There’s little doubt that search engine optimization is now essential for virtually all businesses. You might think your organization is well-established, but customers aren’t going to stumble upon your website if it isn’t optimized for search engines.
But while SEO is necessary for survival in the digital age, that doesn’t mean these strategies are easy to execute. With best practices changing all the time, it’s difficult to keep up. And if you make a mistake, Google could penalize your website for the foreseeable future.
Whether you’re marketing your own site or you offer digital marketing services for other clients, the stakes are high. Trying to handle your own SEO can be a huge gamble, but there is a viable alternative. Here’s how you know it’s time to stop trying to tackle your SEO in-house and outsource SEO instead.
- You’re short on staff: Search engine optimization really is a full-time job. It’s not something you can do once and forget about; optimizing a website requires constant upkeep. If you don’t have the in-house staff to handle the task, staying on top of SEO will feel next to impossible. Whether you don’t currently have an employee who knows enough about SEO or your trained workers are stretched too thin in other areas of your operations, you’ll fare much better if you outsource these services from another provider.
- You haven’t gotten results before: If you’ve attempted to optimize a website or run an SEO campaign for a client in the past and you haven’t seen the results you’ve been after, you’re definitely not alone. For one thing, SEO is meant to be a long-term marketing solution. It’s not a technique that shows overnight results — so it’s possible you just didn’t stick with a consistent strategy long enough. But it’s also possible that you don’t possess the skills or the knowledge to execute an SEO campaign on your own. While you may feel comfortable creating a blog post, you may not know which keywords to target or which updates need to be made to a website. If you’ve struggled to see results in the past for your own business or for your clients, outsourcing will allow you to improve your outcomes while freeing up time to devote to other areas of your business.
- You aren’t sure whether your website stacks up: SEO isn’t only about producing valuable blog content for readers; you’ll also need to provide a positive website experience for visitors. You may have already devoted the time to publishing blog content on a regular basis, but do you know whether your site is mobile-friendly, has no navigation errors, and loads pages quickly? If you aren’t sure how your site fares, it might be time to talk to an SEO expert. Technical SEO plays a substantial role in rankings, so it’s important that the backend of your website be audited and optimized as needed. Since this requires more web development knowledge than many business owners or even digital marketers possess, it would make a lot of sense to outsource these tasks to ensure there’s nothing holding you back.
- You don’t know where to start: The idea of executing an SEO strategy can feel overwhelming. And if you don’t have a clear idea of what Google is looking for or how to even start optimizing a website, you’re probably going to put off this task for as long as possible. That won’t do your business or your clients any favors. But instead off hiding from SEO, you can embrace this opportunity to build a relationship with an agency that can help your own business grow. When you’re struggling to scale or you’ve plateaued with your website conversions, this agency partnership can allow you to see progress while providing you with more freedom and flexibility. Instead of spending hours poring over SEO resources and trying to teach yourself, you can outsource to a reputable agency and breathe a sigh of relief that your campaign will be in good hands.
It’s not always easy to make the decision to outsource. You may not relish the idea of relinquishing control or you may feel uneasy about trusting an agency to help you. But this is ultimately one of the best options for business growth. If you’re struggling to be found online or you don’t feel confident handling SEO for yourself or for your clients, it may be time to seek some outside assistance from an expert.
