SEO & AI Search Specialist - On-Site

About the role

SEO & AI Search Specialist - On-Site Department: Marketing Employment Type: Full Time Location: California Compensation: $85,000 - $140,000 / year Description We are a prominent and growing Personal Injury Law Firm in Newport Beach seeking an experienced, data-driven SEO & AI Search Specialist to grow organic visibility, local presence, and qualified leads across traditional and AI-powered search. The ideal candidate understands modern SEO, AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), AIO (AI Optimization), LLMO, and emerging AI-search trends, while maintaining a strong foundation in technical, content, and local SEO. Responsibilities: Plan and execute on-page, off-page, technical, local, and AI-search optimization strategies. Optimize service pages, location pages, blogs, FAQs, metadata, internal linking, and site structure for traditional search and AI-generated results. Improve visibility across Google Search, AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and other emerging search platforms. Conduct keyword, topic, entity, semantic, conversational, and search-intent research focused on high-converting personal injury terms. Build topical authority and strengthen E-E-A-T, entity, and knowledge graph signals, particularly for legal/YMYL content. Manage local SEO, including Google Business Profiles, reviews, citations, directories, Yelp, Avvo, and location-page optimization. Implement and maintain structured data/schema markup and other technical signals that improve search-engine and AI understanding. Collaborate with writers, attorneys, developers, and marketing staff to create SEO- and AI-focused content strategies. Monitor competitors, content gaps, backlinks, brand mentions, AI citations, and search visibility. Track and report on rankings, organic traffic, AI referral traffic, leads, conversions, and signed-case performance. Identify and resolve technical SEO issues involving crawlability, indexation, site speed, Core Web Vitals, redirects, canonicalization, and structured data. Support link building, digital PR, backlink audits, and other white-hat authority-building efforts. Stay current with Google algorithm updates, AI-search developments, emerging search technologies, and legal advertising requirements. Qualifications: 2+ years of hands-on SEO experience; legal, personal injury, or other competitive YMYL experience preferred. Strong understanding of traditional SEO and modern concepts including AEO, GEO, AIO, LLMO, entity SEO, semantic search, and AI search optimization. Working knowledge of WordPress, GA4, Google Search Console, Google Business Profile, Semrush, Ahrefs, BrightLocal, Moz, or similar tools. Experience with local SEO, Google Business Profile optimization, citations, reviews, and multi-location search. Understanding of technical SEO, including HTML/CSS, crawling, indexing, structured data, Core Web Vitals, and site architecture. Familiarity with AI-powered search platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews. Proven ability to increase organic visibility, qualified traffic, leads, and conversions. Strong analytical skills and the ability to turn search data into clear recommendations and action plans. Comfortable working cross-functionally with writers, attorneys, developers, and marketing leadership. Knowledge of legal content or legal advertising guidelines is a plus. Benefits: 401(k)  Dental insurance Health insurance Paid time off Vision insurance