SEO is not always the easiest thing to get your head around. Even if you’ve been familiar with it for years, there can still be aspects of it that you don’t fully understand. It’s one of those things that can be completely impenetrable to some people. The common solution to this problem is outsourcing. Is this always the best way to go for businesses? Or is it better to keep these things in-house? It’s a dilemma that has been confronted by many business owners down the years.
It is a cornerstone of every business’s online strategy, so it’s something that’s important to get right. Managing how you invest in SEO is one of the most important decisions you will make. To help you out, here are the pros and cons of both keeping it in-house and outsourcing. Read on to discover which option is best for you and your business.
In-House:
For many small businesses, keeping SEO in-house is something that they don’t have much choice over. But as the business starts to grow, you will have to review this position. Sticking to in-house SEO has its benefits that you should take into consideration. But there are also things that make it difficult to sustain. We’ll go through these points in more detail right now.
Pros:
Planning and implementation remain firmly in your hands if you decide to keep things in-house. This is an advantage for a number of different reasons. For a start, every business is different and has different needs at different times. If you have full control over SEO in your office, you can change course and try new things as the need arises. This is something that is much harder to do if you have handed over the reigns to an external company that is looking after all of your SEO needs. Control is something that many business owners cherish too. When you need to integrate the different departments of your business and apply SEO to them all, having control is essential for success.
Staff members also have access to different information and details that can help improve SEO. This makes innovating much easier because the techniques used will be specific to the business. They understand the business and what it needs in a way that an external company could never do. The personal touches that are so important are impossible to recreate by an external company. That company won’t know anything about your business. This is a key point to keep in mind if you are considering outsourcing. It’s not something that many people think about, so give it some thought before it’s too late. Your own staff have the insights and knowledge that could help them do the job much better than anybody else out there.
Cons:
A lack of skills could really hold you back if you do decide to keep things in-house though. It’s something that you need to keep in mind. You should only take this course of action if you have thought it through on a practical level. You should know exactly who will be responsible for keeping on top of SEO in your office. If you don’t have individuals identified who you know that you will be able to rely on to keep things running like clockwork, you will struggle a lot. You should also factor in the issue of time. It takes time to stay on top of SEO, and is this something that your employees can afford to do? And then there is the money to consider. If you can’t afford to pay for it all, then it might be best to outsource.
Having the right technological resources to deal with SEO can be an issue that needs to be confronted as well. There are all kinds of analytics software that you will need to be using in your office. Using all the right software is not cheap, especially if you want to use the best. Not only do you need to pay for this software, but you will also need to make sure that your employees can use it all. You won’t get very far if your employees haven’t got a clue about how to use all the software that they need to be using. You can visit seo-software-review.toptenreviews.com to learn more about the required software.
Outsourced:
Outsourcing is a big step for many business owners. Handing over responsibility to someone else can be very difficult. But it’s not something that you have to be afraid of. It can be a good thing to let other people bring something new and fresh to your business. Once you have got past the initial shock of trusting other people with an aspect of your business, you could start to see the benefits. Here are the key pros and cons of outsourcing SEO that you need to know about.
Pros:
Getting help from people who really know what they’re doing is the main advantage of outsourcing when it comes to SEO. As I mentioned above, it’s not always the easiest thing to understand and get your head round. But if you can outsource to people who know everything about SEO, you won’t need to know anything because they’ll take care of it for you. There is no better way of taking this kind of worry off your mind. However much you might think you know about SEO, you probably don’t know as much as the people who really are the experts. They will be able to offer a service that is completely unrivalled by amateurs like you and others in your office.
If cutting your costs is your main focus right now, it might be a good idea to outsource. Not many business owners realise that money can be saved by outsourcing. For example, if you outsource to a team of professionals, you won’t have to hire people in-house. Hiring people is always more expensive than outsourcing. And when you outsource, you will be able to use the expertise as a whole team of professionals. Imagine how much money it would cost if you had to hire a whole team of people. It’s not something that many small or medium-sized businesses can afford to do, so outsourcing is the ideal solution to this kind of problem. Visit seooutsourcingguide.com to find out more about outsourcing. Now it’s time to look at the other side of the coin and consider the cons.
Cons:
There are a few cons associated with outsourcing SEO. The first thing to accept is that outsourcing means letting go of things. You can’t outsource your SEO and stay in control. So, you need to be willing to give up that control if you want to outsource. For some business owners, this is something that is very hard to do. It doesn’t have to be a negative thing though. Loosening your grip on the reigns of the business could be a very positive thing for everyone. A business can never be ruled as a dictatorship. That way of doing things rarely leads to positive results in the long-term. But, on the other hand, there is always the chance that the people you put your trust in could let you down.
The selection process is something that you will have to spend a lot of time on. You can’t expect things to go well if you simply outsource to the first business you come across. It takes a lot of researching and consulting before you find the best company for your business to outsource to. If you don’t have this time, you should think twice about outsourcing. It’s a process that is longer and more complicated than most business owners realise. And it’s not something that you should skip because this usually simply leads to a disaster situation occurring. You should never listen to someone who tells you that they can guarantee results. There are no guarantees in the world of SEO.
Conclusion
When all’s said and done, which of these two options is best for you will depend on your business’s circumstances. If your business has employees who know SEO inside out already, it might be more sensible to keep things in-house. One of the big benefits of outsourcing is that you get access to the expertise of people who know all there is to know about SEO. But if you already have employees who have that kind of knowledge, it might not be necessary to outsource to other people.
But if you have no one in your workplace who knows about the intricacies of SEO, it might be best to outsource. When you outsource your SEO needs to an external company, you can be sure that they know what they’re doing. It’s a much better option that muddling through and not really understanding what you’re doing. It can also be a good way of cutting costs if you can’t afford to hire people to work in your office on SEO. Think about out your needs and capabilities are and then weigh up all your options.