SEO Strategist

Description

At Northern Tool + Equipment we get up every day to serve the tradespeople who keep our country running strong and the weekend warriors who want to work like them. It’s our mission to make sure they have the right tools for the job, and an easy, hassle-free experience at our store so they can get in, get out and get on with the job r top priority as an SEO Strategist is to be responsible for driving organic traffic growth and revenue through best‑practice search engine optimization across content, technical SEO, and on‑page optimization.

This role owns SEO strategy, execution, and performance reporting, working closely with content, development, and eCommerce teams to improve visibility, rankings, and conversion. This role also leads the adoption of AI‑enabled SEO practices, ensuring the business remains visible as search evolves through AI‑driven results, generative search experiences, and automation. Your positive, professional, roll‑up‑your‑sleeves‑to‑help attitude contributes to our winning culture and makes sure we leave a lasting impression.

• Own the SEO roadmap aligned to business and revenue goals
• Adapt SEO strategy to evolving search experiences, including AI‑powered search results
• Identify growth opportunities across content, technical SEO, and site structure
• Lead keyword research and search intent analysis, incorporating conversational and AI‑led queries
• Define SEO priorities for categories, products, and evergreen content

• Optimize category, product, and landing pages for search and conversion
• Partner with content teams to create high‑quality content optimized for traditional search and AI‑generated results and that demonstrates experience, expertise, authority, and trust (E‑E‑A‑T)
• Guide the use of AI tools for content research, drafting, and optimization while maintaining accuracy, originality, and brand voice
• Ensure best‑practice internal linking and page hierarchy
• Optimize metadata, headings, and structured content

• Partner with developers to improve site performance, crawlability, and indexation
• Identify and resolve technical issues (Core Web Vitals, redirects, canonicals, schema)
• Implement structured data and schema to support machine understanding and AI‑driven results
• Influence site releases, migrations, and platform changes from an SEO perspective
• Monitor site health using SEO tools and audits

• Track organic performance across traditional SERPs and emerging AI search interfaces
• Analyze how AI‑generated results impact traffic, click‑through rates, and conversion
• Build and leverage dashboards and reporting to communicate SEO and AI‑search performance
• Use predictive insights and data modeling to identify future opportunities
• Cross‑Functional Collaboration
  • Work with product, UX, content, and engineering teams
  • Support paid media and CRM teams with SEO insights
  • Educate stakeholders on SEO best practices
  • Manage SEO support resources, agencies, or freelancers where required

• 5+ years of hands‑on SEO experience (in‑house or agency)
• Strong understanding of technical, on‑page, and content SEO
• Understanding of AI practices and strategies pertaining to SEO
• Experience with eCommerce or large websites
• Proven track record of organic growth
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills
• Ability to partner with and influence cross‑functional teams to accomplish goals and advance work
• Ability to prioritize effectively to meet established goals and project deliverables
• Ability to communicate, both orally and in writing, with a wide variety of customers, employees and others
• Demonstrates Northern Tool + Equipment’s Core Competencies

• Google Search Console & Google Analytics
• SEO tools (e.g., Ahrefs, SEMrush, Screaming Frog)
• Understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript fundamentals
• Experience with CMS platforms (e.g., Shopify, Magento, Word Press)

• Experience in retail or eCommerce
• Experience with schema markup
• CRO or UX collaboration experience

Northern Tool + Equipment is a family business with roots stretching back three generations to Minnesota’s Iron Range,…