Outsourcing VS In-house SEO: What to choose?

Over the decades, digital marketing has grown quickly and, as the internet is becoming cheaper and accessible, it will continue its rapid growth in the future as well. Nowadays, businesses cannot take internet marketing lightly and simply make a website with minimal information about the company. Companies have to put in a lot of hard work and resources to thrive in the competitive online market. The evolution of online marketing has made search engine optimization compulsory for websites who want to reach the top of the search engine result pages.

Every effective marketing plan for companies includes SEO, as it helps in creating a well-reputed online presence which is credible too. As SEO is the key to success in the digital marketing industry, the question which now arises is that should a company opt for in-house SEO or outsource the service?

In this blog, we will discuss the pros and cons of both in-house SEO as well as Outsourcing SEO, so that you can decide which option is the best for your company.

1. In-house SEO
Pros

• Having an in-house SEO team means that the team will already know a lot about the business, hence having a better understanding of the top priorities and the challenges they will face while optimizing the website.
• In your office hours, you can access the SEO team whenever you need, which is helpful as you can quickly inform the team to adapt immediately upon any change of plans.
• It holds an advantage over the outsourcing of SEO as the in-house team has solely the task of optimizing your own website, without worrying about anything else.

Cons

• The SEO industry is a platform that changes constantly. With the change in the algorithms of search engines, the specialists have to adapt so that the content stays relevant and within the barriers of harsh penalties given by the search engines. To keep the in-house SEO team well-equipped and informed, you will need to spend money so that you keep earning a profit.
• You will need to invest money on the improvement of your SEO team again and again as the SEO industry continuously changes as mentioned above. At some point, you might reach a situation where you don’t earn any profit as all your money goes in upgrading your own SEO services.
• Outsourcing SEO might cost almost the same as paying an actual person working for you. But, the problem arises when you have to pay for other charges such as the installation cost of the required equipment, onboarding, and recruitment (if an employee resigns).

2. Outsourced SEO
Pros

• After reviewing potential agencies and selecting an adequate one for your company, you can rest assured as it would be your own choice. You can see their skills, knowledge, and previous projects before finalizing the deal.
• As you select an agency to do the search engine optimization for your website, you no longer need to worry about spending money on training employees and buying the premium SEO tools for the in-house SEO team.
• Outsourcing SEO means faster execution as the SEO agencies are professional and capable of managing multiple websites at a time, which in-house SEO team would take plenty of time in handling.
• Once you outsource SEO to an agency, you can easily focus on other aspects of your business without worrying about deadlines and rankings. You can solely focus on providing the best services/products to your clients.

Cons

• Outsourcing to companies who fail to deliver quality content can result in a major loss for your website as you fail to get a profitable ROI. Thus, you need to thoroughly search for an SEO company that can deliver continuously.
• As you associate with an SEO agency, you get reduced accessibility and knowledge about your projects. It is true that the best companies provide you with reports every once in a while, but you only have the results through which you can track the progress of your website. Contrastingly, the in-house SEO team can cooperate with you on a much more regular basis.
• If you unintentionally associate with an SEO agency that practices Black-hat SEO, you invite trouble to your website as search engines heavily penalize such websites.

The type of business you are in matters a lot when it comes to choosing between an in-house SEO team and outsourcing SEO. So, after considering the pros and cons of both the options, you should choose one appropriately.