SEO Agency vs In-House: Which Is Right for Your Company?

An effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy is an invaluable source of business benefits. Primarily, it helps grow and boost website traffic for monetization and more efficient marketing distribution. Ultimately, the goal of SEO is to bring an increased number of leads to the site and thus improve sales.

But to achieve that, your website must firmly stick to search engine ranking criteria and land among the top search results. How exactly do you make it happen? The easiest way to do so is by having experts handle your SEO. It’s great if you already have them on your team, but what if you don’t?

At Livepage, we thoroughly understand the difference between in-house SEO vs outsourcing, since we have been specializing in providing services on both sides of the bargain for years. In this article, we are shedding light on key nuances to help you make an informed decision and pick the best-fitting type of SEO services to adopt.

What is an SEO Agency?

An SEO agency provides specialized teams handling various online promotion services, including audits, SEO strategy development, white label SEO services, and addressing clients’ technical and internal online promotion issues. A full-range agency service can be extensive enough to cover all problematic SEO aspects.

Typically, external SEO specialists have relevant education and extensive experience, focusing solely on SEO, which means they follow best practices in the field. They usually have access to high-end corporate-level SEO tools, which an in-house team might find difficult to acquire, and they know how to use them effectively.

When comparing SEO agency vs in-house team, it’s important to consider all angles of both options.

Pros of external SEO:

• A wide market selection allows you to find an agency that fits your goals.
• You get pre-screened professionals working for you.
• You get a tailored market analysis, competitor insights, and ROI assessments for your SEO investments.
• You get consultations that help meet your business needs.
• You save tons of time and avoid missed deadlines.

Cons of external SEO:

• Finding a trustworthy team can be challenging.
• Your project may not be their sole focus.
• Initial outsourcing costs may appear higher than those of the in-house team.

What is In-House SEO?

When it comes to in-house operations, the task of managing SEO usually falls upon the company’s marketing department. The team is usually small, consisting of multi-profiled specialists. Lacking in-depth academic knowledge, such specialists may not have answers to all the challenges you may face. At best, they can handle tasks like content creation, link building, and superficial competitor analysis. They also often have a multitude of other in-house responsibilities.

However, when deciding between hiring an SEO agency vs hiring an in-house team, one of the key advantages of the latter is the immediacy of communication. Additionally, in-house employees are well-acquainted with your client base, target audience, and corporate culture. However, you’ll still need to invest in their training to make sure they stay up to date.

Pros of in-house SEO

• In-house employees know your business on a more intimate level.
• They are focused exclusively on your company’s results, maintaining efficiency and reducing employee turnaround.
• You get easier collaboration with other company departments.

Cons of in-house SEO

• Initial results may be lower.
• Experienced specialists demand salary increments.
• Training can be time-consuming, costly, and unproductive.
• Access to professional SEO tools, such as Majestic and Newswire, will require ongoing expenses.

SEO Agency or In-House: Main Differences

Both options in question have their advantages and downsides, but let’s summarize them and emphasize the key distinctions:

• In-house team members work exclusively in your best interests, while an agency provides services to multiple clients.
• In-house staff have to balance online promotion with other marketing projects they manage, whereas an agency takes full contractual responsibility for your organization’s SEO.
• In the case of rapid project scaling, an agency is preferable since it can expand its service package on demand.
• An agency can offer a fresh perspective on your business and strategy, providing new ideas and original outlooks.

How to Choose an SEO Agency vs In-house SEO

To choose what is best for your business, you first need to establish your own goals and KPIs. Think about the project’s scale, complexity, and available budget. If you are uncertain about your capabilities, consider ordering an SEO audit from an agency like Livepage. They will provide an overview of your website’s condition, enabling you to make an informed decision about hiring an SEO agency or handling it in-house.

On one hand, an in-house specialist doesn’t need to delve into the specifics, and they’re easier to oversee. Adjustments can be made promptly, and strategies discussed at your convenience. This option is suitable if:

• There’s no budget for effective promotion.
• The team is willing and has time to learn a new field.

However, it’s crucial to remember that in-house competencies may be lacking. Do you know how many specialists you need? Can you determine the necessary skills? Will available candidates meet your needs and not create more problems?

Understanding such intricacies without experience is challenging, and intuition alone won’t always suffice. After hiring, your new SEO specialist will go through a probationary period, but there’s no guarantee they’ll catch up as quickly as you’d like. Plus, you’ll have to pay them a full-time employee salary.

Thinking about hiring an SEO agency or an in-house team, answer the following questions:

• Who will train your in-house employees?
• Can you expand your team when needed?
• Will you be able to expand your office and acquire additional equipment and software?

An agency with experienced experts handpicked to work on your project is likely to be more cost-effective and yield substantial returns on your investments. All you require is to pick the right one. Make sure it is a reliable option by:

• Searching for reviews and confirmed performance results.
• Exploring their values, ethics, and communication culture.
• Checking their time on the market, their website, and technologies they utilize.
• Examining their client base and talking to their clients.

Conclusion

Surely, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to the question of what to choose: an SEO agency or in-house SEO. Much depends on your budget and your goals. If you have the time and money for training, go for it. But will it yield the expected results, and if yes, when?

If you need a guaranteed improvement visible within a short timeframe, seek an external agency with years of experience. In just a few hours, you’ll have answers to all your questions, fully transitioning the SEO efforts into the hands of field experts. Yes, you’ll still have to pay for it, but these costs will be minimal compared to investing in unskilled personnel and bringing them up to a professional level just to encounter more new risks.

At Livepage, we build client relationships based on mutual trust and respect. Contact us to discuss your future tailored, trustworthy SEO team that will save you money while bringing a dramatic return on your SEO investments.

Consider Livepage as Your Trusted Partner

We are a team of creative professionals with over 12 years of experience helping various businesses grow through digital marketing. Our expertise is backed by successful cases with over 150 companies from different countries. The research platform Clutch ranked us among the top 30 SEO agencies in the world.

Our company’s specialists are Google-certified, consistently demonstrating a deep understanding of digital marketing tools. We adopt an individualized approach, delving into your business, its issues, products, and audience and offering unique solutions. We are open, attentive, and genuinely care about our clients, their goals, and objectives, which mitigates the primary distinction between an SEO company vs an in-house team.

For instance, we began working with Yalantis when their website had almost no audience, receiving only about 5 visitors daily. Yalantis’ marketing team aimed to generate 50 leads per month using content marketing in the mobile app development niche.

Through collaborative efforts, the first leads appeared in just 4 months, and within 3 years, their site became one of the primary sources for client acquisition, with over 70,000 monthly visitors and more than 100 leads from the USA. The average monthly transaction volume from incoming leads increased to $100,000–$150,000.

Promoting the IT company Apriorit in the complex niche proved to be no less challenging, but we successfully tackled it. Over 6 years of collaboration, their traffic increased fivefold, and their visibility improved by nearly 20x.

There are plenty more examples in our portfolio. Is it worth even considering whether to hire an SEO agency vs in-house SEO team when you can achieve outstanding results with Livepage? Reach out to us today, and tomorrow, the true professionals invested in your success will take charge of your promotion!