In house SEO versus hiring an SEO company

							Title:
In house SEO versus hiring an SEO co
mpany

Word Count:
945

Summary:
Exploring the advantages and disadv
antages of hiring an SEO Company ve
rsus doing your own In-house Search
 Engine Optimisation.


Keywords:
SEO Company, Search Engine Optimisa
tion Company, SEO Comparison, Searc
h Engine Optimisation Expert Agency


Article Body:
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is
 very much a buzz phrase. Often co
mpanies looking to learn more about
 what SEO are baffled at how this n
ew field of marketing can gain them
 an edge. Well it has been proven
time and time again that it definit
ely can gain an edge over your comp
etition. The problem a business ha
s to assess is whether they should
employ a specialist SEO Company or
use existing resources within their
 respective IT Departments or Do It
 Yourself. This article explores t
he advantages and disadvantages of
each.

In-house & Do It Yourself
Advantages: You have complete contr
ol. You can change things instantl
y. You will learn about the inner
working of your website and also le
arn more about the Internet and how
 search engines work.

Disadvantages: It is a specialized
field and attempting to do it delay
s the inevitable and allows your co
mpetition to gain an edge on you; a
lso you may end up with more proble
ms in the future by getting it wron
g. You will need to have an intima
te knowledge of your website, how i
t works, HTML and possibly any scri
pting languages that the website us
es, like PHP. Also, you will need
to buy some commercial tools to use
, like WordTracker, WebPosition and
 SEO Elite. WordTracker allows you
 to effectively research Keywords,
WebPosition allows you to track you
r websites ranking in the search re
sults for given keyword phrases and
 SEO Elite allows you to track all
links to your website. Purchasing
these three necessary pieces of sof
tware will cost you around USD$900.
  Also, you will need to have a lot
 of time to read about SEO, take on
line courses, like StomperNet, list
en to podcasts, like MrSEO podcast
and read as much SEO material as yo
u possibly can. For the StomperNet
 course you are looking at about US
D$3000 and miscellaneous of books i
s likely to run up to another USD$1
000. Total for In-house DIY, rough
ly USD$1500 to USD$4900. Not being
 experienced enough to know when an
d what to change. Not knowing how
to link build effectively. Not hav
ing any time to study and learn eno
ugh to make the correct changes and
 modifications to your website - es
timated at about 200 hours of study
, learning and analyzing. As SEO t
akes time to see any results in the
 search engines it is important to
not only learn the required knowled
ge to implement SEO but also give y
ourself the time to make tweaks and
 ongoing analysis. So to setup and
 configure an average website with
10 static pages it will take you pr
obably 2 days and ongoing link buil
ding will be many, many countless d
ays. Also, you need to take your t
ime so that you do not overdo your
SEO, spamming and stuffing keywords
 into pages as this can be as detri
mental as not doing anything to the
 website in the first place.

Hiring an SEO Company
Advantages : You don’t have to use
internal staff resources or alter t
he focus of your business. Hiring
a specialized online marketing and
SEO Company will mean you have inst
ant access to experts in the field
who have a wealth of knowledge and
resources. An SEO Company will kno
w the lay of the land without you h
aving to learn what they already kn
ow to expert levels. The Online Ma
rketing Company will be your best p
artner in working towards achieving
 your online Internet marketing obj
ectives.

Disadvantages: Using an Expert SEO
Company will cost you money. It is
 important to realize that even tho
ugh you have hired a firm to implem
ent your Search Engine Optimisation
 you will still need to work in con
sultation with them in order to mar
ket your website online correctly -
 explaining your internet marketing
 goals, objectives, deadlines and b
udgets. Do your research, look at
the SEO Firm and its portfolio, cas
e studies and history of successes,
 ensure it is a reputable firm and
don't be scared to ask questions.

What to Look for in an SEO Company
A decent and reliable SEO company w
ill have a good reputation and a st
rong presence within the Online Mar
keting and SEO industry. When you
start, I suggest searching in Googl
e for "Online Marketing" or "SEO" w
ithin your country or region. Look
 at the potential SEO firm’s websit
es, their portfolios and take some
notes. Give them a call and see if
 you can arrange a meeting at their
 office and in person to discuss de
tails and gather more information.
 Discuss your situation and how you
 can best achieve your goals. Take
 note of their professional nature,
 their history, case studies and vi
sion for your online presence and a
lso ensure that you are happy with
the professional and personal relat
ionship you have with the company r
epresentatives as this will be an o
ngoing one.

While the advantages and disadvanta
ges of optimizing your own website
and employing an SEO Company are di
verse I think it important to point
 out that no matter how good you th
ink you are an SEO firm will always
 be better at SEO. So if you reall
y want to see results, you have ver
y little time then hiring an SEO co
mpany is the only way to go. If yo
u have time and some website expert
ise then you may be willing to put
in the time and try doing it yourse
lf. My only thought on this is tha
t you wouldn't hire a plumber to fi
x a problem with your car.

When all is said and done, good Sea
rch Engine Optimisation will get yo
ur website results. It is importan
t to make sure you are making the r
ight decisions in your online marke
ting as this may well be the lifebl
ood of your business and is certain
ly an effective way to promote your
 business and generate sales leads.