Should your business hire an SEO company or just hire an In-House SEO? This is the question pondered by thousands of businesses daily.
On one hand, there is nothing wrong with being “value-conscious” and taking a more vertical and equitable approach to your business, “wanting to acquire talent for optimizing your website”; but on the other hand, quality and experience are typically commensurate to compensation.
This does not imply that in every instance that a higher price is indicative of better SEO. Due diligence is required regardless, but the propensity to find more supportive evidence (real rankings and conversion) is often more likely from a firm that services multiple markets to validate their prowess.
Similarly, if SEO is not a core competency it is not regulated or there are no standardized methods, so finding the right solutions relies on having a firm grasp of multiple disciplines.
The disciplines involved range from the most frequently employed platforms for web development and programming, a firm understanding of marketing and conversion tactics as well as elements of usability or user interface / design are a plus.
The bottom line with SEO is all about results and return on investment. So, when presented with the option to cut corners and make a splash vs. hiring a team with (1) a proven track record / history of results (2) a broader array of collective resources and (3) a firm that has SEO as its core competency versus a one man or woman show playing catch up in an attempt to compete, the odds are in favor of collective expertise.
Not to take away anything from In-House SEO or a few in house SEO acting on behalf of the company, but, if you are up against a serious competitor who understands the value of specialists, who has a coherent team with a larger optimization/internet marketing budget, any time you miss a beat, your likelihood of pushing them aside on the quest for keyword web estate diminishes exponentially.
When you do the math it boils down to 3 fundamentals (1) how competitive is your market? (2) how skilled are the players that dominate that market? and (3) what is your anticipated ROI?
If you are selling thumb tacks in bulk, then you may wish to consider a different tact (no puns intended). Products, systems or services with higher inherent margins can provide a more fertile ground for leveraging exposure using a pull-based marketing medium such as search engine optimization to build a brand, increase relevant traffic or test conversion mediums using a variety of keywords, landing pages or angles.
So, before you scoff at SEO services starting at 2K a month for targeting a competitive industry or competitive ranking, just think about how much it would cost you to hire an in-house SEO consultant.
Most consultants who are performing client work that are worth it, would consider a salary starting at 50-75K per year. Otherwise, they would just work on their own projects or use SEO for affiliate programs and remain self-sufficient creating their own websites and conversion funnels.
However, if you divide that cost by 12, minus, taxes, benefits, distractions and other costs, your options are simple; (1) what your anticipated ROI is and create a budget (2) learn SEO yourself (which is always changing) or (3) hire an SEO firm with the most experience that specializes in the services you need.
Here I thought I was in the world unsure whether anyone else thought the way I did. I say this almost word for word to my clients, I couldn’t do it as eloquently as you wrote it though. From now on I will forward this link to anyone I’m about to talk with about seo services. Better yet I’ll just memorize it. Thanks
Hmm I don’t disagree with the comments in this post, however it fails to take in to consideration a number of in-house factors.
A large percentage of SEO work is basic, and more the point heavily reliant on solid content creation. The experts in this are undoubtably the people closest to the business.
You end up with a far larger and more cost effective team when you spend time educating those people on SEO principles and values – they’re then able to contribute to wider online marketing objectives rather than just search rankings, enhancing the quality of the companies web offering generally.
Another example – link building – ultimately the best people to build links are not specialist link builders or external SEO companies, the best people to build links are those people who understand the market throroughly and who influence and relationships that can be leveraged. Again the people within the business have these things, they just don’t know it. Educating internal teams on opportunities that arise during everyday activity that can build links provides a further reaching long term output than being heavily reliant on an SEO company.
Evidently there are many techincal, strategic and complex areas of SEO, but an effective in-house strategy implemented well can ensure that frameworks are in place so that ‘average’ people are shielded from these elements whilst still being able to contribute greatly to the SEO process.
Just a few thoughts, and as I said I don’t disagree with your comments, I just think there are other angles.
Cheers,
Steve
I always think that if you are not train to be in an area, let the experts take over and help you.
I guess this will help those who can’t decide which path to take.
Joshua I couldn’t agree more. A jack of all trades is great at nothing. Rather than spreading one’s self thin, a business owner should focus on what it is they’re good at, and work to be the best. This way his or her comparative advantage is leveraged to its full potential.
sir i think that if you are not train to be in an area, let the experts take over and help you sir
sir I guess this will help those who can’t decide which path to take.
As per my opinion, No one will capable in every thing, So it’s better to work with team especially to discuss about market….
I say leave it to the experts, as long as they are a good seo company
You have to let a good seo company do there job properly
It’s depends on the companies standards,if you really want your company traffic should be increase and get good page rank most of the companies recruits SEO people and starts their research to establish a good result in SEO market by way of increasing hits to their website.
Momentum Web Solutions
-Search engine optimisation and online marketing
Please – usefull comments would be nice? Have any of you read the quality of post on this blog? Self serving is not the name of the game here, rational discussion is.
wow your collection is really well it is amazing. color combination is so good
I am working as a online seo link builder . Is there any vacancy form me to work with you.