes:

Career objectives

A resume objective is a short statement describing your career goals and how they align with the company. It is generally used in an entry-level SEO resume to tell recruiters your passion and how you can contribute to the organization. An SEO resume objective is ideal for freshers or career changers.

Skills

Here are some essential skills an SEO specialist must possess. Include these skills in to impress your hiring managers!

• Technical SEO: Plays a vital role in ensuring website visibility and performance on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP) by aiding in discovery, crawling, and indexing processes,
• Topic research and keyword research: Both are crucial for effectively reaching target audiences and driving organic traffic to content, including websites, e-commerce platforms, and social media channels.
• Link building: One of the optimization techniques that can make a website appear on the first page of search engines.
• SEO and content strategy: This strategy aims to identify the optimal steps to maximize the reach of the content to the user.
• Competitive SEO analysis: This approach assists companies in enhancing their business strategy by tailoring content based on SEO analysis.
• Communication: Strong communication skills are essential for SEO specialists, as they frequently collaborate closely with other departments
• Writing: SEO specialists need to have the ability to create written content that can capture user attention.
• HTML: Understanding how HTML works can assist in ensuring that your content is quickly discovered by search engines on the internet.
• GA/Google Search Console: This tool will assist you in monitoring, maintaining, and ensuring your website's visibility in Google Search.
• UI UX design and writing: The integration of UI/UX and SEO has a significant influence on SERP rankings while enhancing user engagement.
• Leadership: Leadership skills for an SEO specialist are important as a foundation for building a strong team.
• Attention to detail: Focusing on details helps increase productivity while working more effectively and efficiently.
• Data-driven: A data-driven approach is used to formulate effective business strategies.
• Teamwork: Establishing effective communications, fostering interaction, and promoting collaboration are vital for problem-solving and achieving goals in the workplace.

Beside these hard skills, don't forget to include soft skills in your resume as well.

Working experience

For an SEO resume, each of your employments should have its own section, which would include the job title, name of the organization, dates of employment, duties and responsibilities, and awards or achievements (if any).

Before completing the work experience section, it’s important to have a clear understanding of the various focus areas within SEO. This will enable you to effectively highlight your strength in a specific type of SEO when crafting your resume. Here are some common title of someone who works in SEO:

• SEO Specialist
• SEO Strategist
• SEO Content
• Technical SEO
• Off-Page SEO
• SEO Director
• SEO Manager
• SEO Account Manager

Here are some SEO resume examples that can be your guide:

Entry-level SEO Content Writer's Work Experience Section Example

Mid-level SEO Specialist's Work Experience Section Example

Senior SEO Manager's Work Experience Section Example

Education

The education history section is the next key component when compiling an SEO resume. Listing degrees is particularly important for fresh graduates or mid-level candidates. However, for senior-level candidates, hiring teams tend to place greater emphasis on work experience and letters of recommendation from previous companies.

The education section typically includes details such as the major pursued, university name, period of study, and GPA. While including the GPA is important for fresh graduates or entry-level candidates, it is unnecessary for senior-level positions.

Education in the context of an SEO career is not limited to formal education, such as college degrees. Aspiring SEO professionals can also include a list of relevant courses and certifications you have completed to enhance your knowledge and skills.

4 Resume Writing Tips for SEO Specialists

1) Start with the right format

Common resume formats are chronological, functional, and combined. All three have their own functions depending on your level of work experience.

• Chronological: A chronological resume lists information in order of recency, starting with the most recent experience and education. This prioritizes the most relevant information for recruiters.
• Functional: A functional resume, on the other hand, focuses more on highlighting hard and soft skills. This resume format is commonly used by fresh graduates or individuals seeking career change unrelated to their previous jobs.
• Combination: The combination resume format, which emphasizes skills and qualifications, is often used by job hoppers.

Also, make sure you follow the formatting rules for resumes that are commonly used: 

• Use a maximum of 3 font sizes consistently
• Use 1.25 - 1.5 line spacing
• Use professional fonts such as Robot, Open Sans, Overpass, or Ubuntu
• Use bullet points to make each paragraph clear and concise
• Save your resume as a PDF file.

2) Use keywords from the job description in the SEO Resume

Today, more and more companies are using ATS machines to perform the first stage of candidate screening. ATS supports hiring teams that may receive thousands of applicants for a single position.

So, how do you get through the machine's screening?

The answer is to make your resume ATS-friendly. You can do this by using the right keywords in the summary and work experience sections of your resume. The ATS engine will filter incoming applications according to the company's needs. Let's look at the example below:

After analyzing the job description, here's what your resume will look like

Pay attention to keywords like 'plan', 'develop', 'SEO', 'SERP', and 'content strategy' in the job descriptions above. These are the words that should be included in the work experience section. You can also search for the right keywords from the description of the company or the requirements section.

3) Tailor your SEO resume

Tailor your SEO resume to what the company is looking for. Since not every company has the same requirements and job description, one resume may not be able to be used to apply for more than one position.

Tailoring your resume will increase your chances of getting an interview. Therefore, it is important always to check the suitability of the resume to the company's needs.

Below are examples of resumes that are written correctly and those that are not. You can compare which candidates' SEO resumes are well-combined.

4) Include a portfolio in your SEO Resume

A portfolio is proof and documentation of your work. It also serves as a reference for your accomplishments. Hiring teams also find it easy to evaluate candidates who have well-organized portfolios.

However, for those who have a career in the SEO field, the results of their work are not as easy to visualize as graphic design. So what can you do in this situation?

• First, use LinkedIn or work-specific social media accounts to track your activities as you develop an SEO strategy. This way, the hiring managers can see your progress.
• Second, ask for a chart showing the increase in web traffic after implementing your strategy. Corporate HR usually has this information because the data is used for key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Third, ask for a letter of recommendation from your supervisor at your previous company that describes your work and accomplishments.

SEO Resume Examples (Examples and Design Templates)

SEO Resume Example for Someone Who's Previously a Digital Marketer

SEO Resume for Content Creator Turned SEO Specialist

SEO resume for Web Developer with Technical SEO Expertise

SEO Resume for Business Graduate with E-commerce SEO Focus

SEO Resume for Self-Taught SEO Enthusiast and Entrepreneur

Tips for Writing a Cover Letter SEO Specialist Application (+Example)

A cover letter is a personal statement that highlights your relevant work experiences and showcase your motivation for applying to the company. It serves as a persuasive tool to convince the hiring team of your qualifications and to generate their interest in your application.

A well-written cover letter composed of the following parts:

• Contact details: your name, email address, phone number, and LinkedIn.
• Introduction: The position you are applying for and experience that matches.
• Motivation: Reasons why you are a good fit for the company.
• Qualifications: Demonstrate that your skills match the job requirements the company is seeking.
• Closing: Say thank you and ask the hiring team to contact you if they have any questions about the content of your application.

Here's an example

Conclusion

1. The main goal of SEO is to increase the visibility of website and social media content, attracting more potential customers and boosting company revenue.
2. An important part of building an SEO resume is creating a credible portfolio. A portfolio is proof of your work and the content you create as an SEO expert.
3. Before sending your SEO resume, double-check for typos, misinformation, and formatting errors. Maintaining a professional image in front of the hiring team is crucial.

Take inspiration from the SEO resume templates above to craft your application effectively. Access valuable job search tips and interview guidance. Stay updated on the latest SEO job openings at Cake. Don’t wait, register now!