Why most small-medium business shouldn’t outsource SEO

[Cesar]

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[JohnW]

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Hi Brendan,
Nowhere in this thread did I see SEO defined.

There is no single definition of SEO, so let me contribute using this definition…

SEO is the process of generating the most relevant generic SE referrals for the least cost. Then encouraging as many of those referrals as possible to undertake the desired action.

In some quarters there seems to be a presumption that ongoing SEO is mostly about external link building. It is not and never has been!

SEO is a cyclical process of:

• Research
• Planning
• Implementing
• Training
• Monitoring

For most small/medium business websites, experience indicates that the first cycle research and planning phase of the SEO process usually needs to be much more in-depth than subsequent cycles. Implementation in the first cycle may require a lot of technical remedial work that is never needed again.

The second SEO cycle starts when you have the results of the first monitoring function. Here is where you get to decide what you need to do in this cycle to generate more relevant referrals.

For small/medium businesses I’ve always found missing content to be the essential focus for the most cost-effective SEO activities and never yet needed to resort to expensive link building of questionable value.

For small/medium businesses owners,
At this point you should expect to be able to reduce your monthly external SEO costs while continuing to increase your generic SE referrals.

brendan29, post: 203773 wrote:

My contention is that a small-medium business with a relatively limited marketing budget (less than $1000 per month as a rough guide) is far better off doing SEO themselves and not paying a monthly fee to an SEO company. Do you agree or disagree?
After the initial SEO cycle described above, I wonder where $1,000 needs to be spent?

Small/medium business sites don’t typically publish large volumes of new content so I can’t see it going on on-page factors.

The SEO foundation for small/medium businesses must be to identify their strengths and weaknesses and those of their competitors and then to develop SEO tactics that enable them to use their inherent strengths and to side-step those of their big online competitors.

Surely no small/medium business is going to waste it on link building? (Note, my SEO definition includes the term “least cost”.) Why would a small/medium business waste money on SEO tactics where their big competitors have the advantage? What they are likely to do is generate a link building war in which the only winners are the link building services provided to them and their big competitors.

It seems there are many SEOs who promote link building as if it is the be-all and end-all of SEO and who pay no account of the specific SEO requirements of small/medium business sites. I wonder how many do this because:

• they don’t know any better or,
• they find it easier to rip more money from the client?

brendan29, post: 203773 wrote:

No SEO company should ever be given responsibility for writing website content. Even if a business owner is not a confident writer they can do what they can and hire a professional copywriter to improve upon their work (while keeping the integrity of their ideas in tact).
IMHO, your SEO should be working with content writers. The SEO should develop a content topic strategy. They should be helping with defining the information that an individual page needs to deliver and they should be advising on where to publish it/link to it on the site.

I have the greatest respect for people who have the skill to write good web page copy that encourages the reader to act. Unfortunately they are very few and far apart. In my book, a good SEO should be able to help the business owner assess the quality of the web page copy.

brendan29, post: 203773 wrote:

2. Link building. Good links require good content and again a business owner is in the best position to create link worthy content that is relevant to their business.
SE-friendly content, design and structure are the starting points for cost-effective SEO. Without these in place, link building is likely to generate a very poor return on investment.

Small/medium business owners,
You are MOST unlikely to need a single external link to make a dramatic improvement to your relevant generic SE referrals!

Most SE referrals are lost not because of lack of links, they are lost because site owners do not answer the questions that MOST searchers pose in the SEs.

brendan29, post: 203773 wrote:

My only caveat is that optimising a website under the hood is a skill that not everyone can do.
It is also a skill that requires a lot of constant reading, experimentation and implementation to keep current. It also helps if you have a good education and experience in marketing across many industries and if you can read HTML code.

Aidan said it well, above.

My version is you are not going to win Bathurst in your family car and someone in the pits who can only change tyres and fill the petrol tank.

brendan29, post: 203773 wrote:

However, WordPress plugins takes a lot of this hassle away.
Wordpress SEO plugins are designed to fix the SE problems inherent in a blog platform.

Other than that, they may save a little time implementing various on-page SEO functions.

What can have a much greater impact on generic SE referrals are the WordPress themes and plugins selected to publish the site.

The most cost-effective time to implement SEO is before the content management system, site design and structure are implemented.

brendan29, post: 203773 wrote:

I think SEO services aimed at smaller businesses is a dying industry
I would suggest that there are too many SEOs who do not know how to, or who don’t really try to implement the type of SEO services relevant to the needs of small/medium businesses.

SEO is becoming increasingly complex with the increasing delivery technologies, how they are used and the explosion in other online media and how they are used.

When it comes to acquiring new potential clients, the studies all show it is still SE referrals and daylight.
Regs,
JohnW

[JohnW]

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bluepenguin, post: 203978 wrote:

If SEO is so time consuming, where do SEO guys find the time to continually write such long, detailed posts on internet forums? :p
I don’t know about the others but I make it up from the time I don’t waste on link building.
Regs,
JohnW

[gloryscore]

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My contention is that a small-medium business with a relatively limited marketing budget (less than $1000 per month as a rough guide) is far better off doing SEO themselves and not paying a monthly fee to an SEO company. Do you agree or disagree?

With the conditions you have applied (less than 1k) then I tend to agree.

1. Website content. A business owner should know their stuff, and spend a considerable amount of time crafting quality website content. No SEO company should ever be given responsibility for writing website content. Even if a business owner is not a confident writer they can do what they can and hire a professional copywriter to improve upon their work (while keeping the integrity of their ideas in tact).

Agree and disagree. There is a place for SEO companies to craft web content but I think this applies more to medium and large business. Most of the large enterprises I have worked for outsource parts of their web content creation. However, for small business I absolutely agree. For small business owners I would go as far as saying spending time on creating content is the most important thing they can do online. Yes, we all know google loves quality content but your current and future customers do as well. Content and be recut, re-distributed, promoted across digital channels, put in a blog, FAQ etc. One piece of content can go a long way. Some small business owners will say they don’t have the time for this but they need to make the time. They are the experts in their business and they need to spend time working on their business not just in it. So, if they are creating their own content what content help might they need? I think content ideation, content distribution and publishing, keyword research and optimisation, editing and measurement. Some of which can be automated, some cannot. Good ol’ fashioned advice won’t go astray either. Having someone tell them ‘what’ to do next goes a long way.

[SteveK]

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What a great topic! Well done John W for getting it back on track with your second-last response that nailed it in my view.

My answer to the original question ‘Should small businesses do their own SEO vs pay someone $1000 month’ would be this – get a professional to optimise your website – this requires skills that take years to master and stay on top of – then learn how to manage the ongoing work of content marketing. This may require ongoing training or coaching for a while, but once the strategy and tactics are in place it all becomes easier. No-one knows the business and their customer like the business owner.

Certain skills can still be outsourced – copywriting, design, etc etc but in my view for small business that time and $ investment is better than spending $1000+ a month on SEO services that they likely don’t understand and may or may not help (or hurt) their online performance.

Online is too important to be complacent about, so SMEs need to spend the time and money to skill up in that area.

[Tony B]

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Three Ways Businesses Can Ditch The Search Snake-Oil Salesmen And Improve Their SEO

Excellent Article from Business Insider http://goo.gl/EqgWlC

One of the most difficult things with SEO is cutting through the waffle and b.s!

SEO need no be a confusing blah blah blah.

Keep it simple to start with and see how you go.

Learn a little or a lot .

Think long term.

Pay for help with SEO if when and then only if you need it.

[JohnW]

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Tony B, post: 206671 wrote:

Three Ways Businesses Can Ditch The Search Snake-Oil Salesmen And Improve Their SEO

Excellent Article from Business Insider http://goo.gl/EqgWlC

One of the most difficult things with SEO is cutting through the waffle and b.s!

SEO need no be a confusing blah blah blah.

Keep it simple to start with and see how you go.

Learn a little or a lot .

Think long term.

Pay for help with SEO if when and then only if you need it.
Hi Tony B,
I agree with your advice to start with the basics.

The trouble is the SEO advice in the article is overly short and it is also inaccurate when it claims new/periodic content “will be one of the biggest reasons you will show up in the top spots on the search results.”

Here is a video from Google that explains how it handles new content:

Does Fresh Content Send Important Signal for all Sites – Matt Cutts

It seems unlikely that there will be many small businesseses who will find a direct ranking benefit simply by publishing new content. Even if they did, it would seem equally unlikely that their pages would be able to outrank the many large sites that would also be publishing content about the search topic.

I suggest that if folk want the basics, they should download and study this Google 30+ page “SEO Starter Guide”.

Then they should do the same with MOZ’s 50+ page “The Beginner’s Guide to SEO“.
Regs,
JohnW

[Aidan]

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LOL – Soooooo many sources out there claiming they are going to cut through the bull…

then proceed to give you their own version of bull…

‘Fresh Content’ and ‘Social Sharing’ being two of the favourite bull turds… often pedaled by former copywriters who now see themselves as SEO experts…

Sigh…

(though it must be said there are some copywriters who have genuinely transitioned and who do understand the bigger picture – kudos to them)

[bb1]

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Aidan, post: 208143 wrote:

LOL – Soooooo many sources out there claiming they are going to cut through the bull…

then proceed to give you their own version of bull…

‘Fresh Content’ and ‘Social Sharing’ being two of the favourite bull turds… often pedaled by former copywriters who now see themselves as SEO experts…

Sigh…

(though it must be said there are some copywriters who have genuinely transitioned and who do understand the bigger picture – kudos to them)

Interesting comment, so where does the ideal SEO “expert” come from

[Aidan]

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Likely those who have been in marketing and tech, probably followed by a spell in design and development (I guess the otherway around would work) and along along the way have been up to their nostrils in studies from the big guns while running several domains for themselves to experiment with.

They have also likely had at least a taste of copy writing and conversion optimisation by selling something online themselves. Affiliate marketing can be good for that last bit.

Put 10 years or so of that together and you can consider yourself a constant learner in the field. Nobody serious describes themselves as an expert because they never stop learning

[JohnW]

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bb1, post: 208144 wrote:

Interesting comment, so where does the ideal SEO “expert” come from
Hi Bert,
Can I offer an important fine tuning of your question to…

“so where does the ideal SEO “expert” FOR SMALL BUSINESS WEBSITES come from”

(Cost-effective SEO tactics for large business websites are likely to be very different to small business sites.)

You might want to start by throwing out a request on the Flying Solo forums.

What you will need to do in advance is to think about what type of SEO services you want and can afford.

• Some business owners may want SEO education and suggestions that they could implement themselves.
• Others may want a full third party implemented solution.

There will be a huge difference in costs between these two extreme options.

What you will also want to consider are your SEO service evaluation questions.

I suggest you need to find SEOs who will talk with you about:

1. The SEO process they will implement with you
2. The range of SEO strategies that they may recommend
3. How they propose to help you measure results of their activities
4. Examples of their SEO results

There is a huge range of factors involved in Google’s ranking algorithm – site design, site structure, content management system and perhaps the biggest of all, the level of competition. IMHO, no SEO service can offer a cost-effective service until they have identified the problems and opportunities in a search market and with the client’s existing website.

Many small business websites won’t need any external link building program. So, I’d question SEO services that automatically quote prices based on links or publishing pages on third party websites. If they automatically claim you need citations in social media, I’d be wary of them.

I’d be particularly concerned about any service that wants to lock you into a long, expensive contract.

The best questions I can suggest anyone put to a prospective SEO service start with, “SHOW ME”!

• “Show me how Google ranks pages.”
• “Show me you can explain this SEO mumbo-jumbo in a way thay makes sense to me.”
• “Show me how I can measure your SEO results.”
• “Show me examples of results you have obtained.”

If they can’t answer your SEO questions in a way that makes sense to you, find someone who can.
Regs,
JohnW

[help4bis.com]

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I actually start to add more value on MOZ scoring than the Google page rank stuff (I believe google has not updated that for a while).

What is your take on that JohnW ?

[John Romaine]

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bb1, post: 208144 wrote:

Interesting comment, so where does the ideal SEO “expert” come from

The same as any other industry or field.

Someone that has put in thousands of hours into studying, testing and learning and can provide help and guidance to others based upon EXPERIENCE.

Not waffle.

[JohnW]

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help4bis.com, post: 208194 wrote:

I actually start to add more value on MOZ scoring than the Google page rank stuff (I believe google has not updated that for a while).

What is your take on that JohnW ?
Hi HELP4BIS,
In 20 years I’ve never used either of these or any other SEO company’s site scoring system for any but exploratory sessions.

I’ve tried some out but I could never find any benefit in their use.

To me, the two most important ranking issues are:

• The specific search phrase used
• The level of competition for it

Does anyone know a tool that can accurately report these parameters?

Lot’s try but as they don’t know the detail of Google’s algorithm nor how/when it changes…

IMHO, most small business SE referrals are lost because people don’t qualify for most of the relevant search phrases that people use.

I focus in this area for client results and these tools don’t help me with these issues.
Regs,
JohnW

[John Romaine]

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JohnW, post: 208240 wrote:

Does anyone know a tool that can accurately report these parameters?

There’s no such thing as an “accurate” SEO tool.

You need to use most of them strictly as a “guide”, if anything at all.

In order to determine the competition of a given keyword I use..

1. MOZ keyword difficulty calculator
2. MOZ SERP overlay

I look at DA and PA as indicators as to how much potential competition there is for a given keyword and make my decisions as to whether or not it’s worth it or not.

I also look at a number of other parameters as well, but I won’t go into that here in order to keep my reply short.

To be honest, I don’t tend to focus on “individual keywords” for my clients – I work towards raising ALL of them – through strategic link building and outreach.

To me it doesn’t make a great deal of sense to be sitting around trying to rank for individual keywords – one at a time. This is what most agencies do, and where a lot of crappy agencies get it wrong. They start pushing exact match anchors (EMA’s to a highly optimised page, using the same anchor text over and over and over) Forget it. That strategy is stupid, and dangerous.

Trying to rank for one keyword at a time is much like brushing your hair one hair at a time. Sure you could do it – but it makes no sense.

Build your websites brand and authority and improve the performance of your desired terms across the board.

[Author]

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