All the Reasons why you should and should not use a SEO agency

Reasons as to why you should use a Search Engine Optimisation agency:

1/ Access to emerging SEO strategies

Todays hot new things of universal search, social media or local seo optimization will become yesterdays chip wrapping link farm, comment spam, competition bait or link exchange program. SEO constantly evolves and it s a full time job simply to keep up with emerging strategies, never mind doing the work for now and implementing activity for tomorrow's hot new thing.

2/ Knowledge = Power

Linked with the strategies comment, large agencies have almost certainly worked in your vertical before and know what SEO techniques work thus saving you time, resource and money getting up to speed.

3/ Tools

Agencies often have in house tools or access to several expensive external tools (and the brain power to use them effectively) that it would not be cost effective to research, use, monitor and report back on in house.

4/ Advice
You do not always have to hire an SEO agency to do the actual work; you can employ them to become consultants/ trusted confidents. The importance of having a sounding board, providing you with new ideas, advising on what to do/ what not to do cannot be underestimated.

5/ Do you really have the time?
You might know how to do some or even most of what the agency can do however can you really find the time to do it?!
Outsourcing SEO takes much of the confusion out of planning, stops internal factions debating what to prioratise first, provides an owner/ scape goat if things go wrong(!) and ensures the correct SEO strategy is employed.

6/ Cost
It can cost more cold hard cash to outsource your SEO when comparing it to an in house operation. This is not always the case though as you have to be aware of the extra time and cost it can take to do the meaningful work, keep up with training, etc. If the ends justify the means and you take in to account the opportunity cost then the expense can be easily justified.

7/ Results
The SEO agency should be able to achieve better results than the in house team. Period.

Reasons why you should not use a Search Engine Optimisation agency

1/ Unrealistic or poorly defined expectations

Sometimes clients want to be number 1 for hundreds of Fat Head terms within unrealistic timeframes.
SEO is no PPC.

It takes time to rank for targeted terms and sometimes the terms set by the HIPPO (highest paid person's opinion) are simply unachievable within the budget. This unrealistic goal setting can be the clients fault however equally it can be the agencies fault for not helping to clearly define what the success criteria will be.

2/ Website meddling
If the client IT or marketing department makes major site amends without discussing them with the agency first then this can have major negative SEO ramifications. e.g. a change to the navigation or url structure, deleting a few pages, etc can . If the client cannot ensure this interference is kept to an absolute minimum then it might be pointless engaging with the agency in the first place.

3/ A poor SEO agency
Perhaps the SEO agency doesn t really know what they are talking about OR they are under servicing the account due to lack of resource/ because they plan to bleed the client dry OR they are poor at managing client expectations OR they do not understand your business... Whatever the reason, a poor agency should be avoided at all costs.

4/ SEO knowledge gaps
Because the client has little detailed SEO knowledge and the agency is poor at making the client understand, few decisions or the wrong decisions are made thus stifling results. A large amount of the blame falls at the agencies door as they should think of ways to educate the client e.g. email seo facts of the day, twitter/ rss updates, blog articles relevant to their sector/ site, personalized seo training seminars, regular catch up meetings/ phone calls, etc.

5/ I want to be number 1 like yesterday
It can take several months to enjoy major SEO activity benefits and if you want results NOW then perhaps SEO is not for you and you should focus on other acquisition channels such as PPC.

6/ Lack of support
If the client s other agencies and own internal departments are not fully supporting SEO activity then this will cause problems. Web developers might impact site performance and/ or development or perhaps you're 'simply' missing a trick by not involving content writers, social media managers, PR department, etc whatever the reason; by not involving all interested parties your rank(s) and traffic will suffer.

7/ You already have the skill set in house
In the current climate of wanting greater control and haivng to reduce more businesses are considering taking SEO in house as they have all the skills they need (or are willing to recruit them). Just make sure you really do have the necessary skill sets (rather than simply thinking you do)!

8/ You cannot afford it
Again this seems rather obvious however an SEO agency is generally not recommended for sites with low traffic and margin. It can be hugely beneficial to employ an SEO agency (check my next post on reasons to hire an SEO agency) however it could cost several 1000 per month to employ a decent agency and the potential ROI needs to stack up to justify the investment.

As documented from Paul Morris on his Search Muse blog