AEO Specialist (Answer Engine Optimization) (Remote, Chicago)

Blacksmith Agency LLC; Chicago (IL); Remote; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Blacksmith Agency, an AI-first digital agency, seeks an AEO Specialist to own search for B2B and growing-brand clients. You will define the technical roadmap, prioritize content, and steer the ranking narrative on live calls with clients.

You will manage technical SEO, keyword strategy, and content alignment with writers and AI, while coordinating on-page optimization, schema, site speed, and local/multi-location SEO across accounts.

Qualifications

• 3+ years hands-on in SEO.
• Audits and fixes across multiple clients.
• Clear spoken English with US clients on live calls.

Responsibilities

• Technical SEO: crawl, indexation, site speed, schema and site architecture.
• Keyword strategy, on-page optimization and content priorities with writers and AI.
• Getting clients found in AI search: Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity.
• Links, local search and multi-location SEO where the client needs it.
• Reporting in GA4 and Search Console, and the quarterly roadmap for each client.

Skills

SEO strategy

Agency experience

Client communication

English fluency

Tools

Search Console

GA4

Screaming Frog

Ahrefs/Semrush

Job description

Blacksmith Agency

• Marketing
• Full time
• Remote (Canada, South Africa or USA)
  

Search only. Paid media is a separate seat with its own strategist, so you are never split across both.

About The Role

Blacksmith Agency is an AI-first digital agency. As AEO Specialist (Answer Engine Optimization) you own search for a book of B2B and growing-brand clients: the technical roadmap, the content priorities and the ranking story when the client asks what moved. You are the strategic voice at the table, and you make the calls.

What You Will Own

• Technical SEO: crawl, indexation, site speed, schema and site architecture.
• Keyword strategy, on-page optimization and content priorities, with writers and AI producing the drafts.
• Getting clients found in AI search: Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity, alongside classic organic results.
• Links, local search and multi-location SEO where the client needs it.
• Reporting in GA4 and Search Console, and the quarterly roadmap for each client.
  

What You Bring

• 3+ years hands-on in SEO: you have run the audits and made the fixes yourself.
• Fluency with Search Console, GA4, Screaming Frog and Ahrefs or Semrush.
• Agency experience across several clients at once.
• Clear spoken English with US clients on live calls.