Hire a Fractional Head of SEO who owns Google and AI visibility

A Fractional Head of SEO is a senior search strategist who works as your part-time Head of SEO, providing executive ownership of organic growth without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire. They own strategy, prioritisation, decision-making, and accountability for outcomes across Google and AI search — directing your internal team or external resources toward the highest-impact activities.

A full-time Head of SEO costs $180K–$250K in salary, takes months to ramp up, and carries high execution risk. Agencies deliver output without ownership — junior execution behind senior sales. A Fractional Head of SEO gives you senior strategic leadership, direct accountability for results, and executive-level decision-making at a fraction of the cost, with no ramp-up period and the flexibility to scale.

Austin Heaton's Fractional Head of SEO engagement includes search strategy and roadmap development, content direction and quality assurance, technical SEO oversight, authority and link building strategy, AI search and AEO strategy across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and AI Overviews, cross-team alignment across content, engineering, product, and marketing, and executive-level reporting tied to revenue.

The engagement unfolds in three phases. Phase 1 (Weeks 1–2) covers technical and content diagnosis, search demand sizing, competitive analysis, and clear priorities tied to revenue. Phase 2 (Weeks 2–4) builds the growth system including search and AI visibility strategy, topical authority planning, site architecture, and an implementation roadmap. Phase 3 (Ongoing) provides weekly direction and QA, continuous prioritisation, AI visibility optimisation, and executive-level reporting.

Austin Heaton has delivered 18,000+ keywords ranked in the top 3, 560% average AI traffic growth in the first 60 days, 45% increase in organic conversions in the first 90 days, and 12+ years of proven results across SaaS, FinTech, Web3, and technology companies. His approach combines Google SEO with AI search optimisation to create compounding organic growth systems.

This engagement is best suited for companies that already invest in growth and have resources that need strategic direction, care about revenue and pipeline rather than vanity metrics, want senior SEO ownership without hiring full-time, and need Google and AI search strategy under one leader. It is not a fit for companies seeking cheap execution, unwilling to implement strategic direction, or looking for one-off audits.