Fractional Leadership
A Head Of SEO.
Without The
Headcount.
Senior ownership of your search function — strategy, priorities, and the leadership conversations — at a fraction of a full-time hire. For companies that need direction, not another executor.
Days A Month
The Gap This Fills
There's a stage most companies hit where SEO clearly matters, there's budget for it, and there may already be people doing the work — but nobody senior owns the direction. The result is a team that stays busy and a channel that stays flat.
A full-time head of SEO or SEO director is an expensive hire, hard to assess if nobody internal has done the job, and frequently more capacity than the problem requires. A fractional arrangement gives you the seniority without the permanent cost or the hiring risk.
The difference from consulting is ownership. A consultant hands you a recommendation. A fractional head owns whether it happens, defends the roadmap when a stakeholder wants something else, and is accountable when a quarter goes badly.
What Ownership Covers
The Roadmap
What gets worked on, in what order, and what gets explicitly declined. Half of senior search work is saying no to plausible-sounding requests that would waste a quarter.
Team Direction
Priorities and senior review for the people executing. Most teams are more capable than their output suggests — they've just never had anyone experienced check their work.
The Leadership Conversation
Translating search performance into business terms, defending the budget, and setting expectations that survive contact with a bad month.
The AI Search Question
Someone has to own the answer to why the brand isn't appearing in generated answers. Usually nobody does. Detail on the visibility page.
Vendor Management
Agencies, freelancers and tooling — briefed properly and held to a standard. A good brief is worth more than a better agency.
Building The Capability
The team gets more capable over the engagement, or it isn't working. Coaching structure on the SEO coaching page.
The First Ninety Days
Audit The Function, Not Just The Site
What's being worked on, who decides, where the work gets stuck, and what leadership believes about search. The organisational answer usually explains more than the technical one.
Establish The Real Baseline
Technical health, Search Console reality, competitive position, and AI visibility. Frequently the first time anyone has stated the position honestly.
Set A Defensible Roadmap
Ranked, with reasoning, and short enough to be remembered. Agreed with leadership so priorities don't get relitigated every month.
Install The Operating Cadence
Which review runs weekly, which monthly, wired to real data sources and routed to people who act on them. The cadence design is published openly.
Build Toward Handover
From day one. Either the team grows into ownership or you hire a permanent lead — and I'll help you assess candidates, because most companies interview badly for this role.
Fit
Good fit
- checkSearch matters, budget exists, and nobody senior owns the direction.
- checkA capable team producing steady output with flat results.
- checkYou're considering a full-time head of SEO but aren't sure of the shape of the role yet.
- checkLeadership has lost confidence in search and someone needs to rebuild the case.
Poor fit
- closeYou need execution capacity. This is direction, not hands.
- closeNo authority to change priorities — ownership without authority is just expensive advice.
- closeWanting someone to validate a plan already decided elsewhere.
- closeA one-off project. That's a consulting engagement and it costs less.
Engagement Shapes
Fractional Head Of SEO
Monthly · 2–6 days
Ongoing ownership of the search function — roadmap, team direction, cadence and the leadership conversation. The standard shape.
Interim Cover
Monthly · fixed term
Covering a departure while you recruit, so the function doesn't stall for two quarters. Includes helping you assess candidates.
Advisory
Monthly · light touch
A senior reviewer for a team that mostly has it handled. Fewer days, focused on direction and difficult calls.
Pricing is set per engagement after a scoping call — scope, cadence and account count move it too much for a single published number to be honest. You will have a fixed figure before any work starts.
Common Questions
How is this different from a consultant engagement?
A consultant advises and leaves. A fractional head of SEO owns the outcome — the roadmap, the cadence, the team's priorities, and the conversation with leadership when results are questioned. You're buying accountability, not just expertise.
How many days a month?
Typically two to six, depending on team size and how much is in flight. Enough to own direction and unblock people; not so much that you're paying senior rates for execution someone else should do.
Do you manage our existing team?
Functionally yes — priorities, review, and capability development — without the line-management overhead. Most teams need direction and a senior reviewer far more than they need another pair of hands.
What happens when the engagement ends?
That's the point. Either your team has grown into the ownership, or you've hired a permanent lead and I've helped you interview for them. An engagement that runs forever has failed at its actual job.
Does this cover AI search?
Yes, and it's increasingly where the leadership conversation goes. Someone senior has to own the answer to 'why aren't we showing up in ChatGPT', and it's rarely a question the existing team is equipped to handle.
Get senior ownership.
Skip the hire.
A conversation about whether your search function needs leadership, capacity, or something else entirely.
BOOK A CONVERSATION