Rizeup Media: Senior SEO Strategist

Rizeup Media

RizeUp Media has built its name on a single, uncompromising focus: law firms, and nothing else. Founded in 2019 by Bo Bryant and Travis Hoechlin, the agency has grown into one of the most trusted digital partners in legal marketing, serving 450+ law firm clients across the US with SEO, Local Service Ads, PPC, web design, AEO/GEO, and social media, all built around a single niche.

The results speak for themselves. RizeUp has been named to the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing companies for two years running, and the business has doubled in size year-over-year since 2020, now a team of 50 and growing fast.

RizeUp Media is also a returning Search For Hire client. Last year, Search For Hire placed multiple strategists into the business. Every single one of those candidates is still in role today.

The brief

This search didn’t sit in isolation. RizeUp Media was mid hiring sprint, moving to bring on a wave of elite Digital Strategists to keep pace with a fast-growing roster of law firm clients, and needed the search to move at the same pace as the business.

As a returning client with a 100% retention record on prior placements, RizeUp came back to Search For Hire to fill the seat fast, 100% remote, ASAP start, reporting directly into the Director of Digital Strategy, without lowering the bar on who could hold it.

The challenge

As RizeUp’s roster of law firm clients continued to grow, the business needed to strengthen its strategic layer with a Senior SEO Strategist, someone who could own the full client relationship rather than simply execute against it.

This was not a search for another technical SEO. RizeUp needed someone who could do two things at once, and do both well:

• Communicate performance to law firm clients in commercial terms, not just rankings and traffic, but ROI, lead volume, and cost per acquisition
• Bring direct, credible experience inside the legal vertical, understanding E-E-A-T, local SEO nuance, and the specific cadence of law firm marketing

The role reports directly to the Director of Digital Strategy, with full ownership of a book of law firm accounts, quarterbacking delivery across writers, SEO specialists, and cross-functional teams.

Working with Search For Hire has been fantastic! We have fours hires from them, and those hires have worked out very well for our company. If you’re looking for A players I recommend working with Search For Hire!

— Mark Elliot, VP of Ops – RizeUp Media (5-Star Review)

The process

Search For Hire ran a focused search against a narrow, senior profile, prioritising legal-niche credibility and commercial fluency over generalist SEO experience.

Candidate criteria

• 5+ years of SEO strategy and content marketing experience
• Direct experience in the legal industry strongly preferred
• Proven ability to simplify technical SEO for non-technical, client-facing conversations
• Data-driven operator, fluent in Ahrefs, Semrush, Screaming Frog, and Google Analytics
• Self-motivated A-player, comfortable owning outcomes in a fully remote, hyper-growth environment

Evaluation process

Eight strong, pre-qualified candidates were presented to RizeUp Media within seven days of the role going live.

Eighty percent of those candidates progressed to interview, well ahead of typical submission-to-interview conversion for senior, niche searches.

Search For Hire managed the process end to end, from initial screening through to offer, keeping momentum on both sides across a compressed, 27-day timeline from role launch to signed contract.

The outcome

Search For Hire placed a new Senior SEO Strategist at RizeUp Media, bringing 15 years of agency SEO experience across enterprise, local, and technical SEO, including direct legal SEO experience managing strategy across more than 1,500 client websites in legal, dental, accounting, and veterinary verticals.

The successful candidate brings a strong track record in client retention: owning at-risk accounts, building structured 30/60/90-day recovery plans, and leading the client conversations that keep law firm partners confident in the work. That same commercial, relationship-first approach was central to why the profile stood out against RizeUp’s brief.

The hire also brings direct experience with AI Overviews, GEO, and entity-based SEO, alongside a background training and mentoring SEO specialists, adding depth to RizeUp’s wider strategy team from day one.

” I loved working with Daris in finding my new role. He was responsive, checked in with the employer after every round of interviews to help me get feedback and understand next steps.

I was able to get an offer and land my new role, with a lovely pay increase, within two weeks of our first interaction. Loved loved it!“

— New Senior SEO Strategist, RizeUp Media (5-Star Review)

Why this matters

Law firm marketing does not tolerate a strategist who can only talk rankings. Clients in this space are measured on cases signed, not impressions, and the person managing that relationship has to be as fluent in commercial outcomes as they are in the algorithm.

For an agency scaling as fast as RizeUp Media, the cost of getting this hire wrong is not just a vacant seat, it is client confidence across an entire book of accounts. The right strategist protects retention while the business keeps growing underneath them.

That is the search Search For Hire was built to run.