AI Search Visibility for an Executive Search Firm
Executive search AI search visibility / GEO case study: rebuilding a WordPress search firm's entity, practice and partner schema, and industry citations so AI engines cite the firm for board, C-suite, and functional-leader search prompts. Engagement in progress.
Halden Ridge Partners
A mid-market executive search firm running board, C-suite, and functional-leader searches across fintech, healthcare, and industrials. Reputation-driven business, invisible in the AI answers boards and CHROs now use to build shortlists of search firms.
Industry
Executive Search Firm
Focus
AI SEO & GEO
The Challenge
Practice pages read like brochures, partners were listed with photos but no extractable bios or credentials, and citations existed mostly on the firm's own domain. AI engines defaulted to the big four search firms and a couple of trade publications.
Halden Ridge Partners
Only 2 of 20 tracked C-suite-hiring prompts cited Halden Ridge, while Heidrick, Spencer Stuart, and one aggregator owned nearly every answer.
The Strategy
Baselined C-suite-hiring prompts
Tracked 20 board / CHRO prompts (board search firms for [industry], executive search for CFO / CIO, functional-leader search recommendations, DEI-focused search firms) across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews.
Rebuilt firm + partner entities
Cleaned Wikidata, Crunchbase, LinkedIn, and 9 executive-search / HR directories with consistent firm description, practice areas, and per-partner credentials and placements.
Rewrote practice + partner pages for extraction
Restructured 12 practice-area pages and 14 partner bios with definitional openings, industry / function tables, placement highlights (client names withheld), and Person + ProfessionalService + FAQPage schema.
Placed citations in executive-search + governance media
Contributed 5 pieces to HR / board / executive-search publications (SHRM, HBR, Directors & Boards) that appeared repeatedly as AI answer sources.
(ChatGPT)
Halden Ridge Partners
- —Only Heidrick + Spencer Stuart cited
- —No Halden Ridge mention
- —Partners not surfaced by name
- —No AI Overview coverage
(ChatGPT)
Halden Ridge Partners
- ✓Cited alongside Heidrick + Spencer Stuart
- ✓Partners surfaced with practice areas
- ✓Placement patterns quoted verbatim
- ✓Also cited in Google AI Overview
AI answer mockup - ILLUSTRATIVE ChatGPT answer to 'best executive search firms for fintech CFO' now cites Halden Ridge.
Keyword Movement
| Keyword | Before | Now |
|---|---|---|
| best executive search firm fintech cfo | not cited | cited (ChatGPT + Perplexity) |
| board search firms healthcare mid market | not cited | cited (Perplexity + Gemini) |
| dei focused executive search firms | not cited | cited (Google AI Overview) |
| cio search firm industrials | cited (1 engine) | cited (3 engines) |
Representative results based on comparable engagements.
Confidentiality nearly blocked partner bio rewrites.
Named placements are the single most-cited proof point in search firm bios, and disclosing them was a hard no from client-services. I built a bio template with anonymized placement patterns (industry + role + size, no client name) that partners and legal both approved - and AI engines still surfaced the partners as credible experts.
Search is a referral business. What changed this year is that boards we'd never met started reaching out because an AI answer put us in the same shortlist as firms ten times our size.
Client name changed for privacy.
Ready to be the next case study?
Book a consultation with me on Upwork.
I'll personally scope your project before any engagement. No account managers, no hand-offs.
First audit call is free, no commitment.
What happens next
Typical engagement: 4-6 months. First deliverable in week 1: an AI-visibility audit across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews for your top 20 buyer prompts, with a prioritised entity, schema, and citation plan.