You Just Can't Outsource SEO

My experience is that outsourcing SEO is exceptionally difficult. I interviewed about 1000 companies and individuals and literally came up with under 5 that were worth while.

The idea was to be able to leave a competent comany in charge of managing a promotion campaign without being very hands on.

I found the following recurring problems...

- Do really dirty link building that is not very effective. Mass directory submission, mass article submission etc.

- They charge very high amounts for simple work, you can often get it done by some random VA for a tiny fraction of the cost. (i.e 90% cheaper - no joke!)

- They can do what you need but would need their hand holding and lots of training, which is essentially like bringing in and training a freelancer or in-house staff, rather than putting something in the hands of a competent company.

- Almost none do clean link building such as viral marketing. Those that do charge a huge amount making it very difficult to get a positive ROI for the average company. Their rates are high often because bigger companies spend money regardless of the real ROI.

- The truly awesome SEO companies are so rare that they can charge a fortune. So I could not afford them.

- They are just plain flaky when it comes to actually doing the work.


I did find a few more grey hat companies (maybe 20 or so out of the 1000 I interviewed) which looked good, but I wasn't really after greyhat, but its still really poor for the amount of companies I interviewed.

I admit my standards are higher than the average online business owner, but I was still shocked by how bad, deceptive and lacking in knowledge so many 'SEOs' were.

I did really interview that many companies, I have a very efficient process for hiring, but it did take some time to get through them all.

 

So what five companies are "worth while"?

I agree that most SEO companies charge way too much for very basic services, and most of the links they acquire for you are trash. That is why most SEO companies refuse to give you any guarantees. Right now I'm a bit curious about rankpay.com because you apparently only have to pay them when you get actual results. However, I wonder how long you are contractually forced to pay. Anyone have any experiences with rankpay.com?

 

Happens with every online business, not just SEO... you should see the shit that is produced as "translation". Companies can charge up to .20$/word for common language combinations, yet pay their translators .05$/word. The quality is what you can imagine, or worse. And yes, in translation forums I've heard the same complaint you're raising, saying that they need an in-house translator.

Even on this forum you can see it: How many people call themselves SEO Expert and then flood you with more than questionable advice or repeat what others have already stated, without providing any kind of added value, just to get one backlink? And how many are offering SEO services in English when it's evident they don't have the slightest idea of English grammar?

It's always the same thing: You want quality, then you'll have to pay for it. But first you have to separate the real from the fake.

My advice: Check out first whether you have a business case for bringing in a full-time staff member. And keep in a safe the list of the 5 pearls you found. You never know when you'll need them.

 

I find you have to do most of it yourself.

I just sent for your free book Chris BTW.

 

You didn't interview me.
I'm joking, of course.
And I totaly agree with this line

And that includes all kind of link bait. Very rare. On the other hand, clients that understand viral, link bait and similar tactics are rare, too. Most of them just ask for plain old school link building (unfortunatelly).

 

From my own experience, if you want to outsource anything you need to have a good understanding of what you are asking for in order to be sure you get a good result. A lot of SEOs companies (in my experience, I'm not generalising), only do easily achievable things such as mass submissions.

 

So true... I don't do a lot of outsourcing. However, I do outsource some of the article writing.

 

I have been really comtempatling outsourcing the SEO of my new company, just because i dont have the time to do it full on anymore. Who does have any type of recommendation?

 

Yes you are right, company's are buying too much time. So freelancers is the best idea for that. Just see 1-2 weeks sample of freelancer and if you think that he is good for you then carry on otherwise stop that after 1-2 week payment.

 

Why dont you all try us?
Attached our SEO Packages pricelist, we are guarantee for results.

 

See what I mean regarding grammar? Would you entrust them to write a quality article that drives a lot of traffic to your site?

 

Lol that's funny, "ooh ooh! OPPORTUNITY TO ADVERTISE CRAP LINKS"!

I'll admit my company does submissions and the likes as well but I also hired cold callers that get in touch with other webmasters to gauge and acquire higher quality links. I think requirements depend on the client, if the keyword isn't that tough than some article submissions on sites with a well structured homepage can turn those article pages into a PR2 page and bam you have some good links (after the update of course but anything worth having is worth waiting for). There's different techniques for getting quality links but yes as an SEO company I come across some pretty terrible "firms", worst part is selling against $50 a month, they come back months later asking me to analyze what my competitors did wrong. Or get this, I'll do a site from scratch, build up lower level links because I don't want to arouse Google's curiosity so I can come in later and hit it with some PR links and links to highly trusted sites but the client leaves only to have some dummy charge them double and replicate what I was about to do. Trust me my line of work ain't easy but it's worth it when my clients yell, "Gadzooks! 5 phone calls today!". I feel like I'm helping them build a company....

 

the Philippines has the best country for me to outsource SEO in my opinion

 

It really depends on what you are looking for in terms of an SEO provider. Do you want specific strategies (link baiting, viral link building etc.) or do you just want good results? In my experience, even simple link building strategies - properly executed - combined with solid on page SEO can achieve very good results, even in high competition niches.

I do SEO as a sideline, it's not my full time job, and most of my clients are interested in one thing - getting their site to page 1 of google and keeping it there. Provided the methods used are white-hat and work, that's all they're concerned with and that suits me.

In fact I'm confident enough that I can get results for my clients that I'm willing to bet my pay check on it - my fee's are based on the amount of tangible results I can deliver for them, not on how much work I do. I think this is one key aspect of a good SEO provider - are you willing to put your money where your mouth is?

I've achieved page 1 rankings for sites that weren't even in the top 200 for their keywords within a couple of months using simple but effective methods, implemented well in some very highly competitive terms (e.g. Forex Online, Stock Prices, Jog, Mortgage Quotes etc.).

finding a good SEO provider can be difficult, but they are out there. I suspect it depends on exactly what you're looking for - dio you want bells and whistles, or just good reliable long term results?

 

Yes this is very true. Most just want to do the dirty mass submissions with big numbers that clients eat up, but are ultimately not very effective for competitive terms, and just don't compare to high quality link building like linkbait. There is something inbetween, but that's pretty easy to get done with a small team following a process, which is easy to outsource and doesn't really need an SEO specialist - just someone who can follow instructions and someone who can produce high quality content.

In reality those that are really good at SEO and getting Google traffic are not available for hire because they are making enough money anyway.

 

Its very cheap in India, don't know about other nations.
But its not a bad idea to outsource SEO works as I'm working for a US firm.

 

I cant agree more with this sentiment we used to out source our SEO to Pasch consulting they are supposed to be the best automotive seo and got an award for it at the most recent NADA conference. They started out good but over time fell off quickly and also used very questionable tactics. When i took over the seo personally we received an almost boost in search rankings. For our business espically (a chain of car dealerships) a big company didn't work because they didn't know the area and trends well enough. they didn't know near by towns to target ect. the price was also exorbitant (nearly 2,000 per month) do your own work and in the end it will pay off!

 

For sure! Intricate knowledge of your niche is something you just can't outsource out, and its surprisingly helpful to your SEO campaign.

 

hi..........
We have spent 7 years understanding and utilizing every; SEO process to better effect. You don't have to wait as long.

 

Interesting thread.. Choosing the best employee is really rare for any recruiter but yeah depends on the skills of interviewer. I am happy that my interviewers found me worthy to work with always. I came up with so many internet gurus now who can swear for my quality and services, this is what i achieved so far.
Outsourcing work (not just SEO) always comes under a strict eyes of control and once you find the best one to deal, you will just forget the all issues and will hire them for long run.... Can have a trial for me ;-)