Digital SEO Specialist

Digital SEO Specialist Job Summary

As an SEO Specialist, you will play a pivotal role on the University of Utah Marketing and Communication's Digital Team,serving as the subject matter expert driving organic search visibility, technical site performance, and content discoverabilityacross our university's web ecosystem. Reporting directly to the Associate Director of Digital Research and Operations, you willwork in direct, daily partnership on strategic searchinitiatives—aligning search engine optimization with broader marketing, web accessibility, and digital governance goals.

This role requires a balance of technical execution, SEO strategy and analytical insight. We are looking for a collaborative,proactive professional with strong hands-on SEO experience who thrives on solving technical web challenges and elevatinguniversity digital experiences.

Learn more about the great benefits of working for University of Utah: benefits.utah.edu

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic
  
  Collaboration:
  
  Work in close, daily partnership withthe Associate Director of Digital Research and Operations and the digital research team across all core SEO initiatives, establishingsearch performance benchmarks and aligning optimization efforts with university digital goals.
• Digital Campaign & SEO Synergy Reporting:
  Partner with content strategy and research teams to analyze and report onorganic search results, landing page performance, and organictraffic impact driven by high-traffic digital advertising campaigns.
• Technical SEO & Site Hygiene:
  Conduct regular technicalsite audits across large-scale university web properties to identify and resolve issues related to crawlability, indexability,site speed, mobile usability, canonicalization, site architecture,and structured data.
• Keyword & Content Optimization:
  Perform comprehensivekeyword research and intent analysis to guide content creators, webmanagers, and research teams. Optimize metadata, headings, on-pagecopy, and internal linking structures to maximize organic visibility.
• Search Analytics & Optimization:
  Track, analyze, and reporton organic search performance, keyword rankings, backlink profiles,and conversion funnels using Google Analytics (GA4), Search Console, and enterprise SEO software.
• A/B Testing & Search Experimentation:
  Design and executeSEO experiments, testing title tags, meta descriptions, and structural layout changes to improve click-through rates (CTR) anduser engagement.
• Branded Dashboard Development:
  Collaborate directly with the research team to design, build, and maintain branded,campus-partner-facing dashboards in Looker Studio and Tableau,ensuring data visualizations follow university brand standards andUI/UX best practices.
• SEO & Accessibility Integration:
  Collaborate with web and content teams to ensure on-page SEO strategies align seamlessly with digital accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1 Level AA) and coreweb vitals.

EQUIVALENCY STATEMENT: 1 year of higher education can be substituted for 1 year of directly related work experience(Example: bachelor's degree = 4 years of directly related work experience).

Search Engine Optimization Specialist, III: Requires a bachelor's (or equivalency) + 6 years or a master's (or equivalency) + 4 years of directly related work experience.

Qualifications &

Experience:

• Education:
  
  Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications,Computer Science, Information Design, Information Systems, or arelated field
• SEO
  
  Experience:
  
  Experience in technical and on-page searchengine optimization, with a proven track record of managingenterprise or multi-domain web environments. Higher education oragency experience is strongly preferred.

Technical Stack:

• SEO Tools:
  Expertise in SEO and GEO tools…