Back in 2012, we posted an article with some advice and tips for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) for your website, but what if you don’t want to carry out your own SEO, and want to outsource it? What should you consider, and how should you choose who to trust with promoting your website and brand online?
Firstly, consider the pros and cons of outsourcing your SEO, before making a decision.
Pros of outsourcing:
- Keep up to date with the latest SEO practices.
- Wider variety of skills and expertise than can be achieved in-house.
- Experience of the bigger picture, rather than just your own business.
- Dedicated team, rather than SEO when it can be fitted in your busy schedule.
Cons of outsourcing:
- Don’t know, or care about your business like you do.
- Accountability, your SEO partner doesn’t have to face the consequences if it goes wrong.
- Short term goals, as opposed to long term brand building.
- Differing goals – specific targets may not be beneficial for your long term business growth.
Choosing who to outsource your SEO to:
- Avoid any SEO business which make specific guarantees, such as Google search rankings, it isn’t possible for any SEO partner to guarantee rankings.
- Check the reputation and feedback of SEO companies or individuals.
- Ask about reporting and monitoring, and ongoing progress checks.
- Look for short term contracts. If it isn’t working out, then you are not locked in to a contract.
- Ask them what SEO methods they will use, and be wary about any company that is not open about the tactics they utilise.
- It isn’t just about the website anymore, SEO needs to be considered in relation to how it fits in with your other marketing and brand building efforts, such as social media.
- Don’t try and be cheap. Quality SEO work takes time, it goes back to the old adage, ‘if it seems too good to be true it probably is’.
So when you have decided who to outsource to, what’s next?
Have an idea of what you want to achieve with short term and long term business goals before engaging with an SEO partner.
Agree common goals with your SEO partner, and be very careful when agreeing targets. You may want to grow your business in a particular area or keyword, and agree this as a target, but be careful that their pursuit of this target does not negatively impact on existing business goals.
Give your SEO partner time to achieve your targets. Don’t expect instant results. Quality SEO takes time to achieve if done correctly, and in a manner that will provide long term gains.
Don’t just leave them to it. Regularly monitor what they are doing and check on progress. As time goes by, it may become apparent that targets or methods need to be changed. Don’t just rely on the reports and information supplied to you by your SEO partner, do your own checking of where you stand.
Check with your SEO partner that anything they do to optimise your online presence belongs to you at the end of your agreement, and check on copyright issues, such as images used. What is posted on your website is still your responsibility, even if it is posted by a third party.
Read what is being posted on your website, check the grammar and English is up to the standard you expect. It is all too common that an SEO partner will write copy to meet SEO targets, rather than produce quality content that is actually of interest to your visitors.
Remember it isn’t only about hits, number of page requests, or even search ranking, although this is very important. Your ultimate goal is growing your business. You need people to make that call, or fill in that contact form, the search engine ranking robots won’t do that for you.
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