Hire a Head of SEO
We place Heads of SEO who build organic search into a commercial growth engine. Not just candidates who interview well.
We place Heads of SEO who build organic search into a commercial growth engine. Not just candidates who interview well.
A Head of SEO is a performance-critical leadership hire. The role spans technical SEO, content strategy, team development, and commercial reporting, and the wrong appointment can set organic performance back by months or years. Most agency founders realise this only after a hire goes wrong.
Generic recruiters match keywords. They cannot assess whether a candidate can own a P&L, lead a cross-functional team, or translate search data into a narrative that moves a boardroom. We evaluate strategic depth, leadership track record, stakeholder influence, and hands-on technical knowledge: the competencies that determine whether a Head of SEO actually performs.
SEO, Paid Media, and Growth is all we do. That specialism is not a marketing claim. It is the basis on which we assess every candidate we place.
We specialise exclusively in SEO and performance roles, with a network built inside the industry – not outside it.
We assess technical capability, commercial thinking and real-world impact – not just years of experience.
The best SEO professionals aren’t actively applying. We approach and engage them directly.
What to Look For:
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What to Look For:
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What to Look For:
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What to Look For:
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Head of SEO salary expectations vary significantly by location, sector, and seniority. Use this as a baseline. Expect variation of 15–20% in either direction depending on the business, the team size, and the commercial complexity of the role.
| Region | Salary Range |
|---|---|
| US | $120k – $150k |
| UK | £60k – £95k |
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These benchmarks are backed by the world’s #1 marketing salary directory. With over 15,000 verified submissions. We offer total transparency into the market, helping you hire with confidence based on real-world data.
Heads of SEO with a demonstrable track record of revenue-linked organic growth command significantly higher packages. Candidates stepping up from SEO Manager level without direct budget or team ownership typically sit at the lower end of the range.
Tech, SaaS, FinTech, iGaming and enterprise e-commerce pay the highest premiums, where search leadership is a primary growth driver and the commercial stakes are high. Roles in non-profits, SMBs, or local service businesses can attract more modest compensation.
San Francisco, London, and Sydney command meaningful premiums over national averages. Remote and hybrid structures are softening regional disparities, but top-end packages remain concentrated in major commercial centres.
Heads of SEO managing multi-functional teams across technical, content, and digital PR attract higher compensation than those overseeing a small specialist function. International and multi-site responsibility adds further to the range.
Base salary is only one component of the total hiring cost. Factor in employer taxes, benefits, onboarding, and ramp-up time, adding 15–20% on top of base. The Society for Human Resource Management estimates a mis-hire can cost up to five times the individual’s annual salary when lost productivity, recruitment costs, and team disruption are included.
Benchmarks are directional. Live market data gives you negotiation power.
A traditional job board process takes 60 to 90 days and produces a long list of candidates who applied. Our process takes on average 22 to 25 days and produces SEO candidates who are qualified, available, and assessed against the specific demands of your role.
We brief against your commercial context, not just your job description. Team structure, growth stage, technical complexity, and the gap the hire needs to close: this shapes who we target.
We do not post and wait. We go directly to the Head of SEO talent pool, agency-side, in-house, and consulting, and approach candidates who match your brief. The right hire rarely applies speculatively.
Every candidate is evaluated across a 9-area scorecard, including strategic SEO depth, leadership track record, and cross-functional influence, as well as communication under pressure and commercial accountability.
You receive a shortlist of two to three SEO candidates, each with a full brief from us on their capability, commercial context, and the specific rationale for their inclusion. No padding. No volume.
Every Search For Hire placement is backed by a one-year satisfaction guarantee. If the hire leaves or underperforms within 12 months, we replace them at no additional cost. Accountability is built into the process.
A Head of SEO leads the organic search function, setting strategy and holding commercial accountability for the channel’s contribution to revenue.
The role sits above SEO Manager level and typically reports to a Marketing Director, VP of Growth, or CMO. Day-to-day responsibilities include directing technical and content strategy, leading cross-functional collaboration with Product and Engineering, managing and mentoring the SEO team, overseeing budget allocation, and presenting performance data to senior stakeholders. The Head of SEO is ultimately accountable for organic revenue contribution, market share growth, and the long-term health of the search strategy.
Freelance platforms surface available capacity. Generalist recruiters surface applicants. Neither evaluates whether a candidate can actually perform in your specific commercial environment.
A Head of SEO is a leadership hire, not a task-based engagement. The competencies that determine success, including the ability to manage a P&L, build a team, and influence a C-suite, cannot be verified through a profile page or a brief screening call. Generic recruiters lack the technical grounding to distinguish between a candidate who talks strategy and one who has delivered it under commercial pressure.
Search For Hire operates exclusively within SEO, Paid Media, and Growth. We assess strategic depth, leadership track record, and real-world SEO capability. That specialism means every candidate we put forward has been evaluated against the specific demands of this role.
Our average placement time is 22 to 25 days from brief to accepted offer, with 95% of roles filled within 28 days.
Traditional hiring processes rely on job boards and inbound applications, which take weeks to generate enough volume before screening begins. Our process starts with direct headhunting into the active Head of SEO talent pool, engaging qualified, passive candidates immediately. Because SEO is what we place, our pipeline is built and maintained in advance of any individual brief.
Every Search For Hire placement is backed by a one-year satisfaction guarantee. If the candidate leaves or fails to perform within 12 months, we replace them at no additional cost.
The guarantee exists because our vetting process is rigorous enough to make it commercially viable. The 9-area scorecard, around practical leadership assessments, and strategy simulations we apply are designed to surface candidates who perform in real-world conditions, not just interviews. The guarantee is accountability built into the process, not goodwill after the fact.
Yes. We place Heads of SEO across the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia, and have placed internationally beyond these core markets. We headhunt actively rather than posting regionally, which means candidate reach is defined by the role requirements, not by geography.
If your role is remote, hybrid, or requires relocation, we will structure the search accordingly and advise on salary benchmarking by market.
High-stakes roles require high-precision hiring. Tell us what you need. We will tell you whether we can place it and how.
