Salary benchmarks for 24 markets
What SEO pays country by country and city by city, on one comparable scale.
SEO Resume Scorer
Paste your resume and see how it reads against the nine things SEO hiring screens actually look for — weighted for the specific role you are applying to, and with the fixes ranked by how much they matter.
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Nothing leaves your browser. Paste the whole document, including the summary and the skills section.
What this actually checks
Nine things, weighted differently depending on the role you select. A technical resume is scored harder on technical vocabulary; a head-of-SEO resume is scored hardest on quantified outcomes, because that is what the seniority is.
| Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Quantified results | The single strongest predictor of getting a call. Duties describe a job; numbers describe a contribution. |
| Technical SEO vocabulary | Screens — human and automated — look for crawl, indexation, canonicals, structured data, migrations. |
| Tool fluency | Search Console and GA4 are table stakes. A crawler and a visibility platform signal you have done real work. |
| Data and measurement | SQL, forecasting, experiments and attribution differentiate mid from senior. |
| AI search signals | GEO, AEO and AI Overviews now appear in a large and growing share of SEO adverts. Their absence dates a resume. |
| Action verbs | Led, owned, shipped, migrated. Ownership language reads as seniority. |
| Weak phrasing | 'Responsible for', 'assisted with' and buzzwords actively reduce perceived seniority. |
| Length | 350 to 900 words. Shorter has no evidence; longer gets skimmed. |
| Contact and links | An email and at least one link. A portfolio link outperforms everything else on the page. |
The score is a diagnostic, not a verdict. A resume scoring 90 with nothing interesting behind it will still lose to a resume scoring 65 that describes a migration you saved.
How to quantify SEO work when you do not have revenue data
The most common objection to quantification is that the numbers are not available or not shareable. Almost always, something is:
- Relative instead of absolute. 'Grew non-branded organic clicks 62 percent in nine months' says everything without disclosing volume.
- Scale instead of outcome. 'Ran SEO across 40,000 product pages in six markets' communicates seniority even with no result attached.
- Risk avoided. 'Migrated 12,000 URLs with 97 percent of organic traffic retained at 30 days' is one of the strongest lines available to any SEO.
- Speed. 'Diagnosed and resolved an indexation failure affecting 8,000 pages within 48 hours.'
- Team and budget. 'Managed a £240,000 annual content budget and three specialists.'
Never invent a number
Fabricated metrics collapse in the interview, where you will be asked how it was measured and what else was happening at the time. An honest range — 'roughly a third' — is safer and reads as more credible than a suspiciously precise figure you cannot defend.
Frequently asked questions
What should an SEO resume include?
A short summary that states your specialism and level, then experience written as outcomes with numbers attached, a tools line, and at least one link — LinkedIn, a portfolio, or a site you have grown. One to two pages. Full structure guidance is in how to write an SEO resume.
Do SEO resumes go through applicant tracking systems?
Frequently, and the practical implication is modest: use conventional section headings, avoid text inside images or complex tables, and name the tools and skills explicitly in words rather than implying them. Beyond that, optimise for the human who reads it next.
How long should an SEO resume be?
One page under about five years of experience, two pages beyond that. This tool flags anything under 320 or over 950 words. Length is not a virtue: the constraint forces you to cut the duties and keep the outcomes.
Should I mention AI or GEO on my resume?
Yes, if you have genuinely done the work. A large and rising share of SEO job adverts now reference AI search, GEO or AEO, and roles that mention them advertise higher ranges. Do not claim it if you cannot discuss it — that is an easy interview question to fail.
Sources and further reading
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists — official occupational wage and projected-growth data for the SOC code most SEO roles fall under
- Payscale — SEO Specialist salary research — self-reported pay by experience band, available per country
- Glassdoor — SEO Specialist pay trends — employee-reported base pay and percentile ranges
- ZipRecruiter — SEO salary data — job-ad derived ranges, including metro-level breakdowns
Figures on this page are aggregated market estimates compiled from the sources above and are intended for orientation, not as an offer, guarantee or valuation. See our salary data methodology.