So, your business has seen the value of search engine optimization and needs to get on the SEO bandwagon to increase your Internet sales. For those traditional marketing professionals that aren’t familiar with SEO, I’ve compiled five valid reasons why hiring an experienced, reputable SEO firm is generally better than building out your own in-house SEO team.
Instant Team with Real Knowledge
Quite simply, when you sign up with an SEO firm, you already have the manpower on hand. This saves you days of sorting through resumes, interviewing and the back and forth of hiring. Also, if you don’t fully understand SEO, how can you be so certain that the person you’re hiring is actually the best person for the job? A reputable SEO company has dozens of knowledgeable members to aid in setting strategy or resolving any issues.
Proven Experience, Expertise and Education
Signing on with a proven SEO company not only gets your campaign moving quickly, but they’re also there to answer questions, consult and weigh in on other online marketing techniques. A reputable SEO company typically has a track record including case studies and a decent sized SEO team.
In addition, depending on the company, they will invest thousands of dollars in keeping their employees’ knowledge up to date by allotting time to research, testing and attending SEO conferences around the nation.
Connections and Collaborative Efforts
Along the same lines of experience and expertise that an SEO firm has, your project should be seen by many professional’s eyes. As opposed to creating your own team, the decision and strategy that is behind your SEO campaign gets looked at by other managers, directors and VPs. Putting all your eggs in one basket and trusting a single individual to market your products online is risky. The truth is, without multiple experienced eyes on a campaign, bad decisions from inexperience or lack of knowledge can seriously hurt your SEO both short and long term.
Much Easier to Manage
Reputable SEO companies should always be available. You should be able to pick up a phone and call them during business hours. For many companies, SEO can be very confusing and many don’t want anything more than phone call meetings and accurate reports to show value. The truth is, leaving your SEO project in the trusted hands of proven professionals is easier to manage. It doesn’t take as much time out of your day and you still get all the value.
Performance Driven
SEO companies will do whatever it takes to keep you 
on as a client. This mentality encourages an increase of productivity and a higher level of performance. All SEO companies should be tracking the progress of the campaign through analytics, rankings and overall return on investment. Hiring an in-house SEO can also achieve great results, but because the working mentality is slightly different, results can seriously vary.
Case Studies and Multiple Success Clients
When shopping around for an in-house SEO or an SEO company, make sure you see their previous work. Allowing a newcomer to this industry to handle your campaign can be disastrous. A portfolio of successful clients is essential and a reputable SEO firm is going to have many case studies to prove their expertise. Should the SEO firm that you’re looking at not have any examples of a successful campaign, keep looking.
Many will argue that building out an in-house team, though more work in the beginning, will be best for the long term and more cost effective. Reputable SEO companies can easily be long-term partners. In fact, many clients that I’ve dealt with have been working with us for close to two years and counting. To figure out which is more cost effective, consider that hiring an in-house SEO with experience is going to cost $60,000-$110,000 per year depending on the demand, state and level of knowledge, and that’s just for one person too. Then there’s the cost of the additional team members, company equipment, desk space and benefits. On the other hand, hiring an SEO firm and investing $4,000-$7,000 per month ($48,000 – $84,000 per year) into your campaign would be a very healthy budget, and more cost effective.
Many companies hire an SEO firm for the reasons I have just outlined, while others build out their own in-house team. Some larger companies have an SEO team, and an SEO firm to get the advantages of both worlds. Whichever route your company takes, make sure that the person or company you hire is reputable, proven and experienced.
Too many companies think that they will save money by doing their own SEO – only a year later to have a 12-month opportunity loss and leaving money to their competitors.
Worse still is that the “market rate” for an employed SEO outside of an agency is still below US$45k in the UK and Ireland – worse in Ireland where’s probably half that of the US. If an SEO can’t make $35k on their own, why do you want to add them to your organisation where they’ll need to make an awful lot more!
Thanks David!
You you don’t know SEO yourself, hiring somebody to handle all the efforts just isn’t a good idea. SEO firms are the way to go for 95% of the businesses out there.
Kevin,
there is a bit of a flaw in your reasoning.
If I do not have the skills to select an in-house staff member to handle SEO, what qualifies me to hire an SEO company to do it for me?
Also, for me, a more powerful argument would be this: a dedicated resource in-house will most probably be underutilised. Working for a single client, they will not have a very broad view of the possibilties in the market, so they are a diminishing investment.
If you select an agency, and work with them in the long term, they can allocate resources to your work in a cost effective way. More importantly, those resources are constantly learning from what they are doing for other clients. So they are a developing resource.
regards,
Donal Clancy
Chair of Digital Marketing, DCU Business School
Donal,
Picking a qualified SEO company can also be tough, I’m going do a follow up post on “How to Pick a Reputable SEO Agency” next week. That way, people who completely don’t understand SEO can choose with confidence.
Stating that an inhouse team is underutilized and that an SEO firm can allocate resources in a more cost effective way can be very true for some companies.
Thanks for adding your 2 cents to my post!
Kevin
I’ve worked in-house and for agencies and can honestly see pros and cons for both and any point can be reasonably argued from either side.
Sure hiring an in-house is more expensive but you get 40 hours a week out of them and at 100K can get a pro, more to the point though, an in-house has to perform or he is out of a job, for an agency it’s just one client! Let’s be honest, if you pay an agency $50K to $80K a year you are going to have a less experienced person working on your campaign and they definitely wont be dedicating 40 hours a week to the one client. Also, they won’t become as involved or knowledgeable about the business, as an in-house you get to know the business and its products inside out.
I’d agree that an agency is more inclined to keep the knowledge of their staff sharp but the same can be done with an in-house and in all reality an in-house guy should be staying on top of their skill set regardless.
Personally I think each business is different and agencies are a great options for small to medium business and many larger businesses. Larger corporations or businesses that can afford to go in-house would most likely see more value for their dollar on a spend to work completed ratio.
I would say that you’re exactly right on those points. What I would add to this is that SEO firms can be very much involved with a companies processes, products, etc. I have several clients where I am incredibly involved in how they launch products and how their site is set up.
It all depends on which SEO firm you hire. Just like if you hire an inhouse person, you can get a great worker or a flop. I’ll be following up on this post with an in-depth “How to Find a Reputable SEO Company” article next week.
Yeah this is true, I find working with an agency clients don’t always make it easy to be as informed as one should be, but you do what you can right…
Don’t forget that there are many companies out there that offer a free SEO analysis, like seoanalyser.net.
Before you start thinking if you want to hire an in-house or go to a company, I say it’s better to use such a service. This way you can create a better image of what you need and you can make the proper choice: in-house or company.
It’s definitely a great idea to get a free report, similar to the one SEO.com has on their homepage, but these analysis or reports just give data. Somebody that needs an SEO firm likely doesn’t know anything about SEO, making these reports fun, but not really useful.
That’s where an SEO company steps in and offers their services.
I am currently working in-house and can honestly see advantages and disadvantages to both. I completely agree with your points. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for commenting!
I have done both.
It’s an age-old question…to hire a person to do it in house or to hire an agency to handle it for you. LIke stated above their are many advantages and disadvantages to BOTH. The deciding factor will probably be the hiring manager who is reponsible for the work and how much time they have to manage the process.
Very true! Managing a full in house team definitely needs more attention and time.
I think this is like anything else-you need some knowledge before you can make a decision. If a client does not understand the difference between a quality backlink and a machine produced forum profile link then they have no way to tell a good SEO firm from a bad one or decide what part of their campaign if any they want to handle in house.
Ah, so what you’re saying is a good SEO company not only has the track record and results, but they should also educate their clients.
An awesome article… but what happens to the Small Business who can’t afford to hire an SEO expert and put out the cash like the 95% that can afford the budget. Where do a Small Business owner find a lower budget reliable SEO expert knowledge to do the job for them?
Should the Small Business turn to Foreign outsourcing or do it themselves?
For those who simply can’t afford an SEO agency. It might not be a bad idea to hire an SEO consultant for a one time fee to lay out a strategy for you. There are plenty of SEO’s out there that will consult rather than fulfill.
Foreign outsourcing for SEO is common, but highly discouraged. Unless you know what you’re doing and understand what the outsourced company is doing, you’re taking a huge risk with your SEO. I have heard countless horror stories from people trusting foreign companies. Check out this post from SEO.com’s president: http://www.seo.com/blog/offshore-seo-company-threatens-negative-reputation-campaign/
Kevin
Thank Keven!
Now are there any companies that you would recommend to the Small Business Owner? How about using an SEO student as an intern, would you recommend do so?
If you’re thinking about an SEO campaign and want to get serious about your online marketing, I would strongly suggest avoiding using an SEO student. If they don’t have the experience and knowledge, it can be very easy for them to do more harm that good.
Unfortunately, there are SEO firms that claim to know what their doing, but really they’re a scam. I can’t give you a safe answer as to a quality, small business solution out there. But, if you’re interested in speaking with somebody from SEO.com about possible options, I would love to set you up with one of our sales consultants.
Kevin
Well, I am an SEO consultant from sydney and have seen both sides, I agree both have their pros and cons.
Thanks James!
While there are benefits both ways, it is very difficult to develop an in-house team from scratch if you have limited knowledge of SEO yourself.
For small firms it is really difficult. To learn SEO themselves would rob them of time for their core business. I think that small businesses should focus on an AdWords campaign for their product/website.
You did a great job breaking it down Kevin. I’ve seen once upon a time prospects come back months later after trying to do it internally.
Its easier to hold a firm accountable rather than the cost of loosing employees that you have poured training and other resources into. The firm wants your business, an employee might not care.
I agree with Seth that, yes it is easier to hold a firm accountable rather than an employee, and its obviously easier to change firms rather than in house staff.
But I think its a lot harder to keep track of what an SEO company is actually doing with your monthly fee.
I think that is much better to hire a remote freelancer. He does not spend money on the premises, is always available for communication, a lot of money in his pocket does not take, etc.
Good points. I notice that many companies trying to hire or set-up in-house seo fail. Believe one of the main reasons is they don’t know enough SEO to recruit an SEO expert.
So basically, I agree with you that it’s better using an SEO firm instead of create your own team.
Yes some time in house team doing best compare than a outsource a SEO firm . In house team is dedicated for your project only . so they will give all best salutation for the project .
Hi , In house development is always best .
I Think in house development for a product is better than outsourcing the firm .