Professional SEO: Hand Off to Bob or Outsource the Job

We are often asked if professional SEO (search engine optimization) can be done effectively utilizing in-house talent. Despite our obvious self-interests on the subject, our answer is always a qualified “yes”- you can achieve professional SEO results using existing talent. However, for every company we have known that has met with great in-house SEO success, we know of many more that have seen their in-house efforts fail. We have also discovered the companies that have succeeded share some common traits.

If your company is considering doing SEO in-house, there are some critical questions that you should address before you proceed.

1. Do I have the proper resources at my disposal to achieve professional SEO results?

   Search engine optimization takes time, and your internal SEO expert will need to have a great deal of it at his or her disposal – especially at the project’s outset when target audiences, keyphrases, and optimization schemes are first being established. Even after the initial optimization effort, the nature of SEO will require this person to spend ample time keeping up with industry trends, monitoring campaign progress, performing A/B testing, and expanding the campaign as new product and service areas are added.

   Perhaps even more important than time, achieving professional SEO results requires a unique set of aptitudes. The person responsible for your internal SEO initiative must possess the ability to learn quickly and to look at your website from a macro-perspective, marrying together the needs of sales, marketing, and IT. He or she can not be an aggressive risk taker, as this is often a surefire way to get your website penalized and potentially removed from the major search engines. These gifted people exist in many companies, but given the unique attributes that these individuals possess, their time is often already spent in other crucial areas of the business.

   Without enough time to invest in the project or the right type of person to execute it, an internal SEO initiative is likely doomed to fail.

2. Do I know which departments of my company should be involved, and will they work with an insider?

   As mentioned above, professional SEO, by necessity, involves marketing, sales, and IT. The SEO expert must work with marketing to find out what types of offers and initiatives are working offline to help translate them effectively online. He or she must work with sales to identify the types of leads that are most valuable so that you can target the right people in the keyphrase selection process. And, finally, your SEO expert will need to work with IT to determine any technical limitations to the SEO recommendations, learn of any past initiatives based on a technical approach, and get the final optimization schemes implemented on the website.

   Sadly, in many businesses, these departments have a somewhat adversarial relationship. However, it is the duty of the SEO expert to act as a project manager and coordinate the efforts of all three departments if you are going to get the most out of your campaign. No professional SEO project can be completed in a vacuum. For whatever reason, it is often easier for an outsider to get adversarial departments on the same page, in the same way that a marriage counselor might convince a woman of her undying love for her husband while the husband is still grimacing from a well-placed knee in the parking lot.

3. Will someone be held accountable for the results?

   This may seem like a small consideration, but it can have a tremendous impact on the success of the campaign. If you have added this responsibility to some poor soul’s job description with the direction that he or she should “do the best you can,” you’ll be lucky to make any headway at all (especially if the person is not enthusiastic about SEO). Whether SEO is done in-house or outsourced, someone will have to take responsibility for showing progress, explaining setbacks, and continually improving results. Without this accountability, it is very common to see an initiative fade as the buck is passed.

4. Can I afford delayed results based on a learning curve?

   It’s a reality – professional SEO expertise has a steep learning curve. While the information on how to perform the basics of optimization are freely available on the web, much of the information out there is also contradictory, and some of it is actually dangerous. It takes time for someone unfamiliar with the discipline to sort the SEO wheat from the SEO chaff (on a side note, a “quoted” search of Google reveals that this may actually mark the first occasion in human history that the phrase “SEO chaff” has been used – we’re betting it’s also the last). Simply put, if the person you are putting on the job has no experience, it will take longer to get results. This may not be a consideration if you aren’t counting on new business from SEO any time soon. However, if you are losing business to your competition due to their professional SEO initiatives, time might be a larger factor.

5. Will it cost me less to do it in house than it would to choose a professional SEO firm?

   Often, companies will attempt this specialized discipline in-house in order to save money, and sometimes this works out as intended. However, accurate calculations of the cost of in-house labor that would be involved versus the price of the firm you would otherwise hire should be performed to make an accurate comparison. When making this calculation, also factor in the opportunity cost of the resource – the tasks that your in-house people are not able to perform because they are involved in SEO.

   In addition, if worse comes to worst and your in-house SEO expert is led astray by some of the more dangerous “how-to” guides available, it can cost even more to repair the damage than it would have to hire a professional SEO firm to perform the optimization from the outset. And an internal SEO campaign gone wrong can cost even more than the stated fee – websites that violate the terms of service of the major search engines (whether intentional or not) can be severely penalized or even removed, costing you a lot of lost revenue when potential customers can not find your website for a period of time.

6. Do I believe that the end result I’ll get in-house will be equal to or greater than the results I would have gotten from a professional SEO firm?

   Search engine optimization can create huge sales opportunities, and slight increases in overall exposure can have not-so-slight increases in your bottom-line revenue. If you believe that your talented in-house resource will, given enough time, achieve results equal to or greater than those that could have been achieved by the professional SEO firm you might have chosen, it may make sense to do it internally.

   However, in addition to a better knowledge of industry trends, one clear advantage that search engine optimization firms have is the benefit of the experience and macro-perspective that comes from managing many different websites over time. Professional SEO firms can watch a wide range of sites on a continual basis to see what trends are working, what trends aren’t, and what formerly recommended tactics are now actually hurting results.

   This macro-perspective allows professional SEO firms to test new tactics as they appear on a case-by-case basis and apply those results across a wide range of clients to determine what the benefit is. It is harder for an individual with access to only one site to perform enough testing and research to achieve optimum results all the time, something that should also factor into the equation.

7. Do I have at least a slight tolerance for risk?

   Neophytes to SEO can make mistakes that can lead to search engine penalization or removal. This happens most commonly when they have an IT background and treat SEO as a strictly technical exercise. We are often called in to assist companies who have had an internal initiative backfire, leaving them in a worse position than the one they were in before they started. The simple truth is that you cannot perform effective SEO without marrying your efforts to the visitor experience, but this is not something that is intuitively understood when people approach SEO for the first time.

   However, professional SEO firms are not perfect either. Some firms use those same optimization methods that violate the search engines’ terms of service and can get your site penalized. So, if you do decide to outsource, educate yourself on SEO and do some research on the firm. Know the basics of the business, find out who the firm’s clients are and how long they’ve been in business, and ask for professional references – just like you would do with any major business purchase.

If you have considered all of the above questions, and your answers to all seven are “yes,” your company may be uniquely equipped to achieve professional SEO results in-house. If you answered “no” to any of the first three questions but “yes” to the rest, it does not necessarily mean that you can’t perform SEO in-house – just that you may not be in a position to do so at this time. Taking the actions required to get you in the right position to answer in the affirmative might be worth your while. However, if you answered “no” to any of the last four questions, you may want to consider outsourcing the project to a professional SEO firm.

A professional SEO firm has the resources, the time, the expertise, and, most importantly, the experience, to launch an SEO initiative for your website that will have a positive effect on your bottom line. Whichever option you choose, it is important that you fully embrace the channel. A half-hearted initiative, whether done internally or outsourced, can be as ineffective as taking no action at all.

About the Author

Scott Buresh is the CEO of Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing. He has contributed content to many publications including Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004), MarketingProfs, ZDNet, SEO Today, WebProNews, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. Medium Blue, an Atlanta search engine optimization company, serves local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, DuPont, and Georgia-Pacific. To receive internet marketing articles and search engine news in your email box each month, register for Medium Blues newsletter, Out of the Blue.

Author: Scott Buresh
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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How to Choose an Internet Marketing Company

– Internet Marketing Determines Web Success –

Internet marketing is essential to the success of web sites. You can have a professional looking website but what good can it do if internet users are not able to find it when they need your products and services? That is where an internet marketing campaign comes into play.

“Your website has to magically appear before buyers when they need products and services.”

Internet marketing is similar to designing websites- it does not require much experience to do a good job, just good knowledge and a keen eye for details. It is fundamentally important for a good internet marketer to constantly update himself weekly, if not monthly, of online markets. There are many ways to market your website .

– Find A Competent and Reliable Internet Marketer –

Justify the costs of hiring an Internet Marketer – First of all, getting an internet marketer is not essential for every website. If your website is a business website or a website which you want to generate revenue from, it is good to seek a competent internet marketer to work on your website. The costs spent on your website for internet marketing has to be justified and often, they are justified by having more revenue and traffic to your web site.

Potential customers have to know that there are no guarrantees in SEO. Since everything is fundamentally based on search engines, SEO work is at the mercy of major search engines like Google. Many SEO companies tried to secure customers with guarrantees that they cannot fulfil, resulting in lawsuits or customers getting burned for hiring their SEO services.

– What an Internet Marketer can offer –

In short, an Internet Marketer oversees that your website is built properly for visibility and promoted with the best dollar spent on your internet marketing campaign. It is no good having a website and not appearing in internet searches. Your website has to magically appear before buyers when they need products and services. Internet Marketers deploy search engine optimisation techniques to make your website visible and targetted to internet users.

Internet marketing requires research and analysis effort for individual website, followed by optimisation of website. Hundreds of hours may be spent on each website, depending on the size of your targetted market. You are essentially paying for the amount of effort involved, effectiveness of your internet marketer and daily sales tracking of your website.

How to choose an Internet Marketer- Internet marketing requires constant updating of skills and knowledge. One crude way to test if your internet marketer is a genuine or fake- Ask your internet marketer about recent events that happened in his field. If he cannot answer that, he must have a genuinely good reason to back himself as a good internet marketer! At times, it is easy to fall prey into the hands of bad internet marketing companies as happened in US and other parts of the world.

It is also important for you to feel comfortable with the amount of money you are spending on getting your site popular before committing yourself to a internet marketing campaign. Internet marketing campaigns typically last a few months and requires monthly tune-ups to your website. Include the costs of an internet marketing campaign when doing your company’s advertising budget.

Lester Boey works in an Australian SEO and Web Design company (Australian Seo and Web Designs Services). His life revolves around SEO; providing full-time and freelance seo services to US and Australian businesses. Email: projects@definiteweb.com

Author: Lester Boey
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Sponsored by: SEO Blog

Enhance Your Business by Quality Web SEO Services

One of the most interesting and easy thing that man has made is Internet. Internet business is not only our demand but also become necessity. It is search based and it requires website visibility in the major search engines for business success. For this Search Engine Optimization techniques are implemented to get your website in the top of search engine rankings.

Search engine optimization – a method or technique of optimizing a website to achieve top search engine ranking for targeted keywords. It is one of the best ways for any business to gain higher volumes of quality traffic or visitors and web popularity. We focused towards providing professional & valuable SEO services that can help you achieve the goals you have set for your website and to make your website popular on the web and get top listings in search engines including Google, Yahoo, Live, Ask and others.

The SEO Services Consultant will need to be cautious regarding the changes in trends of keywords and key phrases since these changes can be seasonal. SEO professional should kept a close watch to the search engine results. The job of the SEO Services Consultant will continue well after the website is established if this is part of the agreement between the SEO Services Consultant and the client.

Seo web design for the client’s site is also plays a major role in the ranking of the site and the popularity of the site to human browsers. Since SEO web design makes the site that is easy to navigate and should be made according to the Google webmaster guidelines.

The SEO Services will suggest to the client various easy ways of optimizing the web site. Among these suggestions will be scaling down the larger pictures to enable quick loading and making the site more navigable to users.

In SEO content is call the king. Content plays on the major role in promotion of your website. Content should be unique and should contain your target keywords. It is what browsers are looking for when they visit a site. A site that does not meet the requirements and needs of the searcher will be abandoned promptly upon the discovery that the site is irrelevant.

The SEO professional must also check that web pages connected to your site are easy to reach and that there are also relevant links in the site to promote it with other similar sites. Link building will help promote and build popularity for your site. There are many other websites that wish to use links as a way of getting their ranking to increase.

webseoservices.co.uk is providing the best SEO services uk.You can get good SEO services across the world through the help of SEO company uk.

Author: Mahendra Pratap Singh
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible

Detailed, practical guide to increasing your Web traffic through better search results

Wonder how some companies pop up high in search engine rankings? It’s all about search appeal. Master the strategies, techniques, and shortcuts in this detailed guide and you can improve your Web site’s search rankings and drive the targeted traffic you want to your virtual door. Learn new ways to add social media to the SEO mix, make your site mobile Web-friendly, write SEO tags for maximum exposure, and more.

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is hot; the online advertising market is expected to grow at 34% CAGR between 2005 and 2010, and nine out of ten companies are estimated to be implementing SEO strategies
• Find out how to get listed in the major search engines, directories, and indexes, and learn strategies for planning and implementing a successful SEO campaign
• Take advantage of the case studies of readers who implemented the SEO techniques outlined in the first edition of this book and significantly improved search rankings
• Discover how to target and reach the customers you really want; optimize your site specifically for Google, MSN, or Yahoo!; demystify the role of links and linking in search; implement social media and mobile search optimization; and analyze your SEO efforts to see what works

If you want to make SEO work for you, the new edition of this practical book is what you need to succeed.

Buy Now

Expert Content Writers and SEO Consultants Are Keys to Internet Visibility

Many highly specialized content writers and SEO consultants exist and provide advanced SEO and online marketing strategies for today’s growing businesses. However, at the same time, many other content writers and SEO consultants fail largely due in part because of not understanding today’s complex SEO dynamics. Today’s businesses are looking for scalable, flexible solutions for creating online promotional campaigns and strategic search engine optimization techniques that truly work, are long-lasting, and considered ethical by all the major search engines.

Additionally, content writers and SEO consultants that are successful use a wide variety of techniques and tools for helping client’s get to the top of the major search engines along with creating a high degree of visibility in various other web forums and channels. It’s not just about researching and finding valuable keywords, it’s about implementing next generation SEO strategies that work, and work well.

Take social media marketing (SMM) as a prime example, most content writers and SEO consultants are only using SMM in a marginal way, ignoring many of the true benefits that can be realized. SMM takes time, dedication, and a true ability to find the right channels for client promotion. It also requires an enormous amount of interaction with these highly selected channels, such as blogging, being involved in web casts, along with building a true following for whatever endeavors you are pursuing.

How about blogging? Again, most content writers and SEO consultants have largely ignored the value derived from effective blogging techniques. It’s much more than just putting together a few paragraphs with outbound links. Rather, the blog information must be timely, informative, and compelling enough for people to want to visit and read a particular blog.

If you are currently seeking out content writers and SEO consultants to help with your organization’s growing needs, ask them specifically what tools and techniques they use and how they use them. You may be surprised with the vague and generalized answers you receive. A firm that can enunciate their vision, products and services clearly is one you definitely want to highly consider. The more they truly now how to effectively use all the SEO tools available, the more successful your online endeavors will be. Use this helpful SEO bullet point checklist below when speaking with content writers and SEO consultants you may be considering for your company.

Q: Do you provide the following SEO and online marketing services? If so, please explain in detail how you use these products and services in building an SEO campaign for my company.

• Web Copy & Keyword Research
• Link Building Campaigns
• Article Marketing
• Social Media Marketing (SMM)
• Directory Submissions
• Press Releases
• Blogging
• Audio and Video
• Print Advertising
• Logo Design

Megan Wright is a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and online marketing expert. She is also a web designer and web developer with years of experience in SEO.

Author: Megan Wright
Article Source: EzineArticles.com