Founder

Tom
Riley.

Founder, HAKKEN

Tom Riley is a UK SEO consultant. He shares his thinking on SEO, personal growth, and organic growth in high-competition industries like insurance, fintech, and health. His work spans technical SEO, content strategy, and AI search visibility. Tom is the founder of HAKKEN, an organic growth studio helping brands grow their direct traffic, visibility, and revenue through SEO, content, and AI search.

Tom Riley, Founder of HAKKEN

In his own words.

Founder Note

I built HAKKEN to turn years of SEO experience, commercial thinking, and search expertise into a product I'm proud of. Built for ambitious brands that need to be found, need results, and are tired of paying big-agency prices for average work.

Tom Riley, founder of HAKKEN
Who Is Tom Riley?

A decade of
SEO expertise.

  • SEO is not just what Tom does. It is how he thinks. Testing what breaks, what holds, what nobody else is trying, and turning that into results.
  • A decade in. Still reading about algorithms in the morning and thinking about search in the evening. Genuinely obsessed with how this stuff works.
  • Focused on the verticals where SEO actually moves commercial outcomes: insurance, fintech, and health.
  • Alongside client work, Tom owns and runs a network of lead generation websites across the UK, sharing results publicly to show what good SEO looks like in practice.
Profile

Tom Riley.
At a glance.

Name
Tom Riley
Primary Role
SEO Consultant for Insurance
Agency
Founder of Hakken, an SEO agency for insurance
Secondary Role
AI Search (GEO/AEO) Specialist and Digital PR
Core Specialism
Entity SEO and entity optimisation
Methodology
Holistic semantic SEO, entity and topic-led
Expertise
Entity optimisation, semantic methodology, content alignment, authority building, engagement, CRO, visual identity
Industries
Insurance, insurtech and fintech, health and medical
Specialist Focus
Commercial traffic and AI search visibility (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews)
Markets
United Kingdom
Based
London, UK
Years in Search
10+
Languages
English
Where Tom Operates

High-Competition
Industries.

Insurance

The most competitive search vertical on the planet. Tom works with insurance companies that want to own their demand and build durable AI search visibility in a space where the top ten is dominated by household names.

Health

YMYL terrain with razor-thin trust margins. Success here demands technical precision, watertight E-E-A-T, and a brand that search engines trust as much as users do.

Fintech

Fast-moving, jargon-heavy, regulation-aware. Tom builds fintech brands durable search equity through content authority and link programmes, not short-term spikes.

Outside Work

Outside of work Tom is a dad to a three-year-old son. Most of his spare time goes into testing search algorithms, keeping up with AI search developments, and running experiments on his lead generation sites.

He also invests in the stock market, crypto, and robotics, sectors he follows closely and has done for years.

Availability

Waiting list.

Tom takes on a limited number of SEO clients at any one time, with priority given to insurance, health, and fintech businesses. New enquiries join a waiting list. Book a call below to discuss availability.

What I've been up to

June 2026 Agency

Launched HAKKEN

Took the consultancy full-time. Working with insurers, fintech, and growth-stage start-ups on search and AI visibility.

June 2026 Writing

Insurance SEO teardown series

Publishing detailed teardowns of how UK insurers perform in search, starting with Marshmallow and Acorn.

Ongoing Research

AI search visibility in high-stakes industries

Tracking how LLMs surface brands in insurance, fintech, and health, and what it takes to appear in AI-generated answers.

Mentioned recently

June 2026 Today News

Named in a roundup of the UK's leading insurance SEO consultants for 2026.

todaynews.co.uk/2026/06/19/5-best-insurance-seo-consultants-in-the-uk-2026/
2026 Bristol247

Profiled as one of the UK's leading insurance SEO consultants as AI search reshapes the sector.

bristol247.com/business/features-business/tom-riley-emerges-as-one-of-the-uks-leading-insurance-seo-consultants-as-ai-search-reshapes-the-sector/
2026 Total Guide to Manchester

Covered as an SEO specialist launching HAKKEN to help insurers and start-ups win in search.

totalguidetomanchester.com/business/seo-specialist-tom-riley-launches-hakken-to-help-insurers-and-startups-win-in-search/
2026 UK Startup Blog

Launch coverage of HAKKEN, positioning Tom as a search specialist for insurers and growth-stage start-ups.

ukstartupblog.co.uk/tom-riley-launches-hakken/