Should Small Businesses Outsource SEO? Here’s 12 Compelling Reasons Why
There are more than 30 million small businesses in the United States.
That makes small business a big deal. Small businesses employ almost half of American workers and account for the majority of businesses in the country.
With so many small businesses, though, you’re probably not alone in your industry. The market is crowded. You and your fellow small business owners must jockey for the attention of customers.
So how can you stand out?
Your SEO efforts are one piece of the puzzle. Your limited in-house expertise may mean you want to outsource SEO, but can you afford it?
Small business owners actually can’t afford not to outsource SEO services. These 12 reasons show you why.
1. SEO Is Always Changing
Search engine optimization has come a long way from what it was even just five years ago.
You can thank industry giants like Google for that.
Search engines are always updating and tweaking their algorithms. They do this so they can tailor their results to the way people are searching. Updated algorithms let them assess content in new ways, so they can meet user expectations.
As a result, SEO is always changing and evolving.
It used to be that you could stuff keywords into an article and call it a day. Today, Google will dock you points and penalize your site for that strategy.
Voice search, local search, and the use of mobile are changing search users’ behavior. In turn, search engines are adapting their algorithms to rank content differently.
SEO is not a set-and-forget investment. It’s an ongoing strategy, one you have to keep updating again and again. Staying on top of trends and making these adjustments is time-intensive for small business owners.
When you work with an SEO provider, their team will be tasked with staying up-to-date and tweaking your strategy. As SEO evolves, so too will your tactics.
2. Tap into the Technology You Need
Another reason to outsource search engine optimization is to get the technology you need.
You may not have the programs to optimize your images or automate your social media blasts.
You also may not have the budget to invest in some of the tools you need to do SEO the right way. Your SEO outsourcing partner has already researched and invested in the best tools.
When you team up with an SEO provider, you instantly upgrade the technology you’re using to conduct SEO. When they upgrade, so do you. It’s the easy way to get the technology you need, without breaking the bank.
3. Outsource SEO to Free up Time
How much do you know about SEO?
What about the people on your team?
Unless you have an in-house SEO expert on the team already, chances are you’ll spend a lot of time doing SEO on your own. That’s partly because there can be a steep learning curve.
Even after you’ve honed your skills, though, SEO can still eat up a good deal of your time. Tracking trends and tweaking your strategy is time you could spend on something else. Keyword research can be quite intensive.
If it’s not your area of expertise, it’ll take you even longer.
So, why not leave keyword research and blogger outreach to the professionals?
4. Get the Expertise You Need
One of the best reasons to hire an SEO outsource company is to get some experts on your side.
You could hire in-house, but that can be a lengthy process. You may be able to afford that even less than you think you can afford to outsource.
Unless you hire someone, you might be stuck learning the ins and outs of SEO on your own. Building expertise in SEO takes time. And, since SEO is evolving, becoming proficient at it takes even longer.
No one is ever truly done “learning” how to do SEO the right way.
Instead of guessing or learning as you go, outsourcing makes it easy to get the expertise you need, when you need it.
5. SEO Is More Technical Than You Think
Many people think of SEO as one tactic or task.
They can sit down, do SEO, and watch their page rise through the Google ranks.
SEO is actually a series of different tasks in a few different fields. The expert team at SEOExplode highlights a few of them:
- Technical SEO, which deals with the back-end of your website
- Content optimization, which applies SEO principles to your blog and other assets
- Social media optimization, which uses social signals to impact SEO
- On-page SEO, which includes titles, images, and more
- Linking strategies, which help build authority
There’s also local SEO, which can include platforms like Google MyBusiness. You can’t forget about video and voice search, either.
The long and short of it is there are many different pieces of a good SEO strategy. Unless you’re doing all of them, you probably won’t see the results you want.
It’s easy to forget about social media optimization, though. Many business owners skip the technical components because they’re not sure what to do.
When you work with an SEO outsourcing company, you can be sure every piece of the puzzle is present. They’ll help you manage every aspect of your SEO strategy. A more well-rounded approach will yield the results you want.
6. Let Your Team Focus on Their Strengths
When it comes to SEO, outsource services let your team get back to what they’re good at.
We already discussed how SEO can be quite time-intensive for your team. Chances are the person you have doing SEO wasn’t hired with that job in mind. SEO is probably something that was added to their responsibilities after the fact.
Whether it’s crunching the numbers or finding new clients, your talents are needed elsewhere in the business. Don’t get bogged down with doing SEO yourself — and watch your productivity rise.
7. Save Money with Outsourced SEO
One of the most common reasons for not outsourcing SEO is concerns about costs.
The bill for SEO services can look quite hefty.
The most common argument for outsourcing your SEO activities is to save money. So, does SEO outsourcing cost you money or save you money?
You need to take a look at the costs of not doing SEO or doing it the wrong way across your business.
You might run up some of the following costs trying to do SEO yourself:
- Lost time and productivity from team members whose talents are needed elsewhere
- More SEO mistakes, leading to lower rankings and lost leads
- The costs of hiring in-house
- SEO penalties for breaking some of Google’s “rules”
- Training and development costs related to creating in-house expertise
- Costs of adopting new technology to support SEO efforts
Some of these items are concrete items on your budget line. Others equate to lost revenue and lost sales opportunities.
Now, compare these costs with the quote you got from that SEO provider. For that price, you also get the peace of mind that your SEO will be done correctly, leading to more opportunities. You’ll also have more time to pursue sales opportunities when they come knocking.
That’s how SEO outsourcing can save you much more than you think.
While it may look like another upfront cost, outsourced SEO is well worth it for small businesses.
8. Avoid Common SEO Mistakes
SEO isn’t as easy as you might think it is.
Many people don’t realize how hard it is until they try it themselves. In the process, they make quite a few mistakes.
SEO mistakes may not make or break your business, but they can hurt your bottom line. They also take time to recover from and time to correct.
If you’re not sure how to go about SEO, then it’s time to call in the experts. With the right help and guidance, you can avoid the stumbling blocks that trip up so many businesses.
9. Keep up with Your Competition
You know your competition is already using SEO to outrank you on Google and Bing.
Chances are they’re already outsourcing their SEO efforts to the experts. That’s how they’re always besting you in the SERPs.
Why let them have the advantage?
If you’re going toe-to-toe with them, it’s better to level the playing field. With an expert team of your own, you can change the narrative and get back to page 1.
On the off-chance your competitors haven’t outsourced SEO yet, you’ll have a competitive edge.
Why not use the opportunity to get ahead? It’s not like your competitors would wait for you to catch up with them.
In today’s crowded market, you need to take every advantage to you can get. If better SEO is one of those advantages, there’s no reason you should wait to outsource.
10. Tap into Your Provider’s Network
Between social media and backlinking strategies, SEO involves a lot more networking than you might think.
Social media gives you a platform to build a following and drive traffic to your site. Shareable content also presents great opportunities for backlinking. Guest blogging, interviews, and blogger outreach are also key.
You may even connect with other local businesses or organizations to collaborate. In turn, you can boost each other’s SEO through better backlinking.
You may not have the network you need to carry out your backlinking strategy. As a small business owner, you may not be sure where to turn. Outreach also involves relationship-building, which you just may not have time to do.
Your SEO provider comes with an extensive network already at their fingertips. They can connect you to more opportunities and help you execute a better backlinking strategy.
They’ll also be sure to avoid some of the black hat SEO tactics that are out there. Small business owners who aren’t up to speed on their SEO often make the mistake of choosing black hat SEO companies. These companies use tactics that Google and other search engines frown on.
Black hat techniques get your page penalized. The right SEO provider will help you steer clear, so you can build backlinks and page authority the right way.
11. Constant Measurement and Adjustment
Another major advantage of working with an expert SEO team is that you have someone constantly working on your SEO strategy.
If you try to take on SEO by yourself, you may soon find that you’ve bitten off more than you can chew. Your SEO efforts may be sparse, with uneven implementation. You might just keep doing the same thing for months, without checking the results.
Monitoring the results of your SEO efforts is key to success. With the right analytics, you can see what’s working and what’s not. From there, you can adjust your strategy to continue improving those results.
Of course, that means you have to have the time to collect the data and crunch the numbers.
Let your SEO provider handle the heavy lifting here. They’ll collect the data and analyze it.
With frequent reports, you can decide how to adjust your strategy so you’re always improving.
12. See the Results You Want Sooner
What all these advantages really add up to is the results you want to see from your SEO.
SEO isn’t a one-time task. Rather, it’s an ongoing strategy.
It also isn’t a quick fix for most companies.
SEO can take up to six months to start showing the results you want to see. If something isn’t working, you may not know until you’ve been doing it for six months.
Working with an SEO provider changes that story. If something isn’t working, you’ll be able to adjust course much sooner. In addition, you’ll see the results you want much sooner.
Handle Your SEO the Smart Way
For most small business owners, it’s a smart idea to outsource SEO.
These 12 reasons make a compelling case and show just how your business can benefit.
Looking for smarter ways to handle other marketing tasks for your small business? Check out our latest stories and discover the tools you need to power your business success.
