NightshiftDirect

Guide

Should you do local SEO in-house or hire an agency?

You can do the work yourself, hire someone to do it, or pay an agency or a freelancer. Each option costs a different amount and carries a different risk. This guide puts sourced numbers on the hire and on outside help, and shows how to compare them on the hours you actually need.

By NightshiftDirect Research. Published . Updated .

How much can you do yourself?

A good deal of it. Google says that if you run a small local business, you can probably do much of the work yourself (Google Search Central). What is harder alone is the steady, technical part: finding and fixing the problems that stop search engines reading your site, writing new pages every month, and measuring whether any of it moved. The free scan shows how much of the technical part your site needs.

The jobs that matter most locally need knowledge of your business more than technical skill, and you can start on them this week:

What does a search marketing hire cost?

O*NET files search marketing strategists under market research analysts and marketing specialists, and its description of the job includes optimizing websites and content for search (O*NET OnLine). The median annual wage for that group was $78,760 in May 2025 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook).

In June 2026, wages made up 70.0 percent of what private employers spent on compensation, with benefits the other 30.0 percent, so a hire at the median wage costs you more than $78,760 a year (BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, BLS wage). Recruiting, tools, training and your own time spent managing the role come on top. A junior hire costs less, an experienced one more, and wages vary by region.

What does an agency or freelancer cost?

Outside help costs far less. Across 439 SEO providers polled, the average for local SEO was $1,557 a month, with agencies at $1,819 and freelancers at about $1,150 (poll of SEO providers). Those averages lean high, because each provider gave a price band and the averages take the top of it. The poll also carries no date.

Over a year, the agency average comes to $21,828 and the freelancer average to about $13,800 (poll of SEO providers). Either is a fraction of the median salary alone, before any benefits. The catch is that outside help gives your business part of someone's week.

Our own Local plan is $1,250 a month, month to month, and everything it includes is on the prices page.

What do you give up with each choice?

With a hire, what they know about your setup leaves with them unless it was written down: which accounts exist, who has access, what was changed and why. Ask for that record to be kept from the first month.

With an agency or freelancer, the risk is ownership. Every account should be in your name, with the helper added as a user you can remove. Google says you are responsible for the actions of any company you hire (Google Search Central).

Doing it yourself costs your time. Price each hour at what you would otherwise earn with it, and count those hours in the comparison below.

Is there a split that works?

Often, yes. You, or someone on your staff, handles what depends on being there: asking customers for reviews as each job ends, taking photos of real jobs for your profile, and answering questions only you can answer. Someone with more time and technical skill takes the site fixes, the writing and the monthly measuring.

That split plays to what each side knows. You know your customers and your work; a specialist knows how search engines read a site. It also keeps your costs down, because you pay someone else only for the part that needs them.

How do you compare the options fairly?

Compare the hours you need. A marketing hire would do more for you than local search, such as email, social posts or ads, so setting a full salary against a monthly local plan compares a whole job with part of one.

List the jobs you need done each month, estimate the hours each takes, and price those hours three ways: your own time, a share of a hire's full cost, and an outside provider's fee for the same work. Whichever comes out cheapest for the hours you need, and still leaves you owning the accounts, is the right answer for now. You can change it later.

Questions

Can a part-time employee handle local SEO?

Yes, for the profile, the reviews and simple page edits, if they get set hours for it every week and a written checklist. Technical fixes and regular writing are harder to fit into a few spare hours, so plan to hand those to someone else.

What should I keep hold of if I hire outside help?

Every login in your own name: the Business Profile, Search Console, Analytics, the website and the domain. The helper is added as a user, never given your password, and removed when the work ends. Ask at the start for a handover list of every account they touch and the access to remove. Our access page shows how we ask for each one.

What if I start in-house and change my mind later?

Nothing is lost if you have kept notes. Write down what you change and when, keep every account in your name, and a new helper can pick up where you stopped. A Roadmap Audit is one way to take stock at the point you hand over.

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