Irrespective of the size, scale or vertical of your, growth is one of the fundamental factors that helps determine whether your business will survive the fluctuating tide of the marketplace.
But, focusing on business growth isn’t as easy as it might seem. This time-consuming process requires a variety of resources that may or may not be available in your possession. In such instances, seeking help from external experts can prove to be a sound solution. SEO outsourcing, for instance, can help reduce a business’s running cost and offer opportunities that directly or indirectly impact revenue generation.
Furthermore, reliable SEO consulting services can help boost the overall process efficiency as most of the tasks and functions get assigned to their offshore experts.
1- What is the need for SEO outsourcing?
When it comes to small and medium-sized businesses, lack of resources is the number one issue, whether it is related to insufficient capital, unavailability of tools or limited expertise. This results in business owners becoming a jack of all trades or asking existing professionals to take up different roles, which up to a certain extent, can be a wise decision but can backfire in the long term.
Thankfully, SEO outsourcing service providers can help comprehend the revenues, minimize the investment and make the most out of marketing dollars.
How, you might ask? Well, keep reading to unveil.
2- What are the advantages of outsourcing SEO?
It is a frequent misconception among small business owners that creating an in-house SEO team instead of hiring an SEO outsourcing agency can give them control over their SEO strategies. Similarly, there is scepticism about trusting a third-party agency with confidential details about the business.
Well, we completely understand your scepticism, but you must know that a reliable and best SEO outsourcing company will never share or misuse your business’s confidential details. In fact, many companies have the same mentioned in their agreements or contracts.
Talking about retaining control over SEO strategy, your local SEO outsourcing agency will be more than happy for you to be in control of the process.
Now, let’s take a look at some of the benefits you are bound to receive when outsourcing SEO services –
2.1- Bring experts on board
While efficiency is the main reason business owners consider outsourcing some or other business requirements, it isn’t the only benefit they obtain.
With outsourcing, especially for your digital marketing and SEO requirements, you gain access to a team of industry experts. These individuals will utilize their in-depth knowledge and experience to identify the best digital marketing strategy for your business.
Furthermore, SEO agencies are required to keep up with the ever-changing industry standards to deliver relevant solutions to clients. This means you are bound to gain access to the latest tools and technologies by hiring SEO outsourcing services.
What’s more? White label SEO outsourcing service providers implement ethical SEO techniques, meaning they follow the search engine guidelines to keep your website away from unnecessary penalties.
2.2- Assistance with cost-effective strategies
When it comes to an in-house digital marketing team, you will come across experts like an SEO specialist, marketing manager, content writer and outreach specialist. As a business owner, you might require preparing a huge budget to train and provide salaries to these individuals.
This is one of the reasons why 59% of businesses consider outsourcing SEO services. Without spending too much, a white label SEO outsourcing company gives you access to professionals whom you do not have to train or pay salary on a regular basis. Plus, digital marketing tools aren’t cheap either, especially for small and mid-sized businesses.
By choosing to outsource SEO, you are able to achieve your goals while staying within your marketing budget.
2.3- Save time
If you think that simultaneously learning SEO, implementing it into your strategies and keeping up with the ever-changing SEO trend is an easy task, then you are highly mistaken. Learning SEO can take months or even years.
Instead, let your local SEO outsourcing agency look after SEO for you while you take care of core business functions. SEO experts know what it takes to enhance your website’s ranking on SERPs.
Plus, SEO agencies have an extensive network that can assist you with link building. Besides, experts typically have an action plan in place. This means campaign execution may not take weeks.
2.4- Gain a better perspective
When the same people look after the same projects, there remains a risk of missing certain processes or getting stuck. This means your in-house team may not be as forward in perceiving mistakes.
But, with the introduction of third-party experts, you gain a better objective and perspective of the project. SEO consulting agents have unbiased opinions about your company’s current and previous efforts. You can anticipate them to provide you with neutral feedback and honest opinions that can be used to improve SEO campaigns.
2.5- Scaling up becomes easy
When working with an in-house team, there always remains the chance of limited expertise. This means you might require hiring additional members to bridge the knowledge gap. Besides the increase in salaries, you might require focusing your expense on training, buying additional premium tools, accounts and other required resources.
But, with SEO outsourcing solutions , you do not have to worry about expanding the team no matter how complex your SEO requirements get. The agency will accommodate your requirements as your business grows. They typically have plans that suit different sizes of businesses.
3- When should you consider hiring an SEO outsourcing company?
Listed below are some signs that suggest it is time to hire the best SEO outsourcing company –
3.1- You are just getting started
SEO is something that needs to be focused on from the very beginning to unveil the many benefits of digitizing a business.
If you are a start-up owner, don’t shy away from hiring the best SEO outsourcing company to plan and develop strategies that help create a solid base for complex SEO efforts down the line.
3.2- Your current SEO strategy isn’t offering impactful results
Time and again, we have mentioned that the in-house team may have limited resources to boost SEO. If you witness that your current SEO strategy isn’t taking your business anywhere, consider outsourcing SEO services because most SEO agencies track client success based on the return on investment (ROI).
3.3- Your in-house team is working overtime
When it comes to SMBs, it is common to see one person handling various jobs. While such a process can help you save money on hiring additional members to the team, it can backfire in terms of effectiveness.
Overworked employees do not always produce productive outcomes. Instead, hire an SEO company to help reduce the unnecessary workload from the in-house team.
3.4- You are overlooking the planning part
When it comes to search engine optimization, planning, brainstorming, and carefully monitoring the progress of campaigns is equally important.
An overworked in-house team may not be able to focus on these important aspects of SEO and may directly jump on last-minute planning session that results in the creation of weak campaigns. Instead, hire an outsourcing SEO agency to carefully plan and strategize each campaign that you roll out.
3.5- You wish to scale your business
Outsourcing SEO services doesn’t always mean that you have encountered issues with your current business process. You can hire external experts to bring new ideas, grow your business and even improve your digital marketing strategy.
4- Things to consider before outsourcing SEO as a small business owner
Outsourcing SEO may seem like a perfect requirement, but you must know that there are numerous service providers out there. And not all these SEO agencies are created equal. To make certain your marketing dollars are used wisely, ensure to consider the things mentioned below –
4.1- Gain knowledge of SEO and review your current strategies
If SEO is a brand new concept for you, consider gaining basic knowledge on the subject before you decide to hire an SEO outsourcing partner. This way, you can create your goals and raise necessary queries with your prospective local SEO outsourcing company.
Free online courses, comprehensive blogs and case studies available online are a good starting point.
Once you obtain basic SEO knowledge, review your current SEO strategy and performance to determine strengths and weaknesses. Here are some key metrics to gauge the SEO efforts –
- Crawl errors
- Organic search traffic
- Backlink’s quantity on your website
- Website’s conversion rate
- Search engine ranking
You employ utilize tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics or Microsoft Clarity to analyse these metrics freely.
4.2- Comprehend what services you might need
Having clear SEO goals can give you and the outsourcing SEO agency a proper understanding of projects’ expectations.
While defining your goals and objectives, ensure to consider your current SEO strategy as well as your long-term goals. This way, it becomes possible to align the future SEO services with your overall marketing plan. It is best to stick with tangible goals instead of broad goals. For instance, gaining more organic traffic or higher ranking on SERPs. If possible, be blunt about the expected numbers you wish to achieve.
Most outsourcing SEO agencies offer packages that comprise various services. It is advised to inspect these services carefully. Most times, you might not require them all. Choose the ones that are of utmost requirement so you can save money.
Once that is done, you can create a simple representation to give the agency an idea of how you want the project to advance. Ensure to state the goals and estimated duration in this timeline.
4.3- Figure out the cost of SEO outsourcing
The cost of outsourcing SEO work depends upon various factors, including the agency’s reputation, revenue and services you have hired.
A basic SEO plan can cost anywhere between $250 and $3000 and may cover fundamental services like keyword strategy, internal link building and content optimization. An enterprise plan that can cost between $5000 and $25000+ can comprise a complete service including A/B testing and technical SEO.
There are some SEO outsourcing agencies that charge an hourly rate between $80 and $200 . But, this revenue model may not be a feasible choice if you want to obtain various services. It is best to consider hourly rates only when hiring an expert for an SEO audit.
Another thing to note is that SEO can take months, around 6 to be precise. Hence, it is best to lower the monthly budget and spread it across the extended period you wish to obtain the services.
4.4- Research and assess the SEO agencies
The next thing to focus on is researching and assessing the SEO agency before SEO services outsourcing. This is because there are many experienced SEO agencies, but not all of them are created equal.
Besides, the success of the strategy depends upon the team. So, take time to determine whether or not you are working with the right agency. Consider these points –
- Check client testimonies, references and case studies to determine the track record.
- Check what type of tools and equipment your chosen agency uses.
- Check the agency’s unique selling points (USP) before SEO services outsourcing.
- Check whether or not the services offered by them are in compliance with search engine guidelines.
- Check what method they use for communication.
- Check how often they provide reports and conduct meetings with clients.
- Check their ongoing projects to determine their workload.
5- Over to you
Digital marketing is an inevitable requirement of every digitized business. And SEO is one of its effective strategies. It focuses on attracting organic traffic as well as boosting revenue. But SEO isn’t a simple avenue. With a steep learning curve, this complex process is best left to the professionals.
By deciding to hire a reliable external agency to handle your SEO needs, you can gain access to experts, resources and tools to perform SEO efficiently. Besides, partnering with an SEO company can prove to be a cost-effective affair, given you no longer require hiring an entire in-house staff or purchasing expensive tools.
We believe this blog was able to answer all of your queries in regards to SEO outsourcing.
