For small business owners with limited time, trying to master search engine optimization (SEO) can feel overwhelming on top of running daily operations. This leads many entrepreneurs to consider outsourcing their SEO to an agency.
While handing off SEO provides definite advantages, there are also downsides to weigh when budgeting. In this article, we’ll break down the major pros and cons of outsourced versus in-house SEO for resource-constrained small businesses.
Pros of Outsourcing SEO
Gain Expertise From SEO Specialists
Outsourcing to an SEO agency gives access to technical skills and years of combined optimization experience you likely lack in-house. While your employees may have cursory understanding of elements of SEO, an agency will have SEO specialists dedicate their careers to staying on top of Google’s complex and ever-changing algorithm. An expert SEO provider develops creative link building strategies, a comprehensive SEO game plan, ensures your site meets best practices, leverages rankings analysis tools, and more. Their sole focus is generating search traffic.
Build Link Networks More Efficiently
One of the most time-intensive SEO tasks is link building outreach. Creating trustworthy external links pointing back to your website has a huge rankings influence. However, manually identifying and pitching relevant sites is enormously laborious. SEO agencies maintain extensive connections with site owners in related industries to facilitate link placement. Their outreach gets results faster as they will have relationships with reputable sources like a UK business directory or valuable content creators who have excellent blogs.
Free Up Internal Resources
Attempting DIY SEO pulls your time and resources away from core business functions. Outsourcing eliminates this drain on in-house resources. Your staff avoids the steep learning curve so they can dedicate their effort toward sales, product development and delivering exceptional service that builds your brand reputation.
Cons of Outsourcing SEO
Recurring Monthly Financial Commitment
While gaining SEO expertise is invaluable, it comes at a price. Outsourced SEO requires an ongoing monthly financial commitment which adds up over time. Contract terms generally span 6-12 months to facilitate long-term strategies that yield rankings growth. Depending on deal specifics and deliverables, costs typically range from £750 to £5,000 per month.
No Guaranteed Performance
Unfortunately, SEO agencies cannot guarantee #1 rankings or a specific volume of traffic. Where your site ultimately lands depends on various elements including competitiveness of keywords targeted, authority of domains in your niche, technical site quality, plus ongoing algorithm changes. Skilled SEO specialists structure campaigns to maximize results potential. But nothing is ever assured in the dynamic and ever changing world of Google.
Potential Churn Impacting Momentum
Signing a year-long SEO contract provides consistency. Yet staff changes at the agency or account reassignment could disrupt strategy momentum. Some churn is inevitable as staff will often move from one agency to another for more money. However major turnover slows progress as new team members can take time to understand your goals and how you want them to operate on your account.
In summary, outsourcing to an SEO agency fuels exponential website traffic growth extremely difficult to replicate solo. But it also siphons budget from other priorities. Weighing these tradeoffs will determine the ideal path for your small business. An outsourced SEO pilot of 3-6 months may reveal if partnering drives sufficient return on investment to justify the recurring expense. Proceed eagerly yet realistically.
