In this age and era, every business, irrespective of size, needs to have some sort of an online presence. This is because the world is gravitating towards interconnectivity and the lack of it could mean being left behind by competitors. With that said, a business has many moving parts. Be it customer service, delivery of orders, or even receiving the same. In the midst of all this, it almost becomes impossible to fully focus on effective online marketing.
Even worse, entrepreneurs face challenges in choosing the best marketing option that suits their business model and budget. Even though there is a myriad number of online marketing options, SEO is one of the simplest ways that a business can use to tap into the vast online market. When effectively applied, it can fetch your business a very high ROI.
And with the emergence of outstaffing services, you shouldn’t have a problem in implementing an SEO strategy even if you aren’t experienced.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimization (SEO) entails optimizing website content using different parameters such as images, keywords, and text so they can rank better in search engine rankings in Google, Yahoo, & Bing. once properly adapted and implemented, SEO can help augment the volume and quality of organic traffic generated from various search engines.
Since the search engines will always give the users the results for what they are actively searching for, occupying the top spot on that stack means that you’re providing them with the information when they want it.
To underwrite this, a recent report by seotribunal indicates that SEO helps generate approximately 93% of all website traffic. In terms of spending, the entire SEO market spent $72.02 B in 2018 with the amount expected to reach $79.27B in 2020. Of this amount, the largest contribution will come from small and medium companies with large companies contributing only a third of the total spending.
So how can outsourcing help you grow your company?
7 Helpful SEO Outsourcing Practices for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
SEO outstaffing services are the first step in improving your overall business. And although it may seem cost-effective to do the work yourself, it is counterproductive in the long-run. This is because implementing a coherent SEO strategy that will push your website to a position where it can compete with already established webmasters is time-consuming. And your time being money, staff augmentation saves you time, allows you to focus on your core business, and even flirt with new ventures.
If by chance you feel like the SEO implementation workload will soon overwhelm you, it is a good idea to seek the help of outstaffing service providers. These professionals have in-the-trenches experience and are capable of injecting more time towards your projects.
Here are 7 tips for SEO outsourcing:
Outsource Before Designing Your Website
It’s always important to hire your SEO team before designing your website. This helps to avoid missing opportunities like pages customization which means your website starts off and continues operating at an SEO advantage.
A good example of customization that is required during the initial stages of coding the ability to control H1 tags and the title tags on individual pages of the site. Although some templates allow for automatic generation of title tags on each page, there are those that don’t allow it hence crippling your overall SEO. This is because different title tags and the right keywords are what your website needs to rank.
Wisely Choose the Outsourcing Company
If you want to catch a raccoon, you have to think like one. For obvious, but equally important, reasons, it’s important to know how the company you are looking to hire performs in their niche. Simply look for a keyword in the niche and type it on the search engine. For example, if your niche is health, you should try searching for BPO healthcare keywords that might help you find the right company for your business. If they rank high as a result of the exact phrase you are looking for, they are probably worth their salt.
On the other hand, if they rank because of paid ads, then you may want to reconsider as a good SEO company should rank based on organic traffic.
Explicitly State your Campaign’s Intentions
After assembling the right team, you’ll want to explicitly state your objectives, in this case, being rankings and generating quality traffic. You should also outline how you want the campaign implemented and break everything down into timeframes. You can indicate what you want to be implemented in a particular month or even on an ongoing basis.
As soon as the campaign is underway, demand that the provider occasionally sends deliverables to ensure you keep tabs of the work done. And this could range from the number of links generated, blog posts written or shared items on social media.
It would be lackadaisical to outsource your project and assume that the SEO firm is doing everything as agreed. And since this is a new partnership, a monthly call would make sense. Alternatively, if you have a long-established relationship, an email is adequate.
Evaluate the SEO Provider Tools and Methodologies
Not all SEO tools are born equal. There are good the good one and there are bad ones. And since good SEO tools equal to an excellent SEO strategy, it’s important to probe the provider on the kind of tools they are using for black hat purposes.
Still, on the same, ensure they have a portfolio of published white papers and case studies showing the effectiveness of their SEO methodology. If they lack any form of proof backing up their methodology, seeking an alternative provider should be your next move.
KeepThings Organized
Unfortunately, internal staff changes or budget cuts can lead to a sudden collapse of the client/provider relationship and potentially disrupting business operations. To avoid all of this, ensure that everything is documented on how such unforeseen circumstance can be handled to avoid disappointments. The last thing you want is to end a relationship with an SEO provider only to end up begging for passwords or other important information.
Ensure Compatibility of your SEO with Supplementary Digital Marketing Initiatives
Unfortunately, many business owners treat SEO as a stand-alone service. The truth of the matter is that you can’t solely rely on SEO and expert to cut it. Ensure that your provider is capable of implementing an SEO strategy that can easily merge with your other digital marketing initiatives social media pages and PPC.
Follow-up on the Results
SEO is all about result nothing more nothing less. And although you shouldn’t expect results within a week or a month, its important to see the slow progress. For this, you need to request your provider to furnish you with a weekly or monthly report to assess how their efforts are fairing.
An SEO or IT outstaffing service provider may lure you into thinking that your ranks will blow off the roofs within days. While such a promise my fire you to take impulsive SEO decisions, it may not propel you in the long haul. This is because SEO is long-term and you need to be practice patience and keep a closer eye on the results.
2019 SEO Trends to Lookout For
Let’s take a look at the trends in SEO that are already making headlines in 2019:
Consistent and High-Quality Content
Consistent and high-quality content remains the gateway to achieving higher Google rankings. A recent report by HubSpot, 55% of marketers have touted relevant content creation as their weapon of choice when it comes to SEO. This is because customers are looking for relevant information that helps solve their problems and answer their questions. If you are doing contrary to this, chances are high that your website will miss out on Google rankings.
Voice Search Domination
With the growth of mobile internet, the old orthodox typing is slowly getting antiquated. With the emergence of AI and machine learning, devices are getting smarter by the day to the extent of learning to understand speech. By 2020, it is estimated that half of all the online searches will emanate from spoken queries and SEO will definitely feel the impact.
Video Optimization
On top of voice search domination, 2019 has also seen videos optimization gain tract in the SEO ecosystem. Although you may have videos with the best production, they won’t rank without minus carefully picked keywords.
Mobile-first Indexing
In 2018, Google rolled out the first-ever mobile-first index. It simply works by ranking websites basing on the mobile UX’s quality. If your web outstaffing company develops a website with the mobile and desktop versions, the two are combined then ranked. if it has the desktop version only, it is indexed normally.
As a website owner, this means that means you need to have a mobile-friendly website version. Otherwise, Google will index what your mobile users can’t see which means foregoing important traffic.
Conclusion
As you can see, SEO entails a lot of moving parts which may pose difficulties to an amateur. The key to achieving success in SEO outsourcing lies in finding the right provider that understands your business needs.