In-house SEO gives you full control but is expensive, slow to scale, and hard to hire for. Outsourcing SEO to an agency gives you speed, deep expertise, and flexibility — often at a lower cost than building a team. Most SaaS companies win with a hybrid model: keep strategy, brand content, and competitive insights in-house, while outsourcing execution-heavy tasks like link building, technical SEO, and content production. Choose based on your growth stage, budget, and how fast you need results.
If you’ve ever watched an action movie, you probably know this scene: The team is gearing up for a high-stakes mission, and someone asks, “Do we call in the superheroes with (slightly extraterrestrial powers), or can we handle this one on our own?”
Deciding how to approach search engine optimization for a growing B2B or SaaS company feels oddly similar to deciding who’s on your A-Team.
Do you give your own squad the keys, using the resources you already have? Or is it better to call in specialists with a knack for producing major ROI in organic search?
When growth is the mission, your SEO strategy is one of the most critical calls you’ll make. You need it to drive inbound traffic, fuel lead generation opportunities, and keep revenue figures trending up.
In this guide, we’ll unpack the trade-offs of in-house versus outsourced SEO services, share costs and concerns, and help you decide how to build a sustainable strategy.
The Role of SEO in SaaS Growth
SEO is your SaaS growth engine. Not only does it bring traffic to your site and services, it also brings the right traffic—consistently.
While paid ads can give you a short-term power up, they don’t scale like organic does. Perhaps that’s why in a recent Databox survey, 70% of marketers viewed SEO campaigns as the clear winner when compared to PPC for driving sales.
For sustainable growth, you need a solid content strategy, authoritative link building, sharp technical SEO, and the analytics to steer it all.
How Does SEO Impact SaaS Growth?
SEO isn’t just about showing up in search results. Instead, it’s your ticket to building long-term visibility, authority in your space, and a steady pipeline of high-intent leads.
Even though other marketing channels can deliver quick wins (at a high cost), SEO helps you attract qualified leads who are already looking for what you offer.
For SaaS companies, SEO informs and impacts four key areas of your growth:
- Content strategy: Ranking for high-intent keywords through blog posts, FAQ sections, and product pages builds trust and drives conversions. Become the answer that buyers are looking for.
- Link building: Trustworthy backlinks signal to search engines that your website is credible, which pushes you higher in rankings.
- Technical SEO: Optimizing your site speed, schema markup, and crawlability helps your content reach peak performance.
- Analytics: Regularly analyzing which efforts drive traffic and conversions ensures your strategy delivers ROI.
Investing in SEO gives your SaaS the edge to grow faster, rank higher, and outlast the competition.
Ready to see SEO results faster? Let’s chat!
Schedule a CallIn-House SEO for SaaS: Pros and Cons
Building an in-house SEO team offers full control and deep integration with your brand, but it comes with a few trade-offs, too.
Let’s take a closer look so that you can make an informed choice that works for your stage of business.
When In-House SEO Makes Sense
- Existing team assets: If you already have a vast marketing team with SEO know-how, the groundwork is all set. Align this crew with your broader marketing goals for quick, collaborative wins in content and search.
- Business dependencies: When SEO is critical to your business model (like when organic search drives 70%+ of your leads), it’s important to keep your finger on the pulse 24/7. Dedicating a full-time role is crucial when you can’t afford gaps in time, talent, or attention.
- Budget is booming: Have the internal funds to invest in hiring multiple specialists? The SEO world is your oyster.
- Full control over execution and strategy. Relying on an in-house team ensures that every decision aligns with your branding, mission, organizational goals, and stakeholder opinions.
Challenges of Hiring In-House SEO Teams
- Expensive: The cost of adding full-time SEO specialists, content writers, link builders, and technical SEO experts adds up. In startup cultures, it’s more likely to have one or two people who juggle lots of different skills at one time.
- Slower to scale: It can take months to recruit, onboard, and train new employees under company protocol. Because SEO trends and algorithms are notoriously fast-moving, you might not have time to wait.
- Tooling costs: Valuable SEO tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, and SurferSEO streamline operations, but individual licenses can exceed $12k yearly.
- High turnover risks: If your SEO manager leaves, it’s easy to lose momentum. And on the HR side, backfilling roles to save productivity costs corporations more than $1.8 trillion a year.
- Limited expertise: Bandwidth and burnout? Totally realistic concerns. One person usually can’t cover content, technical SEO, link-building, and analytics.
Recap: When is In-House SEO the Right Play?
Still on the fence? Let’s bring it all together. Having SEO professionals as part of your internal team is a sensible choice when:
- You’re an established SaaS team with inbound marketing resources safely pre-built into your annual budget.
- You’re prioritizing SEO as a major driver for growth and lead generation, or you already depend on these things for the bulk of your buyer pipeline.
- You’re approved to hire 2–3 specialists to cover multiple areas of SEO, without sacrificing expertise or risking employee turnover.
Outsourcing SEO for SaaS: Pros and Cons
For SaaS startups or lean marketing teams, partnering with an SEO agency is your golden ticket. You can accelerate results while preserving limited resources—all without compromising on your biggest SEO and visibility goals.
When SEO Outsourcing Is the Better Choice
- Time is money: Need results fast and can’t afford long hiring cycles? Passing the baton to a qualified, results-driven agency gives you upfront wins and can produce high return on investment. Many agencies can show tangible impact within 3–6 months.
- Specialization is a must: Does your current marketing team lack SEO expertise? In a world that seems to be constantly changing (we’re looking at you, Google algorithms), you need specialists who “walk the walk” on a daily basis. (Plus, specialization also unlocks potential in up-and-coming opportunities, like generative SEO for AI-powered search visibility.)
- Scaling depends on it: Outsourcing makes sense when you want to scale SEO efforts without increasing internal headcount. This scenario can be a win-win for both you and the contractor or agency you hire.
- Methodology matters: An SEO guru knows which platforms are worth their weight. When you want access to SEO tools, analytics, and AI-driven content workflows—without the risk of testing them yourself—an SEO holds the keys.
Potential Downsides of Outsourcing SEO
- Control: With an outside agency, you do have less direct control over the execution of your day-to-day SEO playbook. That’s not to say that you don’t have oversight, but you’re trusting another captain to steer the ship.
- Vetting: Invest time upfront doing your research, holding interviews, and making sure your new agency gets you. Vet SEO teams based on their track record, case studies, and alignment with your goals.
- Metrics: Not all SEO agencies are created equal. Some focus on vanity metrics like traffic, leaving you without the leads or revenue you’re after.
Recap: When is Outsourced SEO the Right Play?
For SaaS startups or lean marketing teams, partnering with an SEO agency can accelerate results in a shorter time while saving internal resources for other big-picture projects. Outsourcing makes sense when:
- You’re a smaller marketing team or startup, and you lack in-house SEO expertise. At the same time, you know that experienced specialists are your gateway to better SEO potential.
- You need results quickly but don’t have the resources to hire and onboard staff internally.
- You want the flexibility to scale efforts up or down depending on your growth phase.
The Hybrid Model: Best of Both Worlds
For many SaaS companies, the sweet spot isn’t choosing between in-house or outsourced SEO—it’s blending the two. A hybrid model lets you keep strategy close to home while tapping into agency support for specialized, heavy lifting.
A hybrid approach offers flexibility, cost-efficiency, and speed without sacrificing alignment with your SaaS brand’s long-term goals.
How to make it work:
✔️Internalize brand-centric SEO: An in-house SEO leader should be in the driver’s seat when it comes to aligning efforts with your business goals and in-depth product roadmap.
✔️ Outsource execution: Partner with an agency for more manual steps like blog content production, technical SEO updates, local SEO, or link-building. By doing so, you can focus on broader industry trends while protecting any SEO performance that relies on time and tasks.
✔️ Use agencies for audits and scaling: Bring in experts for technical audits or to scale campaigns quickly—especially when algorithm updates or bandwidth crunches hit.
With the hybrid model, you get the best of both worlds: strategic oversight from your team and the horsepower of a specialized SEO expert.
Ready to get the best of both worlds? Let’s chat!
Schedule a CallCost Comparison: In-House vs SEO Agency
Handling SEO in-house is a bit like throwing a party all on your own—you’re shopping, cooking, decorating, managing the playlist, and somehow still trying to be the host with the most.
Outsourcing? That’s like bringing in a qualified party planner and caterer like a VIP. They handle the heavy lifting while you focus on making sure the vibe (and growth) is just right.
Outsourcing can be the more economical route, especially when you factor in the hidden costs of full-time hires, recruitment fees, and software licenses.
The extra bandwidth you gain back from working with a trusted SEO agency means that you can stay focused on the bigger picture, including product and strategy.
Use this side-by-side cost breakdown to see how the numbers stack up.
| SEO Expense | In-House SEO Team | Outsourced SEO Agency |
| SEO Specialist Salary | $80K – $120K/year | $4K – $10K/month |
| SEO Content Writer | $60K/year | Included in package |
| Link Building | $3K – $5K/month | Included in package |
| SEO Tools (Semrush, Ahrefs, Surfer) | $1K/month | Included in package |
| Training Costs | $3K/year | None |
| Total Cost | $150K – $200K/year | $50K – $120K/year |
Ready to build a scalable SEO engine? Let’s chat!
Schedule a CallSEO Tasks to Outsource vs Keep In-House
The good news? Winning the SEO game doesn’t necessitate an “all-or-nothing” choice. You can succeed with SEO by finding striking the right balance between high-impact internal activities, smart outside execution, and the peace of mind that comes from both.
Divvy up your tasks in a way that maximizes your impact:
Best Tasks to Keep In-House
- Overall strategy & alignment with business goals: Your internal team always knows the business best, so keep overall marketing strategy and KPIs closer to home.
- Competitive analysis: Evaluate competitors, then identify more outreach opportunities by using the internal data you have at your fingertips.
- Brand-specific content creation: Use internal teams to create copy that reflects your unique voice, tone, and product positioning.
Best Tasks to Outsource
- Link building and digital PR: An outsourced SEO team has the industry relationships and tools to do this kind of networking at scale.
- Technical SEO audits & fixes: Having deep subject matter expertise on every SEO project ensures accuracy. It also keeps you compliant with search engine algorithms and the latest SEO trends.
- Content production at scale: Keyword research, blog posts, landing pages, and other inbound content can easily be outsourced to experienced SEO professionals. If volume is a top priority of your marketing strategy, call in reinforcements.
- AI-powered SEO execution: SEO agencies can offer advanced tools and automated AI workflows that improve speed and performance without adding headcount.
SaaStorm vs In-House SEO: What You Get
Curious how outsourcing stacks up against building an in house SEO team?
Take a look at what you’re really getting with each approach, including what we offer at SaaStorm:
| Feature | SaaStorm SEO Agency | In-House SEO Team |
| Expertise | Team of specialists | 1-2 SEO hires |
| Speed to Results | Immediate impact | 3-6 months onboarding |
| Cost Efficiency | $4K – $10K/month | $150K – $200K/year |
| Tools & Software | Included ($1K+/month value) | Paid separately |
| Scalability | Scale up/down as needed | Fixed capacity |
| Risk of Turnover | None | High |
Real-World Examples: How SaaStorm Helps SaaS Brands Grow with SEO
Let’s see what’s we’ve done for some of our clients.
Case Study: Lingio
As a B2B SaaS digital learning platform, Lingio knew that SEO was critical for building momentum. But with no in-house team, executing at a higher level felt out of reach in terms of both time and budget.
But when Lingion partnered with SaaStorm, that all began to change.
What would’ve barely covered the salary of one mid-level hire instead gave Lingio an entire SEO force for good: a strategist, writer, link-builder, analytics expert, fractional CMO, and full access to top-tier content tools and reporting features.
Within only nine months, Lingio saw a 500% increase in organic traffic and an 11x boost in qualified leads. SaaStorm transformed an empty blog into a content powerhouse, based on in-depth competitor analysis, topic cluster mapping, a detailed action plan, and so much more.
Bottlenecks to 11x leads: Read the full Lingio story here.
Case Study: Reditus
As a bootstrapped entrepreneur, Reditus’ founder was wearing all the hats—including SEO provider. With a lean monthly budget of under €4,000, hiring a full team wasn’t an option. But exactly what they got with SaaStorm.
From a complete website redesign and content production to ongoing consulting and strategic oversight, SaaStorm acted as an on-demand marketing department. The result? A high-performing SEO foundation built without draining resources—and one less hat for the founder to wear.
“Since we started working together, our inbound pipeline has grown by 128%, and they’ve helped us create a $1.3M ARR pipeline through their marketing efforts. SaaStorm doesn’t just execute — they think, act, and work like an extension of my internal team.”
— Joran Hoffman, Co-Founder at Reditus
Bootstrapped to booming: Read the Reditus story here.
SEO in House vs. Outsourcing: What Should You Choose?
Choosing to outsource SEO strategy comes down to your stage of growth, budget, and how fast you need to move. That means if you’re a startup, outsourcing can be a smarter play. It saves costs, accelerates execution, and gains ROI quickly.
For enterprise SaaS companies, a hybrid SEO model provides the best of both worlds: internal alignment plus external expertise (a “unicorn” in the SaaS marketing realm).
Whatever path you choose, SEO means investing in the long game. And having the right partner to guide you makes all the difference.Looking for an SEO team that focuses on MRR growth, not just traffic? Contact SaaStorm today!
Ready to scale your SEO without the overhead? Let’s chat!
Schedule a CallFAQs
The biggest difference comes down to control and expertise. In-house SEO teams give you full control over strategy and execution, making it easier to align SEO efforts with your brand and product knowledge. Outsourced SEO provides instant access to a team of specialists, advanced tools, and proven processes without the cost and time commitment of hiring full-time employees.
In many cases, yes — especially for startups and lean SaaS marketing teams. While the monthly retainer for an agency might seem high initially, it often covers multiple roles (strategist, content writer, link builder, technical SEO) and expensive tools. Building the same capability in-house usually requires a $150K+ annual budget when factoring in salaries, tools, and overhead.
Absolutely. A hybrid SEO model is actually the most popular choice for scaling SaaS companies. You can keep brand strategy, internal content, and competitor research in-house while outsourcing technical SEO, content production, link-building, and audits to a specialist agency like SaaStorm. This gives you both strategic alignment and expert execution.
Most SEO agencies (SaaStorm included) typically show early traction within 3-6 months. Factors like your starting point, website health, competition level, and content velocity all play a role. SEO is a long-term game, but outsourcing helps you move faster and avoid costly mistakes that delay results.
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