Independent Search Advisor
I help marketing leaders understand where their brand stands in organic search and AI, and decide where the money should go. And I stay close while the work gets done.
SEO and organic search is the specialism. AI search is the layer on top of it, not a separate thing.
Brands I've previously worked with
The problem I solve
You're accountable for what search contributes to the business. The hard part is getting a clear enough picture to know where to put the next dollar.
You know there is more potential in the channel, but it is hard to tell whether the problem is demand, visibility, technical issues, content, authority or something else. Before you invest more, you need to know where the real opportunity is and what is getting in the way.
Customers are finding brands through AI answers as well as traditional search, but the measurement hasn't caught up. The tools disagree, attribution is messy, and it's difficult to know what's genuinely changing versus what's just noise.
Technical says technical. Content says content. PR says authority. Your agency has another roadmap altogether. What's missing is someone looking across the whole picture and working out what actually deserves the next dollar.
You may already have an SEO team, an agency, developers and content people doing the work. What is harder to find is someone experienced enough to challenge the plan, spot when something is drifting and help you make the call when priorities compete.
I come in from the outside, work out what's really going on, and give you the senior read: what matters, what doesn't, and where to place your bets.
Ways to work with me
What comes after that depends on what we find. Some clients only ever buy one of these. Others work through all four over a longer period.
Where do we stand today, and where could search be contributing more?
A focused assessment of performance, demand, competitors and your visibility across Google and AI assistants. It shows you what is happening, where the biggest gaps and opportunities sit, and which areas are worth investigating further.
You leave knowing where the opportunity is and whether it is worth investing further.
Fixed scopeWhy are we underperforming, and what needs to change?
A deeper diagnosis of what is driving performance, what is holding you back and why. We get underneath the symptoms to find the causes, then work out which ones are actually limiting growth and where the biggest opportunities sit. From there, we turn the findings into clear priorities and a plan for what happens next.
You leave knowing where to invest, what to do first and how to know it’s working.
Fixed scopeWe know what needs to change. What does that actually look like in practice?
A diagnosis might point to category authority, for example. This is where we work out what that actually means: which pages, briefs, requirements and processes your team needs. I work alongside your SEO, content, PR or dev teams to turn one priority into something concrete.
Your team gets something they can start on Monday.
Project scopedNeed senior search input, without another full-time hire?
Flexible access to a senior search advisor when you need a second opinion, a plan challenged or help keeping things on track. It can be ongoing, ad hoc or simply there when a difficult decision comes up.
You get senior search judgement when you need it, without another hire.
Ad hoc or ongoing · day rate or monthlyYou don't have to work through these in order. Some brands already know the problem and just want help fixing it. Others have agencies, in-house teams and budget, but nobody senior actually owning search. Come in wherever you are, and I'll quote once I know the size of the brand and the shape of the problem.
Who I am
Thirteen years in search. Eight of them at iProspect, ending up as National Head of SEO, before going independent.
I got steadily more interested in what AI was doing to search, and steadily more frustrated at fitting it around a leadership role instead of giving it proper attention. I left in August 2025 to give it that attention.
Nearly ten of those years have been in Australia. I'm in Sydney, and most of my work is with Australian brands and the local arms of global ones, alongside a handful of international engagements. Outside work it's travel, tennis and music.
What people say
Jean-Yves was the person we turned to when we needed clarity on where search was really heading. He wasn't in the weeds day to day, but when he came in he elevated the whole conversation. He understood where search and AI were going before most people were talking about it, and translated that into a clear, commercially grounded direction.
Kirsty ForbesCMO, F45 Training
Working with Jean-Yves changed how we thought about search at SharkNinja. He came into a category dominated by brands with decades of heritage and helped us build a strategy that genuinely competed at the top. Over 5x year-on-year organic revenue growth later, the results tell the story.
Bemoi GeorgeHead of DTC & Performance Marketing, SharkNinja
JY takes the noise out of a problem and gets leadership teams aligned around a clear direction. He brings real seniority to every conversation, calm, considered and never short of a clear point of view. He's the person you want in the room when the stakes are high.
Andrew MacdonaldNational Head of Digital, dentsu
Contact
Send me a line about where things feel stuck. I'll come back with a straight take on which of the four is the right first step, or whether you need any of them at all.
hello@jyscauri.com