SEO Research Specialist – Ahrefs Keyword, SERP & Competitor Analysis

SEO Keyword & Competitor Research Specialist – Ahrefs Required We are looking for an experienced SEO research specialist to conduct structured keyword, SERP and organic competitor research for a UK healthcare/e-commerce business. This is primarily a research and data-gathering assignment, rather than a general SEO audit or ongoing SEO management role. We already have substantial first-party data and internal knowledge of the website, its existing performance and future direction. We therefore want someone who is particularly strong at extracting, structuring and validating external SEO market data. Required tool You must have active paid access to Ahrefs. Please state which Ahrefs plan/access level you currently have when applying. Experience with Semrush is useful but not essential. Scope of work The project will include: UK keyword research Keyword clustering Search-intent analysis Organic competitor discovery Competitor keyword/content gap research Competitor top-page analysis Selected SERP analysis Competitor website/content architecture research Identification of search/content opportunities Light authority/referring-domain benchmarking where useful for SERP context We are particularly interested in understanding: The total relevant UK search opportunity within our market How keywords group into meaningful search-intent clusters Which keywords should reasonably be served by the same page rather than separate pages Which organic competitors dominate different topic areas Which keywords competitors rank for that we do not Where competitors significantly outperform us Which competitor pages attract the most organic visibility What page types Google appears to favour for important search intents How competitors organise commercial, product/treatment, comparison and informational content Important We are not looking for someone to: Design our final website architecture Decide our URL structure Create a redirect/migration strategy Write content Produce content briefs Conduct a generic technical SEO audit Develop our final internal-linking strategy Build backlinks Produce a generic SEO strategy presentation Those decisions will be handled internally using the research data. Deliverables The main deliverable must be a structured Excel workbook or Google Sheet, accompanied by the relevant raw Ahrefs CSV exports. We expect clearly organised tabs covering areas such as: Organic Competitors Keyword Universe Keyword Clusters Keyword / Content Gap Competitor Top Pages Selected SERP Analysis Competitor Architecture Light Authority Benchmark Raw Export Index Methodology / Notes We do not want a PDF-only report. A detailed private research specification including the website, market scope, seed competitors, topics, required columns and research methodology will be provided once the project is awarded. Project structure The project will be split into milestones. Milestone 1 Organic competitor discovery Keyword universe Keyword clustering Keyword/content gap analysis Initial competitor organic analysis We will review this before deeper research proceeds. Milestone 2 Selected SERP analysis Competitor top-page research Competitor architecture research Light authority benchmarking Final workbook and raw-data handover Application test Please answer the following in your application. Applications that do not answer these questions will not be considered. 1. Keyword clustering test Assume you have the following keywords: best treatment for condition X condition X treatment medicine A for condition X medicine A side effects medicine A vs medicine B buy medicine A online how does medicine A work condition X symptoms Briefly explain how you would decide: which belong on the same page which represent separate search intents which might require separate pages We are not looking for specific page recommendations — we want to understand your clustering methodology. 2. Competitor discovery If we supplied you with five commercial competitors, how would you independently identify competitors that we had missed? Please explain which Ahrefs reports and signals you would use. 3. Content-gap analysis How would you distinguish between: a missing keyword a missing topic a missing page/search intent Please keep this concise. 4. SERP analysis If three competitors rank for the same high-volume keyword using three different types of pages, how would you determine what type of page Google is actually favouring? 5. Previous work Please provide an example of a structured keyword/competitor research workbook you have completed previously. Confidential information may be removed. 6. Ahrefs access Confirm your current Ahrefs access and the reports/features you regularly use. 7. Raw data Confirm that you are comfortable supplying all relevant raw Ahrefs exports alongside the organised workbook. 8. Cost Please provide your proposed fixed cost or estimated hours. Please do not submit a generic SEO proposal. We are looking for someone particularly strong in Ahrefs, keyword research, search intent, keyword clustering, competitor analysis and SERP research.