Senior SEO Specialist - Programmatic / Location-Page Indexing + GEO/AIO (Part-Time)

About the role:

I run the personal-brand website of an international keynote speaker (TV-featured, Top 1% / CSP). The site is built on Craft CMS with the SEOmatic plugin, runs in 3 languages (DE / EN / ES), and has roughly 180 pages, including programmatic "keynote speaker in [city]" location pages.

I have solid SEO knowledge myself and built parts of this. I'm not looking for a beginner to learn on my site - I'm looking for an expert to take the wheel strategically and operationally.

The core problem (be honest with me about this)

Many of my programmatic location pages are stuck on "Crawled — currently not indexed" in Google Search Console. Organic traffic and, more importantly, inquiries dropped significantly.

My priority is clear: get my existing location pages indexed again and found at scale - both in classic SERPs and in GEO/AIO (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews). Right now these pages are ~90% identical to each other (same testimonials, logos, stats, FAQ - only the city name and one paragraph change), which I suspect is why Google won't index them. I need someone who can fix that root cause and make these pages genuinely indexable and findable - not just polish thin pages.

What you'll do:

Diagnose the indexing problem and give me a prioritized 30-day plan.
Get my existing location pages re-indexed and ranking at scale by making them genuinely differentiated - or recommend consolidation/pruning where it's the right call. I want your honest opinion, even if it contradicts me.
Fix technical SEO: indexing, crawl efficiency, internal linking, hreflang / international SEO across DE/EN/ES, structured data.
Strengthen the personal-brand entity for both classic SEO and GEO/AIO (getting recommended by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews): entity/schema, off-site footprint, reviews, directories, press.
Implement the work yourself (in Craft) and surprise me with new GEO/AIO ideas to future-proof the site.

Must-have (non-negotiable):

Verifiable track record getting programmatic / location-page sets indexed AND ranking - with real URLs and GSC/GA screenshots, not claims.
Strong technical SEO: indexing diagnostics, crawl budget, hreflang, schema/entity.
Active, demonstrable experimentation with GEO/AIO (AI Overviews, Perplexity, ChatGPT visibility).
Willingness to prune, consolidate, and challenge my strategy when the data says so.
Fluent written English.

Nice-to-have

Experience with Craft CMS / SEOmatic (or comfort working in an unfamiliar CMS).
Multilingual SEO (DE/ES a plus).
Personal-brand / local-service or expert-website experience.

You're NOT a fit if:

Your plan is "write more pages" or "spin up better templates" without solving the thin-content/duplication root cause.
Your growth playbook is mostly link buying.
Your "case studies" are screenshots you can't tie to a live, verifiable URL.

How to apply (read carefully - this is the filter):

Start your message with the word CRAWL-BUDGET so I know you read this.
Send 2 verifiable case studies: live URLs of location/programmatic page sets you built, plus GSC or GA screenshots showing indexing/traffic improvement.
Answer these three short questions (3–4 sentences each):

- Most of my city pages are "crawled, currently not indexed," and I haven't spoken in many of these cities yet. What's your honest first hypothesis and your approach?
- Under what circumstances would you tell me to delete or merge pages instead of optimizing them?
- How would you get an AI engine (ChatGPT / Perplexity / Google AI Overviews) to recommend a keynote speaker - which signals off the website matter most?

Engagement:

Part-time, ongoing. We start with a paid audit + prioritized 30-day plan (fixed scope) so we both see how you work before committing long-term.
Please include your part-time rate and your availability per week.

I read every application that follows the steps above. Generic copy-paste pitches will be ignored.