Q and A: Should we outsource SEO or take it in-house?

Dear Kalena...

Our company is looking into doing SEO for all of our publication and trade show websites. They feel that we need to outsource because a consultant did it for their company, versus keeping the knowledge in-house (either hiring or training staff).

Do you feel that if writers are trained to write for the web and a staff member is adequately trained, we need to outsource? We have about 45 websites.

Thank you
Gabrielle

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Gabrielle

The decision of whether to outsource SEO or manage it in-house is a difficult one. There is no "right way" because the requirements of each business are so different. But the job of optimizing 45 web sites is a large one and I doubt you could manage this effectively in-house without hiring several specialist SEO staff.

If the company you work for has used outside SEO consultants in the past, you need to discuss how well that relationship worked for them and whether it was cost-effective. Were the desired results achieved? Was it value for money? Could in-house staff have achieved the same results for less cost?

Unless a company is willing to hire a dedicated staff member to look after search engine optimization for their site/s, or send their existing staff for fast-track SEO training, my inclination is to recommend outsourcing, for the following reasons:

1) SEO has a steep learning curve and it could take your in-house staff many months and/or years to learn the ropes. Outsourcing it to professionals will save a lot of time (and therefore money).

2) A little bit of SEO knowledge can be a dangerous thing - the person/s optimizing your sites need to know *exactly* what the consequences are of the code changes they are making, or else they could end up doing your site more harm than good.

3) Successful SEO requires very specific knowledge and experience gained from years of trial and error optimizing web sites. It is unlikely your in-house staff have this knowledge and so you will likely get much better results by outsourcing to professionals.

4) Optimizing web sites is not your core business. Your staff should be focused on the core business of your company. Also, staff members assigned a new task of SEO are unlikely to dedicate themselves fully to the task if they have other responsibilities as well.

In my opinion, the best balance could be achieved by outsourcing a percentage of the work (e.g. the optimization of 5 web sites) to a professional SEO firm with a solid reputation and have them work closely with your in-house copywriting team to ensure the optimized web sites accurately reflect your business without compromising search engine compatibility.

If the arrangement works well, you can outsource optimization of the remaining web sites or bring it in-house if you feel that would serve you better. Best of luck!


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