In-House or Outsourced SEO?

Sara Beaudoin is the Marketing Communications Manager for SearchPro Systems.

As we all know, the first question a company faces when they want to increase their visibility online is ‘Should I hire someone to do my Search Engine Optimization?’   That question in itself may stump and confuse many business owners, however, the next question is ‘Do I hire someone to do my SEO in-house, or do I outsource?’  As always, there are pros and cons with either route, and one option may work best for one company, while the other option will work best for another company.  Here are some of the top reasons I believe outsourcing to an SEO firm is your company’s most cost effective and beneficial choice.

Typically, in house SEO’s are less experienced or less talented than outsourced SEO’s.  In house SEO’s typically earn significantly less money than SEO’s who work for SEO firms, and therefore, professionals with a lot of experience or talent in SEO will not settle for low paying, in house SEO jobs.  That is not to say that all in house SEO’s are inexperienced or do poor work, by any means!  In fact, some probably make above-par wages and are very good at what they do, however, that is sadly, not the norm.  It is simply difficult for most companies to allow enough space in their budgets (especially during a recession!) to offer an in house SEO rep. a meaty salary.

SEO firms however, are able to gather the most talented web designers, SEO experts, video experts and social media experts to put together a highly skilled team that will provide expertly crafted results for the firm’s clients.  Alternatively, while an in house SEO rep. may be very skilled in SEO and web design, he or she may not be as experienced with social media or with producing high quality marketing videos.

In house SEO people are only one brain, and one set of experiences and ideas.  It is only human for one person’s ideas to dry up and come to an end at some point.  Having a single in house SEO rep. takes away his or her ability to bounce ideas off of a team member or to pull ideas from other team members.  He or she may be able to search for more ideas via the internet or by staying in touch with former classmates or colleagues, but those options may be limiting if your company cannot afford further training and seminars for your SEO representative.

An SEO firm will have multiple employees who can share ideas with each other, bounce ideas off of each other, research new ideas together, etc.  It is in every SEO firm’s best interest to stay ahead of the times, so they may frequently further their employee’s training and knowledgebase, as well as hire new employees when necessary.