Many a time, companies large and small ask themselves… why do we need to use an SEO agency; we have a web development team – why not get them to do it?
Asking this question is usually a result of a lack of knowledge. They assume that because SEO involves the website, the web development team must be able to do it. This is certainly not the case; many areas of the website may require the input of an external company. There are 2 areas that I strongly feel should be performed by an external company:
- Conversion Optimisation
- SEO
I would love to hear if you have any other areas that you feel should be outsourced, however, there is a one word reason why I have picked these two… experience!
In these two areas I feel there is no substitute for experience. Respectable companies specialising in either of these two areas will have extensive knowledge on what does and doesn’t work. They will most likely have worked in the same or similar industry and can plan the new campaign based on the knowledge from previous ones. In-house teams will be unable to do this.
With SEO, relevant link building resources will be readily available having already built links in your industry. You will also be working with someone who should be fully up-to date with the world of organic search. It’s true that your web development team could go and learn how to make a site search engine friendly, and could have a go at SEO. But do you really want someone ‘having a go’ at something that could make or break your business?
I’m sure there are some success stories out there and that the occasional web development team gets it right (I doubt these will be in competitive industries). But a growing proportion of the leads we receive are from marketing managers whose in-house team or web-development company have ‘had a go’ at SEO and it have not got the results they expected.
As far as I’m concerned there are certain areas where you will need a helping hand. Do you agree? Let me know your thoughts.
Good post there Daniel, I do think experience is one of the most important things in SEO, as there is quite a few techniques you can implement to deliver SEO and SEM services, but your experience will let you know which areas are worth investing time and effort into…
This reminds me of an interview I read yesterday where Jakob Nielsen was talking about SEO career prospects… I think in the future, big companies will try to get their SEOs in-house though… Let’s see what the future holds
I agree that some bigger companies will bring an SEO / SEM person into their web teams, but there lies similar problems.
You would only be working on a small amount (most likely linear) projects. This would result your overall experience slowly reducing and your exposure to new sites and new problems limited.
I hear what he’s saying, I’m just not sure many people know what the nature of search will be in 5 years time, let alone 10!
I’ve booked to see a psychic and a witch doctor, hopefully they can help.
[...] on the Search Marketing blog, Daniel Peden wonders if companies should hire an SEO firm or if they should handle optimization in-house. He advises SEO (and conversion optimization) should [...]