Developing In-House SEO Skills to Expand a Marketing Agency's Services
As an established small marketing agency, my client had built an excellent reputation for creating effective branding and marketing materials for local businesses. Its services spanned traditional print through to professionally designed, well-constructed websites tailored to individual client needs.
The Problem: A Skills Gap Was Limiting Services and Losing Business
Despite having the expertise to design and develop high-quality websites, the agency was unable to take many projects to the next stage.
Once a website was completed and delivered, the team effectively had to step away. Its developers did not possess the necessary on-page SEO skills, which meant the agency couldn't offer clients the additional search optimisation services needed to help their new websites become more visible online.
Outsourcing SEO wasn't an attractive solution. It would add cost and, more importantly, potentially mean handing valued clients over to another agency or competitor to complete the work.
The skills gap was therefore doing more than limiting the agency's service offering - it was resulting in lost revenue and missed opportunities to develop new business and longer-term client relationships.
The Solution: Developing Practical SEO Expertise Within the Existing Team
I was brought in to build SEO capability within the agency by training members of the existing team in practical, best-practice SEO and the fundamental principles behind organic search visibility.
The training covered essential areas including keyword research, understanding search intent, content optimisation and how and where to incorporate relevant search terms naturally within website content and page structure.
Rather than treating SEO as a separate discipline to be bolted onto a finished website, the aim was to help the team understand how search optimisation could be considered as part of the wider website development and content process.
This foundation remains particularly relevant as search continues to evolve, including the growing prominence of AI-generated search results and summaries.
Importantly, the training didn't end with theory. I worked alongside the agency on initial live client projects, providing practical guidance and support while team members familiarised themselves with the process and developed the confidence to apply their new skills independently.
The Result: A New Core Service and an Ongoing Revenue Stream
SEO is now one of the agency's core services.
By developing the expertise internally, the company was able to expand its service portfolio, retain ownership of the client relationship and continue supporting customers beyond the initial website build.
What had previously been a gap in the agency's capabilities became an additional and consistent revenue stream, helping the business strengthen existing client relationships while supporting its own continued growth.
Conclusion: Building In-House Skills to Create New Revenue Opportunities
Developing skills within an existing team can be one of the most effective ways for a business to broaden its service offering and unlock new sources of revenue.
In this case, the agency didn't need to recruit a specialist SEO team or outsource work to a competitor. By investing in the skills of its existing people, it was able to introduce SEO as an additional service, retain more work in-house and create greater long-term value from its client relationships.
The same approach can work particularly well for small marketing and creative agencies, web developers and copywriters who want to add SEO to their existing services, as well as individuals looking to develop the practical skills needed to establish their own business.
If you'd like to expand the services you offer without becoming reliant on external suppliers, please get in touch. I'd be happy to discuss how practical, tailored training and consultancy could help you develop the skills and confidence to do it yourself.