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SEO Consulting – Outsourcing versus In-House
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be done by paying an outside firm or consultant or buy hiring someone in-house. In this article I am going to talk about the pro's and con's of outsourcing SEO and keeping it in-house.
It's an Outsourced world
In a world where we can outsource printing, delivery, payroll, accounting, and most everything else it makes sense to also consider outsourcing your SEO work. The reason you outsource work is because it is not a primary objective for your company. Lets say you are a hosting company. Your money making activity is running banks of servers with a high level of dependency. You spend your days updating software, patrolling for hackers and viruses, and keeping up with demand. You should have an internal marketing department handling core strategy does it really make sense to build up a large department made up of specialists in SEO?
Here is a great list of why to outsource in general on the Wikipedia page on Outsourcing.
When outsourcing an SEO company be sure to get references and call them. Ask them questions about reporting and the relationship they have with their SEO consultant. You should hear things like: "We get extensive reports on work completed and results achieved." and "Anytime we have a question we get a quick reply and a complete answer."
Be wary of anyone who talks like this: "We guarantee a #1 placement." or "You will be #1 in less than 30 days." There is fine print behind these claims that they don't disclose like the fact that they are talking about long tail keywords that get you no traffic. If they are getting really fast results then there is a high probability that they are using Black Hat SEO techniques that result in short term results but end up with you getting kicked off the search engines forever. Read more about Black Hat SEO here.
Keeping it In-House:
For In-House SEO there are some serious considerations to be made:
- Mastery of Language - Search is a language driven activity.
- Research capabilities - Knowing where to look and also knowing when to learn more are key.
- Technical Expertiese - HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are basic here.
Keep in mind that SEO is a hot hot item these days and highly skilled SEO consultants are going to be hard to hold onto. Before you spend a lot of time and money training someone to become an SEO Consultant maybe you would be better off hiring one...
Salescraft 101 – Creating a Road Map with your Proposal Toolkit
There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there. (Indira Gandhi)
One of the fun things about selling Search Engine Optimization service is that every sale is unique because every client has different requirements and needs. In SEO it is critical to be very specific about what your client wants to do and then how you will get them there and with what tools. This is your SEO Proposal Toolkit and it is as essential for closing the deal as it is to making it a successful deal. It requires time and effort that you may want to charge a fee for. In this post I want to talk about the why's and how's of creating a good proposal that your prospect will appreciate to the point that they become a client.
Educate, Educate, Educate
The biggest thing that you can do to separate your self and company from your competitors is to use the SEO proposal as an opportunity to educate your client. Peter Da Vanzo of SEOBook.com talks about crafing an SEO Proposal and mentions "giving a few morsels of valuable information away in the proposal, then even more valuable information will be forthcoming if they sign you. Demonstrate your mastery. If all you do is provide generic information at this point, then your proposal is less likely to stand out." This helps the client understand what you are proposing and it will also get them to realize they are talking with an expert. I will also give them a few resources to read like SEOBook.com or The Google Webmaster Central.
Some people worry that if you give too much away then they will just do it themselves and I can understand that concern. The side I like to think is more persuasive is that A) I am building trust by showing them some of my information and B) they get a clearer idea of what is entailed to make this work (Holy Crap,that's a lot of work!). I also like to recommend books like The Truth About Search Engine Optimization which educates in nice clear language.
Plan the Work, Work the Plan
Crafting a solid proposal for SEO work is essential for a number of reasons:
- It gets the client to define what they want you to do for them.
- You get a decent grasp on how much work is going to be required.
- You can educate the client about SEO and how you do it.
- It creates a defined plan and agreement so that both parties know what to expect.
Once you have created a proposal you will have framed the argument and aimed at the bulls-eye. Grant at SEO.com puts it best: "we do a disservice to our customers when we enter into a business relationship based on guesses."
Mapping it out
When it comes to putting the Proposal together you want to build something of substance but not a phone book. Once again Peter Da Vanzo at SEObook.com covers this part very well:
What is the ideal size?
One good way of presenting a proposal is to break it into three parts. The first part is a summary, including your client-specific solution and costs. Length can vary of course, but keep it succinct. No fat.
The second part is a case study or two. Again, keep them succinct. It's highly likely that the client won't actually read beyond this point.
Finally, add background information about you, your company, your history and the SEO business, all of which should be aimed at supporting the summary page and case studies. This final part can be generic and doesn't need to be re-written for each client. Clients may only flip through this section, but tend to find it reassuring that it exists.
Personally I like to open with an Introduction that outlines what the client has conveyed about their business and what they are asking for. Then I may also add a Rank Checker result listing their ideal keywords and where they currently rank for them. After that I outline our services, solution, and costs in a few pages at most. I have background and then case studies. Each case study is just one page with a few lines of text and then services used and percentage results. Short and sweet.
I get these printed out on good quality paper in color and deliver them by hand. I have put too much time and effort into this to just email it to you. Plus if we are going to be working together we should start off by getting to know each other better. After all you are asking me to make your business more successful.
Conversation:
Please let me know what you think about Writing Proposals, this post, or how I can help you get the SEO results you are looking for. You can reach me, Roger Williams, by leaving a comment below or by calling me at 602-748-4385
Book Review of The Truth about Search Engine Optimization by Rebecca Leib (@lieblink)
The term Search Engine Optimization or SEO is all but established in our lexicon yet understanding what it really means is about as clear as mud. Knowing what to do about META tags, site maps, CMS design, Local/Global Search, Link Building, Algorithms, Conversion Optimization, Title Tags, Keyword Research, Link Farms, Black Hat SEO or Spiders is a full time profession for a lot of people.
Its not a question of when but how:
Depending on who you talk to about SEO Consulting you will get an answer for each color of the spectrum and day of the year. On one hand you might be talking with your long time marketing agency who knows as much about the search engines as Brittney Spears knows about a good haircut. These conversations may be expensive and lead to minimal if not zero results. On another hand you may be talking with a Black Hat SEO firm who give you guarantees and ideally short time frames for results. These conversations might be in your budget but could end up getting your domain name banned from the search engines forever.
What are you supposed to do? Its not like you have a company to run...
Educate yourself:
My first suggestion is always to educate yourself so that you can tell when someone either does not know what they are talking about, or they are going to hurt more than help. The former saves time and money while the latter will save you your sanity. A great reference for this is the book The Truth About Search Engine Optimization
In The Truth About Search Engine Optimization Rebecca is going after the executive level audience and not the code geek. She wants you to understand, at a high level, what SEO is so that when you meet with an SEO Consultant you can tell if they know what they are talking about or if they are going to sink you domain to the 7th circle of hell. The book is a relatively fast read broken down into ten parts covering what she has identified to be 51 Truths about SEO:
Table of Contents for The Truth About Search Engine Optimization by Rebecca Leib:
Part I: The Basics of Search
Truth 1: Getting noticed by spiders, robots, and crawlers 1
Truth 2: Learn to do the Google dance 5
Truth 3: It's not about traffic–it's about qualified traffic 9
Truth 4: Your reputation is on the line 13
Part II: The Truth About Being Site-Specific
Truth 5: SEO is an ongoing project, not set-it-and-forget-it 17
Truth 6: SEO is not an afterthought 21
Truth 7: SEO results aren't immediate or lasting 25
Truth 8: You don't have a homepage anymore 29
Truth 9: Think like a publisher, even if you're not 33
Truth 10: Site and page design count 37
Truth 11: Write for users and search engines will follow 41
Truth 12: Keywords are key 45
Truth 13: Use analytics and keyword research tools 49
Truth 14: Site stats share the bad news, too 53
Truth 15: Think twice about hot new technologies 57
Truth 16: Content management systems matter–a lot 67
Part III: Tag, You're It!
Truth 17: What's in a title? Everything… 65
Truth 18: The relative importance of meta tags 71
Truth 19: Tag images, audio, video, and other media 75
Part IV: The Truth About Links
Truth 20: Some links are more equal than others 79
Truth 21: Building links through online directories 83
Truth 22: Using SEO PR as a link strategy 87
Truth 23: The jury is out on paid links 91
Truth 24: Share and share alike: Reciprocal linking 95
Truth 25: Ads are links, too 99
Truth 26: Build your site in a good neighborhood 103
Truth 27: Blogs are a terrific link strategy 107
Truth 28: Putting the kibosh on link love with nofollow links 111
Part V: You Call That a Search Engine?
Truth 29: Search is going vertical 115
Truth 30: Everyone is local somewhere 119
Truth 31: Get listed to get vertical 125
Truth 32: Optimize off-site searches 129
Truth 33: Universal search and personalized search 133
Part VI: Get a Social Life
Truth 34: Blogs are built for SEO 137
Truth 35: RSS feeds "feed" SEO efforts 141
Truth 36: Users will create content for you 145
Truth 37: Tag images, video, links, and other media 149
Part VII: Search Ranking
Truth 38: Being #1 ain't what it used to be 153
Truth 39: Don't live and die by PageRank 157
Truth 40: Wag the long tail 161
Part VIII: The Truth About SEO Management
Truth 41: In-house or outsource? 165
Truth 42: Hiring a great search professional 169
Truth 43: Great SEOs sweat the small stuff 173
Part IX: Don't Be Evil
Truth 44: Beware blackhat SEO 177
Truth 45: Search engines frown on keyword stuffing and spam 181
Truth 46: Don't cultivate link farms 185
Truth 47: It's very difficult to get unbanned 189
Truth 48: Moving to a new domain is stressful 193
Part X: Going Beyond
Truth 49: Global SEO 197
Truth 50: Mobile SEO is more important than ever 201
Truth 51: Sometimes you don't want to be found 205
Where to focus:
I recommend that you pay close attention to these parts in particular:
Part II: The Truth About Being Site-Specific - This part focuses on the foundation - your website and how to set it up.
Part IV: The Truth About Links - Linking is the most fundamental technology that makes the web the web, yet most people are completely lost or very confused about how to make them work for you.
Part VI: Get a Social Life - Your business is not static why is your website? Conversations are where sales happen. This part dives into the cauldron known as Social Media.
Part IX: Don't Be Evil - Its in Google's by-laws and it should be in yours too. Here is where you will learn about Black Hat SEO: how it will be pitched to you and how to ensure you avoid it.
In summary:
By reading this book you will clear many misconceptions about Search Engine Optimization and be able to weed out the ignorant and shady SEO consultants. More importantly you will be able to identify the good ones and be much more effective in communicating with them resulting in better results.
Buy The Truth About Search Engine Optimization at your local bookstore or here at Amazon.com.
Conversation:
Please let me know what you thought of The Truth About Search Engine Optimization, this review, or how I can help you get the SEO results you are looking for. You can reach me, Roger Williams, by leaving a comment here or by calling me at 602-748-4385
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