Search engine optimization(SEO) is crucial for all businesses whether it may B2B or B2C. Research shows that 83% of people do online research before they make an online purchase even if the purchase happens in your store. Moreover, 53% of all website traffic is from organic search, and let’s be honest to ourselves, who even goes to google’s second page.
Why Should You Outsource SEO?
SEO isn’t a simple task, it takes rigorous effort and time to even get close to being good at it. Designing and planning a strategy needs to be evolved as the search algorithm by search engines evolves with time. Here are 5 reasons why you should outsource Search Engine Optimization.
Constantly Changing Algorithm
Google and all major search engines keep changing the search ranking algorithm with time and lately, it has been quite frequent too. So their changes are released by them and need to be studied thoroughly. Post that the strategy might change. So having the right expertise will make things keep moving in a lot more efficient and faster manner.
Save Money and Overheads
A full-time in-house SEO resource will cost you a lot more money and don forget the overheads like a seat in your office, system, other perks like travel allowance, maternity leave, etc. And even then you won’t be able to know if they are working in the right direction. Outsourcing will relieve you from all of these additional costs and work at fixed monthly charges.
Focus On Your Own Business
As you’ll be saving all the headaches and money, you can channelize that towards your business and grow that. This is a crucial phase especially during the nascent phase of your business. Once your business is big enough then you can think of having an in-house resource and maybe having a complete SEO team with a dedicated content writer, website developer, and designer.
Expertise and Training
When you outsource Search Engine Optimization, the vendor usually has a team of multiple people working on SEO or have similar expertise. This makes your overall result a lot better as the person working on SEO can get help and advice from colleagues and get adequate training from time to time.
Easily Change your Vendor
The best part about outsourcing the SEO is having the ability to change the vendor whenever you want to. There is no notice period, no wrongful termination lawsuit, no severance pay. You have the freedom to change when you don’t get the results you are looking for as well as when you find a better vendor as well.
Yes, it’s great to have an in-house SEO team but for small to medium size businesses outsourcing is the best thing they can go for. These are just some of the reasons from a list of many that you should consider when outsourcing the Search Engine Optimization service. Here are some factors that you should consider when outsourcing SEO.
Factors to consider when outsourcing SEO
Budget
Outsourcing can be expensive as well, just find a vendor who is suitable for your budget and requirement.
Content and Keywords
SEO needs periodic blogs and content, which needs to be written in a well. So you have to make sure that the content writer and the SEO team work hand in hand with ample coordination. All the blogs need to be written around the keywords that the SEO team suggests, which can create complications when not done properly.
Business Model
The SEO team should understand your business model and what your business is all about. This will help you as well as them to generate backlinks and guest posting when needed.
Brand Value
SEO will make your brand visible in front of people in search results, blogs, and all sorts of content possible. All the work the SEO team does is to represent your brand, so you have to make sure the work being done is in the right direction and what represents your values and brand in the desired way.
Growth Strategy and Aspirations
It’s your business’s ranking and keyword, so you’ll have to initially discuss what keywords are important to your business and growth. The keywords and search results that drive your business are crucial for your SEO strategy. May it be sales, information, visibility, registrations, etc.
Transparency
Don’t be afraid to tell the SEO vendor your business model and about your product. This will help them strategize and plan in a lot more efficient way than keeping it all a trade secret. Be comfortable with telling them everything in detail like how the customer approaches you, your lead generation strategy, average customer conversion rate, etc.
What questions will help you find the right SEO vendor/ freelancer for you?
What metrics do you track and report?
Metrics matter a lot it can be keyword rankings, traffic, total impressions, average page rank, average CTR, total clicks, etc. What you’ll need is a comprehensive report which has all the parameters that matter and is laid out in a way that you can even understand too.
How do you report progress?
The best way to track progress is via some visual representation of data vs time. It can be done using google sheets, a periodically shared pdf, ppt, or even an exported CSV from a tool like ubersuggest. Just make sure you receive periodic reports from the team, it can be weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly.
When can we start seeing results?
SEO is a marathon, not a sprint, so it’ll take 4-6 months to start seeing significant results. Some keywords might see better results than others due to lack of competition while some may take even a couple of years to get ranked on the first page on google.
Previous work done and clients?
Previous work matters a lot, so you’ll have to be careful when analyzing it. Some people may fake some reports and results but you’ll have to be smart and study the clients. You may even call any of their clients and ask about the progress directly.
Is there any client similar to us that you work for?
Conflict of interest is a buzz killer. Having a client in a similar domain is great, but doing what you do can be bad for everyone due to privacy issues.
Example: Having an eCommerce client who sells completely different products is great, but having an eCommerce client who sells the same thing as yours will lead to complications in the later stage.
Well SEO is quite a broad topic, it can make and break your business. So be careful when choosing a vendor and be patient too. Remember it’s a marathon, not a sprint.