If you’re stuck deciding between implementing SEO in house vs outsourcing, you’re not alone — it’s one of the biggest SEO debates.
Both approaches have pros and cons, so we’ll cover their key differences and considerations in detail.
However, saying that outsourced SEO is always a recipe for poor output and results is definitely far from the truth. We’ll also provide a 10-step process for successfully outsourcing SEO — getting the results you desire while avoiding SEO-induced stress wrinkles.
Further Reading:
- Once you start doing SEO, you don’t stop (at least, not if you want lasting benefits). Here are our best ongoing SEO maintenance tips.
- SEO can feel like a rabbit hole of endless niches and strategies, making prioritizing challenging. Here’s our guide to technical SEO vs content SEO and which to focus on when.
- Google Ads vs YouTube Ads: Which can help you drive more leads and revenue?
- Want to see some practical examples of SEO results? Check out these 10 inspiring SaaS SEO case studies to learn from.
This Article Contains:
- What Is In-House SEO?
- What is Outsourced SEO?
- SEO In House vs Outsourcing: Key Differences
- Pros and Cons of In-House SEO
- Pros and Cons of Outsourced SEO
- In-House vs Outsourcing: Key Considerations Summarized
- How to Outsource SEO Successfully
Let’s get going!
What Is In-House SEO?
In-house SEO is when a company handles all its search engine optimization with its own team.
One significant benefit of this approach is that the in-house team knows the brand inside and out, so their strategies can align with your company’s goals.
Typically, you have two options for creating an SEO team in house:
- You can allocate SEO and content marketing work to your existing employees. This is sometimes necessary for a small business or startup where everyone wears several hats. However, there are downsides to this. Your existing employees may not be skilled or educated in SEO or online marketing best practices, and it can take time away from their core competencies.
- Your company hires SEO experts specifically to do this work. This is better in most cases as it allows you to assemble a dedicated team of highly skilled SEO professionals, but it will be pricey.
What Is Outsourced SEO?
Outsourced SEO is when a company hires an SEO expert or team of experts externally to handle its search engine optimization efforts. This could be an SEO agency, digital marketing agency, independent SEO consultant, or even a team of freelancers.
This route provides access to specialized knowledge and skills without hiring full-time staff for SEO activity. It can reduce costs, allow your internal team to focus on more relevant tasks, and drive results.
However, choosing the best SEO company to partner with is a huge undertaking because methods, skills, experience, etc., will vary from agency to agency.
For example, not every SEO agency has such stellar testimonials and results to brag about as Startup Voyager does. 😉
We will cover the pros and cons of each approach in more detail later. First, let’s compare the facts.
SEO In House vs Outsourcing: Key Differences
Here’s an overview of SEO in house vs outsourcing and what each approach entails:
| In-House SEO | Outsourced SEO | |
| Control and Management | You control processes and team management | An SEO company manages its processes and team, giving you less direct control |
| Cost | Higher upfront costs associated with hiring dedicated SEO professionals in-house | Cost-effective SEO packages compared to in-house hiring |
| Expertise and Knowledge | You benefit from having a deep understanding of your brand and industry, but you may lack SEO foundations | Access to a team of SEO specialists with diverse skills and SEO knowledge but less familiarity with your product and niche |
| Flexibility and Scalability | Less flexible, harder to scale quickly | Highly scalable and adaptable to needs |
| Communication | Easier internal communication and collaboration | Requires you to maintain communication with an external agency |
| Tools and Resources | Requires you to invest in several SEO tools | Agency is responsible for the costs of SEO tools and technologies |
| Focus and Dedication | Full-time dedication to the company’s SEO needs | Shared attention with other clients |
| Network and Outreach | Limited network for backlinks and outreach | Larger network for backlinks and outreach |
| Responsiveness | Immediate response to urgent tasks | Potential delays in response times |
| Long-Term Strategy | Alignment with long-term company goals | Performance-driven contracts focused on results |
| Recruitment and Training | Time-consuming and costly to hire and train staff | Agency is responsible for recruitment and training |
| Accountability | Internal accountability, influenced by company culture | Clear accountability through performance metrics |
Pros and Cons of In-House SEO
In-house SEO offers distinct advantages but also comes with potential downsides that you should carefully consider to ensure it aligns with your business goals and resources.
Let’s assess.
Pros of In-House SEO
Here are some key benefits of in-house SEO:
- Long-term cost-effectiveness: While the upfront costs of building an SEO team in house may be higher than outsourcing SEO, it can pay off in the long run. You’re investing in your own team’s skills, eliminating the need to rely on an external agency and recurring outsourcing SEO service fees.
- Improved collaboration: Having an in-house SEO team means seamless collaboration with other departments like social media marketing, graphic design, and web development. This allows for more cohesive strategies that align closely with your overall digital marketing goals.
- Long-term focus: An in-house team is dedicated solely to your SEO marketing efforts and can maintain a single-minded focus on your long-term goals. They can continue to refine strategies over time without being distracted by other priorities.
- Greater control: An in-house SEO approach provides easier collaboration with your internal team. You can establish and refine your workflows without conforming to an outside provider’s methods or limitations.
- Increased availability and flexibility: In-house teams can quickly adjust strategies based on the latest SEO trends and performance data. Whether it’s implementing technical SEO fixes or shifting focus to meet new SEO goals, your team is on deck to keep your SEO campaign on track.
Cons of In-House SEO
On the other hand, here are some major downsides of internal SEO to be aware of:
- Lengthy recruitment processes and retention challenges: Building a skilled in-house SEO team can be time-consuming. Finding SEO experts with the right skills may take months. Once hired, retaining talent can be an ongoing challenge, especially as the demand for SEO professionals grows.
- Keeping up with SEO trends and tools: Search engines, digital marketing trends, and the SEO industry are always evolving. To succeed, in-house teams must stay on top of the latest SEO trends, algorithm updates, and new SEO tools.
- High operational costs: Running an in-house SEO team involves significant costs, including salaries, benefits, and investment in tools and training. These ongoing costs can add up, making it an expensive option for businesses with tight budgets.
- Scalability issues: In-house teams can struggle with scalability, especially during rapid growth or when launching a new SEO campaign. Your team can become stretched thin or underutilized depending on how much focus you want to place on SEO month-to-month. You may even need to hire or lay off employees to scale up or down.
- Market competition: If your industry is highly competitive, or you’re trying to attract customers to an entirely new niche product, your internal team needs broad knowledge of online marketing strategies. Without SEO expertise, staying ahead of competitors may become more complex.
- Management and oversight: Managing an in-house SEO team requires dedicated leadership to ensure the team stays on track, follows the right SEO strategies, and uses the best tools. This additional layer of oversight can add complexity to your business operations.
- Delayed results: SEO and content marketing are long-term games. It takes time to implement strategies, test, and see significant changes, and with limited resources or expertise, in-house teams may experience slower results.
Let’s compare these advantages and disadvantages against the outsourcing approach.
Pros and Cons of Outsourced SEO
When considering whether to outsource SEO, it’s essential to consider both the benefits and potential drawbacks and how it compares to in-house SEO.
Pros of Outsourced SEO
The advantages of outsourcing SEO include:
- Access to specialized teams: Outsourcing gives you access to SEO experts with specialized knowledge. Your SEO tasks are handled by professionals who stay up-to-date with the latest trends and strategies.
- Cost efficiency: Outsourced SEO often costs less than maintaining an in-house team, as you avoid the expenses of hiring, training, and employee benefits while still receiving effective SEO services.
- Agency-managed efficiency: Outsourced teams typically have streamlined processes for managing SEO campaigns, which they have honed over time. So, you don’t need to build processes from scratch and can focus on core tasks instead.
- Results-driven agreements: Most SEO outsourcing contracts focus on achieving measurable results and meeting your SEO goals efficiently.
- Flexible and scalable solutions: Outsourcing SEO allows you to scale up or down easily by renegotiating agency terms. You don’t have to worry about recruiting, retrenching, or restructuring an internal team.
- Concentration on core business functions: Hiring an agency frees your internal team to focus on core business functions without worrying about the intricacies of SEO marketing.
- Leverage cutting-edge tools and technologies: External teams often have access to the latest SEO tools and technologies, ensuring your SEO strategy is powered by top-notch resources without additional investments.
- Lower risk of team burnout: Outsourcing SEO reduces the risk of overwhelming your internal staff with SEO tasks, preventing burnout.
- Quick implementation and results: Expert teams can implement SEO strategies faster, allowing you to see results sooner. This is because they have processes and strategies pre-loaded, ready to tailor and roll out.
- Diverse and innovative SEO strategies: Outsourced SEO professionals bring a fresh perspective and creative solutions, drawing from a wide range of industry experiences.
Cons of Outsourced SEO
While outsourcing SEO is an excellent option for most businesses, you should be aware of these challenges:
- Less control over processes: Outsourcing SEO means you have less direct control over day-to-day processes. This works if you trust your SEO partner and want to spend more time on your core tasks. However, it can be difficult for businesses that prefer hands-on management.
- Communication challenges: Working with an external team may create communication barriers. Although it requires effort from both sides, the right SEO agency should provide transparent, clear, and regular updates.
- Potential misalignment with business goals: An outsourced team has a relatively short amount of time to learn your specific business objectives and the nuances of your brand. Most agencies are adept at studying their clients’ offerings, tone, and target audience. This allows them to tailor strategies, but misunderstandings are always possible.
- Trust and reliability concerns: Reliance on an external team can come with slower response times and concerns about the quality of deliverables. The right SEO partner should have a demonstrated track record of consistently delivering high-quality work on time.
- Less personalized attention: Since SEO agencies handle multiple clients, your business may receive less attention, and tasks may take longer. It’s essential to choose an SEO agency that has the capacity to take on an SEO project of your size with room to scale.
- Ongoing costs: Paying for SEO services will be an ongoing business expense, and these recurring fees do add up over time. However, a long-term partnership with a trusted outsourcing agency can yield a higher return on investment, as they will understand your brand deeply and launch more effective campaigns.
Now that you’ve explored each option’s benefits and challenges, it’s time to combine everything.
In-House vs Outsourcing: Key Considerations Summarized
Understanding these essential factors will help you make a more informed decision for your business’s SEO needs.
1. Budget and Cost
In house SEO typically requires a higher upfront investment for recruitment, salaries, training, and SEO tools. Outsourcing SEO offers a more flexible cost structure, with lower initial expenses but ongoing fees that can add up.
Outsourcing might be the better option if your business has a limited budget but needs quick results. On the other hand, if you can afford a long-term investment and want to build a dedicated team, in house SEO could provide better control over your expenses.
2. Expertise and Knowledge
In-house SEO teams offer a deep understanding of your brand and industry. Meanwhile, outsourced SEO teams know a lot about SEO trends, technical fields, tools, and strategies.
While it’s great to have brand and industry knowledge, it’s not particularly useful when you’re trying to appeal to search engines. Your team also needs to have deep SEO knowledge, including on page and off page SEO, local SEO, technical SEO, etc. Plus, they should know the best practices for B2B and B2C SEO.
If you want the best of both worlds (a team with brand and SEO knowledge), you’ll either need to:
- Hire in-house SEO experts with a range of specialties (which can be costly)
- Or, carefully choose an SEO service provider with broad expertise and a track record of creating brand-aware content.
3. Project Scope and Specificity
With an in-house team, you can easily adjust project scopes and strategies. It’ll all depend on the time and resources your company can spend on SEO activity.
When it comes to outsourcing, you’ll need to clearly communicate and negotiate with the provider to agree on SEO project scopes and deliverables. It’s harder to alter strategies or add on tasks along the way because it could cause cost fluctuations. However, a top-notch SEO agency should be agile and prepared to pivot in response to data.
4. Control and Management
With in-house SEO, you maintain full control over your SEO strategies and processes. If you prefer managing SEO more closely, in-house is the better option, but it requires more effort.
Conversely, you have little control over the day-to-day activities of an outsourced SEO team. Outsourcing can reduce the oversight required if you’re able to relinquish some control and delegate SEO tasks to a trusted partner.
5. Focus and Dedication
In-house teams focus solely on your business, providing full attention and dedication. They can adjust SEO tasks quickly based on your priorities. If you require immediate attention and total dedication to your SEO effort, in-house is ideal. For example, you may need to grow quickly, launch new products, or enter competitive markets, so agility is key.
Outsourced SEO teams handle multiple clients, so the focus isn’t always exclusively on your project. A well-managed SEO agency should be sufficiently staffed and adept at handling client work promptly.
6. Flexibility and Scalability
If you’re handling SEO in-house, scaling up means hiring more staff, which can be time-consuming and expensive. It’s better to grow your team slowly as necessary. But this can be difficult if you need to take advantage of a patch of rapid growth.
Outsourced SEO, on the other hand, allows you to quickly ramp up or down based on your needs and changing budget.
Established companies with sufficient resources and a stable long-term roadmap may benefit from an in-house team. However, for startups or companies anticipating fluctuations or rapid growth, outsourcing is the smart option.
7. Network and Resources
In-house teams may have a limited network for link building and outreach compared to outsourced SEO. In-house teams can build deep, long-term relationships specific to your brand values, but it takes time.
Outsourcing can open you up to a broader set of contacts, resources, services, tools, technologies, and partnerships. An SEO agency can readily offer crucial connections to boost your business’s growth.
8. Internal Capabilities
If your company already has a strong marketing team with technical capabilities, in-house SEO could be the natural choice. It allows for more integrated strategies across departments.
However, the learning curve can be steep if your internal team lacks SEO expertise. Outsourcing SEO lets you bypass these internal limitations and focus on your core business functions.
Now, as an SEO service provider, we at Startup Voyager naturally think that outsourcing SEO is an excellent path for any business, big or small. But it’s not something you want to rush into.
Let’s explore some fundamentals of effective SEO outsourcing — how to do it right for maximum gain and minimum risk.
How to Outsource SEO Successfully
Follow this ten-step process to find, hire, and collaborate with an SEO outsourcing provider for the best results:
1. Define Your Goals and Requirements
Before selecting a provider for outsourcing SEO services, clearly define your goals for impressions, traffic, conversions, etc.
Goal-setting is helpful for three main reasons:
- It gives you a way to evaluate the success of your SEO campaign.
- It’s an important part of getting buy-in and alignment from all your internal stakeholders.
- It gives the agency a target to aim for, helping them create a tailored strategy and stay on track.
Your goals should be SMART — Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.
For example, you could say, “We want to reach 100,000 monthly organic visitors within 12 months.” We have done this for a client in our portfolio, but whether it’s realistic for you will depend on your industry and product.
With your goals in mind, create a list of requirements — services, tools, and processes your ideal SEO provider should have in their arsenal to get you where you want to go.
2. Develop a Budget
A realistic budget for SEO services is typically around 5-15% of your overall marketing budget.
Where you fall in that range depends on:
- Scope: Whether you need a full-scale SEO operation or just one-off assistance (E.g., a technical SEO audit or a content strategy consultation). The latter will likely require a larger one-off payment, while the former might consist of smaller fees over a long period.
- Duration: If you’re happy to take your time and form a long-term partnership, you can allocate a lower budget. However, if you’re trying to rapidly bootstrap your search engine presence, larger payments over a shorter period may be in order.
- Quality and diversity: Balancing cost with quality is key. Cutting costs too much may compromise the results, and over-investing could stretch resources unnecessarily. Additionally, SEO will cost more if you need diverse services (E.g., technical SEO, local SEO, conversion optimization, and content).
3. Research and Create Your Shortlist
Research potential SEO agencies according to top-level criteria like:
- If the services and skills they offer match your goals and requirements.
- Their reviews and case studies. Positive reviews and demonstrated results are a must, but experience in your industry or with similar projects is a big bonus.
- If they offer SEO packages in your price range.
- Whether their company culture and collaboration style will be a good fit for you.
It may be helpful to check company profiles on prominent directories like Clutch and GoodFirms. Take a look at our Clutch profile to see what kind of information the platform can provide.
Use this to compile a shortlist of a few agencies that check all the necessary boxes (or as many as possible).
4. Evaluate and Interview Agencies
Reach out to your shortlisted agencies to set up an interview.
We put together a list of 25 Critical Questions to Ask Before Hiring an SEO Agency.
Some examples of questions on the list are:
- How Is Your Approach Different From Other SEO Agencies?
- How Do You Know SEO Will Work for Me?
- What Metrics Define “Success” for You?
- Do You Use AI in Your Processes?
- What Experience Do You Have Working With Companies in My Industry?
Pick the most important questions for that first meeting so you get all the information you need.
After the interviews, get your stakeholders together to discuss and decide on an agency to move forward with.
5. Set Clear Expectations
Before signing any contracts, make sure both sides are clear on expectations.
During the deliberation process, you should negotiate:
- Timelines
- Deliverables
- SEO goals
- Scope of work
- Reporting frequency
- KPIs you’ll use to track progress
Ensure the provider understands your business goals beyond SEO to align their strategy with your larger objectives.
6. Sign Detailed Contracts
Once expectations are aligned, draw up a detailed contract that includes a Service Level Agreement (SLA) and Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
The SLA outlines the services, deliverables, and timelines the agency commits to, while the NDA protects sensitive business information.
These legal documents are critical to ensuring accountability and safeguarding your business interests. Make sure your contract clearly defines what success looks like and the consequences if targets aren’t met.
The SEO agency will likely have a contract of their own, which you should go through with a lawyer. If both sides are comfortable, you can sign to finalize the deal.
7. Establish Clear Communication Channels
Next, set up efficient communication channels with your SEO provider. Decide on the following:
- The platforms you will use to communicate and manage projects (E.g., email, Slack, ClickUp, Asana, Trello, etc.)
- The cadence and format (email, video call, etc.) for check-ins
- The kinds of data the agency should prepare for those meetings
- The main contact persons on either side
8. Agree on a Strategy and Give It Time to Work
At this point, it’s time to get started on SEO implementation. This involves three key parts:
- Ask the agency to conduct keyword research and present a broad, long-term SEO plan for your business goals. Assess and approve or ask for adjustments.
- Request a detailed plan for the first 1-3 months of deliverables. Let them know if you approve of the plan or want any changes.
- Once the strategy is set, allow the agency time to implement it. Regular check-ins are essential, but it’s also important to understand that SEO takes time to produce meaningful results.
9. Track Performance and Adjust Strategy as Needed
SEO is an ongoing process requiring flexibility and agility in response to data.
Regularly review analytics and KPIs like impressions, keyword rankings, organic traffic, and conversions to assess progress.
Our list of 34+ Key Marketing Metrics + How to Choose will help you understand the most important metrics to track progress.
Remember, if you’re starting SEO from scratch, it takes time to build your domain authority — a measure of how much search engines trust and value your site’s content. In the early stages, you’re likely to first see a gradual uptick in SERP (search engine results page) ranks, online visibility, and impressions. Clicks and conversions will increase over time if the strategy is effective.
If results aren’t meeting expectations, discuss adjustments to the strategy with your provider. Both sides should be open to tweaking the approach based on new data or changes in the SEO or industry environment.
10. Review and Provide Feedback
Finally, make time for feedback sessions. Aside from the strategy and data, offer constructive feedback on factors like:
- Communication: Is the agency meeting your expectations regarding the quality, frequency, effectiveness, and transparency of communication?
- Use of resources: Is the agency using tools and resources effectively for the best return on investment?
- Innovation and initiative: Is the agency proactive in developing new ideas to grow the business’s organic presence?
- Scope: Are there services you might want to add on or decrease investment in?
- Security: Is the agency following best practices to protect your business from data breaches or legal issues (e.g., plagiarism, copyright)?
- Hearing their feedback: Do they have any suggestions or qualms about your team or business?
And there you have it! This guide should prepare you to make a tricky decision about in-house vs outsourced SEO implementation.
With that, allow us to introduce ourselves — the SEO agency that offers unbelievable results and peace of mind.
Partner with the Best SEO and CRO Agency: Startup Voyager
In-house SEO may give you control, but the time and resources required to build a strong internal team can outweigh the benefits for many businesses.
By outsourcing SEO, you can improve your rankings, traffic, conversions, and revenue without the stress and hassle of managing it internally. However, that’s only if you pick the right partner.
At Startup Voyager, we are more than just an SEO agency. We’re a growth and conversion-focused agency with experience across industries like SaaS, Fintech, E-commerce, and more.
Beyond content strategy and execution, we offer advanced services like conversion optimization A/B testing, web design optimization, and programmatic SEO.
Our clients see tangible results fast, driven by data-backed strategies tailored to achieve their unique goals. For example, here’s what we’ve done for them:
- Rankings and online visibility: Crafted hundreds of programmatic pages for a client, with 97% ranking in the top 3 SERP positions.
- Traffic: Took a client from 0 to 100,000 monthly organic visitors in just 10 months.
- Conversions: Increased a client’s demo sign-up conversions by 31% with thoughtful conversion optimization tactics.
Check out our testimonials for more stats like these.
If you’re looking for an agency you can trust to deliver innovative, effective strategies while sparing you gray hairs, reach out to Startup Voyager today.
