How to hire a search strategist

How to hire a search strategist, step by step

Here's a step-by-step search strategist hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a search strategist job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new search strategist
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a search strategist do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a search strategist, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a search strategist to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a search strategist that fits the bill.

   Here's a comparison of search strategist salaries for various roles:

   Type of Search Strategist	Description	Hourly rate
   Search Strategist		$26-56
   Online Marketing Manager	Online marketing managers are professionals in charge of creating marketing campaigns for social media and internet platforms. Marketing managers take responsibility for the development, implementation, and management of marketing campaigns for a company... Show more	$33-63
   Search Engine Evaluator	A search engine evaluator specializes in optimizing web search results, ensuring relevance and reliability. Most evaluators are freelancers working at home, while some are in a company setting... Show more	$33-77

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Digital Marketing
   • Google Analytics
   • Paid Search
   • Keyword Research
   • User Experience
   • Marketing Campaigns
   • Lead Generation
   • WordPress
   • Content Strategy
   • Leveraged
   • PPC
   • HTML
   • Link Building
   • CSS

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Implement and manage SEO for web pages, YouTube, and blogs.
   • Manage 20k a month in client SEM campaigns using ROI, ROAS & Cost/conversion biding strategies.
   • Lead daily client calls regarding campaign performance, analysis, strategy, testing/learnings, and optimization impacts on all performance KPIs.
   • Provide graphic, CSS and html support for customer web pages, newsletters and email marketing campaigns.
   • Make HTML, CSS, and PHP changes to websites.
   • Work with multiple CMS's (WordPress, Joomla, Magento, etc . )

   More search strategist duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your search strategist job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A search strategist salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, search strategists' average salary in georgia is 39% less than in california.
   • Seniority. Entry-level search strategists earn 53% less than senior-level search strategists.
   • Certifications. A search strategist with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a search strategist's salary.

   Average search strategist salary

   $82,098yearly

   $39.47 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level search strategist salary

   $56,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 17, 2025

   Average search strategist salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$106,091	$51
   2	Washington	$95,852	$46
   3	Arizona	$92,182	$44
   4	New Jersey	$85,374	$41
   5	New York	$81,683	$39
   6	Utah	$81,667	$39
   7	Pennsylvania	$81,635	$39
   8	Massachusetts	$80,974	$39
   9	Oregon	$80,958	$39
   10	Virginia	$79,458	$38
   11	District of Columbia	$79,153	$38
   12	Rhode Island	$77,828	$37
   13	Maryland	$77,263	$37
   14	Texas	$76,974	$37
   15	Arkansas	$76,159	$37
   16	Kansas	$74,819	$36
   17	Louisiana	$72,928	$35
   18	Colorado	$72,889	$35
   19	Ohio	$72,262	$35
   20	Tennessee	$70,039	$34

   Average search strategist salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Google	$134,513	$64.67	35
   2	Microsoft	$129,237	$62.13	22
   3	Atlassian	$126,980	$61.05	2
   4	Scribd	$122,000	$58.65
   5	SideCars	$116,234	$55.88
   6	Tripadvisor	$113,883	$54.75
   7	Vista Equity Partners	$112,040	$53.87
   8	Amazon	$111,575	$53.64	36
   9	AKQA	$92,382	$44.41	1
   10	Procore Technologies	$92,211	$44.33
   11	Wpp Us Holdings Inc	$91,460	$43.97	8
   12	General Mills	$90,866	$43.69	1
   13	Tours4Fun	$86,557	$41.61
   14	Oriental Trading	$84,373	$40.56
   15	BrightEdge	$83,171	$39.99
   16	CyberCoders	$81,825	$39.34
   17	KBS+ (Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners)	$78,515	$37.75
   18	AAA FACILITY SERVICES	$76,338	$36.70
   19	KBS	$74,208	$35.68	1
   20	ICF	$73,652	$35.41

4. Writing a search strategist job description

   A good search strategist job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a search strategist job description:

   Search strategist job description example

   Digital marketing is a key area of focus for OneMain Financial and this is an exciting opportunity to join the team and help drive innovation and performance of our digital strategy. Our team is seeking an SEO Strategist to help drive the acquisitions for one of our key online channels.
   
   This role will touch all aspects of our organic search and local search presence, including strategy and roadmap, technical applications, site content development, analytics and insights, and local SEO tactics. As a subject matter expert, the SEO Strategist will partner with internal teams across marketing and technology to build domain authority, increase rankings and traffic, and drive new acquisitions in a highly competitive SEO market.
   
   Help manage key areas of the SEO channel against yearly forecast and work closely with internal stakeholders to achieve channel goals
   
   Use analytics and SEO best practices to increase qualified traffic to the site; Work with internal teams to ensure an optimal landing page experience and conversion.
   
   Create and/or optimize content through keyword and landing page analysis, and use competitive research to help guide content marketing strategy
   
   Identify and communicate technical aspects of the site that require enhancements for SEO and monitor changes (redirects, indexing, canonical tags, meta data, page speed, structured data, etc.)
   Develop and implement effective local online reputation management strategies for online listings Analyze and monitor local listings and page performance, extract insights, and identify relevant local trends Regularly review site releases to ensure no negative SEO impact from new site changes or updates Research and understand market changes due to impact of mobile, consumer search habits, and search engine algorithms Perform site audits to identify technical SEO issues; Recommend and project-manage fixes with IT teams Provide regular reporting on traffic, rankings, crawl reports and other SEO aspects Manage and collaborate with SEO vendors to execute on initiatives; Handle day-to-day such as onboarding, contracts, and invoices Perform all the above functions with enhanced speed-to-market being a critical core component Qualifications: 3-5+ years direct SEO experience Experience using SEO analytics, research, and monitoring tools such as Google Search Console, Conductor, Deepcrawl, Ahrefs, etc. Demonstrated success with local SEO and experience with listing management Understanding of the customer journey and how to best optimize for it Ability to work with remote project teams Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, innovative and entrepreneurial environment Strong problem solving, project management and organizational skills Experience working for an agency a plus Experience in consumer financial services a plus Bachelor's Degree

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are various strategies that you can use to find the right search strategist for your business:

   • Consider promoting from within or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to find candidates who meet your education requirements.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your search strategist job on Zippia to find and recruit search strategist candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting search strategists requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   If your interviews with search strategist applicants aren't enough to make a decision, you should also consider including a test project. These are often the best, most straightforward, and least bias-prone ways of determining who will likely succeed in the role. If you don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new search strategist

   Once you've selected the best search strategist candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.

   It's also good etiquette to follow up with applicants who don't get the job by sending them an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new search strategist. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a search strategist?