If you want to hire an in house SEO there are some things that need to be taken into consideration. Perhaps the biggest misconception of hiring an in house SEO is that you will save money and be more efficient.  In most cases, in house SEOs will cost you more money and working on the same site or handful of sites will make your SEO become bored and their performance will suffer. So should you hire an in house SEO or should you hire an SEO agency?

We Have a Unique Perspective to This Age Old Question – Should I Bring SEO In House?

Since we have experience working on our own sites, for others as contractors, for others in house SEOs and with the SEO Candyland agency we have learned which method is the most effective. Many of our clients also decide to bring our role in house for various reasons and more often than not, they brought us back on board.

Pros of Hiring an in House SEO vs Pros of Hiring an SEO Agency

We have put together this helpful list of hiring an in house SEO vs an SEO agency. Knowing how they stack up against one another can help you make an informed decision. As a marketing agency, we always like to test things and think this should be no different. If you currently have an agency doing your SEO consider doing a trial period of hiring someone in house and comparing results before you bring them on as a full time employee.

Project Management / Progress – Getting to Know Your Team and Resource Limits

SEO Agency

• Don’t have to manage the project and can relax knowing that someone is taking care of this
• If you are busy or have limited staff then it may be best to choose an SEO agency so that they can manage all aspects of your SEO program
• Don’t need to think about when your SEO is working, so long as the work gets done there is no issue

• May not understand who the internal team is or how everyone works together, but really understands how the workflow of SEO should be for maximum results
• Agencies can take on a very heavy workload and achieve results much quicker than an in house SEO
• You will have a whole team at your fingertips where everyone is at the top of their game in a good agency. Agencies also have whole marketing teams so that other areas of SEo can be supported through different marketing platforms

In House SEO

• Control over project management where the in house SEO is not expected to shuffle many projects and keep track of things
• In house, usually is reliant on the project manager to keep things on track, though a good SEO agency will have someone managing your project
• Know when your SEO is working on your project. Sometimes this can lessen stress to know when someone is actively working on your website. An SEO agency will map out their schedule so you know when they work as well, but there is not ever a sure way to know unless they share their project management with you
• While an in house SEO won’t be able to take on as large of a workload as an SEO agency, they are dedicated to you and only you so you have a sense of security. Along with that, an in house team can also provide you with steady results. While a good agency can do this, usually agencies work with clients for a much shorter duration than an in house SEO employee would stay on board for
• Understands the internal team and how everyone works together. May not have an SEO workflow which keeps things simple but it can also be a negative thing as SEO timelines are important to follow and this usually is not possible with an in house SEO as the in house SEO needs to follow the workplace schedules set forth by management
• You may have to hire a whole team to run SEO which can be really expensive. There are many aspects of SEO that need to be supported through other marketing platforms and if you already don’t have these internal resources it can be even more expensive

Communication – How Easy is it to Contact Your SEO?

SEO Agency

• Communication schedule that maps out the project, plus communication within minutes (at some agencies)
• Do not have to worry about being interrupted so that SEO magic can happen and complex strategies can be created and execute
• May have more than one person work on your project and have a dedicated contact person. This is a good buffer because the SEO should never feel the brunt of complaints and an Account Manager can soften things

In House SEO

• Communicate within minutes
• One disadvantage of this is that SEO requires a lot of concentration and if you interrupt an SEO who is deep in thought, you could ruin their workflow and it could be some times before they get their thought back or sometimes it is lost forever
• Dedicated SEO and no need for a contact person, but the SEO hearing criticism directly can get offended, spiteful in some cases and feel discouraged

Understanding Your Brand and Services / Products

SEO Agency

• Can familiarize themselves with your brand over time, thoroughly taking information in within optimal project timelines
• Learns all about your services from a SEO perspective and is able to try out many strategies learned from other industries that an in house SEO would miss
• Doesn’t usually have any loyalty to your company and can work with competitors. Experienced agencies do not compete against themselves and wouldn’t offer services to clients’ competitors
• Cost less than an in house SEO and don’t raise rates or keep them very competitive
• Aren’t usually focused on your industry. A good agency will make sure to keep asking you for industry information. Agencies usually have more than one person working on your project so SEOs don’t get bored and are always passionate to work on your project.

In House SEO

• Can familiarize themselves with your brand quickly, have multiple people to ask to gain everyone’s perspective. However, this can make the in house SEO become bored
• Learns all about your services from an industry perspective and doesn’t need to spend as much time researching your products or services
• Doesn’t have the issue about needing to re-familiarize themselves with your project which can happen if an SEO agency has multiple SEOs working on projects
• Usually very loyal as they really care about their job and aren’t working with other companies
• Cost more than an SEO agency. However, there is a sense of security knowing that an employee is more likely to stay working with you than an agency is because they need the job
• Stay focused on your industry but can get bored and lose interest and passion over time. In house SEO’s can also get fixated on your company and lose touch with what is happening in the SEO world outside of your company

SEO Knowledge and Keeping Up with Industry News

SEO Agency

• Dedicated time to study recent developments in the search engine industry and many websites to test out different strategies
• Problems are resolved much faster because agencies work on a variety of websites and have likely seen most issues and are able to correct them with relatively low guesswork
• Can train others in related roles to make SEO perform better, but always with a fresh perspective of what works best for SEO. In house SEOs miss this advantage as they do not get direct, continuous experience working on multiple industries and learning many valuable new techniques and strategies
• A good agency will have multiple SEO tools and can produce more information, more detailed information and assess issues much faster than an in house SEO
• Agencies can deliver results very quickly because they have worked on hundreds or thousands of projects

In House SEO

• Dedicated time to study recent developments in the search engine industry, but not necessarily equipped with all of the resources to test out different strategies
• In house SEOs can resolve problems but may take longer than an agency would. As the discovery process rolls out, the company gains insight into what to look for and how to fix it. This knowledge can then be applied if the issue ever happens again, or be used to prevent it.  A good agency will be able to do these things too and faster
• Can train others in related roles to make SEO perform better so the SEO can focus on more advanced things. With a good agency this should also be the case, but many agencies fall short
• Know which tools your SEO is using, but usually not all will be known to the SEO or the marketing budget may not be able to pay for them all
• Though results may be slower than agencies the company benefits from learning many techniques and processes learned along the way to achieve the results. An agency may not share these things.

Confidentiality and Ownership of Data and Processes / SEO System Intellectual Property

SEO Agency

• Frequently talks to other industry people and inexperienced agencies may mistakenly leak confidential information
• Methods, processes, techniques and data may be owned by the agency and some things may be considered intellectual property of the agency. This is sometimes a fair trade off though, since an agency will already have a tried and true SEO system in place. This can save you a lot of money.
• Good agencies always train their SEOs to adhere to vigorously tested SEO systems and in many cases each SEO will be responsible for a specific area of SEO. This gives you expertise that an in house SEO may not have as there is only one of them.,

In House SEO

• Doesn’t usually talk to other industry people and is isolated, so this gives a sense of security confidential information won’t be leaked
• Anything that your SEO learns while on the clock at your office becomes your company’s property. All methods, techniques and processes become the property of your companies. Usually though, you will have to go through many in house SEOs before you will have a good SEO system in place and burn through quite a lot of money
• Since an in house SEO will be responsible for all areas of SEO, they may not be an expert in each area, or may not even be an expert in any area. If you are lucky to find an amazing in house SEO treat them as you would treat your security team and keep them happy. Good SEOs are very rare to come by

Do Your Own SEO Test Right Now – Hire an In House Contractor and Hire Us. Compare Results

If you are having trouble choosing between which SEO company to hire or aren’t sure if you should hire an in house SEO or an agency then you need to do a test. Cost, quality, results, speed, project ease and internal resource load are all things you need to consider throughout the test.

Another major thing to consider when conducting an SEO test is how well both parties manage their time, prioritize tasks, work with writers, developers, IT and anyone else on your marketing team. As an experienced SEO agency, we have identified the following areas to give you a good idea of who to choose for your SEO program. Ask both parties to submit the following SEO works during their trial with your company:

1. Full website audit
2. Keyword research (both parties do the same main keyword) ~ 100 keywords
3. Website structure based on keyword research ~ 10 pages
4. Article topics based on keyword research ~ 10 pages
5. Content templates based on keyword research ~ 10 pages
6. Optimize one main category page that matches the main keyword
7. Optimize one relevant inner page
8. Optimize one relevant article
9. Write an article as per one content template
10. Optimize the same article that was chosen to be written
11. Build one relevant link

If you would like to put us to the test email Cassandra and put SEO Test (PDF SEO test download link) in the subject line. We look forward to working with you! 😀

Hire an in house SEO or an Agency? Schedule a Call With Us to See Which is Best for You

We have over 20 years of marketing experience and half of that has been dedicated to SEO. Our lead SEO has managed search engines as well as optimized websites for search engines. This gives us a unique advantage as most SEOs do not have experience managing search engines. We are always happy to answer any questions you may have. Sometimes it is right to hire an in house SEO and sometimes it isn’t. Let us help you choose which is right for you. We are honest, non-biased and friendly. If you would like more information about this contact us. We will also provide you with free consultation of up to 30 minutes when you book us for a free quote