SEO work from this company has been outstanding, they look after small business, we have gained double the customer enquiries due to this company putting us on page one.
Honest comparison · UK stores
Agency, freelancer, or in-house?Shopify SEO options compared
What each route costs, what you get, and who each option genuinely suits. No "agency is always best" filler.
At a glance
Quick comparison
| In-house | Freelancer | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical UK cost | Salary + tools | £400–£1,500/mo | £1,500–£4,000+/mo |
| Response time | Same day if dedicated | 1–3 days typical | Same day with named team |
| Shopify template dev | Needs internal dev | Rarely included | Usually included |
| Best suited for | Small catalogue, founder time | Defined projects, tight budget | Growing stores, limited internal time |
See GBP ranges in our Shopify SEO pricing guide. Download the free checklist first if you are still researching.
When in-house makes sense
Very small catalogues under a few hundred SKUs, where the founder or a marketing generalist can own titles, collections, and basic content.
You already employ someone with SEO bandwidth and a developer who can ship theme changes within a week.
Your niche is uncompetitive and technical debt is low: no migration mess, minimal app bloat, clean indexation.
When a freelancer makes sense
Mid-size stores needing audits, content briefs, or a focused migration redirect review without a full retainer.
Tighter budgets where you can implement recommendations yourself or with an existing dev on hourly support.
Short projects: pre-launch checklist, post-migration audit, or a single category hub rebuild.
When an agency makes sense
Growing catalogues where speed, schema, filters, and content must run in parallel.
Limited internal time: you need orders reported monthly, not a slide deck of keyword positions.
Stores that need multiple specialisms: technical SEO, CRO, content, and dev on the same account.
LoudCrowd fits here: six in-house people on typical ecommerce accounts, Doncaster delivery, UK case studies.
Due diligence
Questions to ask before you decide
- Who actually does the work day to day, and can you name them?
- Does reporting tie to orders and revenue URLs, or keyword ranks only?
- Is Shopify template and app work included, or billed separately?
- What happens in the first 90 days: audit deck or shipped fixes?
- Can they show UK ecommerce case studies with verifiable metrics?
- How do they prioritise when everything in the crawl export is red?
Specialty catalogue proof: specialty & secondhand ecommerce SEO.
Fit check
See which route fits your store
Run the free store check, then book 15 minutes if you want a straight recommendation.
Functional tool: enter an online store URL to run mobile and desktop PageSpeed checks and a homepage on-page SEO scan. Works on Shopify, WooCommerce, and other ecommerce sites.
Store speed checkLive
PageSpeed, mobile
PageSpeed, desktop
Scanning homepage
ReviewsGoogle
Read Google reviews
What clients say about agency delivery
Google rating and Trustpilot SEO outcomes when you are weighing agency vs freelancer vs in-house.
Trustpilot
Read Trustpilot reviewsSEO what is that, never understood the term or what it means. After watching a video audit on my website we knew what to do as a business. David and his team pushed us to the top of Google and now our business has tripled. Highly recommended.
FAQ
Can I switch from a freelancer to an agency mid-project?
Yes. Bring your Search Console data, redirect maps, and any audit exports. A good agency will re-prioritise against revenue URLs rather than restart from scratch.
Is in-house SEO cheaper than an agency?
Cash cost can be lower if you already employ a marketer with SEO time. Fully loaded cost of a mid-level SEO plus dev support often exceeds a specialist agency retainer once you account for salary, tools, and opportunity cost.