SEO is at the heart of building a strong online presence, so having a strategy that is centred around your goals as well as Google’s needs is key. So why not manage your own SEO strategy? You know your business best, after all — but do you have the time and experience to deliver the best results?
If you’re considering managing your own SEO, here are the important pros and cons you need to know about.
What are the pros of managing your own SEO strategy?
If you’re a small business owner or you like to keep things in-house as much as possible, then managing your own SEO strategy might be preferable — even better if you’re experienced in this area and have a good understanding of how to utilise SEO tactics to meet your goals.
Here are the pros of managing SEO in-house:
You can save money in the long run
One of the biggest pros of keeping your SEO strategy in-house is the money you can save in the long run. Hiring a dedicated SEO expert or working with an agency can be pricey, so you have to weigh up the costs of paying more for your SEO strategy but benefiting from the expert support and significant experience an SEO agency or specialist might offer.
By keeping this process in-house, the money you potentially save can be reinvested into other areas of your business, such as paid marketing or training and development. Plus, doing your SEO in-house can help you and your team learn new skills that you can build upon in the future — which is the kind of investment you can’t put a price on.
You have a better understanding of your business
Who understands your business better than you? This knowledge provides a significant advantage when formulating your SEO strategy. You possess invaluable insights on your target audience, a deep understanding of your industry, and the ability to position your brand effectively.
Local SEO offers a perfect example. Being familiar with your local market makes you uniquely positioned to attract local audiences by catering precisely to their needs and preferences. Your awareness of what they seek enables you to tailor your approach and capture their attention effectively.
An SEO agency or consultant might possess the kind of SEO-related expertise you don’t have in-house, but they’re unlikely to understand the nuances of your business in the same way you do.
You can direct control over any changes being made
Flexibility is also a huge plus of doing your SEO in-house. You can make real-time adjustments and decisions without having to wait for these to be picked up by someone else.
For instance, if you notice a sudden surge in search volume for a specific keyword related to your industry, you can immediately capitalize on this trend by creating relevant content or optimizing existing pages.
Similarly, if you identify that certain keywords are becoming less relevant to your audience, you can swiftly adjust your content and optimization efforts to stay ahead of the curve. There’s also more room for experimentation: for instance, you can try out different meta tags, title structures, or content formats on your website to gauge their impact on search engine rankings and user engagement.
What are the cons of managing your own SEO strategy?
There are, of course, downsides to managing your own SEO strategy, too. Aside from SEO planning and implementation taking up a lot of your time, you need to have the requisite knowledge and resources in place to keep your strategy performing.
Here are the cons of managing SEO in-house:
You could make mistakes due to lack of experience
At its core, basic SEO may involve straightforward practices like conducting keyword research and maintaining a blog with informative content. These are easy enough to do yourself. However, relying solely on these simple techniques may not be sufficient to achieve your desired goals — especially when you consider more technical factors such as site maps and structured data — and that’s when mistakes can happen.
Working with a professional SEO agency (Seeker is just one of many examples) means you’ll benefit from their knowledge and experience, helping you to construct an SEO strategy that truly delivers measurable results. With a better understanding of SEO best practices and an up-to-date knowledge of industry trends, an agency can minimize factors such as Google penalties or major drops in your rankings.
You might not have enough time for full SEO implementation
SEO isn’t a ‘one and done’ task but something that needs to be constantly monitored, reviewed, and worked upon. It requires ample time and effort, and this is something a small business with limited internal resources might simply be unable to dedicate. For example, you might be able to write a solid SEO strategy, but do you have the time to implement it and then manage it on an ongoing basis?
If the answer is no, your SEO will suffer, potentially leading to a drop in rankings and a decrease in organic traffic to your website. If you can’t dedicate the time to maintain a fully-functioning SEO strategy — which will include not just creating content but building links, monitoring performance, and so on — then it may be better to outsource some or all of your SEO work.
You may not have the correct resources or tools
It’s virtually impossible to build and manage an SEO strategy without the aid of dedicated tools and resources. Sure, free resources such as Google Keyword Planner can be very useful, but if you want to gain deeper insight during the research phase or effectively monitor your progress, you’ll need to leverage advanced tools such as SEO PowerSuite.
Alternatively, by handing your SEO management over to an established agency or consultant, they’ll typically already be equipped with a number of tools for conducting keyword research, analyzing competitors, uncovering technical deficiencies, and optimizing content. This means you won’t need to spend time learning unfamiliar tools or spend money subscribing to them.
As you weigh the pros and cons of in-house SEO, it’s essential to recognize that successful SEO demands dedication, regardless of the chosen approach. And don’t forget that finding a middle ground by combining in-house efforts with professional SEO services could be the sweet spot you need to see the best results.
