First month
SEO audit, stakeholder conversations and a 90-day plan.
Fractional SEO director · San Francisco
Fractional SEO Director in San Francisco
Senior ownership of search, a few days a month.
Book an intro call
30 minutes · No pitch, no proposal to chase
Hiring a full-time head of SEO in San Francisco is slow and expensive, and many companies don't need one five days a week. What they need is someone senior to own strategy, set priorities, direct the people doing the work and report to leadership. That's a fractional SEO director.
What I take ownership of
- Strategy and roadmap for the year.
- Prioritization: what the team, agencies and engineers work on each month, and what they stop doing.
- Direction and review of in-house writers, freelancers or agencies.
- Engineering alignment: getting SEO into the product backlog with clear business cases.
- AI visibility across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI. See AI SEO in San Francisco.
- Leadership reporting tied to pipeline or revenue.
- Hiring: when it's time, helping you hire and onboard a full-time SEO lead.
Fractional CMO or fractional SEO director?
Many Bay Area founders start out looking for a fractional CMO in San Francisco. Often the gap they actually need filled is search: organic isn't producing pipeline, the content team lacks direction, and nobody owns AI visibility. If that's you, a fractional SEO director costs less and goes deeper. If you need broader marketing leadership, I'll say so.
Why me
I run The Business Rover, an SEO and AI visibility agency with around 35 people, and I'm CMO at Renderforest, so I see both sides: in-house leadership and what agencies can deliver. I've led programs for Picsart, Krisp, Sift, Aikido and 5WPR.
How it works
Ongoing
A set number of days per month, a regular check-in, async review and a monthly leadership report.
Flexible
Scale up for launches and migrations, down once the team is running well.
Frequently asked questions
An agency executes. A fractional director owns strategy and can direct an agency. Many clients have both.
Yes. Directing existing partners is a core part of the role.
Yes, when I'm in San Francisco.
Book an intro call
Thirty minutes on what search should own in your company this year, and whether a few days a month is enough to get it there.
Book an intro call
30 minutes · No pitch, no proposal to chase