As a digital-day business owner, you might know how crucial it is to have a well-established presence for your business on the web these days. And why not, everybody wants to be recognized globally and make more money on the Internet.
SEO is a huge industry, and businesses regularly take advantage of it to boost their sales. However, things are not always as they seem. While the benefits of SEO are many, the efforts it demands to achieve those results often take a toll on the business owners.
Why:
Search Engine Optimization is a time-intensive process; consistency and persistence are the key aspects of achieving the desired goal. Moreover, it is still one of the most difficult things for many businesses to understand. The technical aspects, constant search engine updates, and the relativity SEO has with social media, web development and content marketing are all add-ons to the confusion.
The strategies that are involved in SEO are complex and comprehensive. And business owners may not always have the time to learn about these intricacies and their application. The fact that SEO and its strategies do not guarantee quick results may annoy a naive resulting in wastage of their time and money.
This is where the need for a helping hand comes in!
One cannot deny the significance of using SEO in brand building and growing a business online. It is nearly impossible to withstand the global competition and establish a name in your industry.
If this makes sense to you:
Consider the below-mentioned statistics.
According to an online survey by Forbes:
- 72% business owners who opted for SEO strategies realized that it had a direct impact on the bottom line.
- SEO lead conversion was at 14.6% as compared to the lead conversion from outbound marketing (1.7%).
- SEO leads are affordable to acquire and are 61% less expensive than an outbound lead.
To sum up the importance of SEO:
- It gets you on the top 10 of a search engine result page.
- It makes your website visible to the search engine.
- It helps you attract enough internet users to visit and click on your link.
- It helps repeat customers to your website.
- It helps you bring in more business for your ventures and earn more profits.
Now:
When it comes to looking for SEO service provider, business owners have got three options:
- Hire an SEO freelancer.
- Build a team in-house
- Outsource your SEO Needs to an SEO company.
Intrigued?
Don’t be! Below we have discussed all the three ways for you to decide on how to invest in SEO for your business needs.
Hiring an SEO Freelancer
An SEO freelancer is a person who works individually and is solely responsible for handling all the tasks. The person may or may not be experienced but can pretend to be the one.
Now:
Freelancing a.k.a ‘Work from Home’ services are gaining popularity these days. These are usually individuals who take projects from various firms on a certain amount of compensation. These are usually the students who are either pursuing their education or professionals who are not satisfied with the agency atmosphere and prefer working alone.
SEO freelancers are responsible for an entire SEO project and should be able to carry out everything to get the desired outcome. Also, these individuals are usually affordable to hire; you can always cut your cost by opting this option.
Now, the negative side.
While SEO freelancers are a great option for organizations looking for low-cost SEO plans, hiring such people often causes issues.
Lack of complete knowledge and expertise can lead to obstacles in your SEO plan and can delay the process.
SEO is a time-consuming process involving many aspects and strategies to attain maximum benefits. As such, handling multiple tasks altogether by a single person can be challenging and risky.
You may face trust issues with the freelancers.
Pro Tip: Hiring a freelancer for your company SEO is viable only for firms that are willing to begin at a very basic level, say start-ups. And if still, you wish to go with this option, make sure to learn the most about the freelancer you are going to hire and check out their past experiences to avoid any kind of risks or loss.
Build/Hire an In-house SEO Team
As we’ve already mentioned that SEO is no more a single-handed game and you need a dedicated team of professionals to handle all your SEO needs and get you desired results.
Big organizations these days prefer hiring professionals to work for them being a part of their company. Building an in-house SEO team is actually significant if:
- Your company is big enough to require an SEO team in-house.
- You have adequate SEO requirements to offer to the team members on a daily basis and also in the long run.
- Your company has the potential to compensate all the team members you hire.
- You are ready to invest in necessary resources required to facilitate your in-house SEO team.
If you go with these:
Building an in-house team can offer you multiple benefits. It can help you resolve your website issues on a timely basis; the work can be distributed among the teammates based on their proficiency. Further, technical issues can be diagnosed on the initial stage and can be resolved on time. Also, you can ensure that the professionals you hire have a good understanding of the subject and can use their knowledge to serve your company better. There are also fewer chances of dishonesty and fraudulence.
And the best part:
Having an in-house SEO team can help you with other impending ventures if your company plans to grow its business in near future.
However, building an in-house team has consequences, too. Firstly, there’s a lot of difference in managing a team and dealing with an individual. Secondly, the cost factor is the biggest drawback here. A team that offers a satisfactory return on investment (ROI) eats up a good amount of budget. Also, it requires a lot of investment to set up manpower and other company resources to support the team.
Therefore, hiring an in-house SEO team is not an ideal option for all the organizations.
Last but not the least:
Outsource to SEO Company
As a business owner, your goal is to make your brand become famous as well as favourite. Among the many things, a few important considerations in the same direction include using the available resources efficiently and keeping the costs low.
Outsourcing SEO needs can help you achieve these altogether.
- It helps you keep your overheads low
- Serves your need for a multi-pronged SEO strategy.
- Offers a cost-effective means of persistent SEO support.
Outsourcing your SEO needs here means contracting out the work to 3rd party people or agencies that are apt in their skills. Agencies that work for you usually have a team of professionals comprising of SEO executives, content writers, link builders, project managers, social media managers, etc. Hence, they can serve all your needs relates to SEO. Also, they usually work with multiple clients globally.
Why is Outsourcing SEO beneficial?
This option offers you the opportunity to hand over your SEO to the people who are experts and connoisseurs in their work, which ensures that your company reputation is in the safe hands.
One of the main reasons why organizations are willing to outsource SEO is the advantage of the savings it offers, unlike the in-house SEO team. For you to notice, outsourcing SEO needs minimise cost with infrastructure as well as the training time. Also, there is no need for you to invest in recruitment, staff turnover, management, etc., both in terms of time and money.
Further, most established SEO firms have a diligent work ethic. Hence, you get quality work on a timely basis. With SEO as their primary focus, they comprise of well- developed processes, unique strategies and best practices to help you achieve great outcomes. And with the right documentation, there is no chance of discrepancies or misconduct.
The only thing where outsourcing SEO lacks is the communication gap. SEO agencies often have no or less time to communicate with you as they are busy with other clients. This can cause issues when your company needs a sudden change in its digital marketing strategy.
The Closure
Now, when you are quite informed about all the three ways to serve your SEO needs, it’s time to take the decision on which suits your business the best.
Pro Tip: Make the choice by –
- Evaluating the extent of your SEO needs.
- Assess your budget.
- Your willingness for participation and involvement with the partner you choose.
Originally published at www.seodiscovery.com