SEO Specialist at Pulse NG

We are looking for an SEO Specialist to take full ownership of Pulse’s search performance across multiple markets. This role combines technical expertise, editorial collaboration, and growth strategy. The SEO Specialist will ensure that Pulse is discoverable, competitive, and positioned as a leading source of news, entertainment, lifestyle, and cultural content. 
You will be responsible for conducting audits, optimising site health, guiding editorial teams, and identifying growth opportunities that drive measurable increases in organic traffic and audience engagement. Working directly with the VP, Growth, you will act as the link between technical SEO requirements, editorial creativity, and business outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

SEO Strategy & Roadmap

• Develop and execute a clear SEO strategy that supports Pulse’s growth, engagement, and revenue goals.
• Build and maintain an SEO roadmap for Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda, striking a balance between local priorities and cross-market strategies.
• Conduct competitive analysis to benchmark Pulse’s performance against local and international media brands.
• Identify new keyword categories and content gaps Pulse can own to capture long-term organic traffic.
• Collaborate with the VP of Growth to ensure SEO contributes directly to audience acquisition and brand partnerships.

On-Page Optimisation

• Optimise article headlines, meta descriptions, subheadings, image tags, and internal linking to improve ranking and click-through rates.
• Work closely with editorial teams to integrate SEO into daily publishing workflows.
• Create and update editorial SEO guidelines that reflect current best practices and Google's latest updates.
• Train editors and writers on keyword targeting, topical authority, and proper use of structured content.
• Ensure consistent optimisation across multiple formats, including text, video, images, and live content.

Technical SEO & Site Health

• Run regular audits to monitor crawlability, indexation, Core Web Vitals, mobile-first readiness, and overall site health.
• Partner with Product/Tech teams to resolve technical issues (duplicate content, broken links, redirect chains, crawl errors).
• Ensure clean implementation of sitemaps, robots.txt, canonicals, hreflang, and redirects across all Pulse properties.
• Optimise site architecture and navigation for both users and search engines.
• Stay on top of Google algorithm changes and ensure Pulse is proactively adapting.

Content & Growth Collaboration

• Collaborate with Editorial leads to design evergreen content strategies (guides, explainers, seasonal hubs) that generate long-term search traffic.
• Support brand partnerships and campaigns with SEO insights (e.g., keyword research for branded content to maximise visibility).
• Collaborate with the Growth and Social teams to develop a cross-channel approach, ensuring SEO content is effectively amplified across TikTok, YouTube, and other social platforms.
• Align SEO with video strategy: optimise Pulse’s YouTube presence, explore TikTok/short-form search visibility, and ensure multi-platform discoverability.

Analytics & Reporting

• Build dashboards (GA4, Google Data Studio, Search Console) to track performance across all Pulse properties.
• Provide weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports to the VP, Growth — highlighting wins, gaps, and growth opportunities.
• Track key metrics: keyword rankings, organic traffic share, CTR, dwell time, bounce rate, returning visitors, and conversions.
• Translate performance insights into actionable recommendations for editorial, tech, and growth teams.
• Report on ROI: show how SEO-driven traffic contributes to audience growth and revenue opportunities.

Requirements

• 4–6 years of hands-on SEO experience in a media, publishing, or high-traffic digital environment.
• Strong track record in both technical SEO (site audits, Core Web Vitals, indexation, site migrations) and content SEO (keyword research, content optimisation, editorial training).
• Proficiency in SEO tools: Google Analytics (GA4), Google Search Console, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Screaming Frog, and other site audit tools.
• Strong understanding of structured data, schema markup, hreflang for multi-market SEO, and site speed optimisation.
• Experience working with CMS platforms such as WordPress or Drupal.
• Excellent communication and training skills — able to guide non-technical teams (editors, video producers, social content leads) on SEO best practices.
• An analytical mindset with the ability to translate data into decisions.
• Bonus: experience with video SEO (YouTube optimisation, shorts/reels indexing) and news SEO (Top Stories, Discover, AMP).