If you are reading this article, you have probably been working on a particular website and want to improve your sales performance by inviting more potential customers to meet your products and service with the organic search on Google. This could be done either by hiring an SEO agency or an SEO expert within your own company. This is the first part of the series about SEO services and the other two parts will separately talk about the process of choosing either an SEO agency or an in-house expert. Both choices have its pros and cons, but before I introduce you to the pros of hiring an SEO agency or an expert, it’s very important to first acknowledge the goals you want to accomplish.
Setting your goals
As a company, you obviously have one ultimate goal: making a bigger profit. You can increase your profit by selling more products or services, by increasing their price, by selling more expensive products, etc. You will need your goals clearly set no matter who you are negotiating with. If the process of setting these goals is not properly done, it can lead to some goals being achieved, but without any real benefits.
Mistakes to avoid when setting your goals
- A bigger number of visits (a mere SEO visit doesn’t have any value if it’s not done with an intention of buying a service or a product or at least, making a next step in the “customer journey”)
- Ranking (same as an SEO visit, ranking of keywords can result unproductive, simply because we can be ranked for the phrases which we will not benefit from. A good example here is ranking for free movies meanwhile we sell DVD movie releases).
- Content creation (this also could be a goal not clearly set because content creation can’t guarantee you any goal achievements).
- Building links (in order to have a good ranking, building links is necessary, but it’s also debatable if setting it as a goal is the right choice).
- It’s important to take all of these things into consideration but we will talk more about it in the second and the third part of this series when discussing whether to choose an SEO agency or an expert for your company. Right now, we will take time to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of choosing an SEO agency or an individual expert.
Pros and cons of hiring an SEO agency
There are various advantages of working with SEO agencies: first and foremost, the resources. Apart from having a group of people who will work on your SEO campaign, an SEO agency also has writers, designers and considerable experience with other clients (often from the same industry), as well as all the (necessary) equipment required for completing certain tasks. A good SEO agency might have also dealt with various SEO problems on the website and gained a great deal of experience in solving those problems.
Disadvantages of an SEO agency can mainly concern the commitment. An SEO agency will not be able to dedicate 8 hours 5 days a week solely to your campaign. Furthermore, an employee of an SEO agency working on a project for your campaign certainly will not get to the bottom of each problem and therefore, fully make use of every potential of your business. In addition to that, if an employee is not fully acquainted with the purpose of your industry, his job will be more difficult and the outcomes of the campaign won’t be as expected.
Pros and cons of hiring an in-house SEO expert
The biggest advantage of hiring an SEO expert has to be the fact that you’ll have an individual fully committed to your SEO campaign. Even if the expert doesn’t have extensive knowledge of your company’s industry, the process of learning will be quicker alongside the employees of your own firm.
The main disadvantage, in this case, could be the need for all the required resources. You will have another employee in your firm which means you will need to pay additional tax, provide the employee with required equipment and tools for your SEO campaign, as well as additional expenses for paid promotions, content writing, design etc.
What’s the better option, should I hire an agency or an in-house expert?
The question then arises: in this case, what’s actually the best option for your company? If you decide to take this step and while taking everything into consideration (especially the fact that SEO packages are not that affordable), your firm will have to make big investments either way.
More expensive, but also probably a better solution is hiring an in-house SEO expert in your own firm. On the other hand, if you do not have the necessary resources, you need just a little guidance on the matter and you expect a quick return on investment, then an SEO agency would be the right choice.
It would probably be easier and more affordable for smaller businesses to hire an SEO agency. The more ambitious startups usually hire an entire SEO team, made of SEO consultants, writers, developers and others. The best and the most expensive option for sure is the one the biggest companies in the world opt for: hiring SEO agencies as their consultants, in addition to their in-house SEO team.
If the results justify the investments, then at the end, neither of these choices would be an expensive choice.
If you’ve decided to hire an agency, take a look at my next article: how to choose an SEO agency and some advice on negotiation with an SEO agency. However, if you opt for an in-house SEO expert, here are some tips on how to do it.
