Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become a vital component of digital marketing in 2021. Prioritizing SEO ensures that your business achieves brand visibility and awareness.
SEO can be conducted either in-house an SEO expert or outsourced to a dedicated SEO agency. Both are reliable and legitimate ways to implement search marketing strategies. Your choice ultimately depends on your preferences, budget, and how much you would like to be involved.
However, outsourcing SEO has been proven to provide businesses with a more comprehensive approach. Are you planning to outsource SEO to a professional SEO agency? Here is a list of things to consider before you outsource SEO.
1. Cost
If you are on a budget, considering the costs of SEO services when choosing between in-house and outsourcing SEO can help you save costs. However, getting cheap labor should not be your main focus when outsourcing SEO.
SEO firms offering significantly low prices do not always guarantee you will get value for money. Similarly, an overly priced SEO agency will not always guarantee your expectation. On the other hand, fair rates indicate professionalism and a chance for quality services from SEO experts.
Moreover, you need to outsource to a company that cares about your financial interests too. Therefore, keep in mind your budget when choosing an SEO agency.
2. Brand Identity Alignment
It is also vital to consider whether SEO strategies and service structures align with your brand identity when outsourcing SEO. Your brand identity should most likely comprise cautiously selected goals, values, ideas, and a statement of purpose. Your brand identity plays a vital role in what your business stands for and how clients interact with your services and products.
As such, outsourcing to another agency means working with an entity unfamiliar with your company. The SEO agency will be responsible for how your business presents online. The SEO consultant must be willing to acquire an in-depth knowledge of your company, its goals, and the campaign’s requirements.
Before you outsource SEO, consider agencies that will comprehend your brand identity and cautiously portray what your business is all about with their SEO efforts.
3. Your Need and Goals
What are your exact goals and needs for outsourcing SEO? For instance, if you have already implemented some basic SEO strategy, there is no need to ask the agency to start from zero.
Get familiar with the goals you aim to achieve from outsourcing SEO. Are you looking for more profound keyword research or more quality backlinks? Are you looking for increased traffic?
Make these goals clear and precise before outsourcing SEO. However, your goals should be specific, measurable, and specifically set. On the other, ensure the SEO agency is equally capable of delivering your needs.
4. Quality SEO
Outsourcing SEO shouldn’t cost you quality. Unfortunately, even if you have an in-house digital marketing team, they can implement low-quality SEO strategies if they lack the experience.
It is almost impossible to determine the quality of services you will receive from the SEO agency. However, a more established SEO agency has a clear-cut procedure, which it follows for SEO strategies. As such, you need to depend on the procedure and, if necessary, suggest a few alterations before they ultimately become a common part of your digital marketing strategy.
5. Google Regulation Compliance
Before outsourcing SEO to an agency, ensure the agency complies with Google’s regulations. Regardless of how hard a company tries to convince you, Google algorithms and software will know and potentially penalize your site if your SEO agency uses black hat link building. These methods exploit loopholes in SEO rules that permit a website to achieve a higher SERP ranking than it would achieve via organic ranking.
Fortunately, Google is fully aware of such practices and issues penalties for sites that go against its Webmaster guidelines. Therefore, if your SEO agency practices black hat link-building techniques, they will definitely get caught. Unfortunately, this also means you will be penalized too.
6. The Agency’s Business Philosophy
Various factors play different roles in an SEO strategy’s success, for example, the focus on the content, technical factors like keyword research and integration, and the number of backlinks.
Different SEO agencies follow varying philosophies when emphasizing a particular factor. Some agencies will focus more on the technical aspects such as structure, optimization, and site coding. On the other hand, other agencies focus purely or majorly on producing high-quality content.
Focusing too much on the technical side and not on the content side can be challenging. Look for an SEO agency that leans towards your most preferred choice or possibly both.
7. References
Besides previous work samples and case studies, your SEO agency should also provide references to whom you can contact. Consulting a previous client can help get firsthand experience in dealing with the SEO agency in question.
It will help you identify and verify if the agency’s digital marketing strategies have led to any notable successes, as the agency claims. It is important to note that not all SEO agencies are perfect. Therefore, if the agency’s strengths are guaranteed to help you gain an advantage, then the company is highly a good fit for you.
8. The SEO Company
Finally, assess the SEO agency you intend to hire. After considering all the above points, you need to have a precise idea of what to look for and expect. When you outsource SEO, you are taking a leap of faith in the agency’s promise to deliver results.
An SEO agency can have attractive language and nice-looking reports. However, if they don’t provide tangible results, your investment will not be worth it.
Carefully screen each prospective agency before hiring. Assess how well they can communicate with you, their level of openness, and what their previous clients are saying about them. Ensure the agency exists and is a legal business. Developing and fostering a long-term relationship with your outsourced SEO provider is important to ensure you work towards the same goal.
Bottom Line
The biggest factors to consider when outsourcing to an SEO agency are your budget and your business goals, as well as your needs. SEO is highly important for any business to succeed in the digital market. As such, you need to take your time to invest wisely in a professional, reputable SEO agency.
