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When a company is considering embarking upon a search engine
optimization campaign, the first discussion that normally is had is
whether to take care of the campaign in house or to hire an outside SEO
firm. Handling an SEO campaign in house is an attractive and popular
option for many companies – after all, the staff is already being paid
to perform other functions, so the company might as well use its
resources. In addition, a company may in fact have technically savvy
people on staff that know at least a little bit about SEO, making the
choice to take the campaign in house appear to be a no-brainer. But the
real issue is how to compare the actual cost of an in-house campaign if
you are expecting the same type of results that you would get with an
outside SEO firm.

In House or Outsourced – Consider Your Resources

There are several basic assumptions that can be
made about any company that is interested in SEO in general. First, the
company likely wants to see immediate results from the campaign – or,
at the very least, results as soon as possible in the organic search
engine rankings. Quick results, by necessity, mean that the company has
to have immediate skill available on hand.

And immediate skill, it is important to recognize, means something
different than having a staff member who has a technical background but
who will take several months to learn about SEO and the best way to go
about it before starting a campaign from scratch. In this case, there
is no way the company will get results for several months – or longer.
Meanwhile, an SEO firm that has experience and expertise and that
specializes in this very specific discipline can begin the project on
day one and bring results far more quickly.

In addition, a company will want to ensure minimal risk to its website.
However, in order to make sure that the site is not placed in jeopardy
of being penalized by one of the major engines, the person running the
campaign must have experience with SEO and must be well versed in the
terms of service of those engines. Again, handing off the project to
someone with no or little experience in SEO can backfire because he or
she may risk introducing dangerous changes onto your site based on
outdated information or simply on a lack of understanding.

Analyzing Your Company’s Situation – What’s Your True ROI?

At this stage, a company that wants to take its
SEO campaign in house needs to analyze its situation. Does the company
have someone on staff right now with extensive SEO experience,
preferably with an SEO firm? Moreover, does that person, assuming he or
she exists, have the time to devote in his or her schedule to begin
undertaking the SEO campaign immediately? Bear in mind that an SEO
campaign is not something that can be worked on as a side project or in
someone’s spare time, particularly when that person has a primary job
function with which to be concerned. SEO takes a great deal of time and
management in order to not only achieve results but also to maintain
and improve those results over time. You also need to determine whether
this person has the clout – or access to those who have the clout – to
get the necessary changes to the website made and to get buy in for the
entire SEO initiative.

If your company cannot answer a solid yes to all of the above
questions, then you need to compare the relative costs. It is likely
that your company has a finite budget for this initiative – everyone
does. Therefore, the company must determine if it can afford to bring a
full-time expert in SEO onto the staff – someone who generally commands
a salary of near or above six figures – or to pay an existing staff
person to handle the project. On the other hand, an SEO firm with an
excellent reputation can cost around $30,000 per year for full
optimization of your website.

But this issue goes beyond cost and also encompasses your total return
on investment. Even if you have a person on staff with extensive SEO
experience and a great deal of time to devote to an SEO project, and
even if they have the clout to get changes implemented on the site,
they still will only be working on one site (along with any other job
functions with which they need to be concerned). On the other hand, an
SEO firm will have many sites – possibly hundreds – to work on, which
means that it will constantly be staying current with all of the best
methodologies and will be able to immediately apply new tactics to
these sites to get the best possible results. Plus, the SEO firm will
not have other functions to take care of, because SEO is its entire
focus.

Conclusion

There are, of course, companies that successfully handle SEO campaigns
in house. But when an SEO campaign falls to somebody that already has a
separate job function and that is new to SEO, it can take much longer
to get things started than it would when working with an SEO firm hired
for this specific purpose. In addition, an internal person cannot
necessarily guarantee that a site will not get penalized – the terms of
service for the major engines are constantly changing, and it’s the job
of the SEO firm to stay on top of this. What’s legal today may be
illegal the next day, and an internal staff member may not have the
resources to know what has changed.

Finally, it is important, when comparing the cost of outsourcing to an
SEO firm vs. handling the campaign in house, to make a real comparison
of the actual cost involved in terms of your company’s annual spend
based on hours, ROI, and the opportunity cost due to the length of the
campaign – whether it’s handed off to a new, inexperienced person or to
someone with an SEO background who has other duties to attend to. And
in the end, let’s face it – if you’re not getting the results you want,
it’s always much easier to end a contract with an outside SEO firm than
it is to fire someone internally.