As SEO has continued to gain recognition as a scalable marketing tool that provides sustainable, long-term growth (unlike paid ads), more companies have started to invest in organic search.
There are 3 main categories to choose from when hiring for SEO work: in-house teams, SEO agencies, and freelance specialists:
In-House Teams: Building an in-house SEO team means having dedicated personnel focusing solely on your brand’s online growth. This approach allows for a deep understanding of your business but requires significant investment in recruitment, training, and tools.
Agencies: SEO agencies bring a broad spectrum of expertise and resources, capable of handling comprehensive SEO strategies for a variety of industries. While they offer scalability and access to a team of experts, the cost can be higher than individual freelancers.
Freelance specialists: SEO freelancers offer the flexibility and focus needed for niche or specific project-based work. They can pivot quickly and are often more affordable than other options. However, vetting for quality and expertise is essential.
Prioritize Expert Guidance: Quality Over Cost
While it may be tempting to hire cheap SEO freelancers or agencies to spearhead your SEO efforts, prioritizing expert SEO guidance is crucial for success and meaningful business growth. Unlike inexpensive SEO work, which might offer short-term gains, expert guidance is rooted in understanding the long-term impact of SEO efforts, aligning optimization efforts with conversion best practices, and emphasizing ethical practices that avoid penalties.
In addition, when hiring inexpensive SEO resources, you are more likely to receive generic recommendations and analysis that could apply to any website in your industry. Most likely, when you talk to an inexpensive agency or freelancer, they will pitch broad, ineffective strategies and deliverables like keyword research, blog content strategy, and technical audits. While these core deliverables are important to get a general understanding of the industry, they fail to deliver meaningful results unless they are supplemented with individualized strategies and recommendations.
Spending more on SEO experts with proven experience ensures that you receive recommendations specific to your unique website and niche and yield better results. More sophisticated SEO experts will move away from the more generalized deliverables and strategies. A few examples of expertise-driven SEO strategies include:
- Alternative SEO content: Content development that targets niche markets or specific customer intents, enhancing the diversity and reach of your content strategy. Oftentimes, this content strategy will move away from resource-intensive blog content and focus on low-cost, replicable content formats (i.e. niche calculator pages, infographics, buy guide landing pages) to attract high-intent customers and increase site engagement.
- Organic conversion rate optimization: Oftentimes, inexperienced SEO strategists will recommend initiatives that focus on traffic growth, rather than revenue growth. Organic conversion strategies focus on not just attracting traffic but converting that traffic into meaningful actions, increasing ROI from SEO activities.
Distinguishing Between Long-Term Vs. Short-Term SEO
When hiring for SEO, distinguishing between long-term and short-term tactics is crucial for any marketing team aiming for sustainable success. Hiring SEO partners with a long-term focus on SEO is essential because it aligns with a business’s growth and ROI objectives. Unlike short-term tactics, which may prioritize immediate traffic spikes, long-term SEO strategies are designed to build a solid foundation that supports ongoing organic growth (even after you stop investing in SEO), improves search engine rankings sustainably, and enhances user experience.
Comparatively, short-term SEO tactics often seek quick wins, such as exploiting temporary algorithm loopholes or focusing on trends that don’t align with the brand’s target audience and core customers. While these methods can indeed generate a swift increase in traffic, they seldom lead to meaningful engagement or conversions since they do not prioritize long-term revenue generation.
A couple of signs that the SEO vendor or employee you are talking to focuses on short-term, not long-term, include:
- They aren’t vetting you: An experienced SEO professional knows that your website may not be a good fit for them just as much as their services may not be a good fit for your website. During the vetting process, if you feel like you are the one asking all of the “right-fit” questions, this may be a sign that they are more interested in closing the sale than providing you with a meaningful strategy that is specific to your unique needs.
- Strategy is an afterthought: If the SEO professional you are vetting proposes jumping right into optimizations and content before spending time on strategy, this may be an indication that they are seeking superficial traffic wins. It is essential to spend time upfront understanding your business goals, website, and industry niche to ensure that the recommendations that follow will be impactful.
A recent Search Engine Journal report showed that the majority of respondents at in-house companies reported that budget approvals or cuts are the biggest barriers to SEO success. This furthers the need to prioritize hiring long-term focused SEO experts who can effectively advocate for the impacts and benefits of SEO.
For marketing teams with a long-term focus, choosing a strategy that emphasizes sustainable business growth and integrates SEO as a core component of overall marketing efforts is critical. A long-term focused SEO expert becomes an integral part of your team, ensuring that SEO is not a standalone effort but one aligned with broader business objectives. This integrated approach facilitates holistic customer acquisition and contributes significantly to brand growth.
8 Considerations When You’re Hiring For SEO
1. Evaluating Expertise and Specialization
Assess the varied expertise levels among freelancers, in-house teams, and agencies. Consider which option best matches your current needs and future growth plans. You may also decide that total years of SEO experience is less important than experience in your industry or certain SEO specializations, such as a focus on technical SEO, AI-focused SEO, or content SEO.
2. Custom vs. Standard SEO Strategy
Balance the need for a tailored strategy against the efficiencies of standardized approaches. SEO strategies should reflect each business’s unique nuances to ensure maximum effectiveness. SEO professionals should be focused on acquiring your best customers, not just users. When the SEO professional you are vetting talks about SEO strategy, do they have a revenue focus (providing tangible ROI) or a traffic focus (doesn’t guarantee converting users)?
3. Communication and Transparency
Opt for partners who prioritize clear communication and transparency. This fosters a trusting relationship, critical for navigating the complexities of SEO and achieving sustainable results. If your SEO partner is not communicating or asking clarifying questions, chances are they do not fully understand your business. This may lead to SEO recommendations or strategies that do not align with your business goals. For example, if an SEO partner does not fully understand your target audience, they may create content catering to a different audience, bringing in unqualified traffic.
4. Ongoing SEO Management
Recognize the need for continuous effort and adaptation in your SEO strategy. Whether through a freelancer, an in-house team, or an agency, ongoing management is key to navigating the ever-evolving SEO landscape.
If you do not have ongoing SEO resources monitoring your website, it will take longer to catch drops in traffic, algorithm updates, indexation changes, and more.
5. Cost-Effectiveness and ROI
There is a significant variance in the price of SEO services. Some freelancers will charge less than $15 an hour while in-house teams can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. First, establish your SEO budget and the ROI you want to achieve. Then, evaluate if the SEO budget you are willing to spend can realistically get you there. For instance, if you have a low monthly budget for SEO but are expecting high ROI, chances are you will come up short. Choosing a higher-cost professional with an individualized strategic focus will reap better results.
Additionally, if you are choosing between an agency or an in-house SEO professional, it is important to consider how agencies eliminate the need for extensive training, salaries, benefits, and resources required to maintain an in-house team.
6. Conversion Focus
Ensure your chosen SEO path prioritizes conversion, not just rankings and traffic. The ultimate goal of SEO is to drive business growth, which is achieved through a conversion-focused approach.
The State of SEO 2024: In-House Report, conducted by Search Engine Journal, reported that the top 3 metrics in-house marketers use to measure SEO performance are click-through rate, branded vs non-branded traffic, and keyword rankings. While these metrics are important, they are only as impactful as the revenue they generate.
When hiring SEO professionals, ensure you vet whether they have a conversion or traffic focus.
7. SEO Should Maximize Efforts Across Channels
Your SEO strategy should amplify your brand’s presence across all marketing channels, leveraging the interconnectedness of digital marketing to fuel growth. Many SEO professionals prioritize keyword-stuffed content that does not provide readers with value and is a money-sink for companies. When done correctly, a content piece created by SEO professionals can:
- Rank for keywords
- Drive conversions
- Be used as a customer support resource
- Be shortened for email and social marketing content
8. Type of Service Offering
It is important to distinguish whether the agency or SEO professional you are vetting focuses exclusively on SEO or simply offers it as an add-on service. Oftentimes, agencies and freelancers offering various services do not have the specific SEO expertise that companies look for. Keep this in mind during the hiring process and look out for agencies where SEO is an afterthought.
Making a Decision
Balancing budget constraints with the need for quality SEO solutions is a common challenge. Start-ups new to SEO might lean towards freelancers or agencies offering scalable solutions. In contrast, enterprises aiming to modernize their SEO programs may find the comprehensive capabilities of a full-service agency more suitable. Mid-size businesses looking to accelerate organic growth might benefit from a hybrid approach, combining in-house expertise with specialized agency support.
In conclusion, hiring for SEO expertise should be guided by a clear understanding of your business goals, available resources, and the diverse landscape of SEO professionals. By prioritizing accountable, results-driven SEO, businesses can achieve better rankings and drive meaningful growth and revenue.
