5 Reasons You’re Not Ready to Outsource SEO

Writing by Brick Marketing in SEO

Business owners/decision makers that want to implement search engine optimization into their marketing strategy have two options. First, they can do the work in house. If the business is on the small side this can be an additional task for the marketing department to handle. Of course, not everyone has SEO knowledge and some training and consulting would be necessary. Or, if the business has a bigger budget it could hire an in house SEO professional that has industry experience to handle the work. The second option is to outsource the work to an SEO firm. This option ensures that the work gets done by an SEO professional and is typically less costly than hiring an in house SEO professional which is why it’s a popular choice and there are so many SEO companies that are able to thrive. The thing is, many businesses make the mistake of hiring an SEO firm before they are actually ready. If any of the following apply, hold off on outsourcing your SEO work:

You don’t know where the website stands
Website redesigns and content updates are necessary every few years as the business changes and evolves. It’s also important to keep things “fresh”. You don’t want to have an outdated looking site because it will be a turn off to visitors. However, if things are in the process of being changed or you aren’t quite sure exactly what is being changed it’s important to figure these things out before outsourcing SEO work. SEO firms need to know exactly what content needs to be optimized.

You aren’t sure who the point person will be
A relationship between a business and its SEO firm should be viewed as a partnership and consistent communication is key. It’s very critical to have one point of contact for the SEO firm. If the firm is passed around from Marketing Manager to IT staff to Executive Assistant nothing will get accomplished.

You don’t have time to correspond
In order to keep things moving along there are many items that need to be discussed and approved throughout the duration of an SEO program. Businesses outsource SEO because they don’t have time to do it themselves. We get it. However, you can’t disappear without responding to phone and email correspondence and then wonder why nothing was accomplished.

You need too many approvals
A good SEO program integrates all other marketing efforts being conducted including content marketing, PR, and social media. If every item needs to be approved by a different department it’s difficult to get things started. Large corporations tend to have lots of red tape when it comes to marketing efforts which can really hinder an SEO campaign.

You are looking for an immediate solution
SEO doesn’t work overnight. In fact, depending on the competition and the industry it can take a long time to start to see some improvement. If you are looking for quick results, SEO isn’t the best option for you.