Managing SEO in House Vs. Outsourcing: Comparing Your Options

Successfully managing search engine optimization is like renovating a commercial property. State-of-the-art software can help with keyword research, analytics, and content planning, but these tools are only effective in the hands of skilled professionals. Which is better: overseeing SEO in-house or outsourcing the work? 

What Do In-House SEO and Outsourcing Mean?

In-house SEO means your business supplies the necessary talent and tech. Depending on the size of your organization, you may hire one dedicated SEO coordinator or an entire team. Content creation is an essential part of SEO, so many businesses include SEO programs as part of a wider digital marketing strategy.

Outsourcing SEO means you hire a third-party team to coordinate search optimization. SEO agencies offer a wide variety of services, from website consultations and link-building campaigns to full-time SEO management and content optimization services.

What Is the Difference Between In-House SEO and an SEO Agency?

The answer to in-house SEO vs outsourcing isn’t black-and-white. We’d love to tell you that outsourcing is 100% rainbows and butterflies, but that’s not always the case. Both approaches have pros and cons.

4 Benefits of In-House SEO

Why do some businesses decide to manage SEO and marketing themselves?

1. Complete Control Over SEO and Marketing

Well-known brands sometimes need to be exceptionally careful with messaging for their products. In-house SEO provides greater control over content creation, links, images, and branding. Brands that work with sensitive products (e.g., the defense industry) may want an added layer of confidentiality, too. 

2. In-House Coordination

In-house personnel are often faster at adapting to the needs of different departments inside your organization. For example, SEO managers can get first-hand information from your R&D team well in advance of product launches to prepare SEO campaigns.

3. Precise Hiring

In theory, handling SEO in-house means you get your pick of professionals. You choose every member of the team, so you can select hardworking employees with values you trust. If they love your business, they can do amazing things for your marketing.

4. Extensive Customization

Creating your own SEO team means employees focus on your business 100%. They get to know your strengths, limitations, brand identity, and available assets better than anyone.

Common Challenges With In-House SEO

The day-to-day realities of in-house SEO aren’t always as rosy as the travel brochures. Ironically, the downsides are usually related to the upsides:

• Employee management: Employing SEO personnel means you’re responsible for overtime, benefits, insurance, and other needs. This can be time-consuming and costly.
• Hiring challenges: Impressive-sounding resumes don’t always translate into good results for your business. In some areas, finding SEO professionals with expertise is a challenge.
• Overworked personnel: It can be tempting to envision hiring one SEO employee for all the work, but website and marketing needs grow significantly with e-commerce. One person isn’t enough for an entire organization.

When comparing the costs of managing SEO in-house vs outsourcing, assign a value to your time. There’s nothing wrong with outsourcing SEO because you prefer having more time for other responsibilities.

4 Advantages of Using an SEO Agency

The benefits of outsourcing SEO may surprise you, especially in terms of customizability and cost.

1. Wide Range of SEO Expertise

SEO agencies have a whole team of search optimization professionals. Some specialize in specific areas, such as:

• Google Analytics
• Content creation, editing, and article management
• Link building
• Website development and mobile SEO
• Technical SEO (e.g., sitemaps and rich text markup)
• Local search

No matter what type of SEO assistance your website needs, agencies know exactly how to help.

2. More Industry Experience

You can usually expect SEO agencies to have far more experience than new hires. At BKA Content, we’ve been creating exceptional SEO blogs, product pages, and web pages for over 15 years. We know how to deliver results, not empty promises. It’s not surprising that 80% of our content ranks — compared to the average of around 10%.

3. Greater Scalability

Outsourcing SEO allows for practically endless scaling with e-commerce growth. Whether you need a few SEO blogs a week or a complete website makeover, SEO agencies can handle the surge. Our team is large enough to handle new content, SEO optimization, page updates, local SEO, and website development — simultaneously.

4. Lower Costs

You may think that outsourcing SEO costs more, but the opposite is usually true. Maintaining an in-house SEO team adds up. The average SEO specialist makes $65,000 a year. Suddenly, spending $1,000 to $3,000 a month with an SEO agency seems like a steal.

Factors To Consider When Outsourcing SEO

We’re proud of our SEO team, but not all SEO agencies share our commitment to quality, honesty, or customer satisfaction. This can lead to problems:

• Third-party contractors: Outsourcing means you don’t know who is performing the work, sometimes including contractors who don’t speak fluent English.
• Low-quality content: Some agencies cut corners or use AI to produce a high volume of low-quality content, hurting your search rankings and reputation in the process.
• Long-term contracts: Partnering with SEO professionals usually means signing a service contract for a year or more.
• Oversight issues: Some untrustworthy agencies make it hard to tell if they’re performing the work promised.

It’s critical to select an SEO partner carefully. Focus more on results, years of experience, content quality, and positive client reviews than promises or low prices.

Can SEO Be Done In House?

If you’re a small business owner, you may wonder if the solution is DIY SEO. Every business is different, but in our experience, consistently and successfully managing SEO is outside the abilities of most owners.

Don’t get us wrong, there are some great free SEO tools for website management, but they won’t do all the work for you. To connect with your target audience, you need the help of experienced SEO professionals.

Compare Managing SEO In-House Vs. Outsourcing for Your Business

At BKA Content, we don’t push you into services you don’t need. Whether it’s running SEO in-house or outsourcing, we want you to do what’s best for your organization. Schedule a free appointment to discuss your needs, compare your options, and see why our expert SEO team is popular.