I'm JY Scauri, an independent search advisor in Sydney.
Jean-Yves Scauri is the full version. Nobody has called me that since about 2015, so if you use my full name I'll assume I'm in trouble.
I help marketing leaders understand where their brand stands in organic search and AI, and decide where the money should go.
I spent eight years at iProspect Australia (a dentsu company). Over the last few of them I got steadily more interested in what AI was doing to search, and steadily more frustrated that I was fitting it around a broader leadership role instead of giving it proper attention.
I also wanted more say over the projects and problems I took on. And I'd only ever worked agency side, so I honestly didn't know whether independent consulting would suit me.
I left in August 2025 to find out.
How I got here
I'm French, from Nice. I started in search in 2013 at Search Laboratory in Leeds. Google's Penguin updates were forcing the industry to rethink a lot of what had worked before, which made it a good time to learn. The old playbook was breaking and everyone around me was working out what came next.
Before that I did an MSc in International Marketing at Coventry University, which is probably why I come at search from marketing first principles rather than from tactics. Optimisation still matters and always will. It's just that AI search leans more heavily on whether a brand is understood and trusted, and that's a marketing question as much as a technical one.
I moved to Australia at the start of 2017 and joined iProspect that February, eventually as National Head of SEO. I stayed until August 2025.
What I'm actually like to work with
Research before hype
I spend a lot of time working out what holds up, what is noise, and what is too early to trust. My recommendations are grounded in evidence, not short lived tactics that might work for a month and leave the brand cleaning up afterwards.
Diagnose before prescribing
I don't arrive with a favourite tactic or a pre baked answer. I want to understand what's actually holding things back before deciding what deserves attention. Sometimes the answer is SEO. Sometimes it isn't.
Make it matter to the business
Recommendations should fit your market, your customers and the way your business actually makes money. I care more about revenue and commercial impact than traffic, rankings or citation counts that look good in a report.
Share the thinking
I like sharing the thinking, not just handing over the answer. The goal is for your team to make better decisions after I'm gone, not need me in the room forever.
Who usually calls me
Marketing leaders
People accountable for search performance, and increasingly AI search too, without living in the detail day to day. They tend to call at particular moments.
- A replatform
- Entering a new market
- Organic performance dropping, or flat for long enough that nobody can explain it
- Uncertainty about what AI search is doing to them
- A major decision where search should influence the thinking early rather than clean up afterwards
Most engagements start with an audit or diagnosis. From there, I can help turn the priorities into something your team can act on, or stay involved as a senior advisor.
Either way, you’d be working with me, not an account team.
Teams that need senior search support
Agencies bring me in when they want another senior perspective on a complex engagement, need help answering client questions outside their current capability, or are building that capability themselves.
In practice, that tends to mean pitch support, pressure-testing a strategy before it reaches the client, shaping a point of view, client education, or getting a team current on AI search.
I also run training, talks and workshops for performance and digital agencies. Usually when a team needs to get up to speed quickly, or when the people selling it need to understand it as well as the people delivering it.
Brands I've previously worked with
Writing, talks and research
Most of what I publish is either a synthesis of other people’s research or an attempt to work something out before it settles into received wisdom. The talks tend to come from the same place.
If you’re running an event, editing a publication or working on research in this space, I’m open to being involved. Speaking, writing, co-authoring, or just reviewing a methodology before it goes out. The field is moving quickly enough that more people checking each other’s work is a good thing.
Get in touch if that’s you.
Selected writing
It’s Groundhog Day… again: when AI search signals become the strategy
AI visibility tools: what do you actually need?
The fog is lifting on AI search
What 34 studies reveal about AI search in 2026
All in on AI: Discovery to Influence in GEO, Part 2
All in on AI: Discovery to Influence in GEO, Part 1
How brands can stay competitive as AI Overviews transform search
Google AI search test run down under: What we're seeing
Speaking and training
The Rise and Fall of Google Search
SEO module, Digital Foundations Certificate II
Industry involvement
I helped get the IAB Australia AI Working Group off the ground in 2025 and took part for its first five months, helping shape practical guidance for the Australian industry.
I’ve also worked extensively with the Media Federation of Australia, including Train the Trainers workshops, refreshing the SEO module of its Digital Foundations certification, and speaking to lecturers and university students about careers in search.
I’d like to do more with industry bodies to make sure organic and AI search have a stronger voice in the broader marketing conversation, particularly as the space becomes more complex.
Shorter observations, industry news and ongoing updates go out on LinkedIn as things happen.
Research
Most of my research time goes on reading and evaluating the AI search work other people are publishing, then working out what actually holds up. That comes out as research syntheses on Surfaced.
I’m also starting to run my own research, with a particular focus on the Australian market, where there’s still a gap in the evidence compared with the US and broader global research.
Colleagues, not clients
Jean-Yves led our SEO practice with a level of care and ambition that genuinely raised the bar. He is a strategic thinker, volunteered for the hard things, brought people together around a shared direction and approached everything with curiosity, passion and a quiet drive to excel.
Working closely together at iProspect across strategy, product and education, I saw how JY consistently elevated the conversation, brought genuine depth to complex topics and left everyone with a clearer sense of direction. Thoughtful, generous with his thinking and always a few steps ahead.
Jean-Yves had a rare ability to cut through complexity. Whether in a boardroom or a team meeting, he could take a tangled problem and frame it in a way that made the path forward clear. But what set him apart was that this clarity never came at the cost of people.
The rest of it
Sydney is home and that's where most of my time goes. Nearly ten years in and I still think it's one of the better cities to be based in.
The rest of the time I'm usually thinking about the next trip. I like being somewhere unfamiliar, seeing how people live, and occasionally working from somewhere that shifts my perspective a bit. I've played tennis on and off since I was 12 and I'm properly back into it now. And I'm entirely capable of planning a weekend around a DJ I want to see.
JY at a glance
- Full name
- Jean-Yves Scauri, known as JY Scauri
- Role
- Independent Search Advisor
- Based in
- Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, since 2017
- Working in search since
- 2013
- Previously
- iProspect Australia, February 2017 to August 2025. National Head of SEO in final role.
- First search role
- Search Laboratory, Leeds, United Kingdom
- Education
- MSc International Marketing, Coventry University
- Writes
- Surfaced, research and observations on AI search
- Speaking and training
- MFA Lecture the Lecturers; MFA Digital Foundations
- Specialism
- SEO and organic search, with AI search and discovery as the layer on top
- Areas of work
- SEO, organic search strategy, AI search and discovery, generative engine optimisation, search measurement, visibility research
- Does not do
- Paid search, paid social, or hands-on implementation