SEO Specialist for New Website

SEO Specialist Required – Complete SEO Strategy, Figma Review, WooCommerce Redevelopment & Website Migration We are seeking an experienced SEO specialist to work alongside our marketing/design team and website developer during the complete redevelopment of an established Australian eCommerce website. The website is built on WooCommerce and sells a highly established range of high-protein, extremely low-carb health/protein bars, with approximately 68 different flavours. The business already has significant wholesale sales and an established presence within health food and supplement stores throughout Australia. The objective of the new website and SEO strategy is to significantly expand our organic reach to the general Australian public and increase direct-to-consumer online sales. We intentionally limit the types of retail outlets that sell our products to protect our specialty positioning and our existing stockists from supermarket-style price discounting. However, the product itself is not intended to be exclusive. We want to reach the much broader general public, including consumers who would not normally visit health food or supplement stores. CURRENT PROJECT STATUS A marketing/design company has already created a new website design and wireframe in Figma. Our developer will be responsible for building the new website in WooCommerce. We now require an SEO specialist to review the proposed design and structure and provide detailed SEO direction to both the marketing/design team and developer. Timing is important. The marketing team requires initial SEO feedback within the next few days so they can make any necessary changes to the wireframe/design before it is finalised. The new website is expected to progress quickly after this. We therefore need someone who can begin promptly and prioritise the initial Figma/wireframe and site architecture review. The SEO specialist will be responsible for SEO strategy, implementation requirements, content guidance and QA. The actual Figma design and WooCommerce development will remain with our existing design and development teams. SCOPE OF WORK 1. INITIAL FIGMA / WIREFRAME & SITE STRUCTURE REVIEW – PRIORITY This is the immediate first stage of the project. The SEO specialist must review the proposed Figma/wireframe design before development is finalised and identify anything that should be changed, added or restructured to maximise SEO performance. The review should consider: * Overall website architecture * Navigation and menu structure * Homepage structure * Collection/category structure * Product page templates * Supporting and educational pages * About/brand pages * Store locator * Wholesale pages * Ingredient and FAQ content where appropriate * Content zones required for SEO * Heading hierarchy (H1, H2, H3) * Internal linking opportunities * Breadcrumb placement * Crawlable content requirements * Nutrition and ingredient information * FAQ and review sections * Trust and authority signals * Desktop and mobile content visibility * Conversion considerations that may affect SEO performance * Any important SEO content currently missing from the proposed design We specifically want to identify SEO issues before the site is developed rather than trying to retrofit them after launch. Deliverable: A clear review of the proposed Figma/wireframe and site structure, with actionable recommendations for our marketing/design team and developer. This initial review needs to be completed as a priority. 2. SEO MASTER STRATEGY We require a comprehensive SEO strategy for the new website, including: * Current organic traffic and search visibility baseline by URL * Existing backlink and website authority baseline * Australian competitor and SERP analysis * Keyword research and opportunity analysis * Keyword clustering and mapping * Search intent analysis * Page-level keyword targeting * Site architecture recommendations * Commercial, educational and brand-led search strategy * Collection/category SEO strategy * Product page SEO strategy * Internal linking strategy * Metadata strategy * Schema/structured data requirements * Content requirements by page type * Duplicate and thin content prevention * E-E-A-T considerations for health and nutrition-related content * AI search/GEO visibility considerations where relevant * Existing ranking and backlink retention * Website migration strategy * Pre-launch and post-launch SEO framework Deliverable: A master SEO strategy document covering search visibility, technical SEO, content, site architecture and implementation requirements. 3. PAGE-BY-PAGE SEO IMPLEMENTATION REQUIREMENTS We require clear SEO instructions for each major page type so our designer and developer know exactly what should be implemented. Page types may include: * Homepage * Collection/category pages * Individual product/flavour pages * About/brand pages * Educational/supporting content * Store locator * Wholesale pages * Ingredient pages * FAQ content * Other landing pages recommended through keyword and competitor research For each relevant page/template, requirements should cover: * Recommended page structure * Required sections and content blocks * Heading hierarchy * Keyword/search intent targeting * Required crawlable text * Internal linking * Schema requirements * Nutrition information * Ingredient information * FAQs * Reviews * Trust/authority content * Desktop and mobile requirements * Conversion considerations * Metadata requirements Key nutritional information and ingredient information should not exist only as images. We expect guidance on ensuring important information is available as crawlable HTML/text while still allowing the visual nutritional panels and packaging information to be displayed. Deliverable: A clear page-by-page/template SEO implementation guide for our marketing/design team and developer. 4. PRODUCT & WOOCOMMERCE SEO We have approximately 68 different product flavours. Many products use similar base ingredients, with differences in flavouring and additional ingredients such as fruit, nuts and other flavour-specific ingredients. It is therefore particularly important that the SEO specialist develops a strategy to prevent duplicate or thin content while maximising the search potential of individual products. Requirements should include: * Product page structure * Unique product/flavour content strategy * Product schema * Nutrition and ingredient content * Product titles and descriptions * Category and collection relationships * Internal linking * Canonical handling * Product filtering * Faceted navigation * Pagination * Index/noindex rules * Product variation handling * Review implementation * Related product strategy * Image SEO We want the large product range to be an SEO advantage rather than creating duplicate content or indexation issues. 5. SITEWIDE TECHNICAL SEO The specialist must provide clear technical SEO requirements for our developer. This should include: * URL structure and slug conventions * Canonical rules * Index/noindex rules * Product variant handling * Pagination handling * Filter and faceted navigation rules * XML sitemap requirements * Robots.txt requirements * Breadcrumb implementation and schema * Structured data/schema requirements * Core Web Vitals * Mobile-first performance * Page speed * Crawlability * Crawl budget considerations where relevant * Image optimisation * Alt text strategy * Image file naming * Lazy loading considerations * JavaScript/rendering considerations where relevant * Staging site indexation protection * Google Analytics 4 setup/checks * Google Search Console setup/checks * SEO and conversion tracking requirements Deliverable: A developer-facing technical SEO checklist with clear implementation requirements and, where practical, pass/fail criteria. 6. WEBSITE MIGRATION & REDIRECT STRATEGY The current website already has established traffic, rankings, backlinks and authority. The redevelopment must minimise the risk of losing existing SEO performance. The specialist should: * Review existing indexed URLs * Identify pages receiving organic traffic * Identify URLs with valuable backlinks * Identify pages that must be retained * Prepare or review a full URL inventory * Determine which URLs remain unchanged * Identify URLs requiring 301 redirects * Provide redirect mapping requirements * Identify obsolete or low-value URLs * Prevent redirect chains and unnecessary redirects * Review sitemap changes * Ensure existing authority is transferred appropriately Deliverable: A clear migration and redirect plan for the developer. 7. CONTENT, SEO COPY & METADATA We require the specialist to identify what content is required to maximise SEO performance. This should include: * Keyword mapping * Search intent mapping * Recommended content for core pages * Category/collection content requirements * Product content requirements * Supporting/educational content opportunities * FAQ opportunities * Page titles * Meta descriptions * Heading recommendations * Internal anchor text recommendations * Content gaps based on competitors and search opportunities Please clearly state in your proposal the level of actual copywriting included in your quote. We do not necessarily require full unique long-form copywriting for all 68 individual flavour pages, but we do require a clear strategy and framework to ensure these pages are sufficiently unique, useful and optimised. 8. HEALTH, NUTRITION & PRODUCT CLAIMS As the website sells food products with nutritional positioning, the SEO strategy and recommended content must take into consideration Australian food advertising and claim requirements. The SEO specialist is not expected to provide formal legal or regulatory sign-off unless specifically qualified to do so. However, experience working with food, health, nutrition or similar regulated industries would be highly regarded. Any SEO recommendations should avoid encouraging unsupported health or nutritional claims simply for keyword optimisation. 9. BUILD SUPPORT & DEVELOPER GUIDANCE The SEO specialist should be available to provide implementation guidance to our designer and developer during the build. This may include: * Answering implementation questions * Reviewing development decisions that affect SEO * Reviewing site architecture during development * Checking internal linking implementation * Reviewing redirects * Reviewing schema implementation * Reviewing technical SEO implementation * Identifying issues before the site reaches launch 10. STAGING, PRE-LAUNCH & LAUNCH SEO QA Before launch, we require a comprehensive SEO review of the staging website. This should include: * Full staging crawl * Site architecture review * Internal linking review * Redirect review * Canonical checks * Indexation rule checks * Sitemap review * Robots.txt review * Schema validation * Mobile review * Core Web Vitals/performance review * Metadata review * Content implementation review * Tracking checks * GA4 and Search Console checks where applicable * Pre-launch SEO go/no-go assessment The specialist should also conduct launch and post-launch checks to identify any migration or indexation problems. Deliverable: Staging, launch and initial post-launch SEO QA with a summary of any issues requiring correction. PROJECT TIMELINE AND DELIVERY SCHEDULE As the SEO work will directly affect the marketing/design team and WooCommerce developer, the successful specialist must provide a clear project timeline that can be shared with all parties. The proposal must include: * Proposed commencement date * Date for receipt of all required access, files and information * Completion date for the initial Figma/wireframe SEO review * Completion date for the site architecture and page structure recommendations * Completion date for keyword research and page mapping * Completion date for the page-by-page SEO implementation guide * Completion date for the technical SEO and developer requirements * Completion date for the content, copy and metadata recommendations * Expected review and feedback periods for each stage * Dates by which the marketing/design team must complete any required changes * Dates by which the developer will require the final SEO instructions * Proposed timing for the staging website review * Proposed timing for pre-launch QA * Availability for launch-day checks * Timing for post-launch monitoring and the final SEO summary The timeline should clearly show: * Each project stage * The deliverable due at each stage * Dependencies on our marketing/design team, developer or internal team * Information or access required from us * Review periods * Revision periods * Final completion date The first priority is the Figma/wireframe and proposed website structure review. This must be completed quickly enough for the marketing/design team to make changes before the design is finalised. Please provide a realistic timeline rather than a general estimate such as “two to four weeks.” We need specific delivery periods or target dates so we can coordinate the work of all parties. Any risks, dependencies or issues that could delay the timeline should be identified in the proposal. TOOLS & EXPERIENCE Please advise which professional SEO tools you use. We expect the project to be supported by appropriate professional tools and data sources for areas such as: * Keyword research * Competitor analysis * SERP analysis * Backlink analysis * Technical crawling * Search visibility * Google Search Console * Google Analytics 4 * Schema validation * Core Web Vitals/performance Examples may include Semrush, Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, DataForSEO or equivalent professional platforms. PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS When submitting your proposal, please provide: * Your total fixed project fee * A breakdown of the fee by major project stage and deliverable * Your availability to commence * A detailed stage-by-stage project timeline * How quickly you can complete the initial Figma/wireframe SEO review * Target completion date for each major deliverable * Information and access required from us at each stage * Dependencies involving the marketing/design team or developer * Expected review and revision periods * Estimated final completion date * Your availability during staging, launch and post-launch * Exactly what SEO copywriting/content creation is included * Exactly what metadata creation is included * The number of review or revision rounds included * The SEO tools you use * Relevant experience with WooCommerce * Relevant experience with eCommerce migrations and redevelopments * Relevant experience with websites containing large numbers of similar products * Any experience with food, health, nutrition or regulated product websites * Examples of similar SEO projects where possible Please also clearly identify anything you believe is necessary for a best-practice SEO redevelopment that is NOT included in your quoted scope. WHAT IS NOT REQUIRED The SEO specialist will not be responsible for: * Website design work inside Figma * Website development * Building pages inside WooCommerce * Uploading products or content unless separately agreed * Image or video asset creation * Formal legal or regulatory compliance sign-off * Google Ads or paid media management * Ongoing monthly SEO after the redevelopment and migration period unless separately proposed We are looking for a comprehensive, best-practice SEO implementation rather than a basic SEO audit. The successful specialist will be working alongside our existing marketing/design company and WooCommerce developer. We need someone who can provide clear, actionable instructions that both teams can follow. The completed website and SEO implementation will also be independently reviewed, so we are looking for a specialist who is confident that the strategy and implementation requirements will meet current SEO best practices and that important SEO requirements will not be overlooked.