Senior Local SEO Strategist

Scope & Budget Philosophy This role is built for focused, high-impact execution within a $1,200–$1,500/month budget. We prioritize: Strategic improvements over content volume Ranking protection and steady growth over aggressive scaling Quality backlinks over quantity Technical stability and local visibility We're open to adjusting deliverables based on strategy and impact. About Us We're an established Hawaii wedding, elopement, and officiant company serving the islands since 2017, with 1,000+ ceremonies performed. We bring a large library of original photography and content, strong existing rankings (#1 local map-pack positions and presence in AI search), and a website we've invested heavily in. We're looking for an experienced SEO professional or boutique agency to make us the dominant authority for Hawaii weddings, elopements, officiant services, and destination-wedding searches. This is not a generic SEO role. We want a long-term strategic partner with a proven record ranking local service businesses — ideally wedding, destination-wedding, tourism, hospitality, photography, or planning brands. Wix Studio experience is preferred. Website Relaunch: We're building a new website, launching fall 2026. Protecting our rankings and on-page SEO through that migration is a top priority (details below), so migration experience is highly valued. How We Work (Please Read Before Applying) Month-to-month We own all work. Content, pages, and assets are work-for-hire and transfer to us. We own all accounts; you get delegated/manager access. Clean offboarding required. At the end of any engagement: full handover of work, documentation, and keyword data, plus removal of your access. Pass-through costs (paid digital PR, styled-shoot expenses, premium directory or guest-post fees, etc.) must be quoted and approved by us in writing in advance. Required Experience Apply only if you have direct experience with most of the following: Local SEO and Google Business Profile / Map Pack optimization Wedding, elopement, tourism, hospitality, photography, or planner businesses Schema markup and entity SEO AI search optimization (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity) Content clustering Digital PR and high-quality link outreach Citation building and NAP consistency Competitive analysis and conversion optimization SEMrush or Ahrefs Wix Studio experience is a plus. Website Relaunch & SEO Migration (Fall 2026) A clean migration that preserves our rankings, traffic, and on-page SEO is essential. The right candidate owns the SEO side of this transition: Pre-launch audit — full inventory of current URLs, on-page content, metadata, headings, schema, and internal links Content preservation — migrate all page copy, title tags, meta descriptions, H1/H2/H3 structure, image alt text, and structured data so nothing of value is lost 301 redirect map — old URLs to new, with no broken redirects, chains, or orphaned pages URL structure & internal linking — preserve or improve, with specific protection for top-performing pages and keywords Coordination — launch timing, staging review, and a pre-launch QA checklist with our team Post-launch monitoring — submit the new sitemap, watch Search Console for crawl/index errors, and track rankings and traffic closely Rollback plan — a clear recovery path if any key rankings or pages drop Monthly Scope of Work Content & Website Authority 4 SEO-focused blog posts/month 2 new location/service pages per month Before adding pages: audit existing content for keyword cannibalization and thin/overlapping pages, with recommendations to consolidate Ongoing re-optimization of existing high-potential pages — not just net-new content Content-cluster development around our core wedding, elopement, and officiant topics Seasonal / booking-funnel planning aligned to how couples actually book (typically 6–12 months out) Internal links from every new blog and page to our booking and package ("money") pages Technical SEO & Website Health Maintain a 90%+ health score (Semrush, Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, GSC, or comparable), with continuous monitoring and monthly reporting on: Core Web Vitals, mobile usability, and page speed Crawlability, indexation, XML sitemap, and robots.txt Schema markup, structured-data, and AI-readiness enhancements Internal linking, canonicalization, redirect management, and duplicate-content remediation Broken-link, 404, 5xx, and crawl-error detection and repair Image and alt-text optimization Google Search Console error and warning resolution Competitor technical benchmarking The monthly technical report should document the current health score, improvements completed, outstanding issues, Core Web Vitals changes, risks, and recommended next steps. Google Business Profile & Local Pack Maps and Local Pack rankings are critical to us. Monthly: Weekly GBP optimization; 4 GBP posts/month; monthly photo uploads (our original, geo-tagged photography) Service/product optimization and Google Q&A management A white-hat, FTC- and Google-compliant review-generation strategy — no incentivized, gated, or fabricated reviews — plus review monitoring and response recommendations Profile-suspension protection (no keyword-stuffed names or risky edits) and a recovery plan if flagged Local Pack and service-area optimization, competitor Map Pack analysis, and monthly Local Pack visibility reporting Local SEO & Citations Build and maintain high-quality, wedding- and Hawaii-specific citations (wedding directories, Hawaii tourism listings, local directories, Chamber of Commerce) NAP consistency monitoring, citation audits, and competitor citation analysis Backlink Acquisition & Digital PR We'd rather earn 5–10 excellent backlinks per month than hundreds of weak ones. Not interested in: bulk link counts, social bookmarking, PDF/Web 2.0 sharing, Tumblr/Blogger links, spam directories, PBNs, Fiverr links, comment spam, or automated schemes. Interested in earning links through: Wedding publications (Junebug Weddings, Green Wedding Shoes, Style Me Pretty, Brides) Hawaii tourism, travel, and destination-wedding / honeymoon outlets Vendor partnerships (photographers, florists, musicians, hotels, vacation rentals, hair/makeup, videographers, private chefs) Local authority (WeddingWire, The Knot, BBB, Hawaii directories, Chamber, tourism organizations) Digital PR — editorial placements, styled shoots, guest articles, community sponsorships, and press A monthly competitor backlink-gap analysis to source outreach targets Keyword Tracking & Competitive Analysis Track 50–100 high-intent keywords, monitored weekly Competitor monitoring, keyword-gap analysis, and new-opportunity discovery Track gains and losses each period, with a clear plan to recover lost positions and build new ones Report on those gains and losses — and the strategy behind them — so we can confirm rankings are actively moving, not stagnant or slipping AI Search Optimization Visibility in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity; conversational-search optimization FAQ schema, entity SEO, and knowledge-graph and citation opportunities Ongoing AI-visibility monitoring Content & Brand Standards Follow our brand style guide (provided on engagement), including correct trademark usage — Kona Wedding Officiant® — on every brand mention Draft-and-approval workflow: we review all content before it publishes Use our original, geo-tagged photography — no stock imagery Factual accuracy and authentic testimonials only — no fabricated or AI-generated reviews or content passed off as ours Success Metrics We're a service business: what matters is qualified inquiries and booked ceremonies, not vanity metrics. We expect: Conversion tracking as a deliverable — GA4 events on our Wix booking and consultation flows, plus call tracking, so leads are properly attributed Defined KPIs and directional targets at 90 days, 6 months, and 12 months (e.g., moving our page-2 elopement/package terms toward page 1; growth in consultation form-fills and calls) Reporting & Communication Bi-weekly strategy meetings (Zoom or Google Meet): review completed work, discuss opportunities, set the next two weeks' priorities Weekly updates: deliverables completed, work published, citations/links earned, GBP work, technical fixes, pending items, and upcoming priorities Monthly report covering: Deliverables summary (with URLs) Keyword performance (Top 3 / 10 / 20 movement, losses, opportunities, competitor comparison) Maps & Local Pack performance (calls, clicks, direction requests, review growth) Organic performance (traffic, clicks, impressions, CTR, average position, best/underperforming pages, lead attribution) AI search visibility Areas of growth and decline, with reasons A 30-day action plan with priorities, recommendations, and expected outcomes Budget Our monthly budget is $1,200–$1,500. Please propose within this range — either a full-scope monthly retainer or a tiered "core monthly + as-scoped" structure. We're happy to pay well for quality, and equally happy to walk away from anyone who promises everything for a token fee.