Every company has their own specific budgets and goals, each playing a large role in deciding what kind of SEO assistance is best for them. While some prefer agencies, others prefer having an in-house employee managing their SEO. The decision is unique per organization and is based off of several factors: company size, employee budget, amount of website management, third-party applications, etc.
Whether you’re pro in-house or pro-agency, this post isn’t to persuade you that hiring an agency is a bad decision, because a lot of the time it isn’t. Instead, we’re going to highlight some of the positive benefits that come with hiring an SEO to work at your company and how much easier it can make your day-to-day operations.
What is an In-House SEO?
An in-house SEO specializes in everything optimization and SEO for the company they work for. They provide the company with the best optimization practices they can to ensure high search engine rankings and conversions. Their tracking skills and data entry are also on point, resulting in beautiful KPI reports and analysis. Generally, an in-house SEO will work as a team to accomplish the heavy to-do list with other SEO specialists and online marketers.
Image Source: Moz
1. The Personalization
Having an SEO in-house means your business is the only business they’re focused on. Your website goals are their goals. Versus an agency who has several different companies they’re working for, and even more goals to accomplish. Your in-house employee will know everything there is to know about your company: the tone, the branding, the color scheme, etc. All of the day-to-day operations are best performed in-house by an employee that eats, sleeps, and breathes your brand only.
Chris Dugdale, SEO Lead at Tesco.com, served 9 years as an SEO at different agencies before making the transition to in-house. With a little over four years of in-house experience under his belt now, he’s developed a profound appreciation for the in-house experience.
“When in-house, you are immersed in the business; it’s your sole focus and even then, it takes time to really understand the business. With this understanding you can pick your battles and your battlefields. You can take different projects to different stakeholders, knowing that the outcomes are aligned to their respective KPIs.”
2. The Ability to Change
Like chameleons, SEO changes it’s colors on a regular basis. #mobilegeddon
Having someone in-house managing your SEO makes adjusting things in real-time more realistic. If you’re working with an agency and have a quick update that needs to be made, expect to see an additional expense on the invoice. Pop-up adjustments are usually a cause for an additional expense with agencies. It’s not their fault, though. Since you’re not their only client, they can’t spend all 8+ hours of the day working on just your project. In order for an agency to maintain multiple clientele, and be profitable, an allotted amount of time must be dedicated to each client. Additional time can result in an additional expense. Sending a Gchat to Paul, your in-house SEO, can be much faster and cost effective.
3. The In-House Relationships
Your in-house SEO will better be able to form and keep relationships with the entire team. This is especially important for the content team. Great content doesn’t mean anything to Google without optimization. Having an SEO specialist in-house makes collaborating on projects a million times easier than reaching out to agencies, scheduling new meetings, and paying extra fees. Instead, natural conversations can happen in the break room or simply by rolling your chair from one section of the office to the other.
Image Source: Teamuv.com
4. The Time
Having someone in-house allows for more flexibility with timely projects and adjustments. When it comes to getting something done in a timely fashion having someone in-house is much more efficient than reaching out to a third-party. Not only will you have to throw a few more marketing dollars at your agency to get something changed immediately, but the explanation process will well exceed the time it would take to explain it to Paul, who happened to overhear the idea discussed in the break room.
5. The Cost
You’ll notice “extra fees” and “cost” is being discussed frequently in this post. There’s a reason for that. Depending upon the SEO you hire, as well as the agency, it can be much more cost effective to have someone in-house. If you only have a few hundred dollars to spend on SEO each month (you need a better budget) you won’t be able to afford a quality, non-spammy agency. Whereas, a part-time in-house SEO can come in and clear/update what needs to be done. To top it off, most agencies charge a fee for extra communication and have the right to limit the amount of back-to-back communication (Upset? Re-read point #2). Rolling your chair down the hallway to Paul is a lot more cost effective in the long run.
6. The Heart
As much as agency employees put heart into everything they do, when you’re working for just one company, instead of several, you’re entire focus is dedicated to just that company. As long as you’re taken care of as an employee, you not only invest time, but put a lot of your own soul into the work you do. The trust factor is also much more credible from someone that comes into the office Monday-Friday, participates in group events, and attends each meeting.
7. The Data
If you have a team or specific employee managing your SEO in-house, you can usually afford extra tools to help get the job done. Third-party programs, like Authority Labs, can help you track all of your SEO efforts and calculate needed information to make informative SEO decisions based on data and goals.
You can track results by location, keywords (including now provided), competitors and maintain all of your reporting with one tool: AuthorityLabs. Having one tool to accomplish all of those tasks frees up a lot of an in-house SEOs time, so they can focus on analysis and updates.
Like tours? Authority Labs has a pretty cool one, guided by our favorite science guy, Bill Nye (just kidding). But really, take the tour and get ready to have your mind blown. Take it away, Bill!
Image Source: Pandawhale.com
