We all know that in the digital age, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can help make or break a company. Good SEO can provide your business with hundreds or thousands of dollars a month. On the other hand, bad SEO makes it difficult for customers to find your website at all.
Have you ever taken the time to research proper Search Engine Optimization? If you have, then you probably discovered how time consuming it might be to get your business to rank higher organically on search engines. Let’s face it, we are an SEO agency with highly skilled professionals who consistently stay educated on algorithm updates and best practices. We understand that SEO is a marathon, not a sprint.
This knowledge begs me to ask, are you better off hiring a local agency to help you organically rank higher, or are you better off bringing someone in-house to help you grow your business? Both options can work, but which one is right for you?
Let’s break down the pros and the cons that come along with hiring a local agency vs. hiring someone to work in house. Then, you decide.
Deciding to Hire a Local Marketing Agency vs. In-House
- Expertise:
Expertise is truly dependent on the individual. You could hire a very knowledgeable individual to work in-house for you. However, if your hired specialist’s skills aren’t up to par, you won’t get the results you are looking for.
On the other hand, if you choose to hire an agency, you are hiring a team of professionals who bring a wide array of knowledge to the table. You essentially hire instant experts that require no training and can immediately get to work for you.
- Strategy:
SEO strategy is essential for success. SEO strategy involves knowing more than just how to research keywords. It requires being familiar with mobile, digital advertising, and staying up to date with the latest algorithmic changes. Successful SEO workers spend a lot of time expanding their knowledge to maintain ‘in the know’. Just yesterday one of our experts spent three hours gaining more knowledge to help our clients’ inch towards organic success.
A question you must then decide is if you want to pay an in-house worker to consistently train on these topics, so they stay as up to date as agencies do?
- Knowledge of your Business:
When you hire an in-house specialist, you are hiring someone to learn the full inner workings of your company. You will literally work with them to teach them the ins and the outs of your organization. This knowledge is beneficial as it can help relay the companies’ vision through well-written metadata on your website.
A good agency will strive to learn the in’s and the outs of your organization so that they can relay the same message, but this could take more time than it would if someone was working in-house.
- Expense:
Hiring an agency is often cheaper than hiring an in-house SEO specialist. This is because an in-house Search Engine Optimization person requires a salary, benefits and training. Essentially, you are paying the cost to hire an agency in one person. If you’re not sure how much you should pay an SEO Specialist, prepare to have a decent salary budget at your fingertips. We say this because you are going to have to pay a lot to compensate an individual who has the experience and knowledge a team of individuals can provide you in one swoop.
Another added expense that might come with an in-house worker is when you need to ramp-up a campaign you will not have enough people to run it. When you hire an agency, you have a team of people there to help run both your smallest of largest of campaigns.
- Focus:
When it comes to focus, the struggle with an agency is that you are one of their many clients, and you don’t have their undivided attention. Agencies will obviously make time for you, after all you are paying them, but you cannot expect to receive the VIP treatment all the time. If you hire an agency, you may also need to prepare yourself to have a slower turnaround time than you would like because of this.
On the contrary, with an in-house specialist you have someone who is focused exclusively on your website. You say jump. Their one question should then be, “how high”?
- Issues:
Problems can arise rather you are working with an agency or someone in-house. However, if you are working with an agency and are struggling with your contract or turn around time on items, you have the ability to escalate items up the chain of command.
When your SEO person is in-house it isn’t as easy to deal with issues. After all, you are their boss and maybe you realize they need more knowledge or training. At this point you might feel stuck as you are already monetarily invested.
Let’s be honest, we may be a little biased. After all, we are a digital advertising agency and we understand that in today’s high-tech world it is impossible to ignore the impact good SEO can have on an organization. No matter what business you are in, your business relies on having customers choose you over your competitors. Because of this, good SEO is a low-cost method to help you rank higher organically as your future customers search the web.
With that said, do you want to hire an in-house specialist that can be at your beck and call for a higher cost? Or would you like to hire an agency who isn’t there all the time, but will always bring their knowledge to the table for you? Think about this carefully, and remember, good SEO can either make or break you.
We would love for you to check out our website and see if we would be a good fit to work with your organization. Keep in mind, we may not be in-house, but we are local. We understand that Search Engine Optimization isn’t a one-person job anymore. We have a team of programmers, content marketers and advertisers who are ready to make your digital footprint larger than you thought possible. Hiring us means you can focus on the most important thing, running your business.
