SEO Specialist (Newsroom SEO) – 6-Month Contract

Company: TheNews21
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Location: Mumbai
Job Description:

We are strengthening TheNews21’s digital backbone.

We’re looking for a serious Newsroom SEO professional who understands Google News, Discover, and investigative journalism — not generic SEO or marketing.

Please read carefully before applying.

About TheNews21

TheNews21 is an independent investigative and analytical newsroom based in Maharashtra, focusing on governance, politics, infrastructure, and public-interest journalism.

As we expand our investigations and publishing scale, we are strengthening our search and discovery backbone through a dedicated SEO transformation roadmap.

This role is strictly for newsroom SEO professionals, not generic digital marketers.

Key Responsibilities

1. Technical SEO (News Website Focus)

• Conduct full SEO & indexing audit (GSC, sitemaps, crawl errors)

• Fix indexing issues and Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, INP)

• Optimise robots.txt, canonicals, redirects, and URL structure

• Implement structured data: NewsArticle, Author, Breadcrumb, Organization

• Improve mobile performance and page speed

• Build and clean category architecture

• Create pillar pages for investigative series

2. Content & Editorial SEO

• Optimise headlines, meta descriptions, tags, and internal linking

• Guide newsroom on SEO-friendly editorial workflows

• Image optimisation (alt-text, compression, WebP)

• Build content clusters around investigations and explainers

• Improve Google Discover visibility for long-form stories

3. Google News SEO

• Prepare and manage Google News Publisher Center

• Fix feed and policy issues

• Ensure structured data compliance for news content

• Improve visibility in Top Stories and News surfaces

4. Authority & Trust Building

• Ethical backlink and citation strategy (no PBNs or paid link farms)

• SEO optimisation of investigative PDF reports

• Digital PR and attribution-based link support

5. Reporting & Monitoring

• Weekly SEO performance reports

• Monthly Search Console, Discover & traffic analysis

• Clear deliverables and measurable progress tracking

Required Skills & Experience

• Proven experience with news or publishing websites

• Strong technical SEO (indexing, schema, sitemaps)

• Hands-on WordPress experience (TagDiv / SmartMag / JNews preferred)

• Knowledge of E-E-A-T, Google News & Discover algorithms

• Strong command of GSC, GA4, Ahrefs/SEMRush, Screaming Frog

Not Acceptable

• Social media managers who think SEO = hashtags

• Digital marketers who only know ads

• Keyword stuffers

• Backlink sellers / PBN users

• Candidates with no newsroom SEO experience

Compensation

₹25,000 – ₹40,000 per month (based on experience)

For exceptional candidates, negotiable for the 6-month contract.

How to Apply

Email:

Hashtags:

#Hiring #SEOJobs #NewsSEO #JournalismJobs #DigitalNews #GoogleNews #MediaJobs

Posted: February 1st, 2026