So you’re thinking of investing in an SEO agency? Great idea! Search engine optimisation is one of the leading forms of digital marketing. When it’s done well, it doesn’t just bring more customers to a website. It brings the right customers.
But that raises an important question: where should SEO sit within your business?
The answer depends on where it can make the biggest impact and where it won’t get ignored. Some businesses integrate SEO into their marketing department, others lean on their development team, and many choose to work with an SEO agency. The best option for you should reflect your goals and the challenges you’re facing right now.
Keep reading as we share our knowledge on SEO and where it best fits within your organisation.
And, if you’re looking to outsource your SEO responsibilities to a dedicated SEO team, get in touch today. We love what we do at Targeted SEO, and we’d be thrilled to help you improve your organic search results!
What does an SEO team do?
An SEO team is your hard-working, data-obsessed group of SEO specialists, content strategists, and technical SEO experts. Their job is to review your website’s data and improve its performance to help move your website to the top of search engines like Google. This is how you get your website ahead of your competitors and in front of your customers.
For example, let’s say you run an independent window company in Southampton.
- Without SEO, a really great potential customer might search “best window fitters in Southampton,” but your website is nowhere to be seen. Maybe you’re on page two, or maybe your competitors are outranking you. Either way, that’s a missed opportunity. Your customers would have to scroll to the bottom of the page or further to find your services, and they are extremely unlikely to do that.
- But with SEO, things look a little different. They’ll carry out keyword research to find what people are actually searching for, optimise your service pages so they appear for those terms, and build on local SEO like Google Business Profile optimisation and link building. Then, when your customer types that query, you’re right there at the top of the search engine results.
SEO teams aren’t just there to “make you visible.” They work on technical SEO to fix crawl issues, improve site speed, and handle plugin errors. They focus on content creation and promotion, shaping blog posts and service pages that match search intent. And they measure everything! Tracking keyword rankings, organic traffic, and conversions to keep your SEO progress moving forward.
At Targeted SEO, we’re a small but mighty team of SEO professionals, each with our own exciting areas of knowledge. We’re proud of our SEO team structure, and our tight-knit setup means we can provide each and every client with our full attention and care.
Curious to learn who we are and what we do? Read about the Targeted team or have a snoop at our LinkedIn.
Why does it matter where SEO sits in my organisation?
Because SEO crosses over with almost every other department in some way or another – sales and customer service teams, content, branding, design, and PR. If it sits in the wrong place, it risks being underfunded or misunderstood.
So, where should SEO go? Let’s take a look at some of the options.
SEO as part of the marketing department
This is usually the most obvious place. Housing SEO within the marketing team makes sense because SEO is, at its heart, a digital marketing channel. Your marketing experts can collaborate easily with your SEO specialists. Plus, with Google now indexing more social content (like Instagram posts) in search results, combining SEO and marketing is a great way for you to enhance your social media strategy, too.
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SEO as part of the creative department
Some businesses group SEO with content marketers, copywriters, or designers. This can work well if content creation and content promotion are at the heart of your SEO work.
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SEO as part of the web development team
SEO often overlaps with web development. After all, technical SEO tasks like site speed optimisation, crawlability, and fixing broken code are bread and butter for developers.
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SEO as part of the product team
SEO sometimes sits with product teams to support user experience and new product launches. This puts SEO at the forefront of the product development journey and is more often seen in tech and Ecommerce companies.
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SEO as its own department
For larger organisations or businesses where organic traffic is the driving force, SEO may deserve its own dedicated department. This is also where you could consider using an SEO agency.
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What SEO specialisms are right for your business model?
SEO is broad. One SEO specialist might be brilliant at figuring out the latest AI SEO, but struggle with content strategy. Another might excel at data and analytics, but not account management. That’s why building an in-house SEO team can be tricky for smaller businesses, because you’d have to hire multiple SEO professionals to cover all bases.
The great thing about working with an experienced SEO agency is that you get the entire team – on and off-page SEO specialists, technical SEO and data experts, strategy, and content writers, and even web design and development, all rolled into one retained package.
It can be much more cost-effective for smaller companies that have a handful of challenges and need multiple specialists, but don’t have the budget to recruit and train an in-house enterprise SEO team.
Is there harm in SEO not having a permanent ‘home’ in the company?
Having SEO processes float between departments can cause problems, and we don’t recommend it. Without clear ownership, no one takes full responsibility for tracking SEO progress, which can get messy. You risk an inconsistent tone of voice across content, missed tasks, and a lack of SEO expertise. When the pressure ramps up, SEO can quickly fall to the bottom of the pile.
How SEO agencies can support your in-house marketing team?
An SEO agency doesn’t need to replace your current marketing team; it makes it stronger. Your in-house team knows your business model, your customers, the market, and everything about your brand. But partnering with an SEO agency means you have access to a pool of resources and experts who are clued up on the latest changes in SEO.
Together, you get the best of both worlds: brand knowledge plus SEO expertise, which is key for creating an authentic SEO strategy.
Get in touch with Targeted SEO
If you’re curious about how SEO can boost your digital strategies or help you achieve your business goals, we’d love to chat! Reach out to us at Targeted SEO, and let’s explore the possibilities together.
Read our article on the scope of SEO for your business.
