COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE: Media REPORTS TO: VP, Search and AI Discovery LOCATION: Cleveland or Cincinnati, Ohio, preferred; remote considered in Ohio or an approved state (Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas) EMPLOYMENT TYPE: Freelance SCHEDULE: 15–20 hours per week, ongoing
Who Is Marcus Thomas? Marcus Thomas is one of the country’s leading independent advertising and marketing agencies, and we’re independent again on purpose. We bought ourselves back from private equity so our clients and our people come before shareholders. We’re 200+ people who work with fewer layers and less bureaucracy, focused on one goal: turning chaos into clarity, built around each client’s problem. We do the work ourselves, with real judgment and real people. We roll up our sleeves, ask a better question, figure it out and stay in it for the long term. We have offices in Cleveland and Cincinnati, Ohio; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Santiago, Chile, working across creative, media, public relations, social, digital strategy and technology.
Location and Work Arrangement We value in-person collaboration as much as possible, so candidates in the Cleveland and Cincinnati, Ohio, areas are preferred. We’ll also consider remote candidates based elsewhere in Ohio or in an approved state: Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee or Texas. Candidates must be based in Ohio or one of the approved states listed above
Employment Eligibility Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States. Marcus Thomas is unable to provide employment visa sponsorship for this position now or in the future.
About the Role We’re looking for an experienced SEO specialist or independent consultant to join our Search and AI Discovery team on an ongoing freelance basis. Working closely with our VP, Search and AI Discovery, you’ll take on assigned SEO and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) work that helps client brands grow their visibility across traditional search engines, AI-powered search experiences and large language models (LLMs), including Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity and other emerging platforms. This is a hands-on role for someone who can contribute quickly without extensive training and manage assigned tasks and projects independently. The work brings together SEO, AI optimization (AIO), GEO, content strategy, local search and technical optimization, including structured data and entity work. Day to day, you’ll analyze websites, search results, content, structured data, local visibility and AI responses, then turn those insights into clear, prioritized recommendations for content, development, UX and marketing teams. The ideal candidate brings deep, hands-on SEO expertise and practical experience analyzing or improving how brands show up in AI-driven search. The strongest candidates treat SEO and AI optimization as one connected discipline and are comfortable asking why a competitor appears in an AI answer instead of our brand or why a page isn’t ranking or indexing correctly. AI search is changing quickly, so this role suits someone experimental who likes testing hypotheses, challenging conventional SEO assumptions and evolving their approach as search behavior changes. This is a search and optimization role, not a prompt engineering or AI development role. The engagement is ongoing at 15–20 hours per week, so it’s a good fit if you enjoy limited-hours work and collaborating closely with a team that values your expertise.
Opportunity for Growth As our SEO and GEO search optimization business continues to grow, this opportunity may expand to include additional hours or potentially transition into a full-time position. Any future expansion will depend on client needs and business growth.
Key Responsibilities
SEO strategy and execution
- Conduct keyword, topic, competitor, SERP, search-intent and content gap research to identify opportunities to grow organic visibility, qualified traffic, engagement and conversions.
- Develop and execute SEO recommendations for landing pages, blogs, product/service pages, resource hubs and other digital experiences that support each brand’s broader strategy.
- Optimize title tags, meta descriptions, headings, content structure, internal linking, anchor text, images and other on-page elements.
- Monitor rankings, traffic, conversions, indexing and organic search performance for assigned brands.
- Translate SEO findings into clear, prioritized recommendations for content, development, UX and marketing teams.
AI search, AIO/GEO and LLM optimization
- Support strategies to improve brand visibility within AI-generated answers, AI search results and LLM recommendations.
- Monitor and analyze how brands and competitors appear across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity and other emerging AI platforms, including brand mentions, citations, cited domains/pages, prompts, topics and competitive visibility.
- Identify content gaps that prevent brands from being selected, referenced, cited or recommended by AI systems.
- Optimize content for both traditional search retrieval and AI answer retrieval, including clear answer structures, definitions, comparisons, FAQs, supporting evidence and strong entity relationships.
- Evaluate how third-party sources, publishers, directories, reviews, forums and other external websites influence brand visibility within AI-generated answers.
- Test emerging AIO/GEO tactics, share what you learn and recommend approaches the team can scale.
- Stay current on developments in AI search, generative search, LLM discovery, retrieval systems and evolving optimization practices.
Technical SEO and structured data
- Conduct technical SEO audits covering crawlability, indexability, rendering, response codes, canonicalization, redirects, duplicate content, internal linking, XML sitemaps, robots.txt directives and site architecture.
- Identify technical barriers, including JavaScript rendering issues, that limit search-engine and AI-system access to important content.
- Develop and validate structured data recommendations using Schema.org and JSON-LD, including appropriate schema types.
- Collaborate with developers to translate technical findings into actionable requirements.
Content and entity optimization
- Help shape content strategies based on search demand, audience questions, competitive gaps and emerging AI discovery behaviors.
- Create content briefs that incorporate keywords, entities, questions, semantic relationships, internal links and user intent.
- Improve content so important information can be easily understood and retrieved by both search engines and AI systems, with clear relationships among brands, products, services, experts, locations and topics.
- Identify opportunities for authoritative supporting content, original research, expert insights, statistics, FAQs, comparisons and other citation-worthy resources.
- Balance optimization for search visibility with usefulness, readability, brand voice and conversion goals.
Local SEO
- Optimize location pages or professional profile pages for local discovery, and recommend local structured data and scalable location-page optimization approaches.
- Support Google Business Profile optimization and governance.
- Monitor local rankings and competitive visibility, and identify opportunities involving reviews, citations, directories, location content and local authority.
- Identify inconsistencies between websites, business profiles, directories and other sources that may affect local discovery or entity understanding.
Measurement and reporting
- Build and maintain reporting that shows visibility and business impact across traditional and AI-driven search for assigned brands.
- Track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as organic visibility, rankings, traffic, conversions, local visibility, AI mentions, citations, share of voice and competitive presence.
- Turn data into concise insights explaining what happened, why it matters and what we should do next.
- Help design testing methodologies to evaluate whether SEO and AI discovery initiatives are improving visibility.
What Success Looks Like First 90 Days
- Get up to speed on assigned clients’ businesses, search landscapes, priority topics and competitors.
- Take ownership of assigned SEO work so the Search and AI Discovery team can focus on its broader priorities.
- Complete baseline SEO, technical and local visibility audits for assigned brands, including a baseline for how those brands and competitors appear in AI-generated answers.
- Deliver a first set of prioritized, practical recommendations to content, development, UX and marketing teams.
Within six months
- Manage assigned SEO tasks and projects with minimal direction, giving the team meaningful capacity back.
- Identify and help resolve technical, content and local SEO opportunities that improve qualified organic visibility for assigned brands.
- Support ongoing AI search visibility analysis and experimentation, including tracking brand mentions, citations and cited sources over time.
- Help put reporting in place that tracks visibility and business impact across traditional and AI-driven search.
As the engagement continues
- Provide practical, measurable recommendations that connect search and AI visibility to business outcomes, not simply more traffic.
- Help identify competitive search and AI discovery gaps for assigned brands before competitors capitalize on them.
- Share tested AIO/GEO tactics and findings in ways the broader team can put to use.
Required Qualifications
- 3+ years of hands-on SEO experience
- Demonstrated experience analyzing, testing, or implementing AI search optimization (AIO/GEO) strategies, including improving or measuring brand visibility across AI-powered search platforms
- Strong understanding of on-page, technical, content and off-page SEO
- Experience conducting keyword research, competitive analysis, SERP analysis and content gap analysis
- Working knowledge of Google Search Console and modern SEO platforms such as Semrush, Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, BrightEdge, ArcAI or similar tools
- Understanding of structured data, Schema.org, JSON-LD, canonicalization, robots.txt directives, XML sitemaps, internal linking and indexation
- Experience using analytics platforms to evaluate organic performance
- Working knowledge of local SEO and Google Business Profile optimization
- Strong understanding of how generative AI and LLM-based discovery are changing how people search for information, brands, products and services
- Ability to translate complex SEO and AI search concepts into clear recommendations for nontechnical stakeholders
- Strong analytical, writing, research and problem-solving skills
Preferred Qualifications These qualifications may help someone ramp up more quickly, but they aren’t required for consideration.
- Enterprise or multi-location SEO
- Entity-based SEO and knowledge graphs
- Schema.org implementation
- Log-file or crawler analysis
- JavaScript SEO
- Local SEO at scale
- Conversion-focused SEO
- Working with large datasets in Excel or Google Sheets
- Systematic testing and analysis of how brands appear in AI search results
- Experience in highly competitive or regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare, insurance or ecommerce
Team Values At Marcus Thomas, our values shape how we work with each other and with our clients.
Community – We contribute to the growth of our agency, our industry and our communities.
Accountability – We show up, keep our word, and take ownership of our work and results.
Collaboration – We lead with empathy, listen actively and value every voice.
Curiosity – We stay curious, ask questions and bring new ideas to the table.
Diversity – We respect and celebrate different perspectives because they make the work stronger.
Make Work Play – We bring energy, creativity and joy into everything we do.
Our Hiring Process Our hiring process helps us learn about your experience while giving you a clear understanding of the role, team and agency. It typically includes an initial recruiter conversation, a hiring manager interview, a team or leadership interview, and final selection. We may use AI-assisted tools to help organize and review application materials. These tools may compare résumé information with job qualifications and highlight relevant experience for our recruiting team. Candidates may opt out of AI-assisted résumé screening when applying. With candidate consent, we may use AI-assisted tools to record and transcribe interviews. Candidates may opt out of recording or transcription at any stage without affecting their consideration. AI tools don’t make hiring decisions. Our recruiting and hiring teams review candidate information and decide who moves forward.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion At Marcus Thomas, different perspectives strengthen our teams and our work. We’re committed to fair access to opportunity and an environment where employees can contribute, develop and succeed. We encourage applications from people with a wide range of identities, experiences and backgrounds, including those historically underrepresented in advertising and marketing. Marcus Thomas provides equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees. Employment decisions are made without regard to any status protected by applicable law.
