Senior SEO/GEO Strategist

About the job

Want to make a meaningful career move? Think: Padilla. We celebrate our people – and honor their potential. It starts with a warm, inclusive workplace. Ample opportunities to learn and to lead. Other pluses? Fulfilling mentorship opportunities and great celebrations. And caring workers who love creating award-winning work. Come build, grow, and connect with Padilla. We’ll help you be your best.

Padilla is seeking a Senior SEO/GEO Strategist to join its Channels team and support the continued growth of our Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) capabilities.

This role will work across a growing portfolio of client engagements, supporting and managing work spanning SEO, GEO, content optimization, research, measurement and reporting. The Senior SEO/GEO Strategist will be responsible for turning search and AI visibility data into meaningful insights and actionable recommendations that help clients improve how they are discovered across traditional and AI-powered search experiences.

This is a hands-on strategist role. The ideal candidate can independently execute core SEO and GEO workstreams, manage deadlines across multiple accounts, develop client-ready deliverables and confidently communicate findings and recommendations to internal teams and clients. The role will work closely with senior Channels leadership on overall strategy, methodology and complex client needs.

Key Responsibilities

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

• Develop and maintain GEO prompt banks based on audience personas, business priorities, search behavior, client objectives and competitive opportunities.

• Conduct GEO audits evaluating brand visibility, citations, competitive presence, messaging, sentiment and other key indicators across AI search platforms.

• Set up, manage and monitor client programs within GEO platforms such as AthenaHQ.

• Analyze prompt-level data to identify meaningful trends, citation patterns, competitive gaps and opportunities to improve brand visibility.

• Conduct recurring GEO scans and monitoring to understand how client and competitor visibility changes over time.

• Research the third-party sources, publishers and websites influencing AI-generated responses and identify opportunities to strengthen client authority.

• Translate GEO findings into clear insights, strategic recommendations and client-ready presentations.

• Develop recommendations for improving owned content, third-party authority, citations, messaging consistency and overall AI search visibility.

• Contribute to GEO strategic playbooks and activation plans that translate audit findings into prioritized actions.

• Support ongoing GEO programs through recurring measurement, optimization recommendations and identification of new opportunities.

• Stay current on changes to GenAI search platforms, GEO tools and emerging industry best practices.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• Conduct keyword research to understand audience search behavior, competitive opportunities and areas for organic growth.

• Analyze keyword rankings, organic search traffic, landing-page performance and other SEO metrics to identify trends and opportunities.

• Conduct SEO audits and assessments spanning content, competitive performance, website structure and other search visibility factors.

• Identify high-value pages for optimization and recommend updates that improve search performance while protecting existing keyword rankings and search equity.

• Identify content gaps and opportunities for new search-focused content.

• Develop SEO content recommendations and briefs informed by keyword research, competitive analysis and audience intent.

• Review and optimize website content using SEO best practices.

• Monitor performance following optimizations and use results to inform future recommendations.

• Support website migrations and other major website initiatives through pre- and post-launch SEO analysis and recommendations.

• Serve as an SEO resource to account teams responding to client questions related to websites, organic search and content performance.

Measurement & Reporting

• Support and manage recurring client measurement and reporting programs using TapClicks and other analytics platforms.

• Maintain TapClicks dashboards, Smart Connectors and third-party data integrations used for client reporting.

• Review reporting data for accuracy and troubleshoot or flag potential discrepancies and data-quality issues.

• Analyze performance data to identify trends, opportunities and areas requiring attention.

• Develop clear insights and actionable recommendations based on performance data.

• Build and update client-ready PowerPoint reports that communicate performance, key takeaways and recommended next steps.

• Present reporting findings and recommendations to internal teams and clients as appropriate.

• Help improve and standardize measurement and reporting processes to increase efficiency, accuracy and consistency across accounts.

Content & Optimization

• Develop and optimize content informed by SEO and GEO research, audience needs and search behavior.

• Create recommendations designed to improve content visibility across both traditional search engines and AI-generated search experiences.

• Evaluate existing content for SEO/GEO opportunities and recommend updates, expansions or new content.

• Develop content briefs that translate search and GEO research into clear direction for writers and content teams.

• Review content for alignment with SEO/GEO recommendations and optimization best practices.

• Partner with content, creative, PR, social and account teams to incorporate SEO and GEO considerations into broader client programs.

Client & Account Support

• Manage assigned SEO/GEO workstreams from research through delivery, keeping projects organized and on schedule.

• Develop client-ready presentations, reports and recommendations with oversight from senior Channels leadership as needed.

• Participate actively in client meetings and confidently present findings, insights and recommendations.

• Respond to day-to-day SEO/GEO questions from account teams and clients.

• Clearly communicate project status, upcoming deadlines, dependencies and potential risks.

• Collaborate across disciplines to integrate SEO and GEO into broader communications and digital strategies.

• Support new business and organic growth opportunities through research, audits, recommendations and development of presentation materials.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in SEO, digital strategy, search marketing, digital analytics, content strategy or a related field, preferably within an agency or multi-client environment.

• Strong understanding of SEO fundamentals, including keyword research, search intent, on-page optimization, organic search reporting and content optimization.

• Experience conducting research and analysis and translating complex datasets into concise, actionable insights.

• Strong writing, editing and presentation-development skills.

• Experience creating polished, client-ready PowerPoint presentations and reports.

• Strong organizational and project-management skills with the ability to independently manage multiple accounts, projects and deadlines.

• Strong attention to detail and commitment to data accuracy.

• Comfortable presenting work and recommendations to clients and internal stakeholders.

• Curiosity about Generative AI and enthusiasm for working in a rapidly evolving area of search and digital communications.

• Ability to work collaboratively across account management, content, PR, social, creative and digital teams.

Preferred Experience

Experience with several of the following platforms is preferred:

• SEMrush

• Moz

• Ahrefs

• Google Analytics 4

• Google Search Console

• TapClicks

• AthenaHQ or similar GEO/AI visibility platforms

• Microsoft Excel

• Microsoft PowerPoint

Direct GEO experience is beneficial but not required. Candidates with a strong SEO foundation, analytical mindset and demonstrated ability to learn new platforms and methodologies should be able to grow into the GEO components of the role.

What Success Looks Like

The Senior SEO/GEO Strategist will become a dependable day-to-day resource across Padilla's growing portfolio of SEO, GEO and measurement work.

In the near term, this person will take ownership of defined executional workstreams, including prompt research and development, audit analysis, keyword research, recurring monitoring, TapClicks reporting, content optimization and development of client-ready deliverables.

As they become familiar with Padilla's methodologies and clients, they will increasingly manage SEO and GEO projects with greater independence, develop strategic recommendations based on their findings, and present their work directly to clients.

Ultimately, success means adding meaningful strategic and executional capacity to the team - allowing senior leadership to spend more time on complex strategy, senior client counsel, methodology development, team leadership and new business while maintaining a high standard of quality across a growing volume of SEO and GEO work.

#LI-Hybrid
US salary range
$75,000 — $100,000 USD

Padilla is a full-service agency that transforms brands and organizations through strategically creative communications. Our work across a range of industry sectors is consistently recognized by the PRWeek Awards, PRovoke IN2 SABRE Awards and PRSA Anvil Awards, among others. Padilla operates in seven cities in the U.S. through its family of brands, which includes SHIFT (performance communications), FoodMinds (food and nutrition affairs) and Joe Smith (brand strategy). As an AVENIR GLOBAL company and a founding member of the Worldcom Public Relations Group, the agency provides services to clients through 155 offices worldwide. Transform with purpose at PadillaCo.com .

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