Headhunting agency for SEO & Performance Marketing teams
We’ve placed search marketing talent at every scale, from founder-stage agencies to global enterprise brands like Rankings.io, SEMrush, Cadence and Sage.
Hire from our private network, vetted by people who’ve built teams like yours. Backed by a 1-year guarantee on Gold-tier placements.
We work exclusively in SEO, Paid Media, and Growth teams. Three-year hiring searches resolved in weeks.
Single hires that became full team builds. Candidates placed, then promoted. Every search is run with one standard: providing leaders who unlock business potential.
The most promising new member of our team
They reached out to me at just the right time and had a strong value proposition, so I was ready to get started. Within just over a month, we secured a new team member who is the most promising new member of our team. We’ve tried to fill this role 5 times in the past 3 years, and this is the first time we’ve felt we’ve found the right fit. Thank you!
Brennen Bliss, Founder & CEO of Propellic
Helped us find the top 1% of talent
Search for Hire checks all of our boxes for finding talent:
– great communication throughout the hiring process
– radical transparency in all phases
– thorough vetting of candidates
They have transformed our SEO hiring process, allowing us to find and recruit the top 1% of talent in the space, accelerating our company’s growth and allowing us to scale without slowing down.
Chris Dreyer, Founder of Rankings.io
Great to work with and very strong process from start to finish
Josh and the team have a very strong approach to talent attraction, which helped us to find opportunities who weren’t necessarily actively looking at job ads.
The candidates stood out and we quickly interviewed people who felt a level above, which led to a successful offer for an important role.
Kevin Gibbons, Founder of RE:signal
Search For Hire is one of the most solid Organic Search focused firms we’ve worked with
Firstly, they do NOT spray and pray. They take a super methodical approach to first aligning on what a 10/10 hire looks like, then search their vast network to find the most suitable candidates. They take feedback super well, and strategize with you things like org charts, what would set the hire up for success.
Chirag Kulkarni, Founder of TACO
Absolute Experts in Hiring!
After three failed hires, these guys found us a rockstar! Emma is a great fit both technically and culturally! She’s taken a huge load from our Founder and opened up a lot of bandwidth for us to take on more, larger, clients.
Great job filling that role for us. We love having her on the team!
Christine King, COO at StorIQ
Does this sound like you?
You’re scaling faster than your team can keep up
New clients, bigger accounts, higher expectations, and the talent capable of matching that pace is passive, not browsing job boards.
Every hour you spend on hiring is an hour not spent on growth
You shouldn’t be screening resumes or running interview processes. You built this business to lead it, not recruit for it.
You know the next hire changes everything
One elite search marketer doesn’t just fill a seat. They free you up, raise the bar, and compound everything you’ve already built.
SERVICES
Placing talent on a 28-day average, backed by a 1-year guarantee on Gold-tier placements
Hire for SEO
From Specialists to Heads of SEO, Growth Marketing and VPs, we place talent assessed for real business impact.
We place paid media talent at every level, from PPC Specialists to Associate Directors of Paid Search and Social, assessed for commercial performance, and talent that drives revenue.
We operate exclusively in SEO, Paid Media, and Growth. That focus means we already know the roles, the market rates, and the people, before your brief lands.
AI-Enhanced Vetting
Job seekers are assessed against real-world performance standards, not just a job spec. We identify leaders who deliver in practice.
Proactive Ownership
We anticipate problems before they surface and bring solutions, not updates. You’ll never chase us for a status report.
Unreasonable Hospitality
Every interaction is personal, considered, and fast. We treat your hire like it’s the most important role we’ve ever worked, because to you, it is.
VACANCY INTELLIGENCE
The role you haven’t filled yet is already costing you
Every day a seat sits empty, revenue slows, your team burns out covering the gap, and the wrong hire makes it worse.
See exactly what vacancy costs you, and what fast, specialist hiring saves.
We don’t recruit across all of marketing. We go deep in three disciplines, which means we understand the roles, know the talent pool, and can spot the difference between someone who interviews well and someone who actually delivers.
One-year guarantee on Gold-tier placements
Gold-tier placements carry a 1-year performance-based replacement guarantee: if the hire leaves or underperforms within 12 months, we run a full replacement search at no additional cost. Silver includes a 12-week cash rebate. Launch is shortlist-only.
Proven success with elite digital brands
We’ve placed talent at some of the most recognised agencies and brands in the US and UK, including Rankings.io, SEMrush, and Sage. Our clients come back because the people we find actually move the needle.
Speed without compromise
The industry average to fill a role is 60-90 days. Our average is 28 days from signed contract to accepted offer, and 95% of roles are filled in under 28 days, without cutting corners on vetting. Because a fast hire that doesn’t work out isn’t fast at all.
Confidence is built into the process
Every job seeker goes through an AI-enhanced vetting process assessed against real-world performance standards, not just a job spec. By the time they reach you, the hard work is done.
2026 RESEARCH REPORT
We analyzed 1,175 SEO job listings so you don’t have to
54.9% of SEO job descriptions now require AI skills, but only 11% of job titles mention it. Pay for the middle 50% of SEO roles spans $72,500 to $125,000. The SEO hiring market has fractured, affecting both SEOs and employers.
Nick Eubanks – “A Growth Engine Takes Five Components”
Nick Eubanks, founder of From The Future, acquired two agencies six days apart in January 2018 and churned roughly 30% of the acquired client revenue within six months.
Mike King – The SECRET to Growing Your Agency to 7 Figures
Mike King, founder of iPullRank, fixed chronic Enterprise payment delays with an activation fee, 20% of total project scope paid upfront as standard, scaling to 30% on net-45 terms and 40% on net-60, which frequently leads clients to accept the standard net-30 terms instead.
Chris Dreyer – How I Lost $1M Scaling to $22M:
Agency CEO’s Biggest Lesson
Rankings.io has never offered clients geographic exclusivity, arguing it restricts client growth and doesn’t reflect how local SEO rankings actually work beyond a few miles’ radius.
Gold-tier placements carry a 1-year performance-based replacement guarantee: if the hire leaves or underperforms within 12 months, we run a full replacement search at no additional cost. Silver includes a 12-week cash rebate. Launch is shortlist-only. See Pricing for full terms.
How long will the process take?
Our average placement time is 28 days from signed contract to accepted offer, and 95% of roles are filled in under 28 days. We move at pace without cutting corners. The more aligned we are on brief from day one, the faster we move.
What industries do you work with?
We work exclusively with digital marketing agencies and in-house brands that have dedicated search marketing teams. Our clients range from fast-scaling US agencies to globally recognised brands, all hiring within SEO, Paid Media, or Growth.
What level of roles do you hire for?
We specialise in mid to senior-level placements, the roles where the wrong hire costs the most. Think SEO Managers, Heads of Paid Media, Directors of Growth, and everything in between. If it’s a six-figure role in search marketing, it’s our territory.
With 95% of roles filled under 28 days, our approach is built for pace and backed by a 1-year guarantee on Gold-tier placements. Get access to the systems and frameworks that power fast, precise hiring.
