Blog article
In-House Vs. Outsourced SEO: Which is Better?
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Let’s face it, this is probably not your first time to encounter the term “SEO.”
You may have received a couple of emails from people who claim that your website needs some SEO work. If not, you could’ve combed through a handful of online marketing guides and read a section or two about SEO.
Nevertheless, it’s clear that SEO is one of the things that can help businesses establish an authoritative and profitable online presence.
Data from Moz reveals that SEO has 20 times more traffic opportunity than PPC, which stands for pay-per-click advertising.
Sure, paid advertisements can definitely get any brand short-term gains. But if you want a brand that continually grows and sustains profits, you need to generate a steady stream of organic traffic from search engines.
Launching an SEO Campaign for Your Website: Two Options
After you learn what SEO means and why it matters, the next step is to determine whether or not you’ll manage your SEO campaign internally or externally. This pertains to whether or not you’ll build an in-house SEO team or simply hire an agency to do the heavy lifting.
To help you make your decision, you must first consider three factors:
Your Current Resources
It’s no secret that SEO isn’t cheap.
Whether you plan to build an in-house team or hire an agency for your SEO, the costs of your campaign can easily amount to a thousand dollars at the very least.
No — we’re not talking about cheap “SEO services” offered by random sites that cost less than a hundred dollars per month. With the kind of money you can spend on these shady services, you can invest in at least one or two high-quality backlinks. That can bring both traffic and an improved ranking potential.
Naturally, if you don’t have enough funds to hire a top-tier SEO agency, it could be wise to hire an in-house SEO consultant who can put together a small team. You may not attain high rankings fast, but you will have more flexibility and control when it comes to your budget.
Your Website’s Performance
The thing is, most reputable SEO agencies won’t work with new businesses who are starting from scratch.
They know that, in order to get satisfactory results with SEO, your site must already be pulling in a healthy amount of traffic on a monthly basis. Usually, this requires a reasonably-sized library of high-quality content that captivates your target audience’s attention.
An in-house team, of course, will help you acquire these basic requirements — from keyword research all the way to content distribution.
If you previously invested in classified ads, you can also use solutions like our solution to bolster your website with high-quality content and landing pages. It works by leveraging AI technology to dissect the technical details of your ads and analyze potential, long-tail keyword opportunities to make sure the content pieces you create are 100% SEO-friendly.
The Competition
Here’s a cold hard fact: in SEO, there will be a few winners and many losers.
Statistics show that, on average, the first-page results on Google receives 91.5 percent of the traffic. The top organic result, on the other hand, gets to keep 32.5 percent by itself.
In other words, SEO requires a “go big or go home” mindset unless you want to burn thousands of dollars on activities that don’t lead to profitable results.
There is, however, an exception for micro niches that even one-man marketing teams can pursue. These are the product of broader niches sliced up into smaller segments according to several factors. Such as location, target audience, features, and problems being solved.
One way to reveal micro-niches is to perform keyword research with a tool like LongTailPro. This works by expanding broad “seed keywords” into hundreds of potentially profitable long-tail keyword variations.
By taking into account the factors above, you should be able to decide whether or not you should conduct SEO internally or externally. And now that we got that out of the way, let’s dig even deeper and understand their pros:
Benefits of Internal SEO
More Flexibility
First and foremost, an internal SEO team’s services can be specifically tailored to your needs and budget.
Your campaign won’t be restricted to the pre-built SEO packages that agencies often offer. That means that every dollar you spend on your campaign can have a tangible impact.
Your Own Toolbox
With an SEO team, you usually have the power to create your own arsenal of SEO tools.
One example is the Moz suite, which includes of a lineup of free and premium tools for specific SEO tasks, such as keyword research, backlink analysis, and on-page optimization insights.
Quicker, More Transparent Results
Lastly, an in-house SEO team means you can check your results and how they actually translate to profits on-demand.
Every report you get will also be accompanied by the close assistance of your in-house consultant. By being exposed firsthand to your SEO data and activities, you’ll also eventually become well-versed in the industry.
Benefits of External SEO
Higher Chance of Success
If you picked a reputable SEO agency, your campaign will be handled by a team of specialists with the experience and tools to make things happen.
Just remember to choose companies that provide proof of their claims. Talk to them and ascertain that they have experience with companies from a similar niche.
Be Instantly Competitive
Truth be told, most of your top competitors are probably backed with an SEO agency.
It will undoubtedly take a long time before your team could reach that caliber, but with the right SEO agency, you can be put on the fast track from day one.
Dedicated Team
By building an managing your own SEO team, you may have to take time and effort away from your core business activities.
This isn’t the case with a full-service SEO agency. The same goes for external SEO tools and solutions like Verbolia, which are run by a dedicated team who prioritizes your success.
Conclusion
For most new businesses, it’s a puzzle with plenty of moving parts. Permeating other aspects of digital marketing like web design, influencer outreach, social media marketing, and blogging.
That’s why the idea of building and managing an in-house SEO team can be intimidating. But when done correctly, it’s usually the more cost-effective choice, especially over the long-term.
Still, you can’t ignore the significantly faster results a full-service agency can deliver. At the end of the day, the SEO landscape is brutally competitive — your competitors won’t wait for you to figure things out.
With the information above, we’re confident that you’ll make a decision that will give you scalable results. Good luck!
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