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Consultant vs In-house / Fractional / Head of Search12+ years in search
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AEO Consultant vs In-House Head of SEO. Hire the One That Fits.

You are choosing a model. Hire Austin as AEO consultant and fractional Head of Search — or hire a full-time in-house Head of SEO. This page is that decision.

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Austin Heaton, AEO consultant and fractional Head of Search
HireConsultant or in-house.
Pick the model first.
The decision in four linesThe hire, not the pitch
01

Cost: a senior in-house leader is $150,000–$250,000+ a year after salary, benefits, software, contractors, and content

02

Speed: a consultant starts on money pages this month. A hire still has to recruit, ramp, and staff the work

03

Execution: Austin owns strategy and the work. A Head of SEO still needs writers, PR, and tech

04

Skill set: most Head of SEO roles are classic Google SEO. AEO is citations, entities, and answer engines

Earned media

Featured In & Published On

14 publications
SimilarWebEuropean Business ReviewFast CompanyZapierFintechZoomEcommerce FastlaneNeuronWriterBeInCryptoStartup.infoDigital JournalCoruzantBusiness AgeEU Business NewsFinbold
Next step

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Side by side

AEO Consultant vs In-House Head of SEO

The hire, not the definition

In-house is the right call in some companies. Fractional is the right call in others. Here is the comparison a marketing or growth lead actually has to make.

Factor
AEO consultant / fractional Head of Search
In-house Head of SEO

Cost

Senior work without a full-time seat. No salary number invented here — we scope on the call.

Hiring a senior SEO or AEO leader often costs $150,000–$250,000+ annually after salary, benefits, software, contractors, and content production.

Factor
AEO consultant / fractional Head of Search
In-house Head of SEO

Speed

Starts on the live site. Money pages, entity work, and citations can move in the first month.

Recruiting, offer, notice period, then ramp. You wait before the first commercial page ships.

Seniority

You work with Austin. Strategy and execution sit with one senior owner. See the AEO consultant page.

You hire a leader. That person still has to prove the AEO skill set and still has to staff the work.

Factor
AEO consultant / fractional Head of Search
In-house Head of SEO

Execution

Austin owns strategy and the work: money pages, technical SEO, mentions, MOFU/BOFU, citations.

A Head of SEO still needs writers, PR, and tech. The hire is a manager seat unless you also fund the bench.

AEO vs classic SEO

Built for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews — plus Google. Citations, entities, commercial pages.

Most Head of SEO job specs are still classic SEO: rankings, content calendar, reporting. AEO is a different skill set.

Factor
AEO consultant / fractional Head of Search
In-house Head of SEO

Time-to-first-citation

The work starts on the pages buyers already ask AI about. Faster path to a citable commercial page.

First citation waits on hiring, then on the production team the hire still has to assemble.

When each model wins

In-house is not the wrong answer. It is a different job.

Be honest about the seat

Do not hire a consultant when you need a people manager. Do not hire a Head of SEO when you need senior AEO shipped this quarter.

In-house Head of SEO wins when

You need a full-time manager inside the building.

  • You already have a large content, PR, and eng bench that needs daily people management
  • Internal politics require someone in every standup, every week, on payroll
  • You are building a multi-year search org, not shipping a citation system
  • You have the budget for the $150,000–$250,000+ fully loaded seat plus the writers and contractors that seat still needs
Consultant / fractional wins when

You need senior ownership of the work, not another org chart.

  • You want one senior owner across Google and AI search without a full-time hire — that is fractional SEO
  • You need money pages and citations now, not after a six-month search
  • You do not have (and do not want) a large in-house SEO team to manage
  • The gap is AEO skill and commercial execution, not headcount
The work

What Austin Does in the Consultant Seat

Strategy plus the work

This is not a strategy deck handed to a junior team. Austin owns the commercial pages, the entity signals, and the technical foundation that get you cited.

01Money pages

Comparisons, alternatives, and use cases your category already loses to review sites

02Entity and brand

Mentions, schema, and knowledge-graph signals so models can name you correctly

03Technical SEO

Crawl access, structured data, and page architecture AI systems can retrieve

04MOFU / BOFU

Commercial content for buyers already comparing vendors — not another TOFU blog

05Citations

Citation work across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews

06Engagement model

AEO consultant or fractional Head of Search — one senior owner

Documented proof

Cases Already on This Site.

Documented on this site

These are the live case studies. Same numbers as the portfolio.

Lumanu / FinTech01

656 AI-sourced clicks and 101 conversions in 60 days

Read the Lumanu case study →
Riseworks / FinTech02

288% organic growth and 575% AI search expansion

Read the Rise case study →
Pactvera / Legal tech03

6,000%+ impression growth, featured next to DocuSign in 11 days

Read the Pactvera case study →
iSpeedToLead / B2B04

310.8% AI search growth and #1 citation share at 7.79%

Read the iSpeedToLead case study →
View All Case Studies →

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RiseLumanuAzuraStablecoin InsiderPactveraiSpeedToLead
Questions

FAQ

AEO consultant vs in-house Head of SEO — what is the actual decision?

You are choosing who owns Google and AI search, and whether that person also does the work.

An AEO consultant or fractional Head of Search is a senior owner who ships money pages, entity work, technical SEO, and citations. An in-house Head of SEO is a full-time seat. That hire still needs writers, PR, and tech unless you fund those too.

How much does an in-house Head of SEO cost?

The homepage FAQ already states it: hiring a senior SEO or AEO leader often costs $150,000–$250,000+ annually after salary, benefits, software, contractors, and content production expenses.

That is the fully loaded seat — not just base salary. If the consultant model fits, we scope it on a call.

When should we hire in-house instead?

Hire in-house when you need a full-time people manager, a large team already in the building, and someone inside every internal political loop.

Hire the consultant model when you need senior AEO now and one person who owns strategy and execution. Adjacent: AEO for B2B, AEO for FinTech, AEO for Crypto.

Does a Head of SEO still need writers and PR?

Yes, in most companies. The title is leadership. The citations still come from commercial pages, entity mentions, and technical access. Austin’s consultant seat covers strategy and that work.

What proof do you have?

Documented on this site. Lumanu: 656 AI-sourced clicks and 101 conversions in 60 days. Riseworks: 288% organic growth and 575% AI search expansion. Pactvera: 6,000%+ impression growth and placement next to DocuSign in 11 days. iSpeedToLead: 310.8% AI search growth and the #1 citation share at 7.79%. See the case studies.

How do we start?

Book a call. We look at whether you need a full-time Head of SEO or a consultant / fractional owner. Book a call with Austin or use the contact page.

Let's talk

Ready to Choose the Hire?

If you need senior AEO ownership — and you are deciding consultant vs a full-time Head of SEO — book the call. We will tell you which model fits.

Book a Call With Austin →
12+ years in search
Proof: Lumanu, Rise, Pactvera
Consultant vs in-house
Limited capacity