- 02
- Feb
SEMPO research recently indicated many organizations plan to perform SEO in-house, or at least consider the option. Many organizations will travel down the path of in-house SEO without proper knowledge and planning.
As a search agency, TMP Directional Marketing staffs with experts that focus on each aspect of the search marketing landscape to offer a variety of choices in methodologies and pricing structures that will lead to an appropriate Search Strategy for a client’s website and specific industry. It is possible to achieve traction and positive search results from in-house efforts, however SEO is complex and ultimately requires knowledge (and continued education as well as industry conference attendance along with committee participation) from experts that can remain current with technology and the search landscape in order to remain successful in the long run.
Specific to SEO, there is a great deal of time required through trial and error and the reality that the learning curve is steep as a result of continual changes in the search space and engine algorithms. It is also more cost effective to outsource due to the investment in time/knowledge, methodology, development, and technology expenditures that a search agency can make that will be employed across a large client base of numbers of websites as opposed to an internal SEO effort that my reach a handful of sites.
SEO is a specialized field. Constantly changing positioning results are better dealt with by a search agency with technology, software, information access (i.e. HitWise, ComScore, etc.) and process already in place to process reporting, analysis, and trending of any changes in positioning. It is also of paramount importance that every engine and every directory can potentially have a different relevancy formula (along with the fact that they can all change with some frequency).
Additionally, it would be relatively impossible to have one individual or a handful of individuals who will be able to successfully perform the many varied functions associated with a successful SEO program. A search agency will have many individuals on payroll that specialize in one particular function, for example: website analytics, coding, link building, copy writing, optimizing, research, analysis, and so on. The search agency is better positioned to allow its associates to perfect their craft and are more competent at their position than a single person wearing many hats (as is the case many times when SEO is done in-house).
Time can be another red flag with in-house SEO. Is it conceivable that one individual be able to optimize multiple pages, write copy, meta tags, run reports, analyze reporting, and perform other SEO tasks in a timely fashion? Time is money and most in-house SEO efforts are not efficient from that perspective. A properly staffed and well constructed search agency can do in a matter of days or hours what might take an individual in-house SEO effort several weeks to accomplish. Most organizations that use in-house SEO staff spend more than necessary to get the same amount of work done in a longer amount of time. Not to mention the fact that ALL of the knowledge and expertise leaves when that associate leaves. Not necessarily the case with outsourced SEO.
Any ethical search agency will recommend each client perform due diligence during their in-house vs. outsourcing research. A simple cost/benefit analysis of the two will typically result in the favor of outsourced SEO.
Some critical questions that any client should address before deciding on in-house vs. outsourced SEO:
- Are there proper resources in-house to achieve professional SEO results?
- How many and which departments of the client company will be involved (i.e. sales, marketing, IT, ect.)?
- Who is ultimately accountable for the results?
- How does the SEO learning curve factor?
- Actual cost for in-house solution vs. a search agency (i.e. staff salaries and benefits vs. flat fee)?
- Results metrics, how are they measured/gathered, and who will be responsible?
Keep in mind that SEO is ever changing. Search engines change their algorithm frequently and new rules are put into place all the time. An in-house SEO effort must have resources to locate this information and understand how to implement the changes.