Your SEO strategy for your client is only as good as its execution.
You deliver the strategy. The client nods along, excited about the results you’ll bring. But then—nothing moves. The technical fixes sit untouched. The new landing pages never go live. The site speed issues don’t get fixed.
And suddenly, your client is looking at you, wondering why they’re not seeing results.
At this moment, it doesn’t matter how strong your SEO plan is—without execution, it’s worthless. But here’s the problem: most of what actually moves the needle in SEO requires web development work.
You need to restructure site architecture, implement schema markup, optimize for Core Web Vitals, or make technical updates that drive performance.
But who’s actually doing that work? If the client’s development team is too slow—or worse, non-existent—you’re stuck. And so is their growth.
So you start looking for solutions. Maybe you try hiring a developer in-house, only to find that your SEO agency isn’t built for web development. Your culture, workflows, and processes don’t attract or retain top developers.
Freelancers? Unreliable. Vetting an agency? Time-consuming and risky.
And this is where SEO agencies make their biggest web development mistake when expanding—they try to build a web development solution in-house instead of partnering for it. It drains resources, stalls execution, and frustrates clients.
Most SEO agencies don’t fail because they lack strategy or expertise—they fail because they try to grow the wrong way.
You recognize that web development is essential to executing SEO strategies, so you decide to bring it in-house. On the surface, this makes sense. A dedicated developer means faster implementation, better integration with your team, and full control over execution.
But this is where SEO agencies go wrong.
Instead of solving your execution problem, hiring in-house often creates new ones.
Web developers operate differently from SEO specialists—they require different workflows, project management structures, and company culture. Most SEO agencies aren’t set up to attract or retain top development talent.
A full-time hire means salaries, benefits, tools, and ongoing training costs—without the flexibility to scale up or down based on demand.
Instead of focusing on traffic growth and client strategy, you’re stuck handling technical bottlenecks, managing development workflows, and trying to keep projects moving.
What started as an effort to increase efficiency and control turns into a logistical nightmare—delayed projects, frustrated clients, and a bottlenecked agency that can’t scale.
The truth? SEO agencies shouldn’t try to become web development agencies.
The real solution isn’t building an in-house team—it’s choosing the right web development partner who understands your SEO needs and delivers the execution support you need to scale.
After realizing that building an in-house team is a slow, costly web development mistake, many SEO agencies turn to freelancers as a quick fix.
At first, working with a freelancer seems like the perfect setup. You can:
It feels like the best of both worlds—until reality hits.
Hiring freelancers doesn’t give your agency the reliable, scalable execution you need. Instead, you run into:
Most freelancers juggle multiple clients, meaning they aren’t always available when you need them. If a critical SEO fix needs implementation, but your freelancer is booked, your client is left waiting—and your agency takes the hit.
There’s no long-term commitment. A freelancer might disappear mid-project, deliver incomplete work, or deprioritize your agency when bigger clients come along. You’re left chasing follow-ups instead of focusing on growth.
As your agency expands, managing multiple freelancers becomes a logistical nightmare. Coordinating different developers, ensuring quality control, and handling miscommunications between SEO strategists and developers slows everything down.
Most freelancers focus on development alone. They don’t fully understand how web development and SEO must work together, leading to technical decisions that can harm search performance. You end up fixing their work instead of moving forward.
The real problem: freelancers are task-doers, not strategic partners
Freelancers work on a project-by-project basis, not as an integrated part of your agency’s workflow. They complete tasks, but they don’t:
This is why SEO agencies that rely on freelancers for web development struggle to scale. They don’t have a consistent, reliable system for executing technical SEO updates at speed.
By now, it’s clear—building an in-house development team is too expensive and inefficient, and hiring freelancers creates more problems than it solves. So what’s the right way for an SEO agency to expand its services without compromising execution?
The answer: Partnering with a web development team that is built to support SEO agencies at scale.
A true web development partner isn’t just a vendor who completes tasks when assigned. They act as an extension of your agency, ensuring technical execution happens seamlessly, efficiently, and in alignment with SEO strategies.
Here’s what makes a scalable web development partner the right choice:
Most developers focus on design or functionality, but an SEO-friendly web development partner ensures that every project supports crawlability, page speed, schema markup, and site architecture—the technical factors that impact rankings.
Unlike an in-house hire or scattered freelancers, a dedicated partner adjusts to your agency’s workload.
Whether you need small technical fixes or full-site builds, you have the resources to deliver without scrambling to find extra hands.
A real development partner integrates into your agency’s workflow. That means:
With a structured approach to execution, you’re never left waiting for updates or chasing developers to get things done.
A true partner doesn’t disappear after a project is done. They provide ongoing maintenance, troubleshooting, and iterative improvements, so you’re not left fixing issues on your own.
The result? Faster execution, better client retention, and an agency that can scale web development services without taking on unnecessary risk or overhead.
Now, the question is: How do you evaluate and choose the right web development partner for your SEO agency?
Not all web development teams are created equal. Some promise seamless execution but deliver missed deadlines, misaligned priorities, and endless frustration. Others focus purely on aesthetics and ignore the technical SEO factors that impact rankings.
That’s why we’ve created a checklist, a structured, no-nonsense framework to help SEO agencies evaluate and choose the right development partner before making a costly mistake.
This checklist eliminates guesswork by covering:
Instead of gambling on freelancers, in-house hires, or unproven agencies, this checklist gives you a step-by-step guide to choosing a development partner that enhances, rather than hinders, your agency’s growth.
You can get it now as a bonus by signing up to “The SEO Agency Web Development Partner Blueprint,” a free 5-day email course on the 5 biggest mistakes SEO agencies make when partnering with web development agencies.
Choosing the right partner is the difference between seamless execution and constant frustration or between increasing your topline and stalling your agency’s momentum.
By now, you know that expanding your SEO agency with web development isn’t just about adding a service—it’s about execution.
This web development mistake leads to bottlenecks, missed deadlines, and frustrated clients. But with the right development partner, your agency can scale seamlessly, increase revenue, and deliver real results faster.
So what should you do next?
Your agency’s success depends on how fast and effectively you can turn strategy into results. Every delay, misalignment, or development mistake isn’t just an inconvenience—it’s a direct threat to your reputation and revenue.
The longer execution remains a bottleneck, the harder it becomes to keep clients happy and scale profitably. Resolve this problem now.
Contact us to schedule a consultation and explore a potential partnership!
