Senior SEO Specialist

About Cedar Financial

Cedar Financial (“Cedar”) is a renowned international financial services company, recognized for its expertise in cross-border ARM (Accounts Receivable Management) services. Our team is driven by a spirit of innovation, constantly seeking new ideas and ways to improve and evolve. We understand that complacency can be detrimental to business and as such, we are quick to embrace change and tackle challenges head-on. Our approach is not one of recklessness, but one of agility and strategic thinking. We focus on achieving results rather than simply completing routine tasks. Our goal is to provide our clients with exceptional services that help them achieve their financial goals.

About the Role

We are looking for a Senior SEO Specialist to own and scale organic search performance across Cedar’s websites and brands. You will lead technical, on-page, and off-page SEO strategy, turn data into a prioritized roadmap, and adapt our search presence for AI-driven search experiences such as Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. This is a hands-on senior role that works closely with content, web development, design, and leadership, and mentors junior SEO and content team members.

Responsibilities

• SEO Strategy & Roadmap: Develop and own the organic search strategy and quarterly SEO roadmap, aligned with business goals, lead generation, and revenue targets across all websites and brands.

• Technical SEO: Run regular technical audits covering crawlability, indexation, site architecture, internal linking, Core Web Vitals, mobile usability, structured data, canonicals, hreflang, and redirects. Work with developers to prioritize & ship fixes.

• Keyword & Competitive Research: Lead keyword research, search-intent mapping, topic clustering, and competitor gap analysis to find high-value opportunities with B2B and international audiences.

• On-Page Optimization: Optimize titles, meta descriptions, headings, content structure, internal links, and schema markup on existing and new pages. Own SEO for service and conversion landing pages.

• Content Strategy Partnership: Create SEO content briefs and editorial guidance for writers, review drafts for search intent, E-E-A-T, and on-page best practices, and plan refreshes or consolidation for pages losing traffic.

• AI Search & GEO: Monitor and improve brand visibility in Google AI Overviews and AI answer engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot) through entity optimization, structured data, and content worth citing.

• Link Building & Digital PR: Set the off-page strategy and link quality standards, link-building on outreach and digital PR, and monitor the health of the backlink profile, including toxic links.

• Local & International SEO: Manage multi-location and multi-region SEO, including Google Business Profiles, hreflang, and localized content where applicable.

• Analytics & Reporting: Build and maintain dashboards in GA4, Google Search Console, and Looker Studio. Report performance, insights, and next steps to stakeholders every month and quarter.

• Algorithm & Industry Monitoring: Track Google core and algorithm updates, SERP feature changes, and industry trends. Diagnose traffic drops and lead the recovery plan.

• Mentorship & Process: Document SEO procedures and checklists and set quality standards.

• CRO Collaboration: Work with design and paid media teams to improve organic conversion rates through A/B testing, UX improvements, and landing page optimization.

Objective and KPI

Objective: Grow qualified organic traffic, search visibility, and inbound leads while keeping web presence technically healthy, compliant, and authoritative.

• Organic Traffic Growth: Month-over-month and year-over-year growth in non-branded organic sessions to priority pages, against quarterly targets agreed with the Marketing Manager.

• Rankings & Visibility: More keywords ranking in the top 3 and top 10, and a higher share of voice for target keyword clusters.

• Leads & Conversions: Organic-sourced leads, form fills, and consultation or demo requests, and the organic conversion rate.

• Technical Health: Site health score of 90%+ in audit tools, “Good” Core Web Vitals on key templates, and critical issues resolved within agreed timelines.

• Authority: Growth in referring domains from relevant, high-authority websites, and improvement in Domain Rating / Domain Authority.

• AI Search Visibility: Brand mentions and citations in Google AI Overviews and AI answer engines for priority topics.

• Reporting: Accurate monthly and quarterly performance reports, delivered on schedule with clear actions.

Education, Experience, Qualifications & Skills

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Computer Science, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

• 5+ years of hands-on SEO experience, including at least 2 years in a senior or lead role, preferably on B2B, financial services, or SaaS websites.

• A proven record of growing organic traffic and leads, backed by case studies or measurable results.

• Advanced proficiency with Google Search Console, GA4, Looker Studio, and Google Tag Manager.

• Expert use of SEO tools such as Ahrefs, Semrush, Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, and PageSpeed Insights / Lighthouse.

• Strong technical SEO knowledge: HTML, CSS, JavaScript rendering, XML sitemaps, robots.txt, schema markup (JSON-LD), and site migrations.

• Experience with CMS platforms such as WordPress, Webflow, or HubSpot CMS.

• Strong analytical, project management, and communication skills, with the ability to turn data into business recommendations for non-technical stakeholders.

Preferred

• Experience optimizing for AI search, including Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).

• Experience with international and multi-language SEO, including hreflang implementation.

• Familiarity with YMYL (“Your Money or Your Life”) content standards and regulated industries such as finance, collections, or healthcare.

• Google Analytics, Google Ads, or HubSpot certifications. Basic SQL, Python, or spreadsheet automation for SEO data analysis.

• Experience managing freelancers, agencies, or a small SEO and content team.