Nick Wilsdon, founder and CEO of Torque and a technical SEO specialist who worked with eBay and Vodafone, died on October 11, 2026, after a battle with cancer. He was 50. His company announced the news on LinkedIn on October 12.

Wilsdon spent more than two decades in the search industry. Torque's statement said he "passed away at home over the weekend surrounded by his loving and devoted family."

The announcement described him as "truly one of the great legends of SEO" and praised his business philosophy. "He fiercely cared for our team at Torque and his vision of building an equitable, values led business that felt more like being part of a true collective than a job," the company wrote.

Torque confirmed that its leadership team will continue running the company in Wilsdon's name. The company pledged to "ensure his legacy lives on for many years to come."

What was Nick Wilsdon known for?

Wilsdon held senior technical roles at some of the largest names in e-commerce and telecoms. His professional bio lists him as a Consultant and Edge-Compute Product Owner at eBay, where he specialised in forensic SEO investigations and Edge/CDN architecture development and deployment.

His earlier career included:

• Leading SEO performance across international markets at Vodafone
• Founding E3 Business Incubator Limited and mentoring startups
• Delivering digital transformation projects at NTT DATA UK
• Contributing to industry-leading SEO tools and products

That mix of enterprise SEO, infrastructure engineering and startup mentorship made him a distinctive figure in the technical search community — one of the few practitioners equally fluent in crawl diagnostics and CDN configuration.

How has the search community responded?

Tributes appeared within hours of the announcement. Dawn Anderson wrote: "Nick was such a great friend to so many and he will be so very missed."

Kevin Gibbons called him "such a lovely caring man who had time to help so many people." Stephen Kenwright added simply: "Nick was always a gent."

Lily Ray sent condolences to his family and friends, calling him "such a nice guy." Orly Dreier, who worked with Wilsdon on several occasions, said he was "one of a kind" and called his death "a real loss to the search industry."

Areej AbuAli wrote: "Heartbroken, a truly wonderful man, always supported everyone around him." Gus Pelogia noted how recently the community had marked Wilsdon's milestone birthday: "We just celebrated his 50 earlier this year. I'm heartbroken."

Arnout Hellemans described Wilsdon as "a visionary and an amazingly generous person."

Why his death resonates beyond Torque

Wilsdon represented a generation of SEO practitioners who moved from rankings work into core web infrastructure. His eBay role placed him at the intersection of edge computing and organic search, a convergence that now shapes how large sites handle rendering, crawling and international delivery.

Torque's statement closed with a personal farewell: "You will always be in our thoughts Nick - a true one of a kind and legend of a human being."

Watch Torque's LinkedIn channel and the company's leadership announcements in the coming weeks for details on how the business will operate under its succession plan.