It’s no secret that attracting organic traffic to your website is a must for increasing sales or accomplishing any goal you’ve set out for it, but if you don’t have the time or expertise, those potential customers aren’t going to find you. Moreover, when customers aren’t calling, your business probably won’t be successful.
As a business owner, you could hire an in-house search engine optimization (SEO) expert so that you can do what you do best and let someone else do the job, but hiring someone full-time is usually a lot more expensive than outsourcing the job. The average salary for an SEO specialist is nearly $50,000 a year, not to mention taxes and benefits. Of course, as with everything, there are pros and cons to consider when weighing whether or not to use SEO consulting services instead.
Pro of Outsourcing # 1: Saving time.
Outsourcing SEO services will save you a lot of time. Not only will you not have to deal with something you probably don’t have a lot of training in, but you also won’t have to go through interview after interview to find the right person to hire, check their credentials and references, and so on. If you take advantage of an SEO consultant, you’ll still have to make the phone call or send an email, but once they understand what your goal is, you won’t have to do much else. There is no need to monitor the experts; they’ll simply do the job so you can work on growing your business in other ways.
Pro of Outsourcing # 2: A professional, high quality job.
Optimizing a website isn’t as easy as it looks – experts have to stay up to date on current practices, and there is a lot more to it than you probably think. Few people without the right training and expertise are up to the task, no matter how savvy they might be when it comes to business. When you outsource SEO, you know the company you chose is going to have a significant amount of experience doing a professional job as substandard agencies fail quickly when they don’t produce the results their clients want.
Pro of Outsourcing # 3: They’ve Already Dealt with Those Curveballs.
Unless you hire a brand new company, you’ll be working with experienced SEO consultants who have managed SEO for many other businesses in a wide range of industries, some of which probably match your own. That means they’ve dealt with numerous issues already and know how to handle them so they can pivot quickly when it matters most, helping to minimize damage and set your site up for greater success.
Con of Outsourcing # 1: It’s pricey.
Utilizing a reputable SEO agency isn’t going to be cheap, but the reality is, the investment you make now is likely to pay off later; in fact, it often pays for itself and then some. Remember, you get what you pay for, if you go the cheapest route, you’ll probably have to pay more in the long run to have it corrected. As mentioned, hiring a full-time SEO expert as an in-house employee costs more.
Con of Outsourcing # 2: You’ll have to relinquish some control.
If you’re the type of person who likes to have a hand in running every single aspect of your business, it may be difficult for you to have to give up some of that control as the SEO agency will be handling the job. Of course, a good agency will keep you in the loop so that you can feel more comfortable knowing it’s being done right.
