Taking the Weight Off the Founder
Tacomi came to us with an exciting Senior Search brief: find an SEO Director who could take significant day-to-day responsibility away from founder Chad Conlon as the agency continued to grow.
The challenge was finding someone who went beyond senior SEO expertise. They needed Director-level experience, strong commercial and client capability, and someone who was still genuinely hands-on with technical SEO and AEO.
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The Client
- Agencies
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.
The Challenge
On paper, the brief was for an SEO Director. In reality, the profile was much harder to define.
Tacomi needed somebody senior enough to take genuine ownership of the day-to-day SEO operation, with the commercial awareness and client credibility to deal confidently with senior stakeholders.
But there was a catch.
They absolutely did not want a Director who had become disconnected from delivery. Despite the seniority of the position and the salary attached to it, this was a genuinely hands-on role. The successful person needed to be comfortable getting into the details, interrogating strategies, solving complex technical problems and leading by doing rather than simply managing a team.
The technical bar was particularly high. Tacomi were already delivering advanced work across technical SEO and AEO, so this wasn’t a business looking for someone to introduce those capabilities. They needed someone who could walk through the door and operate at that level, while helping push the work further.
The search ultimately came down to finding a fairly unusual combination:
Director-level seniority. Hands-on technical depth. AEO expertise. Senior client credibility. Commercial thinking. And the ability to take genuine ownership.
There are plenty of senior SEO leaders who have moved away from delivery, and plenty of brilliant technical SEOs who haven’t yet developed the commercial and stakeholder skills required at Director level.
Tacomi needed somebody who could genuinely do both.
How We Got to Work
This was never a role that was going to be filled through a simple LinkedIn search.
We knew the market well enough to understand that there were probably only a handful of people who genuinely ticked every box. They needed to be extremely senior, but still genuinely hands-on, with exceptional technical SEO knowledge and experience operating at the forefront of AEO/GEO. They also needed the gravitas to manage senior client stakeholders, strong commercial instincts and, despite all that seniority, a genuine desire to stay close to delivery.
That made for a very small talent pool.
Rather than running a broad search and hoping to uncover the right person, we went directly into our network and identified five people we believed could genuinely do the job.
We approached all five directly, with three entering the interview process with Tacomi.
It was an intentionally narrow search. The challenge wasn’t generating candidates; it was knowing exactly who in the market could meet the bar Tacomi had set, and getting those people interested.
The Result
Tacomi ultimately hired Chris Iannou, someone we already knew well through our network.
Chris had spent around 15 years in the SEO industry, giving him the seniority and experience the role demanded. What made him particularly well suited to Tacomi, though, was that he had never lost his enthusiasm for actually doing the work.
He was an extremely strong, technically minded SEO who still enjoyed rolling his sleeves up, getting on the tools and staying close to delivery.
Just as importantly, his interest in AEO/GEO wasn’t theoretical or something recently added to his CV. Chris had a genuine passion and curiosity for how Search was changing and was already doing some impressive work in the space.
That technical depth came alongside the seniority, client gravitas and commercial understanding Tacomi needed. Just as importantly, he was a strong cultural fit for Chad and the wider business.
It meant Tacomi didn’t have to make the compromise that made the search so difficult in the first place: they could hire someone with 15 years of experience and genuine Director-level credibility who still loved being hands-on.
From taking the initial brief to Chris accepting the role, the entire search was completed within four weeks, including multiple rounds of interviews.
Five people targeted. Three entered the process. One SEO Director hired.
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Results That Speak For Themselves
A selection of successful hires and long-term partnerships across the digital marketing industry.
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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
From First Hires to Future Leaders
NOVOS is a specialist eCommerce Search agency, helping ambitious retailers and challenger brands drive organic growth through SEO, Digital PR, content and wider Search.
Its eCommerce focus is fundamental to the business – it’s not a generalist agency with an eCommerce offering. Years of specialisation have created a highly knowledgeable team capable of solving increasingly complex Search challenges across platforms, markets and categories.
That makes NOVOS an exciting place for ambitious Search marketers – and a challenging place to recruit for. But that’s what I do.
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