Start a conversationAn embedded Head of SEO on a part-time retainer, for organizations that need the judgment without the headcount. I own the roadmap, manage the agency, level the team and translate the work upward — then spend the engagement making the role unnecessary.
Overview
Fractional leadership is senior ownership of a function on a part-time, embedded basis (typically one or two days a week on a defined term). Applied to search, it means someone accountable for the roadmap, the vendor relationships and the standard of the work, without the cost, notice period or six-month search that comes with a permanent Head of SEO. The model is closest to a fractional CMO or CFO arrangement, scoped to a channel where the technical judgment is unusually hard to interview for.
The role is deliberately temporary and its deliverables are organizational rather than tactical: a prioritized roadmap the executive team has actually agreed to, an agency or in-house team operating to a defined standard, a hiring profile for the permanent owner, and documented decision frameworks that outlive the engagement. Execution stays with the people who will still be there next year; the fractional lead sets direction, arbitrates between priorities and holds the standard.
Who it's for
Most teams have more defensible ideas than quarters to run them in. Sequencing those ideas against effort, confidence and commercial impact, then defending that sequence when a stakeholder wants their project moved to the top, is the work that separates a strategy from a backlog nobody believes in. The sequence matters more than any single item on it.
Knowing what to ask, which deliverables matter and how to read a forecast changes the economics of a retainer immediately. Most underperforming agency relationships are a briefing and accountability failure rather than a talent one. But not all of them are, and part of the job is knowing when the right call is to end one and run the replacement search.
Search roles are difficult to interview for, because the vocabulary is easy to acquire and the judgment underneath it is not. Scorecards, a practical technical screen and honest level definitions are what stop an organization hiring its fourth mid-weight specialist when what it actually needed was one senior owner.
Search competes for budget against channels with cleaner attribution and shorter feedback loops. Framing the work in terms of pipeline, payback period and risk (and stating plainly what will not happen this year) is frequently what decides whether any of it gets funded at all.
What's included
I own the sequence: what ships this quarter, what is deferred, and the argument that defends both to the executive team.
Briefing standards, deliverable review and a plain assessment of whether the retainer earns its cost, including the recommendation to end it.
Role definition, scorecards, a technical screen and interview support, so your permanent hire is the right person at the right level.
Decision frameworks, templates and working sessions on live work, so the judgment stays in the building once the retainer stops.
Not sure which of these you actually need?
Request a discovery callProcess
1
Stakeholder interviews, account access and an honest read on the last twelve months.
2
A written assessment: what is working, what is theatre, and what the agency is billing for.
3
Roadmap, operating rhythm and review standards run with the team rather than handed to them.
4
Coaching narrows to review-only, then a monthly check-in, then the permanent hire takes it.
FAQ
One or two days, at fixed times so the team can plan around them. Less than that is advice rather than leadership, and you should buy advice instead — it costs less and I will tell you where to get it.
That is the goal, not the risk. The point of the role is to make itself unnecessary: a roadmap your team owns, an agency that is either performing or gone, and usually a permanent hire I helped you choose and handed over to.
Yes, and it is often the fastest win available. Work improves when somebody who knows what good looks like reviews it before the invoice is approved. If the relationship is past saving I will tell you, and I will run the replacement search.
Usually not well. Fractional leadership is judgment and attention spread across everything; an audit or a content strategy is a defined deliverable with a deadline. Mixing them means the delivery work quietly eats the leadership time, and the leadership was the point.
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