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When to hire a professional SEO company?
In an effort to increase sales and profitability, more and more businesses are turning to online marketing initiatives, specifically search engine optimization. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art and science of combining technical and marketing skills into a finely tuned website that is compatible with search engines, ranks well for keywords, specific key and phrases and tailored to your audience from a buyer and seller perspective.
According to a recent US study, only 20% of all companies outsource search engine optimization programs to professional SEO firms. The remaining 80% do not do any search engine optimization or believe they have the resources and skills to do it in-house. Of this 80%, it is likely that 90% of these companies are not on the web, they do not exist. To generate any significant amount of web visibility, your website generally needs to rank in the top 30 results.
So the question comes down to what is best for your business.
Do your SEO program in-house or outsource it. To answer this question, let's first take a look at the knowledge, skills, and resources required to implement and maintain a successful search engine optimization program.
SEO knowledge and skills required
1) Basic understanding of how search engines and directories work.
This may seem too obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people don't understand how they actually work. This knowledge provides the foundation for your SEO program.
2) Website design
Although SEO is not entirely a technical marketing process, it does require a fair amount of technical knowledge of what constitutes search engine friendly web design. Certain web design elements can either help your search engine rankings or hurt them. You just have to know which is which.
3) SEO experience
This is the most important and most difficult knowledge to obtain. If you have never implemented an SEO program, then you are in for a big surprise. Search engine optimization programs require a lot of research and are time consuming. Most importantly, they require real SEO experience. This means knowing which SEO strategies and tactics work and which don't.
Internal vs. External SEO Programs
If your business is considering taking its search engine optimization program in-house, here are some questions to consider.
• Who will be responsible for analyzing, developing, implementing and measuring the success of your SEO program?
• Is this considered to be the role of your IT department, marketing department, or someone else within your company?
• Do they have the time, knowledge, and resources to successfully implement and maintain your search engine optimization program? And do they really care if it works or not?
IT Department
Typically, your IT department handles multiple daily tasks, from troubleshooting your company's LAN or WAN to repairing sales department laptops. Outside of one IT person's busy day, what priority and focus do you think you'll commit to for your SEO program? And even if your IT department does have some web design or development skills, these skills represent only a small percentage of the knowledge required for a successful search engine optimization program.
Marketing department
Typically, your marketing department is juggling many marketing projects at once and facing tight deadlines for completion. From handling new print collateral campaigns to preparing for new product or service launches, marketing staff time is at a premium. Also, how knowledgeable is your marketing department about the technical aspects of web design and search engine optimization? Do they have time to become well versed? Do they have enough internal resources? Often the answer to both questions is no, they don't.
Other person(s) within your company
Ok, so the responsibility falls to someone outside of your Marketing or IT department. Who will be and why is he responsible for your SEO program? Providing these people with a new "project of the month" will usually result in another check mark on their monthly to-do list and frustration from upper management as to why their website isn't producing any sales results.
Summary
From a business point of view, it makes sense to treatthe company's web marketing initiatives. By leveraging their experience and expertise, your business can quickly and more efficiently implement a successful search engine optimization program.
