7 lessons from moving from agency to in-house SEO

If you’re reading this, you’re likely an SEO aficionado like me. I’m a seasoned SEO with 10+ years of agency experience.

Being on the agency side gave me deep SEO expertise, exposure to top industry talent, and experience working with some of the world’s most well-known brands.

I did a bit of everything on the agency side — from technical SEO to content marketing to new business.

Working at an agency is nothing like working in-house. After a long run on the agency side, I moved in-house for the first time. Here are seven things I’ve learned since making the switch.

1. Owning performance changes how SEO is evaluated

On the agency side, when performance drops, you know the drill: a frantic message hits your inbox — traffic is down — and the client needs a report on what’s happening by yesterday.

You then spend the next few hours in the SEO trenches analyzing search trends, tracking ranking changes, and digging through Google Search Console to find your answers. You cross your T’s. Dot your I’s. You beautify that report a bit. And — finally — you fire it off to your client. 

After sending the report, you may get a few questions from the client. A little back and forth, but for the most part, your job is done. The fire drill is over. You’ve done everything you can from the agency perspective. On to the next client on your roster. 

This situation looks a lot different on the in-house side. 

From my new perspective, receiving that agency report is just the beginning. Now, I’m the one on the hook for translating that analysis, figuring out how to socialize it, and turning it into a concrete action plan to turn performance around.

I always knew my clients were under a lot of stress. I figured their bosses were the ones catching the dips and asking difficult questions, leading to that inevitable frantic message in my inbox. But, boy, it hits differently when you’re the one getting asked those difficult questions.

When you’re in-house, you aren’t just reporting on a dip in performance — it feels like you’re defending your entire SEO strategy. The way you frame that data can make or break the projects or the direction you’re taking the program.

It’s a lot of pressure — and it’s different when you’re responsible for the results.

2. Execution matters more than deliverables

On the agency side, the deliverable is the destination. You spend hours researching, analyzing, and refining a beautiful slide deck. Each slide flows, tells a story, and looks pristine. I mastered this — and did it fast.

Now that I’m in-house, I’ve realized the deliverable isn’t the destination anymore.

It’s all about the execution. 

I was lucky enough during my agency days to have one engagement where I was deeply embedded in day-to-day operations. I was doing things like building dev tickets, reviewing Figma designs, and actually pushing CMS updates. I thought I knew exactly what execution looked like.

But executing while in-house is way more challenging than I expected. 

In order to execute on an SEO strategy, you have to work through the entire org to bring your vision to life. You need to coordinate with the design team to review Figma designs. You need to align messaging and copy with PMMs. You need to work with project managers to make sure deadlines are being met. You need to work with devs to make sure the technical implementation is correct.

It’s not easy. Sometimes it’s messy. And — quite often — it’s pretty frustrating. 

But here’s the truth: once you move from polished decks to pushing changes live, you become 10x the SEO you were before.

Dig deeper: Why branding matters for in-house SEO teams

3. The shift from agency partner to internal stakeholder

One of the more interesting parts of making the switch to in house, was that suddenly, I became the client. I’m the one on the other end of the video call. I’m the one receiving the strategy docs. I’m the one calling all the shots. 

And honestly? It’s been a huge (and super exciting) opportunity to take everything that I’ve learned on the agency side and put it into action. 

And I’ve gotten to decide what type of client I want to be. 

I had a wide range of clients on the agency side. Some disappeared. Some were demanding and made every call tense. Some pushed impossible deadlines. Some didn’t trust my judgment. Some couldn’t execute the strategy.

You name it — I’ve probably experienced that type of challenging client.

Then I had dream clients — kind, collaborative, and treated me like an equal. Calls felt like catching up with a friend before getting into SEO. They could take a strategy and execute without being demanding or difficult.

That was the client I wanted to be. And that’s the client I strive to be, too. 

4. Storytelling matters more than strategy 

I’m a technical SEO at heart.

Nothing makes me happier than seeing the indexing rate improve after an XML sitemap refresh. Or seeing a massive improvement to Largest Contentful Paint after implementing Core Web Vitals optimizations. Or even a perfectly executed hreflang optimization to target your key international markets. 

Chef’s kiss — it warms my technical SEO heart to see all this work get executed. 

The problem? Your execs don’t understand that technical jargon.

That’s where storytelling becomes your best friend. And I’d say it’s almost as important as the execution itself. 

Because it doesn’t matter if you do all this SEO work if your bosses can’t understand it. You need to tell a story about what you did, why you did it, and the results. All in a simple, easy-to-understand format — ideally with a pretty visual right next to it.

Let’s take, for example, hreflang optimizations. You realize that hreflang is important. But how do you make it seem important for an exec so that they can understand it?

What I do is pretty simple. I explain the background behind why I’m doing what I’m doing and frame it in simple terms. 

Instead of saying that we updated hreflang to target France correctly, I would frame it as improving the search experience for France searchers. I’d then show a SERP screenshot of before the optimizations to show incorrect targeting, and follow it up with an updated screenshot with correct targeting. Lastly, I’d share results — ideally, an increase in CTR, traffic, or conversions. 

(Side note: If you’re one of my agency partners reading this, you know I ask for an insane amount of screenshots — but this is exactly why I do it.)

Following this formula allows you to:

• Explain why we implemented the optimization (in this case, incorrect targeting in France).
• Show what users are seeing in the market.
• Demonstrate that this optimization achieved business results.

It’s a simple blueprint that makes it easy for execs to understand the importance of your optimizations. I know it may seem small, but storytelling is one of the secrets to success in in-house life. 

Dig deeper: How to use the three-act structure for data storytelling

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5. SEO depends on cross-functional collaboration

In a massive organization, it’s so easy to live on an SEO island. If you’re not collaborating, you can easily find yourself on a beach hanging out with a volleyball named Wilson — just optimizing <title> tags, writing meta descriptions, and optimizing on-page copy for keywords. 

But there’s absolutely no way you’re going to get anything meaningful done without the support and assistance from others within your organization. 

You need to be a team player. And cross-functional collaboration is important for success. 

After years on the agency side, I learned to move fast — really fast. When I went in-house, I tried to keep that pace. I wanted to make changes, test, and see results immediately. I saw documentation as a hurdle, and large cross-functional meetings without progress as a waste of time.

Quickly, I found out that’s not the case. You need the support of those partners in cross-functional meetings to get things done. 

It takes time to get to know your cross-functional teams and understand what they’re good at, what their goals are, and — crucially — where they need support. I’ve learned that once you understand the developer’s sprint capacity or a product marketing manager’s roadmap, you can stop just requesting things from them and start partnering with them to get things done. 

When you align your SEO goals with their existing priorities, you stop being a line item in their backlog and start becoming a teammate. In-house, having a teammate in engineering or product is the difference between a strategy that sits in a slide deck and one that actually ships.

6. Taking initiative and trusting your judgment 

OK, fine, I added a cliché to the list. But in the in-house world, it might be the most important one. 

I’ve been given this advice several times throughout my career. If you want to get something done, go get it done. Don’t wait around for permission from your bosses to do something that will have a significant impact. If you wait for permission, you may never get anything done. 

That’s why I ask for forgiveness — not permission. 

When I started in-house, I knew the team was lean. I knew my bosses had a million things on their plates. And, most importantly, I knew they hired me for a reason: to drive organic growth.

During my first few weeks, I remember asking myself, “Can I launch this content?” “Can I expand into this market?” “Am I allowed to test this tactic?” 

And then it hit me: This is exactly why I’m here. They hired me to make these decisions and move the needle, not to add more approval meetings to their calendars.

And if I asked for permission for everything, I would never be able to get anything done. 

This is why I trust my instincts when it comes to SEO strategy and execution. I rely on my 10+ years of experience in the SEO game. If I think something is going to drive growth for the business, I don’t just sit around and wait for permission to do something. I execute. 

And if something doesn’t turn out exactly how I had planned? That’s when I take the forgiveness route. 

Dig deeper: 5 lessons from delivering bad SEO news to executives

7. Seeing SEO work translate into business impact 

I did a lot of high-impact, business-changing work during my agency life. I’ve built the strategies, seen them come to life on a site, and watched them drive results. Driving results and building case studies have always been my favorite part of the job.

However, when you’re sitting agency-side, you’re often the silent partner in those results, not the owner. 

Now that I’m in-house, I get to see my projects come to life on the site — and it’s pretty cool.

During my first few months in-house, I knew I wanted to make an impact quickly. I implemented a few of my high-impact, low-effort optimizations — the ones I would typically implement for a new client I had just onboarded. 

After reviewing monthly reports, I saw an insane spike in performance that lined up exactly with a significant site update we implemented. 

I remember thinking, “Wait, was that us?” 

The answer: It sure was. 

I then created my first case study and shared the results throughout our organization. And, shockingly (to me, anyway), people were really interested. Within my first three months, I found myself sharing those results at our entire company’s all-hands meeting — something I never expected to happen. 

I used to think a massive organization wouldn’t be interested in SEO, but I was wrong. When it comes to moving the needle for the business, everyone cares.

So, yeah, it’s always fun to get SEO results. But it’s a lot cooler when you’re in-house. 

Is making the switch worth it? That’s for you to decide

Making the switch from agency to in-house life has been a lot of adjectives for me. Exhausting, challenging, and exciting are some of the first that come to mind. 

But the biggest takeaway after one year in-house? I’ve learned a lot.

I hope you can take these seven lessons and apply them to your own journey — whether you’re at an agency or leading an in-house team right now. 

The transition isn’t always easy, but for me, seeing the strategy finally turn into reality has made every cross-functional meeting and performance fire drill worth it.

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