SEO Manager

Portfolio scale. SEO is delivered through a team; your hands-on work is exception-based. This role brings direct commercial accountability. You oversee portfolio utilisation, margins and client retention, and you manage Leads rather than individual contributors. You are accountable for the portfolio of client accounts your team manages; the team runs the accounts day to day. You keep enough expertise in SEO to judge quality, and build capability across the team.

EquivalentSEO Consultant

How this role differs

You move from leading a pod to owning a portfolio commercially, and you take on formal line management, probation and progression decisions for the team.

The Manager delivers SEO through a team and owns its resourcing and quality system. The SEO Consultant is the recognised expert voice: they own the method, solve escalations, and deliver through people following that method rather than their instructions.

Roles and responsibilities

Judge technical and optimisation priority across the portfolio and resource it correctly.
Retain enough depth to judge the team's technical quality and arbitrate technical decisions.
Build the quality system, so technical standards hold when you are not reviewing.
Own the commercial consequence of technical work: hours spent against likely return.
Identify technical capability gaps in the team before they bite.
Develop the team's ability to present strategies, handle feedback and pushback, and maintain client confidence while results develop.
Work with Digital PR Managers to make sure SEO and PR activity supports shared client objectives.
Own the commercial performance of a portfolio: margin, utilisation, scope creep and renewal.
Lead a team of four to six, including Leads, and be accountable for the quality of everything it produces.
Line-manage the team through the full cycle: objectives, probation reviews, calibration, ratings, progression cases and formal performance management.
Be accountable for the client relationships across the portfolio your team manages, stepping in on scope negotiations, difficult conversations and renewal discussions.
Retain the team: spot flight risk early and act on it before it becomes a resignation.
Make hiring decisions for Executive and Lead roles, from writing the brief through to the offer recommendation.