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SEO

Marketing, social media, advertising

GetShitDone

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Hey guys,

If you had to primarily invest in SEM/SEO for your customer growth, would you:

A) Hire 1 in-house experienced SEO/SEM person

Or

B) Contract an agency

Or

C) Learn and do it yourself

State which and why?
 
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Caramel

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I'd say that depends on the size/sector of the company and the importance of web-marketing.

A - for any type of company that has a sales/communication department and depends on constant marketing.

B - for something like an accountant-business where you mainly just use your one single website and maybe some Social Media.
SEO would be implemented once and maybe updated once every few months.

C - nah.. if I remember correctly, the proper way to implement SEO changes too much to do it yourself.


I might be wrong but when it comes to products, isn't SEO a lot less important now due to Google Shopping taking precedence at the top of every Google search, aswell as Amazon being as big as it is now?


Just my amateur opinion. If I'm wrong, I'd gladly be corrected.
 

GetShitDone

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I'd say that depends on the size/sector of the company and the importance of web-marketing.

A - for any type of company that has a sales/communication department and depends on constant marketing.

B - for something like an accountant-business where you mainly just use your one single website and maybe some Social Media.
SEO would be implemented once and maybe updated once every few months.

C - nah.. if I remember correctly, the proper way to implement SEO changes too much to do it yourself.


I might be wrong but when it comes to products, isn't SEO a lot less important now due to Google Shopping taking precedence at the top of every Google search, aswell as Amazon being as big as it is now?


Just my amateur opinion. If I'm wrong, I'd gladly be corrected.

Thanks for that.

I'm not sure if doing SEO yourself is too much work, but you have a point about it rapidly changing so much.

Maybe its better to outsource SEO to a quality freelancer when starting out? Or at least having a co-founder that specialises in search marketing? But if you don't have the start up capital, one can simply get clients from other cost effective/growth hacking marketing channels and then invest in SEO.

Eg. Get PR (rapidly ranks SEO rankings anyways + Partnerships that bring in clients + etc = Established revenue base to re-invest into SEO freelancers/agency/in-house/etc.

---

Curious to know if SEO should be self-done at the beginning by the founder(s) as opposed to outsourcing.
 

reaper19

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The best decision will be hire 1 in-house experienced SEO/SEM person, because this person will have deep knowledge of your business (the better understanding your target audience) and he can teach you all basic knowledge of seo.
 
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minivanman

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For most businesses that I'm involved with I do it. It doesn't take much time at all. I know people say it changes all the time but I have most sites on the 1st page and most of those #1-#3 on page 1 with little up-keep. The way I do it personally is that I don't do anything fancy, just plain Jane and just do what Google asks. It really hasn't changed much except when I had to redo all the websites to change over to mobile. I will admit I have 1 site that I can't get to rank to save my life and I don't know why. It's fairly new so I'm giving it time before I start working with it too much. I've been doing this for about 8 years now with several sites and as far as the SEO, I never go in and mess with it. I do change up the website now and then just a little and keep a current date on them all; which I need to go in today and change the date on them.

I'm not sure I'd spend a heck of a lot of money to pay someone to do your SEO though. I like social media much better.
 
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dawp

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@minivanman so you build backlinks yourself? you do guest posting, submit manually to online directories etc?
 

minivanman

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None of that needed. People search for content and that is what I give them. Just like a proper blog.... stop trying to believe what the 'professionals' tell you and just make a great website with great information or a blog with great information and that's all you need. The thing I've learned is that people are trying to over- think it. Write the information out like you would for your mother or your grandmother. If you do that, you will be ok. I also go in and change the date every month. I actually just got another one ranked 1st on the 1st page for a really good search term and am waiting a few months for a couple of others.


Sssshhhhhhh ^^^^ those are the secrets. I should have sold them and then I could have emailed everyone and said..... Do I have a secret for you! Just click on this link, pay $3750.00 and you too can learn to just write like you would write a letter to grandma. ;)
 
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Primeperiwinkle

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I think it really depends on how wide of a reach you need. If you’re shooting for local you could probably learn yourself. National is harder.

I’d go with an in-house person so you can learn enough beside them or with weekly discussions to track the results.

I think spending $100 for a month of ahrefs and using their tool might help you a lot more than you know. There are tons of free tools out there but ahrefs is by far one of if not THE best for literally seeing behind the scenes of every website. You’ll be able to check EXACTLY what pages on your competitors sites are ranking, for what, and when. You can see who has given them backlinks. Etc, etc.

You can join the ahrefs Facebook group too. Next get to understand google analytics, keywords and why your content needs to actually add value .

FYI: I’m a 38 yr old literature lover and kinesthetic learner who LITERALLY didn’t even know how to sign in to Microsoft when I started. I’m totes the least techy chick and yet... I learned Wordpress and Divi and weebly and some coding and all kinds of crap about backlinks. In three months.

I quickly realized no two SEO ppl ever agree on anything!! Ever!! But I learned to start backtracking their sites immediately to see who had views. I got my first site to rank 4th about a month and a half after starting.

I actually went off the cliff researching and could have prolly stopped a while ago...

If you have a relatively attractive chick in your office I would recommend having her create a fb account prior to joining the multitude of SEO or Leadgen or rank and rent fb groups. A chick gets more help than a dude when asking questions. The guys don’t agree but they’re all happy to offer advice. Lol.

HTH
 

minivanman

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If you have a relatively attractive chick in your office I would recommend having her create a fb account prior to joining the multitude of SEO or Leadgen or rank and rent fb groups. A chick gets more help than a dude when asking questions. The guys don’t agree but they’re all happy to offer advice. Lol.

Not that we have several of these accounts..... nooooo, never, but if YOU want FULL CONTROL.... now this is just a thought, you know I'd never do anything like this :innocent: :halo: ...... you can make your own fb account and use any name you want.

Signed, Amber Michelle or is it Kathy or is it Kristi or is it Amy Lyn ;)
 
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Robert Brown

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Hi,
Awesome query!

In this case, I will pick option A for me. I mean I will hire an individual freelancer from a reputed freelancer marketplace. Before hire he/she, I have to check his skill on SEO/SEM. It is a very important point to start a contract with a freelancer.

Why I should hire an individual freelancer (My opinion only):
1. He can give a good amount of time in my project which a company can't focus on perfectly. Because they have a lot of tasks.
2. He has a little number of jobs in progress. That's why he can make a good plan for my project which is not possible for a company perfectly.
3. He always tries to satisfy me with his work because he has a little number of jobs in progress.
4. He can easily give some suggestions to go ahead. It's only possible if you have a small amount of job in progress.
5. He always put something extra for my project because he wants to work with me for the long term.

I think those are very relevant and important before hiring a freelancer for your SEO/SEM project.

Thanks,
Robert
 

loop101

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In Brad Traversy's recent video he talks about how he went from being a heroin addict to earning $200k+ a year as an independent PHP contractor. The one thing he said he would do different, by not doing at all, was offering SEO services to clients. He said it was too much black magic, too dependent on Google's frequent algorithm changes, and customers often didn't want to pay when they didn't see an increase in traffic.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJc3YFgujdU
 

Robert Brown

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Hi Robert,

I have read your reply. Seems convincing. Can I ask on thing?

Why didn't you choose to hire an in-house expert? I believe it will only add value to the company. An individual freelancer may becoming not valuable in the long run compared to an in-house personnel, right?

Just a doubt.
To hire an in-house expert is okay.

In my experience, I did a contract with an in-house expert. They took too long to complete the task. And, after-sales support is not okay for me.

Still, you can hire an in-house expert. It was my opinion. That's it!
 

Champion

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Totally depends on your current situation!

Are you just starting out? --> Do it yourself

Are you an online company, that can make use of someone who specializes in SEO but can also take on other tasks? --> Hire someone in-house.

Are you an offline company, that does something totally not related to programming etc? --> Outsource to an agency
 

Shono

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I'd rather be the SEO, isn't that the point of starting your own company
 
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heavy_industry

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I'd rather be the SEO, isn't that the point of starting your own company
Sir, the thread is about Search Engine Optimization, which is a bit different from being the CEO.

Also this was posted 5 years ago.
 

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