SEO (or search engine optimisation) has become much more common within business’ marketing strategies for good reason.

SEO influences the view and ranking of web pages and other content based on what search engines identify as most suitable for users. The results are shown in search engines’ ‘unpaid’ results listing, commonly referred to as natural or organic results.

Small to medium businesses (SMEs) often question whether it is required to engage an agency that specialises in SEO, or if it is viable to manage SEO internally. Depending on the depth of SEO strategy required, this form of marketing can be as specialised or as non-specialised (or both) as required, based on various factors.

To make the choice, businesses need to know what to look for, what considerations need to be made, and the right questions to ask. This is often where the fear of making this decision comes from – fear of being taken advantage of by a specialised agency, or fear of not having the experience and resourcing in-house to achieve effective results.

Regardless of the choice made, it’s important for every business owner to become better educated about SEO, how to use this strategy effectively, and what to consider. To assist, the following considerations have been identified:

Size of the business

Larger businesses can typically afford to employ an SEO specialist in-house, or engage with a large specialist agency.

However, the challenge for SMEs is the high cost of engaging with a large specialist agency or employing a specialist in-house. This leaves the option to source a smaller agency or manage SEO in-house, which may compromise the effectiveness of the results.

It is, therefore, important to ensure the business has clear and solid objectives of what it is trying to achieve through SEO, to determine what level of SEO strategy is required for the size of the business for optimal ROI.

Budget

Understanding the cost of SEO versus the return is imperative when determining the SEO budget.

When engaging an agency that specialises in SEO, it is important to remember that agency fees will be added to the total cost, whereas managing SEO in-house forfeits these agency fees.

The question is, how do you know how much is the right amount to budget? Unfortunately there is no definitive answer, however SEO can range anywhere from $500 per month to $5,000 per month, or more. The general rule of thumb is to ‘hire for your goals and pay for the results’.

As with anything, you get what you pay for. Allocating a smaller budget to SEO minimises the services, quality and results achieved. However, if the business has a larger budget allocated to engage a more specialised agency, the expectation would be that the agency provides ongoing planning, reporting, and re-optimisation where required for better results.

SMEs may choose to engage a specialised agency for an initial period of time to educate themselves on the process and the different scenarios that require re-optimisation. With a better understanding of SEO, the business may then choose to bring the SEO management in-house to work within budget constraints.

Businesses may also consider different SEO payment methods to benefit individual budget circumstances, including hourly, monthly, or project-based SEO payments.

Market situation

In a highly competitive and/or sophisticated market, the requirement for a stronger SEO strategy is much higher to ensure the business ranks competitively against others in the industry.

Such a strategy, which can include complex link building, strong content generation, and the implementation of strategic keywords, can be demanding on the budget for SMEs.

No matter the size of the business, if it fits within this type of market, then the importance of a more sophisticated SEO strategy is imperative and needs to be accounted for within the budget.

Internal or external resourcing

Similarly to any role within an organisation, it all comes down to the right resourcing. For SEO management, the question needs to be raised around whether there is any staff in-house that can effectively manage the business’s SEO to achieve the required results, or does the organisation need a more specialised skill-set?

If the answer is that the organisation does not have the right skill-set internally, the business needs to look at hiring someone with the specialised skills, outsourcing the SEO management to a specialised agency, or providing SEO training internally.

Setting expectations

For effective results that will generate leads and conversion, SEO is a longer term strategy.

Sometimes the challenge in small to medium businesses is the need to fix things quickly or the want to see results immediately. Unfortunately, this is not always the case with SEO strategy versus some other paid campaigns, so it is important to set realistic expectations from the outset (whether it is managed internally or externally), and ensure that these expectations are made clear.

Frustration commonly comes from inexperience or misunderstanding how SEO works and the long term benefits of it, which can easily be fixed through some training and examples to support the rationale behind SEO.

Technology

Technology, including the organisation’s content management system, needs to be considered when deciding whether to manage SEO in-house or to outsource it.

If the business does not have the technology to support SEO, then engaging an agency in managing the SEO is a viable option. However, if the business does have appropriate technology that can be operated confidently in-house, then the option of managing SEO in-house is also possible.

Education and training

Depending on time and inclination, education and training on SEO is always an option if the business is considering managing SEO internally. The benefit of managing SEO internally with training is that nobody understands the business better than the owners and staff inside the organisation.

However, the ongoing training and management of SEO requires commitment, so the company needs to assess if this is worthwhile long term or if engaging an agency is going to be more beneficial.

Whether a company chooses to manage its SEO or to outsource the SEO to a specialised agency, the choice should always depend on careful consideration of all influencing factors.

However, the decision does not need to be only one or the other. Rather, it is commonly a good solution to incorporate both options to save costs, while also receiving the benefits of specialised education that an SEO agency can provide.

By Manesh Ram, Digital Marketing Specialist. Please follow @maneshram & Meta