Top 12 SEO Manager Skills to Put on Your Resume

Search visibility moves fast. An SEO Manager with sharp technical instincts, a strategic streak, and a knack for storytelling can bend that curve. A resume that proves impact—tools, tactics, and results—rises above the noise.

SEO Manager Skills

1. Google Analytics
2. Semrush
3. Moz Pro
4. Ahrefs
5. Screaming Frog
6. Google Search Console
7. Keyword Planner
8. Yoast SEO
9. HTML/CSS
10. JavaScript
11. Python (for automation/scripts)
12. Tableau (for data visualization)

1. Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

GA4 tracks behavior across devices and sessions using events, not pageview-centric models. It exposes user journeys, content engagement, and conversion paths—fuel for SEO decisions and better site experience.

Why It's Important

GA4 surfaces the signals that matter: which pages pull organic traffic, how users flow, what actually converts. Tie organic sessions to outcomes, then tune content and UX with confidence.

How to Improve Google Analytics Skills

Make GA4 work harder for SEO:

1. Define events and conversions: Track core actions (scrolls, video plays, outbound clicks, sign-ups). Mark your key events as conversions so organic value is obvious.

2. Use Explore for deep dives: Build funnels, paths, and segment overlaps to expose content friction and opportunity.

3. Segment smartly: Create Audiences by intent, device, geography, and landing path. Use comparisons in reports to spot differences at a glance.

4. Link properties: Connect Search Console for query and landing page visibility; connect BigQuery for raw data and long-term analysis.

5. Turn on Google signals (where appropriate): Unlock demographics and interests reporting; align with your consent approach.

6. Customize reporting: Curate your GA4 Library—organic performance collections, content groups, and page-level drill-downs that mirror your site architecture.

7. Track performance outside GA4: GA4 no longer reports legacy site speed. Use Lighthouse, Core Web Vitals, and PageSpeed tools to monitor speed and stability.

8. Add notes for context: Use property notes to log releases, migrations, and major content updates. Trends make sense when you mark the moments.

9. Standardize UTMs: Keep clean campaign data so organic vs. paid vs. referral isn’t muddied by inconsistent tagging.

Dial in measurement and you’ll spot what moves rankings and revenue, not just sessions.

How to Display Google Analytics Skills on Your Resume

2. Semrush

Semrush is a broad SEO and competitive research suite—keywords, rankings, audits, links, content ideas—all in one place.

Why It's Important

It reveals what competitors rank for, where your site falters technically, and which keywords deserve your attention. Strategy gets tangible.

How to Improve Semrush Skills

1. Keyword Magic + intent: Build clusters around themes, map intent (informational vs. transactional), and prioritize terms with attainable difficulty.

2. Competitive research: Use Domain Overview, Organic Research, and Traffic Analytics to reverse-engineer what wins in your niche.

3. Site Audit: Run recurring audits; fix crawlability, internal links, CWV issues, thin content, and duplicate meta at scale.

4. Backlink strategy: Analyze Backlink Analytics and Backlink Gap; target relevant, authoritative sources and prune toxic links.

5. On-Page SEO Checker: Generate page-level recommendations; pair with SEO Writing Assistant to tighten content briefs.

6. Position Tracking: Tag keyword sets (by funnel stage, topic, or locale). Monitor SERP features and volatility.

7. Report and alert: Automate dashboards and email briefs so stakeholders see movement without chasing spreadsheets.

How to Display Semrush Skills on Your Resume

3. Moz Pro

Moz Pro packages keyword research, link analysis, rank tracking, and site crawl diagnostics into a tidy workflow for ongoing SEO management.

Why It's Important

It helps you find the right keywords, keep a clean technical foundation, and monitor rankings without drowning in noise.

How to Improve Moz Pro Skills

1. Keyword Explorer: Build lists by topic, weigh Difficulty vs. CTR, and group terms into content clusters.

2. Link Explorer: Audit your link profile, identify high-value prospects, and benchmark against competitors’ link equity.

3. Site Crawl: Fix critical issues first (4xx/5xx, canonical conflicts, redirect chains, missing titles), then chip away at enhancements.

4. On-page optimization: Use Page Optimization suggestions to target headings, copy gaps, and internal linking opportunities.

5. Rank tracking: Track core keywords by device and location; tag groups by topic or funnel to see real gains.

6. Campaigns and reporting: Centralize sites, set goals, and schedule concise stakeholder reports.

7. MozBar: Speed up SERP analysis and quick audits right in the browser.

How to Display Moz Pro Skills on Your Resume

4. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a powerhouse for backlinks, competitive research, content gaps, and technical checks through its Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Content Explorer, and Site Audit.

Why It's Important

Backlinks still move the needle. Ahrefs shows who links, why, and where you have room to outrank—and where technical issues stall progress.

How to Improve Ahrefs Skills

1. Mine keywords with purpose: Target long-tail, low-competition terms with solid traffic potential and clear intent.

2. Content gap analysis: Identify topics competitors rank for that you don’t—turn gaps into briefs.

3. Backlink audits: Monitor growth, anchor text balance, and link toxicity. Replace bad links with better ones through targeted outreach.

4. Site Audit cadence: Catch crawl issues, orphan pages, and CWV regressions before they cost rankings.

5. Alerts: Track new/lost backlinks, mentions, and keyword moves to react quickly.

6. Reporting: Build dashboards around topic clusters, landing pages, and link velocity to show momentum.

How to Display Ahrefs Skills on Your Resume

5. Screaming Frog

The SEO Spider crawls your site like a search bot. It surfaces broken links, duplicate content, missing metadata, render issues, and more.

Why It's Important

Technical SEO lives here. Find the leaks, patch them, and search engines index a cleaner, faster, more consistent site.

How to Improve Screaming Frog Skills

1. Lift crawl ceilings: Use the licensed version for full-scale crawls, scheduling, and advanced configs.

2. Integrate data: Pull in Google Analytics, Search Console, and PageSpeed Insights to blend crawl data with engagement and performance metrics.

3. JavaScript rendering: Enable rendering to catch content hidden behind client-side code.

4. Custom extraction: Use XPath/CSS/Regex to extract schema, headings, hreflang, or any pattern you need.

5. Control speed and scope: Respect robots, throttle crawl rate, and use include/exclude rules for surgical audits.

6. Compare crawls: Track improvements over time; prove fixes made a difference.

7. Export and analyze: Slice data in spreadsheets or BI tools; prioritize by impact and effort.

How to Display Screaming Frog Skills on Your Resume

6. Google Search Console

GSC shows how Google sees your site: queries, pages, indexing status, enhancements, security, and more.

Why It's Important

It’s the source of truth for organic visibility. Fix what it flags, and you clear the path for better crawling, indexing, and clicks.

How to Improve Google Search Console Skills

1. Verify all versions: Domain property, HTTPS, and relevant subdomains. Submit clean XML sitemaps that mirror your canonical structure.

2. Performance mining: Filter by page, query, country, and device. Target low-CTR winners for better titles/snippets; lift near-position-11 terms with internal links.

3. Coverage and Indexing: Squash 404s, soft 404s, and server errors. Validate fixes. Keep canonical signals consistent.

4. Core Web Vitals: Improve LCP, INP, and CLS across templates; watch field data trends.

5. Mobile usability: Catch touch targets, viewport, and layout issues that dampen experience.

6. URL Inspection: Debug rendering, indexing, and structured data per page; request reindexing when warranted.

7. Enhancements: Validate schema types (breadcrumbs, FAQ, products, videos). Rich results lift visibility and CTR.

8. Security and manual actions: Monitor regularly; remediate immediately if anything appears.

How to Display Google Search Console Skills on Your Resume

7. Keyword Planner

Google’s Keyword Planner estimates search demand and cost for ad campaigns. It still helps SEO gauge interest and discover seed terms.

Why It's Important

It exposes how people search at scale, so you can shape information architecture, content priority, and expectations around potential traffic.

How to Improve Keyword Planner Skills

1. Mind intent and clustering: Organize keywords by intent and topic; build pillar pages and supporting content.

2. Go long-tail: Lower competition, clearer intent. Pair Keyword Planner estimates with your Search Console query data.

3. Check competitors: Use SEO suites (Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz) to enrich and validate your seed list.

4. Seasonality and locality: Plan around peaks and regional nuance. Geo-modifiers can unlock easier wins.

5. Reality check: Remember that volumes may be bucketed into ranges. Combine multiple sources before committing to a roadmap.

6. Negative filters: Exclude irrelevant terms early so your plan isn’t polluted by mismatched queries.

How to Display Keyword Planner Skills on Your Resume

8. Yoast SEO

A popular WordPress plugin that streamlines technical basics and on-page optimization—sitemaps, meta tags, schema defaults, readability checks, and more.

Why It's Important

It puts guardrails around content publishing so optimization becomes habit, not a heroic effort.

How to Improve Yoast SEO Skills

1. Solid metadata: Craft specific titles and meta descriptions that reflect intent and drive clicks; use variables to scale patterns.

2. Keyword and readability: Treat Yoast’s checks as prompts, not rules. Write for humans, confirm scannability, then refine for search.

3. Internal linking: Strengthen topic clusters and pass equity to priority pages with sensible anchor text.

4. Image basics: Descriptive alt text and lightweight formats; set sensible defaults for social sharing.

5. Schema framework: Choose the correct content types (article, product, FAQ) and keep site-wide schema coherent.

6. XML sitemaps: Let Yoast generate them; exclude thin or duplicate content types.

7. Keep content fresh: Update outdated posts, merge duplicates, and redirect gracefully.

8. Measure outcomes: Track how Yoast-driven improvements affect impressions, CTR, and conversions via GSC and GA4.

How to Display Yoast SEO Skills on Your Resume

9. HTML/CSS

HTML gives structure; CSS shapes experience. Clean markup and thoughtful styling help search engines parse pages and users enjoy them.

Why It's Important

Proper semantics, fast rendering, and accessible design impact crawlability, indexation, and the behavior metrics that follow.

How to Improve HTML/CSS Skills

1. Semantic layout: Use meaningful elements (header, nav, main, section, article, footer). One clear H1 per page; logical heading hierarchy.

2. Metadata and directives: Consistent canonicals, robots meta, hreflang, and open graph tags reduce ambiguity.

3. Responsive design: Mobile-first CSS, fluid layouts, and modern viewport handling. Test across devices.

4. Critical CSS: Inline above-the-fold styles; defer non-critical CSS. Minify and combine where it makes sense.

5. Fast by default: Preload key resources, preconnect to origins, compress assets, and cache aggressively.

6. Modern media: Prefer WebP/AVIF, set proper dimensions, and lazy-load images and iframes.

7. Accessibility: Alt text, focus states, color contrast, ARIA only when needed, and keyboard-friendly navigation.

8. Sprites and icons: SVG icons or sprite sheets can trim requests, though HTTP/2 makes many small files less costly.

How to Display HTML/CSS Skills on Your Resume

10. JavaScript

JavaScript powers interactivity—menus, filters, personalization, complex apps. Handled well, it sings. Mishandled, it hides content from crawlers and slows everything down.

Why It's Important

Modern sites lean on JS. Search can index it, but not without limits. Ship content fast, keep routes crawlable, and rankings thank you.

How to Improve JavaScript Skills

1. Prefer SSR/SSG or hybrid: Frameworks like Next.js, Nuxt, or SvelteKit render primary content server-side, then hydrate. Avoid deprecated dynamic rendering.

2. Code-split and defer: Load only what each route needs. Defer non-critical scripts; keep the main thread calm.

3. Link like HTML: Use real anchor tags for navigation; avoid click handlers that break discoverability.

4. Stabilize layout: Reserve space for images and components to prevent layout shifts.

5. Data fetching strategy: Render critical content at build or on the server; hydrate enhancements client-side.

6. Structured data: Generate schema alongside server-rendered HTML so bots see it immediately.

7. Measure and iterate: Lighthouse, Core Web Vitals, and URL Inspection will tell you where JS hinders indexing or performance.

8. Inclusive patterns: Respect focus, ARIA roles, and keyboard paths for dynamic modules.

How to Display JavaScript Skills on Your Resume

11. Python (for automation/scripts)

Python is a swiss army knife for SEO: pull data, wrangle it, ship reports, and automate the grind so you can focus on strategy.

Why It's Important

Automation saves hours. Consistency saves mistakes. Insights show up faster when data flows on its own.

How to Improve Python (for automation/scripts) Skills

1. Master the basics: Clean, readable code, virtual environments, and package management.

2. APIs everywhere: Connect Search Console, GA4, and your SEO tools. Schedule pulls; store in a warehouse or spreadsheets.

3. Web scraping: Use Requests, BeautifulSoup, or Scrapy for sitemaps, SERPs (respect robots and terms), and content checks.

4. Data analysis: Pandas for joins and reshaping; Matplotlib/Seaborn for quick visuals; Jupyter or notebooks for exploration.

5. Log file analysis: Parse server logs to see what bots crawl, where they stall, and which sections waste budget.

6. Reporting: Automate slide decks, emails, and spreadsheets with templated outputs (openpyxl, presentation libs).

7. Scheduling and reliability: Cron, task runners, and basic error handling keep pipelines steady.

How to Display Python (for automation/scripts) Skills on Your Resume

12. Tableau (for data visualization)

Tableau turns raw SEO data into dashboards people actually use—traffic, rankings, links, conversions—tied together in living views.

Why It's Important

Good visuals win buy-in. They also surface patterns you’d miss in rows and columns.

How to Improve Tableau (for data visualization) Skills

1. Data modeling first: Define clean grains and relationships; blend GA4, GSC, and tool exports carefully to avoid double-counting.

2. Parameters and actions: Let users filter by segment, device, locale, or cluster. Interactivity beats static reports.

3. Templates that tell stories: Executive summary, technical health, content performance, and link growth—each with a clear “so what.”

4. Forecasts and trends: Layer moving averages and seasonality. Annotate releases and migrations.

5. Performance matters: Extracts, indexing, and tidy calculations keep dashboards snappy.

6. Governance: Document sources, definitions, and refresh schedules so trust sticks.

How to Display Tableau (for data visualization) Skills on Your Resume