About — The Practice

We chose the
private investigation
industry on purpose.

— Origin

Why one industry.

Our founders spent a decade running SEO at agencies serving everyone—plumbers, personal injury attorneys, dentists, e-commerce brands. The experience taught us that generalist agencies fail their clients in subtle, expensive ways.

Private investigators got the worst of it. Generic agencies wrote their websites with cliché imagery and blanket service descriptions. They violated state advertising rules without realizing it. They ranked PI firms for “cheap private eye” instead of “corporate surveillance attorney”—then wondered why the lead quality was poor.

We started InvestigatorSEO to do exactly one thing well. We embedded with PI firms. We learned the difference between an asset search and a skip trace. We studied the state-by-state licensing rules and the federal regulations governing pretexting, GPS surveillance, and database access. We built a practice that speaks the same language as the firms it serves.

We are not an agency that takes private investigators as clients. We are the practice built for them.

— Principles

Four commitments
we don't break.

I

One industry. Period.

We don't take roofing clients. We don't onboard plumbers. Every hour of our practice is spent studying how prospects find a private investigator and what convinces them to pick up the phone.

II

One client per city.

We refuse to rank two competing firms for the same #1 spot. When we say a city is taken, it is taken. This is the only model that ethically aligns our incentives with yours.

III

Discretion is the default.

We treat your strategy, your client volume, and your firm's data with the same confidentiality you treat your casework. NDAs are signed before audits begin.

IV

Outcomes over vanity.

We report on signed cases, retained engagements, and revenue—not impressions or domain authority scores no client of yours has ever heard of.

— Specialism

What we mean by
“we know the work.”

Private investigation is a regulated profession. The rules vary by state. The permissible advertising claims vary even more. A marketing partner that doesn't understand this isn't just inefficient—they are a compliance liability.

Licensing requirements across all 50 states
Advertising restrictions on case-type guarantees
Confidentiality obligations and what they permit publicly
Federal regulations: GLBA, DPPA, FCRA, ECPA
Distinct buyer journeys: attorneys, corporates, individuals
Case-type economics: which work is worth ranking for
— Practice

The people
behind the work.

A small senior team. Every engagement is led by a director, not delegated to a rotating cast of account managers.

01

Jonathan Hayes

Managing Director

Twelve years in legal-vertical SEO before founding the practice. Spent two of them embedded with a Chicago PI firm learning how the work actually gets done.

02

Sarah Chen

Head of Technical SEO

Former in-house at two AmLaw 100 firms. Specializes in the technical infrastructure of high-stakes professional services where load time and trust signals decide engagements.

03

Marcus Wright

Director of Editorial

Long-form journalist turned SEO strategist. Writes the case-type pages and licensing guides that quietly build the authority everything else depends on.

— Begin Here

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