Shopify SEO & AI Search (GEO/AEO) Specialist — High-Ticket Sauna E-Commerce

We are looking for an experienced E-Commerce SEO Specialist to take ownership of the organic growth strategy for our Shopify store, Healthy Body HQ. Website: https://www.shophealthybodyhq.com/ We sell high-ticket saunas, cold plunges, sauna heaters, and home wellness products, primarily targeting customers in the United States and Canada. Please review our website before submitting your proposal. We want applicants who have actually looked at our current SEO presence and can provide specific insight into what they would improve. This is intended to be an ongoing position, not a one-time SEO audit. Our Main Objective Our goal is to build a strong enough organic presence that SEO becomes one of our primary customer acquisition channels and we can progressively reduce our dependence on paid search advertising. We want to substantially increase: Organic traffic Organic revenue Domain Rating / Domain Authority High-quality referring domains Commercial keyword rankings Product and collection page rankings Top 3 and Top 10 keyword positions Non-branded organic traffic Topical authority within the sauna industry Brand authority Visibility within AI-powered search engines Citations and mentions within AI-generated answers Ultimately, we want customers searching for saunas, cold plunges, sauna heaters, and related products to find Healthy Body HQ organically instead of us having to continuously pay for every important keyword. Competitors We Want to Compete With We want to become organically competitive with established sauna retailers including: My Sauna World — mysaunaworld.com Sun Valley Saunas — sunvalleysaunas.com SaunaKits — saunakits.com We want you to analyze these competitors and determine: Estimated organic traffic Domain Rating / Domain Authority Referring domains Backlink quality Top-ranking keywords Commercial keywords Top-performing pages Top-performing collections/categories Content generating the most organic traffic Content gaps Keyword gaps Backlink gaps Site architecture Internal linking strategy Topical authority Brand mentions/citations Keywords where Healthy Body HQ can realistically compete We then want a clear strategy for closing the gap and eventually competing with or outperforming these websites for valuable commercial searches. First Deliverable — Full SEO Audit Before beginning major implementation, we want a comprehensive audit of: https://www.shophealthybodyhq.com/ Your initial audit should include: Technical SEO audit Current organic traffic analysis Current keyword rankings Domain authority analysis Backlink profile Competitor analysis Keyword gap analysis Backlink gap analysis Collection/category opportunities Product-page opportunities Content opportunities Internal linking opportunities Site architecture Indexing/crawl issues Schema/structured data AI search/GEO opportunities 30/60/90-day roadmap 6-month strategy 12-month strategy Week-by-week execution plan We do not want a generic automated SEO audit exported from an SEO tool. We want you to explain: What needs to be done → Why it matters → How you will implement it → What KPI it should affect → When it will be completed. Week-by-Week Roadmap Required We want a clear roadmap showing exactly what you will be working on each week. For example: Week 1: Audit, benchmarks and competitor analysis Week 2: Technical SEO and indexing fixes Week 3: Keyword research and keyword mapping Week 4: High-priority collection optimization Week 5: High-value product optimization Week 6: Internal linking and site architecture Week 7: Content production and topical authority Week 8: Link acquisition and digital PR Week 9: Additional commercial page optimization Week 10: AI search/GEO improvements Week 11: Content + backlink acquisition Week 12: Performance review + next-quarter strategy This is only an example. We expect you to develop the actual roadmap after reviewing Healthy Body HQ. Every week, we should understand what was completed, what is being worked on next, and why. How Many Hours Per Week Are Actually Needed? This is extremely important. We want you to tell us how many hours per week are realistically required to make meaningful progress. Please provide: Minimum viable hours/week Recommended hours/week for meaningful growth Aggressive-growth hours/week What you could realistically accomplish at each level If 5 hours per week isn't enough, tell us. If this project realistically requires 10, 15, 20, 30+ hours per week, explain why. We would rather properly resource SEO than pay someone for a few hours every week while making little meaningful progress. Also explain whether you recommend a higher workload during the first 60–90 days followed by a lower ongoing workload. Organic Traffic Forecast We understand that SEO rankings and exact traffic cannot be guaranteed. However, after analyzing our current site, competitors, search volumes, backlink profile, authority, catalogue and keyword opportunities, we expect you to provide a reasonable 12-month organic traffic forecast. Please provide: Conservative → Expected → Aggressive scenarios. We specifically want projections for approximately: Month 1 → Month 3 → Month 6 → Month 9 → Month 12 Explain the assumptions behind your projections. We will use these forecasts as targets and benchmarks, not guarantees. When Can We Start Reducing Paid Search? One of our biggest objectives is eventually reducing our reliance on paying for keywords through search advertising. We want you to answer: Based on Healthy Body HQ's current SEO position and the competitiveness of the sauna industry, when could we realistically begin reducing paid search spend because organic traffic is replacing some of that traffic? We see the strategy progressing roughly like this: Stage 1 — Build: Paid search remains important while SEO foundations are established. Stage 2 — Traction: Long-tail and lower-competition keywords begin generating organic traffic. Stage 3 — Scale: Important commercial keywords begin entering strong organic positions. Stage 4 — Reduce Dependency: Paid spend can be reduced on keywords where we consistently rank organically. Stage 5 — Organic-Led Acquisition: Organic search becomes a major acquisition channel, and paid advertising becomes strategic rather than necessary for generating every sale. We want your assessment of when each stage could realistically occur. We also want SEO and paid-search performance analyzed together so we can identify: Keywords we should continue paying for → Keywords where spending can be reduced → Keywords where strong organic rankings may eventually make paid bidding unnecessary. Shopify & Large Catalogue SEO Our website contains hundreds of products, brands, collections, and variants. You should have experience with large Shopify catalogues and understand: Product SEO Collection/category SEO Product variants Filters/faceted navigation Duplicate URLs/content Canonicalization Indexation Crawl management Internal linking Redirects Discontinued products Sitemap issues Product schema Merchant structured data Core Web Vitals Page speed Image optimization Site architecture Experience with Matrixify is a strong advantage because we want someone capable of efficiently implementing changes across a large catalogue. Content & Topical Authority We do not want random blog posts published just to say we're creating content. Every piece of content should have a strategic purpose based on: Search volume Keyword difficulty Search intent Revenue potential Internal linking opportunities Topical authority Competitor gaps AI search opportunities Potential content could include: Sauna buying guides "Best sauna" searches Infrared vs. traditional sauna guides Outdoor sauna guides Sauna cost guides Product comparisons Brand comparisons Sauna heater guides Installation content Size/capacity guides Commercial-intent long-tail searches Supporting content for high-value collections Content should ultimately support our commercial pages and generate revenue, not simply pageviews. Backlinks & Domain Authority Increasing our domain authority and overall search authority is a major priority. We want a sustainable strategy for acquiring legitimate, relevant, high-quality backlinks and brand mentions. This could include: Digital PR Industry publications Home improvement publications Wellness websites Manufacturer/authorized dealer backlinks Expert contributions Resource pages Original research/data Linkable assets Strategic outreach We are NOT interested in PBNs, spammy backlink packages, automated links, mass directory submissions, or tactics that could damage our domain. We want quality over quantity. AI Search Optimization — GEO / AEO Traditional Google SEO is only part of our strategy. We also want Healthy Body HQ optimized for AI-powered search and answer engines, including: ChatGPT Google AI Overviews / AI Mode Gemini Perplexity Microsoft Copilot Other emerging AI search platforms We want to increase the likelihood that our brand, products and educational content are discovered, cited, referenced, or recommended within AI-generated answers. For example, if someone asks: "What are the best home saunas?" "Best infrared sauna for two people" "Where is the best place to buy a sauna online?" "Best sauna retailers in the USA" "What is the best outdoor sauna for a cold climate?" we want Healthy Body HQ to have a realistic opportunity to appear as a source or recommendation. Your strategy should consider: GEO / Generative Engine Optimization AEO / Answer Engine Optimization Entity and brand authority Structured data/schema Product data Clear site architecture Question-based content Comparison content Original information/data Expert content Third-party brand mentions Digital PR High-quality citations Topical authority E-E-A-T signals AI crawler accessibility where appropriate We also want you to explain how you intend to track and measure our AI-search visibility over time. Reporting & Accountability Monthly reporting should include: Organic users/sessions Organic revenue Organic conversion rate Google Search Console clicks Search impressions Keyword positions Top 100 keywords Top 20 keywords Top 10 keywords Top 3 keywords Commercial keyword movement New referring domains Quality backlinks acquired Domain Rating/Authority Collection performance Product performance Content performance AI search visibility where measurable Work completed Hours spent Priorities for the next month We want to know whether we are ahead of, on track with, or behind the original SEO roadmap. When Applying, Please Answer These Questions After reviewing https://www.shophealthybodyhq.com/, what are the 3 biggest SEO opportunities or problems you immediately notice? How many hours per week would you recommend to make meaningful progress? What would you accomplish with those hours? What would your first 12 weeks look like? What organic traffic growth would you realistically project for Months 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12? When could we realistically begin reducing our dependency on paid search? How would you determine which paid keywords can be reduced as organic rankings improve? How would you close the SEO gap between us and established sauna competitors? What is your strategy for increasing our domain authority? How many quality referring domains would you realistically target each month? What is your backlink acquisition strategy? How would you optimize a Shopify catalogue containing hundreds of products? What is your experience with Matrixify? How would you optimize Healthy Body HQ for ChatGPT, Google AI search, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and other AI search experiences? How would you measure GEO/AEO progress? What SEO tools do you use? Show us 2–3 e-commerce websites you personally helped grow, including before/after organic traffic, rankings, referring domains or revenue where possible. Who We're Looking For We are not hiring someone simply to "do SEO." We are looking for someone who can take ownership of the channel and produce measurable improvements in organic visibility, authority, qualified traffic and ultimately revenue. This will initially be a part-time ongoing position, with the potential to grow into a larger and long-term role as our organic presence and business grow. IMPORTANT — UPWORK COMMUNICATION ONLY ALL COMMUNICATION REGARDING THIS JOB MUST REMAIN ON UPWORK. Please DO NOT call, email, text, submit our website contact form, message our social media accounts, or contact us through any other channel regarding this job posting. Our website is provided only so you can review the business and its current SEO presence before submitting your proposal. I will not respond to any calls, emails, website inquiries, social media messages, or other communications regarding this job posting outside of Upwork. If you are interested in the position, send your proposal and communicate with me exclusively through Upwork. Applicants who attempt to contact us outside of Upwork regarding this position will not receive a response and may be removed from consideration.