“Morning, Damon. I tried doing what I thought was smart and [hired] an in-house marketing guy, and it turns out that was a terrible idea. We ended up letting him leave with your book, so he doesn’t screw up the next person’s site.”
I received this message from a business owner looking to hire my company for SEO. The book he references is my guide to SEO titled “Outrank,” which I give away for free at FreeSEObook.com.
I understand where this entrepreneur was coming from. On the surface, it sounds nice to have a staff member whose sole purpose is to up your online rankings and conversions. It might even sound more cost-effective to invest in an employee rather than sending money out to a third party.
Table of Contents
In-House vs. Outsource: What’s the Better Deal?
As economical as hiring an in-house SEO sounds, this cost comparison chart shows that outsourcing SEO to an agency is the better bargain.
| In-house Employee | SEO Agency | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary/Annual fee | $50,000 per year (salary) | $36,000 (annual fee) |
| Payroll costs | $600 per year (taxes, health insurance, recruiting and training, etc.) | n/a |
| Hardware (computer, monitor, workstation, etc.) | $1,000 (one time cost) | n/a |
| Software (website auditing) | $800 per year | n/a |
| Software (rate tracking) | $800 per year | n/a |
| Training/Learning Curve | $1,000 per year* | n/a |
| Total (First Year) | $54,200 | $36,000 |
| Total (Subsequent Years) | $53,200 (minus one-time hardware costs) | $36,000 |
*Based on the 2023 Training Industry Report, the average annual training cost per employee is $954
Additional Costs
The table above captures costs that are relatively easy to quantify, but consider these added costs.
Copy/Content Writing
It’s a rare in-house SEO who can do it all. They may be a whiz with website development, Google algorithms and analytics, keywords, backlinks, and more, but can they write?
If your SEO can’t write compelling website copy, press releases, blogs, product descriptions, white papers, etc., you may end up hiring a freelancer to handle all of this. That means even more costs.
On the other hand, a good SEO agency will have a dedicated team that specializes in all forms of content and knows how to engage your target audience.
Opportunity Cost
An experienced SEO agency will have been running campaigns for businesses of all types and sizes for years. But it will be a rare in-house SEO that has this kind of experience—and a full-on unicorn if they have deep experience but don’t charge you a fortune.
More than likely, your in-house SEO won’t have “done it all,” so they’ll need to get smart while on the time clock. That means that you’re paying them while they improve their skills and potentially miss opportunities that a seasoned SEO agency will help you seize.
Are you comfortable paying for someone’s trial-and-error learning curve? Because chances are, by the time they master their craft, you could already have an ROI with an agency. Every day you lag behind in SEO is a day when your competitors are entrenching themselves in those page 1 positions.
Hiring an SEO agency just might be the solution you’re looking for to help you reach your growth goals quicker while protecting your bottom line.
