Fractional Head of SEO for your firm. Senior leadership at a fraction of the cost.
Queensland law firms with existing digital marketing activity often reach a point where the activity is running but the direction is unclear. A Fractional Head of SEO brings strategy, accountability, and ownership to the search function — across organic, local, and AI search — without a full-time hire.
An SEO retainer, Google Ads, a website rebuilt years ago — and no one accountable for whether any of it is working.
A familiar pattern for Queensland law firms: an SEO retainer with an agency, some Google Ads, a website rebuilt two or three years ago. Each investment made in good faith, each producing some activity — but with no single person accountable for the strategy connecting them, and no clear line between the spend and the enquiry line.
The gap is usually in the ownership rather than the execution. An agency produces deliverables. A Fractional Head of SEO owns the function — setting the strategy, directing the activity, reviewing vendor performance, and carrying accountability for how the firm’s search presence performs over time.
That distinction is the difference between a firm that is investing in SEO and a firm that has a search strategy.
An SEO retainer is active. Reports arrive monthly — rankings, impressions, technical fixes. The enquiry line is not visibly connected to any of it. The firm is spending without a clear framework for evaluating whether the spend is producing the right result, or any result at all.
Situation two
Internal marketing resource, no SEO direction
A marketing coordinator or business development manager is in place. They are capable and diligent. The SEO component of their remit sits outside their expertise — content is being published, but the architecture, the keyword strategy, and the reporting framework are absent. The capability exists in the firm; the direction does not.
Situation three
Growth, with a search presence that has not kept pace
The firm has grown — new practice areas, new locations, new practitioners. The website and search presence reflect how the firm looked three years ago. The gap between what the firm offers and what a prospective client finds in search is widening. A senior hand is needed to establish what the presence should look like and to direct the work of closing that gap.
Owns
A Fractional Head of SEO owns the search function. An agency owns deliverables. A consultant owns recommendations. The accountability is different — and it produces different behaviour.
Directs
Strategy is set, priorities ranked, and existing vendor activity reviewed against the strategy. The firm’s internal team and any external suppliers are directed by the same strategic framework.
Reports
Reporting is tied to what matters to the practice — qualified enquiry movement, cost of acquisition, and practice-area specific visibility.
What the engagement covers.
The scope is determined by the firm’s situation. The starting point is always the audit — a forensic assessment of where the current search presence stands and what the engagement needs to address first. From that, the ongoing work is sequenced by impact.
Search strategy and roadmap
A twelve-month search strategy covering organic, local, and AI search surfaces. Priorities ranked by commercial impact specific to the firm's practice areas and geography. Reviewed quarterly against what the data shows and adjusted accordingly.
Vendor review and direction
Existing agency retainers, freelancers, and suppliers reviewed against the strategy. Clear briefs issued. Work assessed against defined criteria rather than activity volume. Where an existing arrangement is delivering, that is confirmed. Where it is not, the firm has the information to make a considered decision.
Internal team briefing and capability
Where a marketing coordinator or business development manager is in place, the fractional engagement provides the strategic framework they need to operate effectively. Content briefs, keyword priorities, and quality standards are set. The internal capability is directed.
AI and GEO readiness
Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity now surface law firm recommendations directly in response to queries. Content architecture, schema markup and entity signals are what a firm can influence here, and the evidence on how much each moves citation rates is still developing. This is addressed as a discrete workstream alongside organic SEO.
Reporting tied to commercial outcomes
Monthly reporting covers the metrics that connect to practice revenue — qualified enquiry volume, consultation bookings, and the cost of acquiring a new client by practice area. Ranking positions and organic traffic are reported as leading indicators.
QLS compliance across all activity
Every piece of content strategy, ad copy direction, and campaign structure is reviewed against Queensland Law Society advertising guidelines and the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld). Compliance is built into the strategy from the outset.
How this arrangement differs from the alternatives.
The distinction matters for the firm before it signs anything. An agency, a consultant, and a Fractional Head of SEO produce different relationships and different accountability structures. The table below is direct about those differences.
| Factor | Agency retainer | SEO consultant | Fractional Head of SEO |
|---|---|---|---|
| What they own | Deliverables — content, links, reports | Recommendations and advice | The search function and its outcomes |
| Strategic direction | Provided by the agency, within their service scope | Project-scoped recommendations | Set and owned by the fractional director, specific to the firm |
| Vendor oversight | The agency is typically the vendor | Outside scope unless specified | All vendors reviewed against the strategy |
| Internal team direction | Outside scope unless specified | Outside scope unless specified | Briefing, priority-setting, and quality standards |
| Reporting framework | Agency-defined, typically activity-based | Project deliverable | Commercial outcomes — enquiries, cost of acquisition |
| Legal compliance review | Depends on agency's scope | Outside scope unless specified | Built into strategy and content direction as standard |
How the engagement is structured.
The engagement begins with the diagnostic audit — a complete assessment of the firm’s current search position across organic, local, and AI search surfaces. The audit establishes what is working, what is not, and what needs to be addressed in which order. It takes four weeks and is the foundation for everything that follows.
From there the engagement runs on a monthly retained basis. The scope is reviewed at the three-month mark against the strategy and adjusted. The firm receives direct access to Jane Cluff throughout — there is no account manager between the strategy and the person setting it.
Diagnostic audit
Technical review, keyword architecture assessment, content gap analysis, local presence audit, AI citation readiness check, and competitor positioning. Delivered as a structured document with a sequenced action list. The audit determines the strategy.
Foundation and direction
Strategy set. Vendors briefed and reviewed. Internal team direction established. Highest-priority structural work addressed — technical corrections, content architecture, schema, local presence. Reporting framework built around commercial outcomes specific to the firm’s practice areas.
Ongoing
Ownership and accountability
Monthly strategy review. Vendor performance assessed against defined criteria. Content pipeline directed. Reporting delivered. Strategy adjusted as the search landscape shifts — algorithm updates, competitor moves, new practice area priorities. The firm has a senior hand on the search function throughout.
This arrangement suits a firm with an existing search presence and someone to direct it. It is the wrong fit for a firm starting from zero.
A Fractional Head of SEO suits a Queensland law firm that has existing digital marketing activity and needs direction for it. If the firm has no website, no GBP, and no existing SEO work in place, the starting point is the SEO Audit and a foundational Legal SEO engagement before this arrangement makes sense.
The fractional director sets the strategy and owns the function. Implementation is carried out directly, through the firm’s existing team, through existing vendors, or a combination — whichever the audit determines fits the firm’s capacity. Where there’s a partner, practice manager, or marketing coordinator able to act on direction, that person becomes the point of contact. Where there isn’t, that’s accounted for in scope from the outset.
This arrangement suits your firm if:
- You have an existing SEO retainer and are uncertain whether it is producing the right result
- You have an internal marketing resource who needs senior direction
- You're running SEO, ads, and web through separate vendors with no one checking whether they pull in the same direction
- You need senior SEO oversight without the cost of a full-time hire
in practice
The measure is whether the enquiry line reflects the strategy.
A Fractional Head of SEO engagement starts by establishing exactly where the firm’s search presence stands — across organic, local, and AI-driven search. The strategy is built from that starting point. Progress is tracked against that baseline rather than against industry benchmarks with no bearing on the firm’s market or practice areas.
frequently asked
Questions Queensland law firms ask about this arrangement
How is a Fractional Head of SEO different from an SEO agency retainer?
An SEO agency retainer is structured around deliverables — content production, link building, technical fixes, monthly reporting. A Fractional Head of SEO is structured around the strategy itself: setting direction, reviewing what’s produced against it, and carrying accountability for whether the search presence performs. That accountability doesn’t change depending on who executes the work in a given month — Jane directly, the firm’s team, or existing vendors.
Does the firm need to stop its existing agency arrangement to engage a Fractional Head of SEO?
Not initially. The diagnostic audit will assess whether the existing agency arrangement is producing the right result and whether it aligns with the strategy. From that assessment, the firm has the information to decide whether to continue, redirect, or end the existing arrangement. In some cases the existing agency work is sound and simply needs clearer direction. In others the audit surfaces a mismatch between the activity and the firm’s commercial objectives. Either way, the decision is informed rather than assumed.
What is the minimum commitment for a Fractional Head of SEO engagement?
The engagement begins with the diagnostic audit, which takes four weeks. From there the ongoing engagement runs on a monthly basis. A three-month minimum following the audit is standard — the strategy requires that time to take effect and to produce data worth reviewing. The scope and engagement model is discussed at the initial conversation, before any commitment is made.
Who does the implementation work — Jane or the firm's existing team?
Implementation is carried out directly by Jane, by the firm’s internal team, by existing vendors, or a combination of the three. Which mix applies depends on what the diagnostic audit finds about the firm’s existing capacity — that’s confirmed in the audit findings. Where there’s no internal team to direct, direct execution is priced and scoped as part of the engagement from month one.
How does this service address QLS advertising compliance?
Queensland law firms advertising their services are subject to the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) and Queensland Law Society guidelines on legal advertising. All content strategy, ad copy direction, and campaign structure produced through this engagement is assessed against those requirements before implementation. That includes reviewing what existing vendors are producing, alongside new work. Compliance is part of the strategy.