SEO agency vs in-house: the actual costs
In the UK, a serious agency engagement typically costs £2,000–£10,000+ a month; a single in-house SEO hire typically costs £45,000–£75,000 a year once salary, employment costs and tooling are counted – and buys one person's skillset where SEO needs several. The honest comparison is about coverage, not just cost.
The numbers, side by side
| Cost line | In-house hire | Agency |
|---|---|---|
| Base cost | Typically £35k–£55k salary (mid-level, UK) | Typically £24k–£120k+/year (£2k–£10k+/month) |
| Employment costs | Add roughly 15–20% (NI, pension, benefits) | Included |
| Tools | £3,000–£15,000+/year for a serious stack | Usually included |
| Content & design | Budgeted separately, or it doesn't happen | Included in scope (varies – ask) |
| Recruitment & ramp | Months to hire, months to bed in | Working in weeks |
| Coverage | One person's strengths and gaps | Strategy, technical, content, PR and design as one team |
Ranges are typical UK figures and vary with seniority, sector and scope – treat them as scale, not quotes.
When in-house genuinely wins
An honest agency admits this list exists: companies with large ongoing content operations, deep product complexity that outsiders take months to learn, or enough scale to build a full internal team (not one hire) are often right to bring SEO inside. The common failure is the middle path – one in-house generalist expected to out-produce a specialist team across five disciplines.
The hybrid most people land on
In-house owns strategy, priorities and product knowledge; an agency supplies the execution firepower – content production, digital PR, technical depth – that doesn't justify five permanent salaries. It's how most of our longest engagements are structured.
Whichever way you go, ask the same hard questions – we've listed them in how to choose an SEO agency.