The agency vs. in-house SEO comparison is something that has been well covered from various angles in a number of SEO blog posts/articles/Reddit threads over the years. A quick Google search and you’ll find all you need in that department from a number of respected outlets and authoritative SEO professionals who have served time on both sides.
Sure, there’s still value in someone else chiming in with their own slant of comparison and steer on one versus the other. However, this won’t be the main angle I want to dissect within this piece, even if it inevitably becomes an inadvertent byproduct.
What I want to convey are some thoughts on the transition from agency to in-house SEO work. It’s something I’ve experienced during my career and I’d like to offer up some insights on what to prepare and expect if you’re migrating from an agency SEO setting, as many SEOs do. This won’t be company or industry-agnostic of course, though I hope some of these offerings come in handy in some settings.
As you may imagine, all our SEO knowledge, eye for a good strategy and relationship management skills learnt from the agency world certainly come into practice. There are no surprises there. What I want to hone in on are some of the nuances that may not yet be unearthed prior to moving in-house, and how these can be prepared for.
Relative Solititude
One thing to keep in mind when moving client-side is that as part of an individual acquisition or growth product, you may feel more “alone” than you would as an agency SEO.
Of course, you may end up being part of or leading an in-house SEO team made up of execs and consultants. Though this is different being at an SEO agency whose lifeblood and core purpose is SEO. Going from a workplace where you can bounce ideas off most of your colleagues whilst striving towards common goals is a notable difference to being part of one business unit among many.
This helps create the inevitable situations where you’ll have to “fight your corner” or “prove your worth” notably more if you’re client-side.
While it’s worth mentioning these somewhat cliched client-side mantras, I think if anything the cut and thrust agency SEO setting equips those who make the move to more than well enough to adapt to this. In fact, things like needing to provide detailed internal reports covering a variety of metrics to senior stakeholders should be second nature.
When I refer to solitude, it’s more to do with potential reduction of a perpetual learning curve and consequential excitement over SEO. This can certainly rhyme true if you’re leading a smaller team and spend more time on internal justification of purpose as alluded to above.
So what can be done? It may not always be readily accessible or within budget or resource, but there are options to help keep you on top of your SEO game when in house:
- Regularly engage with agencies and SEO software companies to keep yourself among the best minds in the industry (you’ll get courted regardless)
- Use the sometimes slower pace of in-house SEO work to read more SEO blogs and allow yourself more time for self-learning
- If appropriate, run internal SEO training seminars and thought leadership forums
- Use your (hopefully) newfound client-side privileges to attend SEO conferences and meetups
- Use your lunch break to catch up on all the joys of SEO Twitter
The degree of this “solitude” will of course depend on the digital maturity of a brand and how long SEO has been part of their fabric, though expect to experience it to an extent.
Time the Revelator
I alluded to this briefly in one of the bullet points above. While what previously were multiple clients are now directors, CMOs or CEOs, the streamlined nature of in-house SEO may see you shift your gears somewhat.
It’s true that you may be allowed more time on your hands to determine content and technical SEO strategy. Depending on the business size, you may also be given time allowances for familiarising yourself with different business units or a nuanced custom CMS. Beyond this phase, technical SEO recommendations may take a while to be pushed through dev and product teams as priorities are juggled at any given time.
This does create a need to adjust to a new pace, one that may be more staggered than your average agency environment. That’s not to say that urgent situations and tight deadlines don’t rear their heads from time to time. Like any job, you’ll take the rough with the smooth. Though in general, there’ll be a requirement to manage projects and milestones with other teammates and departments in a more phased, forensic and patient manner.
Take a site-wide technical SEO audit for example. Agency side, how many times have we delivered a technical SEO audit that was sold to cover every nook and cranny, only for implementation across the board to take longer than expected? We may get that adrenaline rush from completing a deliverable and sending it off into the ether, though issues arise in terms of measuring success and justifying ROI forecasts when you find it’s got stuck in development.
Perhaps fixes on links to insecure references in site category A where completed. However, you may have to wait a couple more months for them to be resolved in categories B, C or D as the respective teams who manage these areas of the site are focusing on a new product release.
Aspects of the client-side SEO role puts you in a prime position to understand implementation feasibility better and allows you to pick and choose your battles effectively to get the best return in results.
Referring back to the technical SEO example, focus on aspects of technical SEO you’ve flagged to the team where there is widespread consensus and buy-in on its level of priority and what fixing it may mean for organic performance. Work through these in manageable chunks, justifying your actions through previous successes that came from clear project-led implementation.
The Proverbial Driving Seat
Let’s assume that you’re the carbon copy of the demographic that I conjured up in my mind when coming to write this blog piece. This is of course the experienced agency SEO moving into a senior client-side role, be it SEO Manager, Team Lead, or Head of SEO.
The move to such a role will no doubt put you in a raised position of ownership over the SEO channel. A position whose actions and strategy are deemed directly tangible to all our familiar SEO KPIs and most importantly, the bottom line. There’s also the task of properly managing expectations with key stakeholders on how SEO works and how long success can take.
This can be daunting for some and ties us back to the overarching notion of repeated justification to senior stakeholders. What comes with this however is the freedom (within reason) to address areas of SEO you deem important, carve out your own strategy and inform best practice across the business, subject to internal buy-in.
This can be exciting for SEO purists and is all feasible once you’ve made your mark. What’s good to keep in mind however, in a caveat looping back to my “solitude” point, is that if say you’re allowed free reign over a previously non-existent SEO programme, you may have to become your own carrot and stick. If you’re lucky enough to have your own in-house SEO team to sing each other’s praises, then that’s great.
There is still however the need for self-starting motivation which can be difficult to sustain compared to the more feedback-inclined agency setting. This is a more personality-dependent consideration of the in-house world of course.
All this aside however, customising your own reports to suit your own needs and finding ways to justify your latest strategic venture or technical overhaul can be a fantastic driver.
Thanks for Making It This Far
The above commentaries, I hope, provide some useful insights and preparations for those considering moving client-side.
If that’s not the case then I will, perhaps predictably and in contradiction with my opening gambit, offer a very quick reflection in the form of platitudes to satisfy the client-side vs agency SEO debate.
In-House Argument
Despite my assumptions, I ultimately don’t know if the most popular trajectory for SEOs who cut their teeth in fast-paced agency settings is to eventually settle into client-side roles. However, in many ways it may be the logical step for those who want to hone in their focus and accrued expertise into one project and overarching goal and really own something.
Agency Argument
Of course on the flip side, there’s the age-old thesis that any good SEO should never stop learning and be at the forefront of their craft. Perhaps the multi-cliented, RFP-driven, spinning-many-plates world of agency SEO is better for this. The staff parties are probably more fun as well.
There you go, argument complete.