SEO Specialist – Total Search, GEO & GSO

WPP Media · Cape Town, Johannesburg

About WPP Media

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. With exceptional talent, trusted data and intelligence, and world-class partnerships – all united by our pioneering agentic marketing platform, WPP Open – we help clients navigate change, capture opportunity, and deliver transformational growth. 

WPP Media is WPP's AI-driven media operating unit, bringing together media, data, and partnerships to deliver creative personalisation at scale. Connected through WPP Open and powered by Open Intelligence, clients see exactly where, how, and why their media investment is working.

For more information, visit wppmedia.com.

SEO Specialist – Total Search, GEO & GSO

Employment type: Full-time

Seniority: Junior to mid-level

We’re looking for a proactive, hands-on SEO Specialist to deliver day-to-day SEO activity and support our adoption of WPP Media’s Total Search strategy.

This isn’t a traditional SEO-only role. The successful candidate must have practical experience in Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), Generative Search Optimisation (GSO) or AI-search visibility, together with a clear understanding of how SEO connects with paid search, content, Digital PR, social and commerce.

WPP Media’s Total Search approach recognises that discovery occurs across traditional search engines, AI platforms, social channels and commerce environments. The role therefore focuses on visibility, authority, citations and recommendations—not only keywords, rankings and clicks.

The candidate must be able to manage their workload with limited supervision, take ownership of deliverables and demonstrate strong initiative to learn as search technologies and behaviours evolve.

Key responsibilities

SEO execution

Conduct keyword, competitor and search-intent research.
Complete technical SEO audits covering crawling, indexing, site architecture, internal linking, structured data and website performance.
Produce clear, prioritised recommendations and support their implementation.
Create content briefs and optimise website copy, metadata and internal linking.
Monitor organic visibility, rankings, traffic, engagement and conversions.
Maintain SEO roadmaps, delivery trackers and performance reports.
Identify issues and opportunities without waiting for every task to be assigned.

Total Search

Apply WPP Media’s Total Search principles to planning and execution.
Collaborate with paid-search teams to identify channel overlap, search gaps, landing-page issues and opportunities to improve overall search coverage.
Share insights with content, Digital PR, analytics, media and technical teams.
Contribute to joined-up search plans, dashboards and reporting.
Consider how customers discover brands across traditional search, AI platforms, social environments and commerce ecosystems.
Help translate the global Total Search strategy into practical local actions.

GEO, GSO and AI search

Conduct or support GEO/GSO audits that assess how brands are represented, cited and recommended in AI-generated answers.
Research relevant prompts, topics, questions, competitors and authoritative sources.
Assess brand visibility, citation frequency, content accuracy and authority signals.
Turn findings into practical technical, content and Digital PR recommendations.
Optimise content for traditional search engines and AI-powered discovery platforms.
Monitor AI-search developments and test new tools and approaches.
Explain GEO/GSO findings and recommendations clearly to non-specialist stakeholders.

Reporting and optimisation

Produce reports that explain performance, insights, actions and business impact.
Track traditional SEO metrics alongside relevant AI-search indicators.
Support measurement of brand mentions, citations, Share of Answer or similar AI-visibility metrics.
Use data to recommend clear next steps rather than reporting numbers without interpretation.
Document tests, results and lessons that can be applied to future work.

Independent working and development

Manage agreed tasks, deadlines and priorities with limited supervision.
Take ownership of work from initial analysis through to delivery and follow-up.
Communicate progress, risks and dependencies without being prompted.
Investigate problems and propose solutions before escalating them.
Ask for support when needed while remaining accountable for delivery.
Proactively develop expertise in SEO, Total Search, GEO, GSO and AI discovery.
Use WPP Media’s training, tools, playbooks and case studies to build capability.
Share useful developments, tests and learning with the wider team.

Essential experience and skills

The candidate must have:

Hands-on professional SEO experience.
Practical experience in GEO, GSO or AI-search optimisation.
Examples of work undertaken to improve or measure visibility in AI-generated answers.
An understanding of Total Search, Integrated Search or an equivalent cross-channel search approach.
Working knowledge of technical, on-page and content SEO.
Experience using analytics, search-performance and SEO research tools.
The ability to turn analysis into clear, executable recommendations.
The ability to manage deliverables with limited supervision.
Strong initiative and evidence of self-directed learning.
Clear written and verbal communication skills.
The ability to collaborate with paid search, content, PR, analytics and technical teams.

Experience in GEO/GSO is non-negotiable. Theoretical awareness without practical examples won’t be sufficient.

Desirable experience

Paid and organic search integration.
Digital PR, entity optimisation or authority building.
Schema markup and structured data.
E-commerce, social search or commerce search.
Looker Studio, Power BI or other reporting tools.
SEO platforms such as Screaming Frog, Semrush, Ahrefs, BrightEdge or Lumar.
AI-visibility monitoring or prompt-tracking tools.
Automation or AI agents used for research, analysis, content or reporting.

Personal qualities

Self-directed: Works effectively without constant supervision.
Proactive: Identifies and acts on opportunities.
Curious: Actively develops knowledge of AI search and changing consumer behaviour.
Accountable: Owns deadlines, quality and outcomes.
Practical: Turns strategy and analysis into action.
Collaborative: Works across disciplines rather than treating SEO as a silo.
Adaptable: Is comfortable operating in a fast-changing area.
Commercially aware: Understands how search contributes to client and business growth.

Measures of success

Within the first 6–12 months, the successful candidate will:

Independently manage agreed SEO activities and reporting.
Deliver technical, content and on-page improvements.
Establish baseline measurement for traditional and AI-search visibility.
Complete GEO/GSO assessments and convert findings into actions.
Identify practical opportunities across paid and organic search.
Improve collaboration between SEO, content, Digital PR, media and analytics.
Bring useful ideas, tools and learning to the team.
Demonstrate measurable improvements in visibility, authority, coverage or business outcomes.

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