Role: Youtube SEO Specialist
Experience: 3-5 yrs in Youtube SEO /channel growth
Team: Marketing
Reporting to: SEO Manager
Mode: Remote/WFH
About 21K School
21K School is India's first online school, offering accredited K–12 education across Cambridge International (Centre ID: IA702), Pearson Edexcel (Centre ID: 94883), and Indian curricula (CBSE, NIOS, NCERT). We operate across 36 country sites and serve thousands of students globally through a fully online schooling model designed around flexibility, quality teaching, and modern pedagogy.
Our marketing organization combines content, SEO, web development, and academic operations to reach families across the globe — and our YouTube channel, @21kschool29, is a key brand and demand-generation surface that we are scaling significantly.
About The Role
We are looking for a YouTube SEO Specialist to take ownership of search and discovery performance for the 21K School YouTube channel (@21kschool29). You will be the dedicated expert driving organic growth — optimizing every video for search, recommendation, and watch-time signals, and working closely with the content, video production, and SEO teams to turn YouTube into a meaningful traffic and brand channel for 21K.
This is a hands-on individual contributor role with direct ownership of channel-level metrics. You will define the YouTube SEO playbook for 21K, execute it end-to-end, and report on what's working.
Key Responsibilities
- Channel-Level YouTube SEO
- Own end-to-end SEO for the @21kschool29 channel — strategy, execution, and reporting
- Maintain and continually optimize channel-level assets: channel description, channel keywords, sections, playlists, About tab, and channel art
- Build and manage playlist architecture aligned with topic clusters and viewer journeys (e.g., curriculum, parent guidance, exam prep, student life)
- Keyword & Topic Research
- Conduct YouTube-native keyword research to identify high-intent, high-volume topics aligned with K–12 education, online schooling, parents, and students
- Maintain a YouTube keyword tracker with priority topics, search volume, competition, and ranking status
- Validate topics using YouTube Search Suggest, YouTube Analytics, TubeBuddy / VidIQ, Google Trends, and competitor channel analysis
- Video-Level Optimization
- Optimize titles, descriptions, tags, hashtags, and pinned comments on all new and existing videos
- Recommend thumbnail concepts that maximize CTR (working with the design / video team on execution)
- Recommend hooks, intros, and chapter structures to improve average view duration and audience retention
- Add and refine video chapters, end screens, cards, and pinned comments
- Ensure accurate, keyword-rich captions and transcripts; coordinate translations where relevant for our international audience
- YouTube Shorts Optimization
- Own Shorts SEO and growth strategy for @21kschool29 — frequency, formats, and topic clusters
- Optimize Shorts titles, descriptions, hashtags, captions, and on-screen text for discovery in the Shorts feed and search
- Recommend hook patterns, vertical video formats, and pacing structures that maximize swipe-through and completion rate
- Track Shorts-specific KPIs: views, swipe-away rate, average view duration, follow rate from Shorts, and Shorts → long-form crossover
- Identify Shorts trends, audio, and formats relevant to 21K's parent and student audience and brief the video team accordingly
- Content Ideation — Long-Form & Shorts
- Generate a continuous pipeline of content ideas for both long-form videos and Shorts, grounded in keyword research, trend data, and audience analytics
- Maintain a content ideation tracker mapping ideas to topic clusters, keywords, search volume, and intended format (long-form vs. Shorts)
- Brief the content and video production teams with SEO-aligned ideas including suggested titles, hooks, structures, and target keywords
- Translate emerging topics in K–12 education, exam seasons, parenting concerns, and student life into timely video opportunities
- Repurpose insights — turning long-form videos into Shorts, identifying Shorts that deserve a long-form deep dive, and surfacing playlist opportunities
- Performance Analytics & Reporting
- Track channel-level KPIs: subscribers, views, watch time, average view duration, CTR, traffic source mix, and search-driven views
- Track video-level KPIs: ranking for target keywords, impressions → CTR → views funnel, audience retention curves
- Produce weekly and monthly performance reports with clear actions and recommendations
- Identify underperforming videos and drive a refresh / re-optimization roadmap
- Competitive & Trend Intelligence
- Track competitor channels in K–12 / online education / EdTech and identify content and SEO gaps
- Spot emerging trends (formats, topics, hooks, thumbnail patterns) relevant to the 21K audience
- Recommend content opportunities to the content and video teams based on data
- Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Brief the content and video production teams on SEO-aligned topics, titles, hooks, and structures
- Work with the website SEO team to coordinate cross-platform discovery (e.g., embeds, video sitemaps, video schema readiness)
- Coordinate with the design team on thumbnails and end-screen / channel art assets
- Coordinate with the marketing team on campaign-aligned video releases
Required Qualifications
- 3–5 years of hands-on experience in YouTube SEO and channel growth — ideally on a brand, education, or media channel
- Demonstrable track record of growing a YouTube channel: subscribers, watch time, search-driven views, and ranking on target keywords
- Deep expertise with YouTube Studio, YouTube Analytics, and YouTube Search ranking factors (titles, descriptions, tags, retention, CTR, freshness)
- Strong working knowledge of TubeBuddy, VidIQ, Google Trends, Google Keyword Planner, and at least one general SEO tool (Ahrefs / Semrush / Similarweb)
- Proficiency in YouTube tagging, hashtag strategy, chapter markers, end screens, cards, and playlist structuring
- Hands-on experience with YouTube Shorts SEO, growth tactics, and Shorts-specific metrics
- Strong analytical skills — able to read retention curves, traffic source data, and impression/CTR funnels and translate them into actions
- Excellent written English with the ability to write SEO-optimized titles, descriptions, and hooks for an education audience
- Understanding of how YouTube SEO interacts with Google search (video carousels, video schema, thumbnails in SERPs)
Preferred (Nice-to-Have)
- Prior experience optimizing channels in education, EdTech, K–12, or parenting verticals
- Experience with international audiences (multi-country, multi-language metadata and captions)
- Experience with video schema, video sitemaps, and structured data for video content on websites
- Familiarity with thumbnail A/B testing and YouTube's experimentation tools
- Basic comfort with Google Sheets / Looker Studio for reporting dashboards
