Manager, SEO & Local Search

Overview

The Manager, SEO & Local Search leads organic search visibility and acquisition performance for Dental Care Alliance (DCA) across its portfolio of locally branded general and specialty dental practices. Reporting to the VP, Patient Acquisition, this hands-on expert develops and executes scalable local and technical SEO strategies that help prospective patients discover relevant practices, services, and providers, then connect that demand to qualified contacts, appointments, and completed new-patient visits. This role also builds DCA’s search intelligence capability: monitoring local competitive conditions, changes in search behavior, and visibility across traditional and AI-assisted discovery experiences. The Manager will play a critical role in the planned 2027 website rebuild by defining SEO requirements, protecting existing search equity during migration, and developing repeatable optimization practices for the new platform. Success requires expertise in multi-location SEO, analytical rigor, cross-functional influence, and practical judgment about what search performance can and cannot prove.

Responsibilities

Own organic search strategy, prioritized initiatives, and performance improvements across DCA practice websites and local discovery surfaces, adapting enterprise standards to individual practices, specialties, markets, and competitive conditions. 2. Develop and maintain scalable local SEO practices spanning Google Business Profiles, appropriate business listings, local service and provider content, internal linking, search intent, and location-specific relevance. 3. Analyze search demand, geographic competition, service mix, appointment availability, and local business needs to identify and recommend high-value organic growth opportunities. 4. Own the organic search standards, accuracy audits, optimization roadmap, and performance analysis for practice-level Google Business Profiles and key local business listings, coordinating authorized profile changes and account access with appropriate teams. 5. Maintain clear standards for business names, addresses, phone numbers, categories, hours, services, website links, and practice/provider information; coordinate updates with practice leadership and Operations to prevent misleading patient information. 6. Build repeatable processes to detect duplicate, suspended, inaccurate, or inaccessible profiles; coordinate remediation with approved platform partners and escalate operational or compliance issues promptly. 7. Partner with the Director, Digital Experience & Web Strategy to define and validate SEO requirements for DCA’s planned 2027 multi-site website rebuild, including site and URL architecture, local templates, crawlability, indexation, structured data, metadata, and technical performance.

Lead search-specific migration planning and quality assurance for redirects, canonical signals, XML sitemaps, internal links, local pages, search console access, analytics continuity, and post-launch monitoring; escalate ranking or traffic risks early. 9. Conduct and prioritize technical audits, identify indexing and content-quality issues, and coordinate fixes with developers, the CMS team, Technology, and implementation partners; the Digital Experience Director retains ownership of the platform and development roadmap. 10. Monitor changes in consumer search behavior, local results, Maps, AI Overviews, and other AI-assisted discovery experiences; assess implications for practice visibility and patient acquisition using defensible methods. 11. Develop a pragmatic search intelligence program covering priority queries, competitors, local ranking grids, branded and nonbranded demand, service-line opportunities, and the sources used in AI-generated answers. 12. Evaluate AI search visibility and citation patterns without implying control over third-party algorithms or substituting volatile visibility estimates for proven patient growth. 13. Maintain organic growth reporting on relevant visibility, profile engagement, qualified organic calls/leads, booked appointments, and completed new-patient visits, with practice- and specialty-level analysis where data quality supports it. 14. Partner with the VP, Patient Acquisition, who owns acquisition reporting and attribution infrastructure, and IT/Operations analytics resources to validate data definitions, Google Search Console and profile data, tracking, call/lead quality, and downstream outcomes. 15. Distinguish organic search contributions from paid media, existing-patient activity, platform-reported attribution, and non-incremental demand; quantify financial impact only when supported by trustworthy methods and Finance-aligned data.

01 Local SEO Expertise Improves practice visibility across organic search, local listings, and Google Business Profiles.

02 Technical SEO Identifies and resolves site-level issues that limit discovery across a large website portfolio.

03 Migration Planning Protects existing search equity through the 2027 website rebuild with clear requirements and QA.

04 Search Intelligence Monitors competitors, search behavior, and AI-assisted discovery to recommend priorities.

05 Business Communication Explains what search data can and cannot prove in practical, actionable terms.

Qualifications

Education: Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, Analytics, Communications, or a related field required; an equivalent combination of education and directly relevant experience may be considered. • Experience: 5+ years of hands-on SEO experience, with demonstrated ownership of local and technical SEO strategy, prioritization, execution, and measurable performance improvement. • Experience managing multi-location organic search programs, including Google Business Profiles and local listings across a substantial portfolio of independently located businesses or a comparably complex local footprint. • Working expertise in technical SEO, site audits, indexing/crawling, metadata, internal linking, structured data, location-page optimization, and SEO implications of large websites or CMS platforms. • Proficiency with Google Search Console, GA4, Google Business Profile performance data, and relevant SEO tools; ability to interpret trends, diagnose tracking limitations, and present actionable business recommendations. • Ability to collaborate effectively with developers, content teams, marketers, field leaders, and agencies; strong prioritization, documentation, communication, and cross-functional project management skills. • Preferred: Experience in multi-site healthcare, dental, veterinary, or another regulated service category with locally branded locations and varied service lines. • Preferred: Direct experience supporting a major website migration or rebuild, including redirects, indexation QA, local-content mapping, and launch performance monitoring.