Search Engine Optimization Specialist

Job role: Content Marketing Manager (SEO, SEM, AEO)

Department: Brand & growth

Job Experience: Min. 5 years

Location: Mumbai, HQ

About The Hosteller

The Hosteller started in 2015, when backpacker hostels weren't a category in India yet. Seventy-plus properties later, we're the country's largest self-operated hostel chain — and we've never really sold beds. We sell the common room at 11pm, the trek someone talks you into, the table that had four people and now has seven. Belonging is the product. The whole brand runs on one line: go meet your people.

Role overview

Most travellers find a hostel before they ever see an ad. They search Google, ask ChatGPT or Gemini, read a Reddit thread, or land on a travel blog. Today, too many of those moments end on an OTA page instead of ours, because OTAs are easier for search engines and AI to read and cite.

This role owns how The Hosteller shows up in all of those places. You own the words on our website, our rankings on Google, our citations in AI answers, our name in the press, and the creators and partner sites that send travellers our way. Own all of search: organic SEO, paid search and SEM, and AI-answer visibility. The channel that fights OTAs on their own turf.Your job is to turn that into an organic engine that grows direct bookings, and to own the numbers it moves.

Responsibilities

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

• Own organic search end to end: keyword research, content planning, on-page optimisation, internal linking and topic clusters across property, destination and blog pages
• Win non-branded, high-intent queries (hostels in Manali, solo trip to Goa, workation in Bir) where OTAs and Zostel rank above us today
• Work with Product/Tech on technical SEO: crawlability, page speed, indexing, structured data and site architecture. Write the ticket, then check it shipped correctly
• Run Google Business Profiles for every property: listings, photos, posts and review responses

AEO and AI visibility

• Make The Hosteller the brand that ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI overviews recommend and cite for hostel and travel queries
• Turn our property FAQs, policies, amenities and prices into structured, answer-shaped content that AI engines can extract
• Track a defined prompt set: AI share of voice, mentions vs. citations of thehosteller.com, cited pages and competitor citation share
• Own our AEO agency partner day to day: set priorities, review their work, and approve Reddit and community responses before they go live

Web/app content

• Own all copy on thehosteller.com: property pages, destination and category pages, landing pages, FAQs and the blog
• Keep property content accurate and consistent as new properties launch, with a page template and a checklist the ops team can follow
• Write and edit content that sounds like The Hosteller, not like a travel listing

Reporting

• Own organic sessions, non-branded traffic, keyword rankings, AI citations, organic and affiliate bookings, and direct revenue from content
• Report monthly on what moved, why, and what you will test next

AI in the workflow

• Use AI tools as part of how you actually work: keyword and topic research, briefs, first drafts, FAQ generation, schema and content audits

Qualifications

1. Min. 5 years in content marketing at a consumer internet, D2C, travel, hospitality or media brand
2. Hands-on SEO you did yourself: keyword research, on-page, internal linking, and content that moved rankings and traffic
3. A working understanding of AEO: how AI engines pick sources, why structured data and answer-shaped content matter, and how mentions differ from citations
4. Excellent writing and editing skills
5. Comfort with Google Search Console, GA4 and Excel/Sheets
6. Genuine AI fluency using LLMs daily for research, drafts and audits
7. Basic HTML and schema markup, and experience with a CMS
8. Experience with Reddit or community-led marketing