Curious about the benefits of hiring an SEO or in-house search marketer vs. paying an agency or consultant? Looking for answers as to which solution is right for your business? Part 1 of this 6 part Ultimate Guide to In House SEO delves into who is bringing SEO in house and why, the potential costs of bringing SEO In House, and the advantages and disadvantages to having SEO in house.
Let’s delve in, shall we?
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1 :: Who’s Going In-House and Why?
On the large vs. small company in-house SEO argument, most of the people who I know that have been in house for some time, namely Marshall Simmonds (About.com, NYTimes), Melanie Mitchell (AOL, Folio Investing), Derrick Wheeler (Microsoft), Jessica Bowman (Yahoo, Business.com), are/were, as evidenced, at large companies.
Also, this awesome list of In-House SEO people from 2007 reveals that most work for large companies, like HP, CitySearch, Walt Disney, or at least companies we’ve all heard of (there’s also some great conversation in the comments on In-House vs. Agency). Granted, those people are probably easier to find.
Now, let’s take a look at this data from SEOmoz.org’s 2008 SEO Industry Survey Results. SEOmoz polled over 3000 people who, it turns out, are overwhelmingly in-house. When asked “Which of the following best describes the search marketing role you currently fulfill?” 46% answered In-House Search Marketer, 28% answered Consult Search Marketer, and 27% answered Both. Including the “Both” answer, this puts people with In-House responsibilities at 73%. 150 Cartoon Classic [Popeye Vol. 8] full movie
As for the company size of these SEOmoz polltakers, most (23%) are a force of one. Beyond that, the large bulk (collectively 52%) are at small companies with less than 50 employees. Only 5% are at companies over 500 people.
As the workload size: 40% have one person at the company working primarily on Search Marketing; 17% have either two people; and another 17% have no one working primarily on search marketing. This supports the position that one person (or, very few people) does it all.
When I polled the in-house SEO audience at SMX West recently, most people were at companies with less than 1,000 employees.
That said, are more small companies looking for in-house SEO people these days? Hard to say.
This Jupiter Media report
from 2004 says that “52% of advertisers said they would manage 100% of their 2005 spending on both paid inclusion and organic SEO in house”.
More recently, this 2009 MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Guide shows that 74% of survey participants “Use of SEO Vendors” was in-house (vs. 26% vendors) in 2006. That’s two percent higher than the 72% 2007 and 2008 findings. Company size is not indicated in the survey, but the trend indicates no considerable movement, although the numbers are much higher than the (different, but related) Jupiter Media survey from 5 years prior.
It seems readily apparent that larger companies are already on the bandwagon, and many smaller companies are indeed becoming increasingly involved—likely with one-person search marketing teams covering SEO as a part of their overall duties.
Now, how do you know if setting up SEO in-house is right for your company? Let’s delve deeper!
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2 :: Is an In-House SEO worth the Cost?
Some may argue that hiring an in-house SEO can be more costly than hiring a consultant or agency, while others are of the opinion that contracting can be more expensive than going in-house. They’re both right, but multiple variables determine their respective arguments.
You can expect an SEO consultant or agency to charge anywhere from a few hundred dollars to upwards of $90K per project. Or, if you’re hiring them on a monthly basis, you should expect anything from $500 a month to $10K or more a month. Throw in PPC campaigns, and you’re likely to tack on even more costs.
Internet marketers’ salaries can range from $30K per year to $250K per year or more. A wide discrepancy indeed. (More on that in PART 2: What does the In-House SEO Organization look like?)
Sometimes you might get more people and more tasks done for your money with a contractor than with one person in-house. If you’re looking at short-term SEO results, this could very well suffice. If you need long-term in house solutions however, I highly recommend looking at the advantages of an in house SEO found further in this article.
The cost points below are just a few – please feel free to provide more reasons, one way or the other, in the comments. I use “might” below because, as Aidan Beanland pointed out to me on Facebook, considering in-house SEO over contracting “would have to be case-by-case, I don’t think you can generalize. Depends on the type of business model, value per acquisition etc”.
When it might be too costly:
- If business does not have an online core or, if you target things people aren’t searching for online.
- If your business does not have a solid marketing plan for SEO (and essentially SEM) to tie into.
- If short term search traffic gains are all you’re after.
When it might be a cost advantage:
- If you have a large company with multiple businesses online.
- If you’re after long-term search traffic gains. It takes more than an audit to get to this. Getting someone engrained in ongoing processes, underlying structures, and cross-functional teams is imperative.
- If you have a full marketing team that is missing search marketing or the organic SEO part of search marketing
- If you’re paying more than $60-$80K/year on audits
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3 :: In House SEO Advantages and Disadvantages
When it comes to what you get with an in-house SEO vs. a contractor, in-house for large companies (especially ones with multiple brands) usually makes absolute sense. There is always something to keep on top of, whether it’s upkeep on the search-friendliness of underlying systems that make long term search engine optimization work, educating new teams and individuals, or just making sure you’re staying on top of the competition. A large company with an online business that doesn’t have search traffic acquisition as part of their marketing strategy either has low search volume for their product or services online (which could potentially be changed), or is missing a crucial part of their marketing mix.
For smaller companies, consider these things:
- Cost vs. Return: What return do you expect to get in terms of dollars? (Stay tuned for determining opportunity in PART 4 of this guide: What you’re expected to get done and how to do it.) Is there enough long-term opportunity to go after to justify bringing someone on full-time?
- How many moving parts do you have?: Are you always adding new content, updating site templates, making new online relationships? An audit, and follow-up contracting when needed, might be more cost-effective, unless you are at a point where you are heavily dependent on your contractor and need their undivided attention to get things done effectively. Contractors will often have multiple clients and be able to give you some of their time, where as in-house SEOs are yours 40 hours a week, and can build the relationships internally to ensure key players are on-board and well educated. They would also ensure that internal moving parts are well-oiled for staying on top of your competition at all times.
- Buy-in: Are any/all product managers, marketers, content designers, developers, writers, and most importantly, executives at the company ready and willing to play their part in supporting and playing their part in search traffic acquisition?
Some of this is vague, but if you’re still not sure, ping Jessica Bowman, who can help you with your specific situation.
For larger companies – consider these advantages & disadvantages:
Potential advantages of hiring in-house for large companies
- Relationships (people): Internal SEOs gain trust and build constant relationships with key players. Getting people in cross-functional teams to implement takes trust and a sense of consistency.
- Intimacy (product & processes): Being immersed inside the company gives internal SEOs a greater understanding of how processes and platforms inside the company work, as well as a day-to-day engagement with the product and its customers’ needs.
- Long Term ROI Apocalypse Now psp : Internal SEOs will often have a better ROI over the long term. Depending on the amount of work that needs to be done to get your search traffic program up and running, don’t expect immediate returns. But do expect your in-house SEO to be worth many times more than you’re paying them once the system is running and implementation is constant and successful.
- Long term function: Oftentimes companies hire agencies or consultants for audits. They implement all or part of the audit, sometimes with continued consultancy from the agency or consultant, and generally the relationship eventually thins out or ends. But the organization and its product are a dynamically and constantly renewing mechanism, and as the org changes and updates are made to the product and its online relationships, the educated key players move, and the SEO implemented becomes lost or overwritten, which will result in losing your competitive edge. In short, SEO is not a once-and-done operation (unless it’s a once-and-done project). Otherwise, it should be an ongoing part of your marketing mix.
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Potential Disadvantages of hiring in-house for large companies:
- Cost
: Be careful not to go overboard. Determine what your search traffic opportunity looks like in terms of dollars (stay tuned for determining opportunity in PART 4 of this guide: What You’re Expected to Get Done and How to Do it), and then figure out if it’s worth more than your SEO costs (for the pay-rate of in-house SEOs, see Part 2 of this Guide: What does the In House SEO Organization look like?)
- Short term projects: If you need immediate, short-term results, hire a consultant or agency. When you bring SEO in house, much of the initial work is around forming processes and relationships, optimizing content management systems, building the reporting needed, and basically setting up the system for long term results.
- Cutting Edge SEO: As with everything, this is a generalization – there are plenty of cutting edge in-house SEOs. But beware that being in-house does mean that much of your time is spent on politics, systems, education, and running that well-oiled machine. Oftentimes this leaves less time for staying on top of the very latest SEO trends, especially when it comes to practice with hands-on implementation. The larger the company, the more likely you’ll be recommending rather than doing.
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More resources on when to hire In House SEO vs. a Consultant:
- Outsource SEO vs. In-House SEO Ping Pong Playa download
- Bringing SEO In-House – Insights from the Experts
- In-House SEO vs. Out-House SEO Shortbus move
- Five Ways to Determine Whether You Should Bring Search Marketing In House
- Bringing Search Engine Marketing In-House
- SEO Bringing it In-House vs Outsourcing
- www.seoinhouse.com
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Other parts of the Ultimate Guide to In-House SEO:
- Part 2: What Does the In-House SEO Organization Look Like?
- Part 3 (upcoming): How to Hire In-House SEO and What They Get Paid
- Part 4 (upcoming): Who Does In-House SEO Work with and How?
- Part 5 (upcoming): What In-House SEO is Expected to Get Done and How to do it
- Part 6 (upcoming): In-House SEO Risks and the Hard Times (This Ain’t Always Easy)
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:24 pm
You have shared with us the benefits of hiring an SEO,also given advantages and disadvantages in it.
March 19th, 2009 at 6:58 am
Laura - great article. One key advantage of an in-house is passion and committment. While an agancy can be, there is noting more important than, as Terry Cox calls it, “401k effect” where the person personally gains when they are successful as part of the organization. We are finding this is one of the key reasons mid-size companies are brining these resources inhouse. Maybe a poll about “why” they are bringing it in-house.
May 26th, 2009 at 7:27 am
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January 13th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
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