The importance of a brand achieving and maintaining a high level of online visibility cannot be doubted during the 2020s. It is no less than essential for ensuring the given business can be discovered, trusted, and chosen by customers.
This, in turn, helps explain the enduring popularity of search engine optimisation (SEO) as a business activity… including on an in-house basis.
Many firms have invested considerable resources into setting up and operating in-house SEO teams. But if your organisation is one of them, might you be better advised to outsource this function to another individual or company?
The experts at Ink Digital based in Brentwood, Essex are supporting local business growth through the delivery of holistic and tailored online marketing services, including SEO.
So, we asked them for their thoughts on when the moment might come for an organisation like yours to turn to outside professionals to help power its online profile and growth.
What Is the Outsourcing Of SEO, anyway?
The term “SEO outsourcing” refers to the practice of a given business or organisation hiring a third-party freelancer, agency, or service provider to handle its SEO efforts, instead of depending solely on in-house resources.
It is not, of course, only SEO that a business might choose to outsource; as of 2019, more than a third of small firms outsourced at least a portion of their business processes.
Furthermore, more than half (52%) of small businesses indicated that they planned to outsource a minimum of one business process in the foreseeable future.
3 Indicators That Now Is the Time to Outsource Your Brand’s SEO
So, of all the functions that your business conceivably could outsource right now, what are some of the signs that you should be considering outsourcing your SEO?
Below, we’ve set out a few of the key ones:
Your Team Is Limited in Its In-House Expertise
It is easy to forget at times just how multifaceted, complex, and constantly evolving the field of SEO is. This means that unless your business is an SEO agency itself, your in-house personnel probably won’t possess the most in-depth and up-to-date knowledge of SEO best practices, algorithms, or technical skills such as on-page optimisation, keyword research, or link building.
Of course, you could attempt to train up members of your team in some of these areas. However, this would constitute more time, energy, and money resources being used up that aren’t being invested in your core business.
Plus, even a “trained-up” employee almost certainly won’t have the expertise of someone who works for a reputable SEO agency and has long helped businesses across a broad range of industries to boost their visibility online.
Outsourcing, then, can provide a cost-effective “shortcut” to the knowhow your business requires to support its growth right now – not merely at some distant point in the future.
In-House Hiring and Training Doesn’t Make Sense from A Costs Point of View
So, you’ve done the numbers to figure out what the true cost would be of recruiting and training a full SEO team, to give you access to a similar level of expertise and experience to what a third-party agency would offer.
When the expenditure involved in the recruitment campaign itself is considered, as well as the subsequent salaries, benefits, and training (not just immediately but on an ongoing basis), the fees charged by well-respected SEO agencies may look extremely reasonable.
Sure enough, it has been found that companies outsourcing SEO can potentially save as much as 40% to 70% compared to if they maintained an in-house SEO team. That’s a lot of saved financial resource that you may prefer to invest in your business’s core activities.
Your Current SEO Results Are Stagnant, And You Are Unsure What to Do Next
Whether you are particularly concerned with driving leads, traffic, or rankings with your company’s present SEO efforts – or all these metrics – you might find yourself in a situation where your campaigns don’t seem to be bringing meaningful results.
Perhaps certain “tried-and-tested” techniques used by your in-house SEO people for years don’t seem to be working so effectively now, but it isn’t obvious what needs to change? In that case, you might appreciate the “fresh pair of eyes” and likely greater depth and breadth of knowledge that a renowned external SEO team can bring.
When you reach out to a highly rated SEO agency about your organisation’s predicament, they will be able to carry out an audit of your brand’s website and all-round online presence. They will then be able to revamp your SEO strategy for impact in line with the digital landscape as it exists in 2025, rather than what might have worked in 2015.
Working With a Trusted Agency Could Help Maximise Your Firm’s SEO Success
Naturally, it is important to emphasise that outsourcing SEO won’t necessarily be the right move for every business – or it may be a good move to make at a later stage than now. If, however, you would like to read further on this topic, this guide to other great reasons to outsource SEO from Search Engine Land might be of interest to you.
