SEO Strategy Manager

This is a critical role within our SEO team and is an exciting opportunity for a solutions-oriented, strategic thinker to help drive forward an award-winning and future-facing SEO product for our clients.

ABOUT HAVAS MARKET:

We are Havas Market, part of the Havas Media Network. We believe in the fusion of commerce and performance to drive limitless performance. We break down barriers between commerce and performance to build cohesive multichannel purchase experiences that powerfully combine tech and human flair.

Havas Market expertise spans four core specialist services: paid media (PPC, paid social, shopping international), owned (SEO, CRO, content, creative, localisation), commerce (Amazon, Marketplaces, Retail Media, social commerce) and earned (digital PR, social).

We help clients such as Bonhams, DASH Water, JDE, Office Shoes and TOAST to:

• Connect with the human behind the click – we harness human-led planning and technology to create experiences that connect more deeply and drive superior digital performance.
• Capture meaningful metrics that matter – we focus on meaningful results that drive business impact, not just superficial metrics, ensuring client strategy delivers real commercial success.
• Combine curious minds and powerful technology – we turn data into actionable insights, all powered and delivered by cutting-edge technology, giving clients a competitive edge in market.

THE ROLE:

This role requires someone with a comprehensive understanding of SEO as you’ll be responsible for creating overall SEO strategy, spanning Technical, Content and Digital PR, for a diverse range of clients that includes established powerhouses, such as Kia, Hyundai, Office, and the BBC.

You will need to be able to interpret client’s briefs and deliver inventive and effective solutions that meet their real-world business challenges. We’re not looking for a siloed thinker or for executional support. We need someone that will understand a client’s goals and objectives, research their market, understand their consumers and apply creative thinking to develop a strong SEO strategy that will help them to hit meaningful performance objectives (improve rankings, increase traffic, drive sales volume and ROI etc.).

You will work closely with specialist teams across each of these SEO disciplines to deliver against client briefs and objectives. You will act as a central function to bring these areas together to ensure we’re working in an integrated and complimentary fashion, while ensuring there’s clear QA process in place so work is delivered to the highest standard.

You’ll also be the front-end for SEO clients. As such, you will need to lead client communication and be comfortable building strong relationships with client stakeholders. You will be expected to bring this skill set to the new business arena as well and will be required to support your line manager and SEO Leadership in these endeavours, i.e., generating insights and pitch assets.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Manage the end-to-end SEO strategy for your client set, working closely with Technical, Content and DPR to achieve this, and with support from the Strategy AD.
• Coordinate campaign teams across Technical, Content and DPR departments, ensuring that all activity is justified, in-line with your strategy and will ultimately deliver ROI to our clients.
• Use robust, data-driven analysis to determine the SEO solution which will deliver optimal performance for your client set.
• Work with your AD to align SEO strategy with the overall client goals and keep the Strategy AD updated on important campaign developments.
• Analyse sites and data-sources such as Search Console & Google Analytics to identify site issues and opportunities for improvement.
• Plan all SEO tasks effectively to ensure they’re delivered within a timely manner and that we’re operating with agreed commercials, burn rates and SLAs.
• Work within QA processes to ensure high-quality delivery for your allocated clients, alignment to best practice, while helping to create a branded and consistent experience for all clients.
• Lead on reporting and insights for your clients – ensuring there are regular updates both in terms of performance impact and progress against the strategic roadmap.
• Act as the day-to-day contact for clients, ensuring you build strong relationships with clients and are the first point of contact for communication.
• Coordinate meeting preparation and content and lead on client meetings as appropriate.
• Line manage, mentor and develop a small number of executives as necessary based on team size – including regular feedback meetings, clear personal development plans and timely appraisals.
• QA work delivered by AEs under your remit, providing actionable feedback to aid development.
• Make recommendations for improvements to SEO processes and procedures, ensuring continuous development of the SEO offering.
• Work with the client service team to identify client growth opportunities, for upsells or additional SEO activity across emerging channels.
• Ability to report back both internally and externally on client progress, as well as keeping abreast of digital development opportunities for clients across all areas of the market.
• Support with insights and research as necessary in the preparation of new business pitches.
• Manage our invoicing and time delivery systems; ensuring that time allocated to each campaign is fulfilled, auditable and billed correctly.
• Work with your line manager to ensure you have a clear understanding of profitability for clients.

DESIRABLE SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Agency experience in a strategy centric SEO role.
• Previous experience with client facing responsibilities and building strong relationships.
• Management experience desirable but not essential.
• Good storytelling and presentation capability, with the ability to communicate confidently and interpret performance marketing to clients and manage client expectations.
• Passion for, and a solid understanding of, all aspects of SEO and ideally digital more broadly.
• Organised, self-starter with excellent attention to detail.
• Strong project management skills, with ability to manage multiple deadlines and stakeholders.
• Good knowledge of key SEO tools (Google Analytics, SEMRush, Accuranker, etc.).

Contract Type: Permanent

Here at Havas across the group we pride ourselves on being committed to offering equal opportunities to all potential employees and have zero tolerance for discrimination. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applicants irrespective of age, sex, race, ethnicity, disability and other factors that have no bearing on an individual’s ability to perform their job.