SEO Outsourcing Made Easy: A How-to Guide for Businesses

Growing a business is a resource-intensive endeavor. Knowing when, where, and how to outsource tasks can make or break a new business or startup–and SEO is no different. If you’ve considered SEO outsourcing, but want to learn more before you dive into contacting SEO agencies or signing a contract, this guide is for you. We will help you understand which tasks your in-house marketing team should perform and how they can work with an SEO agency to improve your site’s search engine visibility.

Unsure of what SEO outsourcing is? No problem. We will help you understand exactly what outsourcing your search engine optimization is and how it can benefit your business.

What is SEO Outsourcing?

SEO outsourcing is the process of using an SEO agency or SEO expert to take on all or part of your website’s SEO strategy. Most SEO companies provide their clients with a variety of SEO services to choose from to best fit their needs, budget, and in-house team of content marketing and web developers.

How Does Using an SEO Company Benefit a Business?

Search engine optimization can be a complicated, highly-involved, and long-term process–and most small businesses do not have the resources to have an employee or team dedicated to developing and implementing the full scope of SEO efforts needed to run a full SEO campaign. And very few medium or larger businesses want to devote the resources needed for in-house SEO.

When a business hires an SEO service, they receive an entire team of SEO professionals dedicated to their SEO success. What services can an outsourcing company’s team provide a growing business?

• An SEO site audit
• Keyword research in relation to your business goals
• Link building through backlink acquisition
• Local SEO strategy
• Digital PR Campaigns
• General SEO strategy
• International SEO strategy
• Content creation and blog posts
• Full on-page optimization
• Technical SEO support

Most importantly, using an experienced SEO firm or SEO consultant can get your business results. A successful SEO campaign results in increased:

• Productivity for your in-house team (freeing them up for other projects)
• Keyword rankings
• Search engine visibility
• Click-through rates
• Brand visibility
• Site usability
• Industry recognition
• Market share

Additionally, an SEO firm can achieve results sooner than trying to handle all aspects of SEO in-house or on your own. All these results often translate into sales at a lower cost. 

How to Decide If You Need an SEO Outsourcing Company

Almost every business can benefit from using an SEO Company. The reality is, if your website doesn’t appear in Google search engine results pages in a prominent position, you are losing out. However, there are some clear signs that you should outsource your SEO, including:

1. Your website doesn’t receive as much traffic as you would like
2. You hired a digital marketer or digital marketing agency but didn’t see the results you wanted in web traffic and conversions
3. Your digital marketing strategy includes SEO, but you do not have anyone working on it
4. Your site has loading speed issues
5. You do not have time for content writing
6. Your website’s Domain Authority (DA) and Domain Rating (DR) are low
7. You currently do not have any or very few backlinks

What SEO Work Can Your In-House Team Perform & Which Should You Outsource?

Which SEO services you invest in often depends on what the capabilities of your current and new employees possess. Additionally, you want to confirm which SEO efforts will consume too much of your team’s schedule. 

Assessing Your In-House Capabilities

The first step of deciding what SEO services you need is to assess your in-house resources. Ask your team to take an inventory of how much time their SEO projects take and what other efforts they forfeit to perform the hard work of SEO. Asking your marketing team what services they feel would benefit their efforts most will also provide you with priceless insight.

Most business owners agree that the best SEO services to invest in include:

• Technical SEO
• Content writing
• Page speed improvements

Connecting with & Comparing Potential SEO Companies

Once you have a list of SEO services that will benefit your business the most, you can begin contacting SEO service providers. Most importantly, never jump into a contract with an SEO company without a comparison. Because SEO is complicated and often considered mysterious to business owners, it’s important to know what to compare. 

Here are some guidelines for interviewing potential SEO Agencies:

1. As you talk with SEO firms, inquire if they provide a free website audit. If they do, they will likely use this audit as a talking point for which services they feel you need. Use this as a comparison tool between companies.
2. You will also want to ask if the SEO firm uses white hat SEO tactics only. A good SEO company will be transparent about their approach to SEO backlinking, including the DAs of where your links will be placed. Additionally, white hat tactics offer long-term results.
3. Always ask for prices for individual services versus packaged services. Keep in mind that effective SEO costs a bit more than low cost options, but is much safer. Low cost SEO service providers may use black hat tactics that could get your site banned from Google.

How Much Does It Cost to Outsource SEO?

Of course, this leads to the question of how much it does cost to outsource SEO. Unfortunately, there is rarely a cut-and-dry answer to this question since cost often depends on the size and current state of your site. Additionally, different industries can present more challenges to ranking.

Red Flags to Look for in SEO Firms

There are some signs that you should steer clear of an SEO service provider. The easiest to recognize include:

1. First, promising specific rankings: There is never a guarantee that a site will rank at any specific SERP position
2. Second, not providing reports: SEO firms should be transparent about the results of their SEO projects and campaigns
3. Using private blogging networks for backlinks: Always ask what the SEO company’s relationship to the linking sites is or if they use automatic backlink generators. If your site is caught participating in a Link Spam campaign, you can get expelled from the SERPs.
4. Finally, promising short-term results: SEO always takes time. Rarely will any website see noticeable results in under a month.

How Will an SEO Company Work with Your In-House Marketing Team?

SEO firms are pros at working with in-house digital marketers and marketing teams. Your outsourcing company will collaborate as an extension of your in-house team and align their goals with your marketing strategy KPIs. Additionally, many even make their SEO tools available to your writers, web developers, and marketing managers.

Depending on the services you choose, your SEO company can 

• Provide your writers with keyword briefs
• Work with your web developer and designers to improve your site speed and usability
• Work with your writers to re-optimize existing content

Add Outsourcing Your SEO to Your Marketing Strategy

If you’re considering outsourcing your SEO to an SEO firm or a qualified SEO freelancer, now is the time. An outsourcing company will turn your to-do list into a totally-done list. Furthermore, an effective SEO service provider will simplify your marketing workflow and put you on the path to ranking in the SERPs. 

The best digital marketers and digital marketing teams offer white hat SEO tactics that get results. LinkGraph has helped small businesses to enterprise-level companies achieve greater market share through expert SEO. Contact us today to receive a free SEO audit, including on-page optimization scores.