In-House SEO or Outsourced SEO Services?

When starting SEO, many businesses wonder whether to “do SEO in-house or hire an outsourced SEO service?”. If you do it yourself, you have full control, but the price is a long time spent figuring things out, staff training costs, and the risk of “working for ages with no results”. Hiring an outside SEO team, on the other hand, lets you use an expert's experience and get results sooner, but you worry about the considerable cost and depending on a third party.

So what is the best option for a business: doing SEO in-house, hiring a freelancer, or hiring a company to deliver SEO services? In this article, MONA Media we will analyze the short-term and long-term benefits of each option so you can see clearly and make the choice that fits you best.

What is the difference between in-house SEO, a freelancer and an outsourced SEO service?

When a business starts investing in SEO strategy, the familiar question is always “Should we hire someone for website SEO or do it ourselves?”. Each option has its own pros and cons. Doing SEO yourself gives you better control but is slow to deliver. Hiring a freelancer saves money but makes it hard to secure resources in the long run, while hiring a Agency SEO professional agency is fast and thorough but costs more.

In-house SEO

Pros:

• In-house staff understand the product, the service and the company culture.
• You only need to train once, and in the long run it is easier to run SEO in line with the company's overall direction.

Cons:

• It takes a lot of time to reach KPI SEO.
• The workload is large, and it is hard for a few staff to cover everything the way a professional team can.
• You have to keep up with Google's knowledge and algorithm updates, and it is easy to run out of steam with only a few people.

Hiring a freelancer for SEO

Pros:

• Lower cost than an agency.
• Communication is quick and simple, with little complicated paperwork.
• Can focus on speeding up a few specific SEO tasks.

Cons:

• Limited resources, so delays are likely when the workload is large or the KPIs are tough.
• Few long-term commitments and a risk of depending on one person.

Hiring an outsourced SEO service 

Pros:

• Fast to deploy, with clear results usually in just 6 – 12 months.
• A highly skilled team that keeps up to date and runs many tasks in a coordinated way.
• The business saves time on recruiting and managing SEO staff.

Cons:

• Higher cost than a freelancer or doing it in-house.
• You need to pick a reputable SEO agency to avoid dependence and the risk of poor service quality.

Effective marketing is not about spending as little as possible, but about spending at the level that gets results. Watch the video to see how MONA has applied this thinking as it has grown.

Comparing the cost of SEO for a website

When you start SEO services to get your website to the top, besides results, cost is always an important factor many businesses weigh. Each option costs very differently because it depends on many external factors. So which option lets a business invest at a reasonable cost for its budget while still keeping performance up over the long run? Let MONA walk you through the costs of each model in detail.

Below is an overview comparing the costs of 3 models: in-house SEO, hiring a freelancer, and an outsourced SEO service.

Website building and optimization costs

Building and optimizing your website is one of the costs a business has to weigh when starting out full-scope SEO.

In-house SEO

With this option, the business covers all the upfront costs itself, such as buying a domain name, hosting, SSL or designing the website. The fees include:

• An international domain name costs about 200.000 – 400.000 VND/year, and a Vietnamese domain name about 700.000 – 800.000 VND/year.
• Web hosting costs range from a few tens of thousands to a few tens of millions a year, depending on capacity
• Website design from 5 – 100 million VND depending on scale and purpose.

These are all required costs, and without an in-house technical team, the business also pays for outside help to manage and maintain the website.

Hire a freelance SEO

If you choose a freelancer, you still pay the upfront cost of owning a website, but there is an extra cost to optimize it for SEO. A freelancer usually quotes around 10 – 20 million VND for a basic optimization package. Because they work alone, with no technical team behind them, the optimization usually covers simple items, enough for the website to run stably and meet the minimum SEO requirements.

Hiring an outsourced SEO service (agency)

With an agency, besides the cost of building the website, the business needs to set aside extra budget to optimize the website to SEO standards from the start. This fee usually starts at around 15 million VND, depending on the state and complexity of the website.

The difference is that an agency has a professional process and several departments working together, so the optimization is more thorough and brings the website up to standard on speed, structure and technical setup. It is a one-time investment that builds a solid foundation for long-term SEO results.

Cost of SEO tools 

When doing SEO, tools such as Ahrefs, Keywordtool or SEMrush are almost like a “reliable assistant”. However, these tools are not cheap, and the cost differs depending on whether you do it yourself, hire a freelancer or use an SEO agency.

In-house SEO

If the business runs SEO itself, tool costs are usually the highest, because you have to equip yourself fully for everything from keyword research and rank checking to website audits.

For example, Keywordtool.io costs about 1.8 million VND/month, Ahrefs about 4.1 million VND/month, and Serphrobot about 300.000 VND/month. In total this can come to nearly 8 million VND/year, or more if you use other tools.

On top of that, you add running costs such as hosting, domain names and staff training.

Hire a freelance SEO

With a freelancer, tool costs are usually much lower. They often already have their own tools or use limited versions to work. The business only needs to spend about 500.000 – 1.000.000 VND/month on a few basic tools to monitor and evaluate results. Sometimes the freelancer includes this cost in the service quote, so the business does not have to invest much more.

Outsourced SEO service 

When working with an agency, there is almost no extra tool cost. Agencies usually own a full, professional toolset that serves many projects at once.

The business only pays the monthly service fee. This is a big advantage, because the business saves money and gets the power of the SEO tools without buying them one by one.

Is your business still looking for the most effective SEO direction in 2026? Don't waste more time on trial and error. Watch the video below to see a concise but very practical strategy that can push your website up on Google!

Staffing costs

One of the biggest costs of SEO is staffing. The amount varies a lot depending on whether you build your own team, hire a freelancer or use an SEO agency.

Building an in-house SEO team 

If you do it yourself, the business needs to build a complete SEO team, for example:

• SEO Leader (15 – 30 million VND/month),
• SEO Senior/Junior (7 – 15 million VND/month),
• IT for website administration (10 – 15 million VND/month), and
• Content writer (7 – 10 million VND/month) 

The total can come to around 30 – 70 million VND/month or more, not counting training and recruiting costs and the risk of staff suddenly leaving.

Hire a freelance SEO

With a freelancer, staffing costs drop significantly because you don't pay a fixed monthly salary. A freelancer can do the whole job or handle only part of it, such as keyword research, on-page optimization or writing content.

Pricing is flexible, from a few million to a few tens of millions VND/month, depending on experience and project scope. It is a money-saving choice in the short term, but depends heavily on one person's ability.

Outsourced SEO service 

When working with an agency, staffing costs are already built into the service package, so the business doesn't need to hire or manage anyone directly. The basic fee is usually 7 – 10 million VND/month, and in return a whole team of SEO, content, technical and design specialists works in sync. This saves the business management and training costs and avoids the risk of staff turnover.

Many people think doing SEO yourself or hiring a freelancer saves money, but in reality it can cost more, for example in staff salaries, tools and time spent figuring things out, and the results are not guaranteed. Choosing a disreputable SEO provider can also leave your website stuck off the top and hurt your brand's reputation.

With more than 10 years experience delivering full-service SEO, MONA Media has worked with hundreds of businesses in different fields, helping them grow revenue steadily through a strong presence on Google.

Highlights of the full-service SEO at MONA Media:

• A team of hands-on SEO specialists who understand the algorithm and keep up with updates.

• A clear, transparent process so clients can follow progress at every stage.

• Specific KPI commitments, focused on business results rather than just keyword rankings.

• Cost optimization, so businesses avoid wasting resources on trial and error.

• Full support from market research and content building to technical work and regular reporting.

As customers search online more and more, an online presence is no longer an option but an important strategy. Without one, a business is missing out on a large number of potential customers every day.

Please CONTACT US us on the hotline 1900 636 648 to receive full-scope SEO quote and advice on SEO solutions that fit, supported and accompanied by a quality team of SEO specialists as you raise your brand and grow revenue!

Long-term cost of maintaining SEO results

SEO is not “do it once and you're done”. It needs steady upkeep to hold and improve your rankings. Each option calculates maintenance costs differently, to suit the goals and resources of each business.

Doing SEO yourself 

With an in-house team, maintenance costs tend to be stable and fall over time, because the staff get more skilled and need less training. Basic costs such as tools, hosting and domain names usually only need periodic upkeep.

However, the business still pays monthly salaries for the SEO leader, technician and content roles, and has to keep following Google's algorithm updates closely. It is a stable investment but still takes a large share of the long-term budget.

Hire a freelance SEO

Maintenance costs with a freelancer are usually lower than with an agency and flexible per project. The business can renew the contract monthly or quarterly, depending on the KPI requirements.

However, costs can rise gradually if the freelancer raises their rates or the project grows. The downside is that the business needs to monitor closely so results don't slip over time.

Outsourced SEO service

When working with an agency, maintenance costs usually sit in the service renewal packages, ranging from 15 – 30 million VND/month depending on scale and goals. The advantage is that the agency has a professional team that always keeps up with the algorithm and optimizes continuously to hold and improve SEO results.

The business doesn't need to manage anything directly and carries less risk, but the maintenance cost is certainly higher than doing SEO yourself or hiring a freelancer.

So should a business do SEO itself or hire a top-ranking web SEO service?

In practice, choosing between doing SEO yourself and hiring a top-ranking web SEO service depends on each business's resources, goals and budget.

If you have enough money and skilled staff and want a long-term investment, doing SEO yourself gives you better control, builds in-house strength and lasts longer. On the other hand, if the business needs fast results, doesn't want the effort of managing staff or the worry of constant algorithm updates, then hiring an SEO agency is the ideal solution, with low risk and a clear roadmap, even though it costs more.

If the budget is limited and the project is short-term, hiring a freelancer can be a flexible and economical choice, but long-term stability is harder to guarantee.

So everything has its strengths and weaknesses. The choice between doing SEO yourself and using an outsourced SEO service is no exception. There is no single right answer on which to use. You can only decide, based on your company's actual situation, whether to hire SEO for the website or do it yourself.

That is the detail that helps you answer the question “Should you choose an outsourced SEO service or do SEO yourself”. As you can see, the choice between doing SEO yourself and hiring an outside service depends heavily on a business's staffing, cost and goals. And if you are looking for a professional provider of outsourced SEO services , contact MONA Media now – the provider of top-ranking website SEO services today!