Case Closed: Finding Armada’s First SEO Leader
Armada Law came to us via a referral with a very focused challenge: find a specialist who could be their first senior SEO hire and build the function from the ground up, while also overseeing other key organic channels.
This person needed to be more than just a strong SEO. They needed somebody who had lived and breathed US Personal Injury SEO, understood the nuances of growing law firms through Search, and had the experience to educate and influence senior attorneys along the way.
This was a very specific search. And very few people fit the bill.
- Legal
The Client
- Legal
Armada Law is a fast-growing US Personal Injury law firm based in Charlotte, North Carolina, headed up by accomplished attorney Chris Carsten.
Chris and his COO, Kris Knopf, knew that organic growth, and SEO in particular, represented a significant opportunity for the business. Having become disillusioned with an over-reliance on digital agencies, they no longer wanted to outsource ownership of such an important channel. They wanted to start building genuine SEO expertise internally.
That meant making a foundational hire. Somebody who wouldn’t simply inherit an established strategy, team and way of working, but would help Armada build all three.
They needed their first senior SEO.
The Challenge
Because we’re firmly embedded in the industry with a deep network, finding a strong SEO wasn’t the challenge. We also knew that simply finding somebody with legal SEO experience wouldn’t suffice.
Armada needed someone who knew Personal Injury SEO.
We knew we needed to probe candidates way beyond the fundamentals of technical SEO, content and links. They needed somebody who understood the nuances that come from actually working with PI law firms: from working closely with intake teams, to the Search-based research involved in opening new regional offices and entering new markets.
The remit was broader than pure SEO, too. This person would own content, local Search and CRO, understanding not just how to generate organic visibility and traffic, but how that traffic translated into qualified leads and ultimately signed cases.
They also needed someone with the confidence and experience to manage extremely senior attorneys, handling pushback, educating stakeholders and clearly explaining why the business needed to take a particular direction.
And, as Armada’s first senior SEO hire, there was no established team, strategy or playbook waiting for them.
They needed someone who knew PI SEO inside and out, understood organic growth commercially, and was good enough to build the entire function around.
How We Got to Work
First things first: we carefully scoped the US market specifically for people with genuine, hands-on legal SEO experience.
The initial shortlist contained 40 people across the US who we felt were worth investigating further. From there, we whittled the list down to as few as six candidates who genuinely met the bar.
Why did they fit the bill? Because they came from legal SEO backgrounds and were well-versed when it came to PI. But beyond this, they understood the wider growth levers that needed to be pulled for genuine organic growth in the legal space.
Rather than presenting six versions of the very same profile, I intentionally gave Armada a subtly diverse mix of individuals. This included both in-house and agency-side profiles.
Yet, every person had genuine expertise in legal SEO and stood out as someone who could lead a new function.
That gave them the opportunity to compare different backgrounds and approaches without compromising on the one thing that wasn’t negotiable: deep understanding of the sector.
The Result
From initial briefing to contract signing, the entire process took just 30 days.
The successful candidate was Cheye Ferguson, whose agency background had given her exactly the breadth of experience Armada needed.
Having worked for agencies laser-focused on the legal sector, she’d been exposed to multiple law firms, different challenges and different approaches to growth. Crucially, she had a significant amount of experience with Personal Injury law.
But the technical and sector experience was only part of it, because she was also an extremely strong cultural fit: an excellent communicator, credible with senior stakeholders and somebody Armada could trust to come into the business as its first SEO hire and start building.
30 days. 20 people mapped. Six shortlisted. One foundational SEO hire.
Cheye has since passed probation and remains one of Armada’s crucial hires.
Facing a similar hiring challenge?
We specialise in recruitment across SEO & AEO, Paid Media, Digital PR, Growth Marketing, eCommerce and SaaS Marketing.
Results That Speak For Themselves
A selection of successful hires and long-term partnerships across the digital marketing industry.
- Agencies
From the UK to the Gold Coast
Edge Marketing is an Australian marketing agency on the Gold Coast.
Co-founder Rohan Dwyer was looking for a Head of SEO who could take ownership of the agency’s SEO department, shape its SEO proposition and drive the service line forward.
- Agencies
Seven Years. 17 Hires. One Future MD.
Reboot is an independent digital marketing agency specialising in Search, Digital PR and Paid Media.
Our relationship with the agency developed over seven years, meaning we were able to support the business as its hiring requirements evolved.
That included finding specialist practitioners across SEO and Paid Media, commercial Growth hires and, eventually, senior leaders capable of taking significant responsibility for the direction and operation of the agency.
As the business grew, the hires became increasingly strategic.
Two searches in particular would ultimately help shape Reboot’s senior leadership team: Director of Growth and Director of Operations.
- Agencies
Putting a Leader Behind Mediavision’s Growth
Mediavision is an established independent digital agency, working with ambitious brands across Search and digital performance.
Having built a successful agency and strong client base over more than a decade, the business was ready to put greater senior ownership around growth.
Until this point, responsibility for winning new business and growing the agency had been shared across the senior team. The next stage required someone who could take proper ownership of it.
This wasn’t simply about hiring a salesperson.
Mediavision wanted someone who could work across the entire agency, bringing together sales, new business, marketing, positioning and brand visibility into a coherent growth strategy.
- eCommerce
Finding an SEO Who Speaks Sneaker
The Sole Supplier is one of the UK’s leading footwear and streetwear platforms, helping sneaker fans discover the latest releases, news and trends from some of the biggest brands in the world.
The business has grown significantly, building a highly engaged audience alongside a team with a genuine passion for the space.
That culture was particularly important to them.
This isn’t a business where people simply happen to work in footwear and streetwear. The team genuinely lives and breathes the product outside of work, and preserving that as the company grows is a major priority.
SEO was already an important acquisition channel and The Sole Supplier had an external agency supporting its activity. The next step was to bring somebody senior enough in-house to take proper ownership of the channel.
- eCommerce
Five Years. One Trusted Partner.
Founded in 1810, Heal’s is one of Britain’s most iconic furniture and interior design brands. For the past five years, we’ve partnered with Head of eCommerce Mark Hammond, supporting the growth of his digital team through specialist hires across eCommerce, performance marketing and design.
- Agencies
Taking the Weight Off the Founder
Tacomi is a specialist Search agency with deep expertise across SEO, technical SEO and the evolving AEO landscape.
We had already been working with founder Chad Conlon and the team when they approached us about one of the most important hires they were about to make to date.
The agency was already operating at a very high technical level, but Chad remained heavily involved in the day-to-day. The next stage of growth required someone senior enough to take genuine ownership from him, without compromising the quality of work that had helped Tacomi build its reputation.
Explore Anonymised Profiles of the Top Talent in Our Network
These talented individuals are looking for their next opportunity. If any profiles pique your interest, let us know!