About
About Umair Salahuddin
I'm an SEO & AI Search Lead and SEO consultant with experience across SaaS, eCommerce, and enterprise-style digital environments. My work combines technical SEO, content strategy, international SEO, and organic growth, with a growing focus on AI search visibility, AEO, and GEO as search evolves beyond traditional results.
Based in Braga, Portugal · Open to remote-first and structured hybrid roles across Europe.
I help brands grow visibility in search and adapt to what comes next
My background is rooted in SEO, but the way I work has always gone beyond rankings alone. I focus on how technical foundations, content structure, search intent, and discoverability connect to sustainable organic growth.
Over the years, I've worked across strategy, hands-on execution, and ownership roles. That includes technical SEO, keyword research, content architecture, international SEO, performance reporting, and cross-functional collaboration with content, development, product, and business stakeholders. I'm most useful in environments where teams need both clear direction and practical delivery.
Professional summary
I help companies grow organic visibility across search engines and emerging AI-driven search experiences. I bring experience across SEO and organic growth, working comfortably across strategy, execution, and ownership roles in remote and hybrid environments.
My work spans technical SEO, content architecture, and AI-aware optimization through AEO and GEO, helping brands stay discoverable as search behavior shifts from traditional SERPs to AI-generated answers and conversational search. More recently, my work has also extended into answer engine optimization and generative engine optimization as part of a broader focus on AI search visibility.
I've worked with US- and EU-based teams across SaaS SEO, eCommerce SEO, and enterprise-level digital programs, contributing directly to execution while also supporting long-term organic growth strategy. More recently, I've been developing an independent research and tooling project focused on how AI systems interpret, select, and reuse web content, and what content structures are most consistently surfaced in answers.
What I bring to teams
I'm strongest in roles and projects where SEO needs both strategic ownership and hands-on execution.
Technical SEO depth
As a technical SEO specialist, I'm comfortable working through crawlability, indexation, metadata, heading structure, internal linking, hreflang, canonicalization, and broader site-quality issues. My audit and strategy work has consistently focused on prioritizing the issues most likely to affect discoverability and performance.
Content strategy and search intent thinking
I build SEO around intent, topical structure, keyword opportunity, and practical content planning. My work includes competitor research, long-tail opportunity mapping, thematic clustering, and aligning content creation with buyer journeys and business goals. Strong content strategy is most effective when it supports both users and scalable discoverability.
International SEO and migration experience
I've worked on international and multilingual SEO involving hreflang, redirects, canonicals, sitemap updates, localization considerations, and post-launch monitoring. That experience is especially valuable in environments where small structural mistakes can create large visibility risks, particularly across multilingual SEO and international growth programs.
AI search and evolving discovery
More recently, my work has expanded into AEO, GEO, and AI search visibility. Through independent research and tooling, I've focused on how AI systems interpret, select, and reuse web content, and how brands can improve clarity, structure, and answer readiness.
Career journey
My career has evolved from technical systems and structured problem-solving into SEO leadership, organic growth, and modern search strategy.
Recent
SEO & AI Search Lead / Independent AI search research
My recent work includes an independent research and tooling project focused on AI search. This has involved analyzing AI-generated answers across platforms, designing a query-intelligence framework, and building diagnostics for AI visibility, structure, and answer readiness. That work now informs how I think about SEO, AEO, GEO, and content design for modern search.
Hatching Time
SEO & Content Marketing Manager
I owned SEO and organic growth for a content-led eCommerce platform, covering technical SEO, content architecture, and performance optimization. The role involved hands-on work across on-page, technical, and structural SEO in close collaboration with content and development teams.
Trengo
Senior SEO Specialist
At Trengo, I owned SEO strategy and hands-on execution for a B2B SaaS platform, with a focus on sustainable organic growth, technical SEO, and search visibility across international markets. My work included audits, keyword and content strategy, content alignment, and collaboration across product, content, and engineering.
ibex
SEO leadership and enterprise execution
In earlier leadership roles, I managed and scaled SEO operations for enterprise-level digital programs, built SOPs and KPI frameworks, led keyword and competitive research, and worked across on-page, off-page, and technical SEO initiatives. I also supported reporting, prioritization, and execution across cross-functional teams.
CreativeDuos
Founder and digital marketing lead
Earlier in my career, I founded and led a digital marketing studio serving clients across the US, UK, Australia, and Canada. I owned end-to-end strategy and execution across SEO, paid media, content optimization, landing page performance, and audience acquisition. That experience gave me a strong commercial foundation and shaped how I approach growth and delivery today.
Information security background
Technical systems foundation
My earlier background in information security gave me a strong technical and process-oriented foundation. That systems thinking later became a useful advantage in technical SEO, larger websites, and performance-focused digital environments.
How I work
I work best where SEO is treated as a growth function, not a checklist.
Strategic, but practical
I care about long-term direction, but I'm equally comfortable working through the details needed to make that direction real. That includes audits, prioritization, content structures, implementation planning, and clear next steps.
Cross-functional by default
SEO works best when it connects with content, development, product, analytics, and commercial goals. I'm used to working in environments where that collaboration matters.
Focused on sustainable growth
I'm interested in building stronger foundations, better content systems, and clearer search visibility over time rather than chasing short-term wins that do not compound.
Prepared for changing search behavior
I think about SEO in the context of where discovery is going, not just where it has been. That includes answer engines, AI-generated responses, conversational search, and the structural signals that influence visibility in those environments.
What I'm a strong fit for
I'm a strong fit for teams looking for someone who can combine SEO strategy with hands-on execution, especially in SaaS, eCommerce, and content-led businesses. I'm particularly well suited to roles where an SEO lead, SEO strategist, SEO consultant, or organic growth strategist is expected to combine strategic ownership with practical delivery.
Roles that fit
- SEO Lead
- Senior SEO Specialist
- Organic Growth Lead
- Technical SEO Lead
- AI-search-aware SEO roles
Environments I thrive in
- Clear ownership
- Execution quality
- Cross-functional collaboration
- International or multilingual growth
- Modern search thinking across both traditional SEO and AI-driven discovery
Skills and focus areas
SEO strategy
SEO strategy, search strategy, growth planning, KPI alignment, performance reporting
Technical SEO
Crawlability, indexation, metadata, heading structure, internal linking, hreflang, canonicalization, migrations
Content strategy
Keyword research, clustering, search intent mapping, topical planning, content architecture, optimization workflows
AI search visibility
AEO, GEO, answer readiness, AI content reuse patterns, query intelligence
Markets and environments
SaaS, eCommerce, multilingual websites, enterprise-style SEO programs, remote and hybrid teams
A practical approach to growth
What motivates me most is solving visibility problems that sit at the intersection of structure, intent, and execution. I enjoy the mix of analysis and applied strategy that SEO requires, especially in environments where the work needs to be both commercially useful and operationally realistic.
That same mindset is what has pulled me toward AI search research as well. I'm interested in how discoverability changes when answers are generated, reused, and summarized by systems rather than only ranked in a list of links.
Interested in working together?
Whether you're hiring for an SEO leadership role, looking for consulting support, or exploring how AEO, GEO, and AI search visibility fit into your growth strategy, I'd be happy to talk.