SEO Specialist

IDP is the global leader in international education services, delivering global success to students, test takers and our partners, through trusted human relationships, digital technology and customer research. An Australian-listed company, we operate in more than 50 countries around the world.

Our team is comprised of over 7,000 people of various nationalities, ages and cultural backgrounds. Proudly customer-first, our expert people are powered by global technology. Together, we offer unmatched services, helping local dreams become realities, all over the world.

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Key Performance Area

• Develop a holistic organic growth strategy that balances traditional search (Google, Bing, Baidu) with emerging AI-driven search experiences (AI Overviews, ChatGPT integrations, Perplexity, etc.).
• Implement Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) strategies to ensure IDP and IELTS content is surfaced in AI-generated summaries and responses.
• Align with business objectives to drive leads, ecommerce transactions, and visibility in both search engine results pages (SERPs) and AI-driven answer boxes.
• Coordinate with developers, content creators, and marketing teams to deliver a future-proof SEO strategy.

• Ensure all technical elements (crawlability, indexation, sitemaps, structured data, hreflang, redirects) are correctly implemented and maintained.
• Implement advanced structured data (FAQ, How-to, Course, Event, etc.) to increase chances of inclusion in featured snippets and AI-generated results.
• Conduct regular SEO + AI readiness audits, assessing how content is interpreted by both search engines and AI models.
• Explore semantic search optimizations, entity-based SEO, and schema enhancements to align with Google's Knowledge Graph and AI indexing models.
• Track, report, and disseminate metrics, including traditional KPIs (rankings, CTR, organic traffic) and emerging ones (AI Overview mentions, conversational query presence).

On Page Optimization

• Utilise the latest techniques to ensure a high ranking across pages including: 
  • Site structure and architecture improvements
  • internal linking optimizations
  • Identify duplicate content issues
  • Meta & Heading tags management
  • Page speed & image optimization
  • Use of heading, canonical, no-follow and hreflang tags
  • Manage sitemaps 
  • Structured data / rich & featured snippets implementation
  • Language & location tags
  • Content improvement recommendations based on competitor analysis
  • Continuously optimize site architecture, internal linking, and semantic markup to strengthen authority and visibility in AI-augmented search.
  • Ensure content is optimized for both SERPs and AI answer engines, focusing on clear, structured, and authoritative responses to user intent.
  • Recommend content enhancements informed by LLM output analysis (e.g., identifying where AI surfaces competitor content instead of ours).

Off Page & Content Marketing

• Identify link-building and entity association opportunities, focusing on authoritative mentions that improve brand visibility in AI-generated responses.
• Audit and refresh content to reduce cannibalization while strengthening authority for high-value queries.
• Collaborate with content teams to create AEO-ready content that answers questions directly and concisely, increasing the likelihood of being referenced by AI engines.

Collaboration

• Work with the IDP SEO Community and contribute experience and lessons learned
• Leverage successful SEO ideas / initiatives from across country and share that within the IDP SEO Community
• Act as one POC for all region SEO requirements
• Contribute to building a positive work environment within the team based on a shared commitment to IDP's values and quality

Financial Management

• Manage budget and resource allocations effectively to deliver business priorities
• Exercise appropriate stewardship over IDP assets and intellectual property
• Expenditure is in line with agreed budget and business priorities

General

• Undertake any other lawful duties as reasonably directed by management

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Essential requirements (skills, knowledge experience & qualification(s)):

• Educated to Graduation level or equivalent
• Minimum 3 years of experience in organic search space, local business optimisation, search engine ranking factors and on-page and off-page optimisation
• Strong understanding of AI-driven search changes (AI Overviews, AEO, GEO, conversational search).
• Experience in structured data, schema markup, and entity-based SEO.
• Experience using Content Management Systems, Experience with Headless CMS' and JavaScript Frameworks an advantage
• Understanding of how LLMs and AI engines interpret content (prompted content analysis, semantic search).
• Reporting & tracking SEO performance on regular basis
• Must have good understanding of Google search console, Google Analytics, Screaming Frog & other SEO tools like SuperMetrics, Ahrefs or similar (Dragon Metrics experience a plus)
• Able to read, analyse and interpret information effectively and use & apply findings to deliver better SEO outcomes (growth in organic traffic and enquiries) moving forward
• Basic IT Skills - MS office or Google equivalency
• Good verbal and written communication skills
• Good organisational skills with an ability to develop standard processes and practices

Desirable requirements:

• Experience in working in dynamic global environment
• Experience in the education or travel industries
• Great fluency in English is compulsory.
• Agency experience with exposure to a variety of different websites and proven outcomes for clients
• Experience in writing or editing web content