Difference between SEO Executive, SEO strategist, SEO specialist, SEO Manager, SEO consultant, and SEO analyst?

No necessarily that much - some of them are just titles made up by recruiters to sound fancy, but in general:

SEO Executive:?Entry-level SEO role. No specific specialism in terms of what they do (probably everything - on-site and off-site) but likely at the bottom rung of the SEO ladder within an agency.

SEO Strategist:?An SEO with a specialism in top level strategy. He or she Guides those carrying out the work (content creation, coding etc.). A strategist might decide how a link building campaign should be carried out, or how a technical issue on a large site should be dealt with; but in a broad way. His or her remit does not include the details of exactly what an individual page title or canonical link might be, for example. Most SEOs in general will have some level of strategy in what they do, but this role is about strategy alone.

SEO Specialist:?General term for someone that specialises in SEO. AKA SEO Manager, SEO Expert, etc. No particular specialism within SEO, but typically if someone is calling themselves a ‘specialist’ (or a job advertises for an SEO Specialist), there should be a few years’ experience under their belt. Often used as an SEO’s title in Linked In when they don’t consider themselves a manager or executive (perhaps they’re freelance, or the title manager doesn’t really show the level of experience they have). It avoids the expectant seniority of calling yourself a ‘consultant’ (which also has implications of being quite a specific day-to-day role of telling people what to fix, rather than doing the work yourself).

SEO Manager:?Typically refers to a role that sits above SEO Executive in the hierarchy of an agency. They will generally deal more with strategy (but not as specialised as an SEO Strategist), and in many cases client account management. This role can differ quite a lot - in some agencies and SEO manager could be the client facing person who instructs the executives what they should be doing for each client; in others, the SEO manager could be the person managing the account, carrying out the SEO work and coming up with the strategy. The ‘Manager’ title denotes more experience in SEO than an Executive, whatever the day-to-day role might be. SEO managers can also be in-house, where their role can vary from being?the SEO guy/gal?to managing a team of content writers or SEO execs.

SEO Consultant:?As with any consultancy role, the SEO consultant should have a good bit of experience (5 years plus). They should be able to come in to an existing business and tell them exactly what they should be doing in order to improve their SEO. Often a freelance role, SEO consultants can also project manage an SEO project within a business they’re consulting on to ensure their recommendations are being acted on correctly. Some job roles call for an SEO Consultant who are looking for a senior (i.e. experienced) SEO person to manage SEO in an in-house role - day-to-day tasks could vary a lot in this situation; from outsourcing work to freelance content writers to managing a team in-house. ‘Consultant’ is often used as a synonym for ‘experienced’ - a less cringe-worthy term than ‘guru’. Consultant can be a term used by recruiters to make a job role seem more senior, even if the day to day tasks are that of an SEO manager.

SEO Analyst:?This one is either used as a recruiter term to make an SEO executive or manager role sound more ‘science-y’; or it’s a legitimate separate role concerned with the analysis of data related to SEO. It requires expertise in statistics, analytics, advanced Excel and certain programming languages; as well as a good all-round SEO knowledge. In an agency, it’s a support role to the SEO manager and involves using any data they have about a client’s website to come up with actions - it generally is not client-facing. In-house the role is similar, but you’ll be working on a single website (probably) and could be reporting to marketing managers, marketing directors, SEO managers or similar roles.