Rich Tatum

Rich Tatum leads Truth Tree’s organic search practice across SEO, generative engine optimization, and AI-driven discovery. His work spans technical SEO and site architecture, entity and structured-data strategy, content systems, and content production, all of which influence whether a school appears in Google’s AI Overviews or a parent’s conversation with ChatGPT.

Rich has worked at the intersection of digital publishing, technology, and online discovery since 1995 – much of it in education. At TheBestSchools.org, he led SEO through two acquisitions as monthly pageviews grew from about 746,000 to more than 2 million. He later served as SEO Director at AcademicInfluence.com, where he built technical SEO and entity architecture for millions of database-driven pages, helping grow daily organic clicks from about 14 to more than 1,200 in 18 months. His enterprise SEO work includes Toyota, Yamaha, and bp. Rich’s research and commentary have been cited by Search Engine Land, SEER Interactive, StudioHawk, and WordLift, and he has appeared as a guest on Rank Ranger’s In Search SEO Podcast.

Paid media creates immediate visibility. Organic visibility is earned over time through the evidence families and search systems can evaluate for themselves. Rich’s focus is helping partner schools publish the clearest, most credible account of who they are, so right-fit families can find and understand them wherever they search.

Outside the office, Rich lives near Lake Michigan with his family of five and a shadowy Labradoodle named after Sirius Black, reads and listens to too many books, loves photography, and insists the basil in phở is non-negotiable.