SEO plays a pivotal role in enhancing online visibility and driving business growth. When it comes to execution, one of the most significant decisions is choosing between hiring an in-house SEO specialist or team and working with an agency.
Choosing the wrong approach can result in more than just wasted time and money—it could mean falling behind competitors, targeting the wrong priorities, or missing out on growth opportunities. Whether it’s failing to build long-term value with in-house SEO or lacking the agility to pivot quickly with an agency, the right choice can influence your business’s trajectory.
Having experience in 3 in-house roles and now in an agency SEO role, I’ve observed that each approach offers its own set of strengths and challenges. Determining the best fit ultimately depends on your business’s unique requirements.
In this article, I’ll draw from my experience to compare in-house and agency SEO, examining their scope of work, strategies, costs, and overall effectiveness. Whether you’re looking for flexibility, specialised expertise, or cost efficiency, this guide will help you weigh the pros and cons of each option.
What’s the Difference Between In-House and Agency SEO?
1. Scope of Work
In-house SEO contributors are embedded within an organisation, allowing them to handle a variety of tasks—including those outside the typical SEO scope. This often means pivoting quickly between projects and taking on ad-hoc requests from other departments. However, their responsibilities can vary depending on their seniority and the team’s role within the company structure, which can either broaden or limit their scope.
For example, experienced in-house SEOs might oversee multiple domains across various business units within a brand. They’re also likely to manage one-off projects involving complex tasks, such as site migrations or revamps, that require close collaboration with developers.
In contrast, agencies work within a predefined scope of work established at the start of a campaign. The complexity of tasks agencies handle depends on the type of campaign. Typically, they would have the resources and expertise to take on work comparable to that of a senior in-house SEO. However, one-off projects like migrations or large-scale site revamps are usually taken up separately as additional contracts.
2. Strategies
Certain types of SEO work better with in-house teams, while others align more naturally with agencies. For example, programmatic SEO (pSEO), which relies on frequent collaboration across internal teams, tends to perform better in an in-house setting. On the other hand, agencies excel in providing strategic consultations for businesses exploring new SEO opportunities, scaling efforts quickly, and managing one-off projects.
3. Workflow
Agencies bring the benefit of well-refined workflows, developed through years of experience across various industries. The years of refinement allow these processes to be more up-to-date and comprehensive in tackling all aspects of SEO from technical to on-page, to off-page. These workflows are often supported by advanced tools and well-established processes designed to minimise inefficiencies and ensure consistent results. For instance, agencies frequently use project management software and automated reporting tools to streamline communication and deliverables, enabling them to stay on top of campaigns even when managing multiple clients.
In contrast, in-house specialists may need to build their own workflows from scratch if none was previously established. While this allows for customization to fit the company’s specific needs, it will also require rounds of iteration and alignment with other internal teams before things can start running smoothly. Additionally, these workflows often depend heavily on the expertise and experience of the individual SEO specialist or team, which can lead to variability in outcomes.
4. Cost
Cost is one of the key differentiators between in-house and agency SEO. Building an in-house team involves more than just salaries – it requires investment in SEO tools, ongoing training, and potentially additional resources like content writers and developers to support campaigns. Beyond these expenses, brands should also factor in the opportunity cost of delays. Recruiting and onboarding an in-house team takes time, during which valuable SEO opportunities may be missed.
On the other hand, agencies will be more able to offer deliverables for a wider range of budgets from conservative to large-scale. Outside of the contract fees, there are no other costs with agencies as they would already have access to the various tools, learning material, and resources needed to successfully execute on SEO requirements.
Comparing In-house and Agency SEO Pricing in Singapore
From my experience, these are the price ranges typical in the industry. Agencies often start at S$3,000 for advanced SEO campaigns and go beyond S$4,000 for enterprise-level campaigns requiring lots of customisation and complex problem solving. For in-house setups, costs vary significantly depending on team structure. Individual contributors range between S$2,500-S$5,000, with pricing heavily influenced by seniority and the complexity of SEO challenges they’ve handled.
Building a basic team requires at least S$10,000 as a baseline—enough for around two specialists and potentially one intern. However, businesses aiming for a more robust team, including dedicated developers and content writers for full-on execution, should expect costs to far exceed this figure.
For a detailed breakdown of SEO pricing and costs in Singapore, visit our SEO Pricing Guide.
Pros of In-House SEO
1. Encompasses More Specific SEO Strategies
Similar to agencies, specialists in-house can cover nearly all types of SEO, from technical to content-driven campaigns, and even link building but have the advantage of covering even more specific strategies. As mentioned earlier, one specific type of SEO that tends to work better in-house is Programmatic SEO (pSEO), which relies on constant collaboration with internal teams and access to proprietary systems. When done right, in-house teams can effectively manage the complexities and demands across the different types of SEO to quickly match different business needs.
2. Greater Scope of Work Flexibility
In-house SEO teams often handle tasks outside of traditional SEO. From my own experience in 2 in-house roles at small to mid-sized companies, this often meant supporting SEM (Google Ads), content marketing, and product-related initiatives.
During big sales periods like 11.11, Christmas, and New Year, SEO often meant collaborating with marketing teams on one-off campaigns. These campaigns typically involved commissioning developers to build new landing pages. Here, SEO would ensure these pages followed best practices—like proper metadata, clean URLs, and optimised page speed. This also acted as another layer of quality control and usability testing to ensure the pages met their goal – usually to drive more sales.
In contrast, SEO agencies often don’t collaborate at this level for such campaigns unless these directly impact the sections of the site they manage.
3. Alignment with Business Metrics
In-house SEOs often prioritise metrics directly tied to company performance, such as revenue and conversions. While agencies can help clients achieve the same kinds of targets, their campaigns typically focus on SEO-specific metrics like organic traffic and keyword rankings. While these improvements in rankings and traffic often correlate with increases in revenue and other broader business goals, the difference in metrics will also shape what kind of work gets prioritised.
Brands with long sales funnels, usually requiring complex attribution models, often amplify the importance of aligning SEO with broader business metrics. In these scenarios, in-house SEOs typically collaborate with analytics teams to track how organic traffic supports customer journeys, whether that’s nurturing prospects over months or setting the stage for larger transactions.
In one of my in-house roles, I’d often be working on the same pages for a long period of time. Because the KPI for everyone under the marketing team (including SEO) was leads, this meant that SEO didn’t stop at just getting those pages to rank.
Once rankings were achieved, I’d shift my focus to optimising those pages further to drive leads. Often, this meant finding more quick-wins with our existing pages by testing CTA buttons and adjusting headers. Other times, this meant tackling more involved updates, such as reworking the page’s structure if the proper resources were available.
Cons of In-House SEO
1. Hiring Challenges
Finding skilled SEO professionals, especially for senior roles, can be a difficult process. SEO requires a wide range of skills that span front-end development, content strategy, UX, and data analysis, among others. Most SEOs tend to be strong in a few areas, but it’s rare to find someone who excels across the board.
This often causes many companies in Singapore to struggle with hiring for SEO roles and often have these positions open for extended periods of time. As a result, some companies look to hire remote talent. However, this comes with its own unique challenges – especially for positions that require managerial skills and frequent collaboration with other departments typical for senior in-house roles.
2. Resource Constraints
Beyond hiring, in-house teams often need to factor in the additional resources to execute their strategies effectively. In an ideal scenario, the SEO team would have content and development support integrated within their internal team. However, this is often not the case. Time and resources from these supporting teams are often shared across the broader marketing departments and other functions within a company. The level of priority given to SEO can either expedite or create additional roadblocks when implementing in-house.
For example, during major sales periods or campaigns, resources like content writers and developers are often redirected to meet immediate marketing demands. SEO initiatives, particularly those focused on long-term growth, tend to be put on hold until the campaign ends. Similarly, tech-related SEO improvements can become challenging when companies follow rigid quarterly planning. If there’s no strong integration between SEO and development teams, these improvements often face indefinite delays—or worse, are shelved entirely.
3. Narrower Breadth of Experience
Unlike agencies that gain SEO insights from working across virtually every industry, in-house SEO is focused narrowly on one. This lack of exposure can make it harder to solve problems creatively or approach challenges with the same breadth of experience.
For companies looking to do SEO in-house, this also adds complexity to hiring. If an in-house specialist doesn’t have much experience outside of one industry, they may find it harder to adapt to the nuances of a different industry/market.
Pros of Agency SEO
1. Scalability of Projects
Agencies excel in scaling SEO efforts – given the proper opportunity. For example, content scaling can provide a competitive edge, especially for businesses aiming to grow quickly, capture new markets and dominate a niche. Producing and optimising a large volume of content in a short time frame is where agencies’ resources and processes shine.
International SEO is another area where scale matters. Expanding into new markets often poses capacity challenges for in-house SEOs, particularly solo contributors. Whereas, agencies can allocate resources accordingly to tackle these extra requirements
2. Access to Specialized Resources
Agencies bring access to a wide range of tools and expertise that many in-house teams can’t match. This includes developers, content writers, and SEO specialists who can focus solely on SEO. For businesses, this means campaigns can be executed more efficiently without the need to onboard or train additional team members. This is particularly beneficial for SMEs that may have limited access to these resources to begin with.
Tools are another advantage agencies offer. Many already have access to premium software for, among others, keyword research, competitor analysis, forecasting, auditing and reporting. These tools can be costly for a company to invest in individually. Agencies also tend to have the budget for new tools, which helps them optimise workflows further. When changes in SEO happen—like AI overviews—agencies are usually the first to adapt and gain actionable insights because they have the tools to do so.
3. Broader Experience
Agencies work across multiple industries, giving them exposure to a wide range of SEO challenges and strategies. This experience helps refine approaches and spot patterns that might not be as obvious to in-house teams working within a single niche.
This isn’t limited to a single person’s individual campaigns as most agencies will have some level of information sharing. At FPD, our SEO team regularly shares insights and breakthrough findings – enabling us to learn vicariously from the experiences of others. By pooling these insights, we routinely update our playbook and build a deeper understanding of what consistently works for SEO..
4. Cost-Effective for Smaller Budgets
For businesses with limited budgets, agencies can be a more practical choice than building an in-house SEO team. As alluded to earlier, hiring in-house comes with significant overheads—salaries, training, and the cost of tools or supporting roles like developers and content writers. Agencies already have these resources in place, which allows them to provide SEO services without any added expenses.
This is particularly useful for SMEs or businesses testing SEO for the first time as agencies can deliver results on a more conservative budget and offer the flexibility to scale efforts as needs evolve.
Cons of Agency SEO
1. Fixed Scope of Work
Agencies operate within a defined scope outlined in their contracts, which ensures clarity for both sides. However, this structure can also limit flexibility. Tasks outside the agreed scope typically aren’t covered and may require a new agreement or separate project. For businesses with rapidly changing priorities, this can introduce delays, especially if the additional work needs to be approved and re-scoped
2. Less Influence Over Execution
As external partners, agencies don’t have the same level of integration with a business’s internal teams. This introduces challenges when delivering work that aligns perfectly with branding or technical needs. Implementation often depends on internal teams, and if priorities don’t match up, it can lead to delays or incomplete execution. While we can ensure clear communication and campaign management, there are still limitations compared to the control and direct access that in-house teams have.
3. KPIs on SEO Metrics
Agencies typically set KPIs based on SEO-specific metrics such as organic traffic and keyword rankings. While these metrics are important and typically correlate with broader business goals like revenue or leads, they may not always align directly with a business’ north-star metrics.
For example, an agency might deliver significant traffic growth, but that traffic may not always match the expectation for leads or sales. This difference in focus can sometimes make it harder for agencies to tie their results directly to a business’s bottom line.
Contrasting with my previous example, to meet KPIs agencies can often build more high-traffic pages that drive conversions because they have the resources to do so. Alternatively, they might focus on finding opportunities to get existing pages to rank better or bring in traffic that’s more likely to convert.
That said, getting traffic to convert typically falls under Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) rather than SEO. Depending on how the agency’s campaign is structured, the focus might lean more towards improving visibility and rankings (SEO) or optimising pages for better conversion rates (CRO).
How to Decide Between In-House and Agency SEO
1. Define Your Projects
The nature and timeline of your SEO projects play a key role in deciding between in-house and agency support. Specific strategies like programmatic SEO (pSEO) often require significant investment in proprietary data and specialised manpower. These types of strategies benefit from having SEO integrated directly into the organisation, allowing for smoother coordination and alignment with business goals.
In contrast, one-off projects or dynamic initiatives that are likely to evolve in scope are better suited to agencies. Agencies can quickly adapt to changes in direction or scale resources to meet shifting demands. This makes them particularly effective for businesses that need flexibility, whether it’s for tackling complex site migrations, launching large-scale campaigns, or exploring new SEO opportunities without the time investment of building an in-house team.
2. Assess Your Resources
Your manpower needs and how they might change over time should guide this decision. Agencies can easily scale resources to match a campaign’s demands, making them ideal for projects that require flexibility. In contrast, building an in-house team requires significant investment—not just in hiring but also in integrating new team members into your organisation. For businesses with fast-changing requirements or limited capacity to onboard new talent, agencies offer a level of adaptability that’s hard to match.
3. Align on KPIs
Defining a clear north-star metric is important for aligning SEO efforts with business goals. This could be anything from conversions or revenue to organic traffic, depending on your priorities. Once that’s established, you can work backwards to determine the strategies and resources needed to achieve it.
For instance, if lead generation is the primary objective, traffic-based KPIs might fall short unless supported by a robust attribution model. When choosing the agency route, it’s best to set metrics tied to conversions or ROI at the onset to ensure everyone is on the same page. Regular reviews and adjustments help keep the strategy aligned as campaigns progress and priorities evolve.
4. Consider ROI
ROI for SEO depends on how well it aligns with the KPIs set at the start. Misalignment often happens when agencies focus on metrics like rankings or traffic, while businesses track conversions or revenue. This disconnect can create friction and make it harder to evaluate the real impact of SEO.
In some cases, especially for businesses that use SEO as an “assist” channel, complex attribution is needed to link SEO efforts to business metrics. For these businesses, SEO plays a role in moving users further down the funnel or preparing them to convert at a later stage. Without proper attribution models, it can be challenging to capture the full value of these efforts.
Conclusion: Finding the Right Fit
Choosing between in-house and agency SEO comes down to understanding your business’s priorities and goals. In-house teams are ideal for businesses that value scope flexibility, close collaboration, and alignment with broader company objectives. On the other hand, agencies offer the scalability, specialised resources, and adaptability needed for dynamic or resource-intensive projects.
The right choice depends on how your projects are structured, the KPIs you prioritise, and the resources you can commit to SEO. Evaluating these factors will help you make an informed decision that supports your long-term business growth.
If you’re unsure which option is the best fit, First Page can help you weigh your options and develop a strategy tailored to your needs. Whether you’re exploring agency support or need guidance in building a winning SEO strategy, reach out to us today to take the next step in achieving your SEO goals.
