Outsourcing SEO to a freelancer or Agency

[idv]

Hi

We are looking for a freelance SEO / SEO agency to conduct SEO /Social Media on our website on a monthly basis.

We were planning on allocating 10 hours per month to an SEO expert to do this.

What could we expect for 10 hours per month and on average what would the costs be?

We are looking to improve SERP rankings and awareness online

TIA

 

[PerfectusMedia]

10 hours per month isnt alot, especially if you go with a company, but it als depends on your keywords and site and current ranking .

 

[harryboon]

Would you mind telling us a little bit more about your site & your goals?

 

[PerfectusMedia]

Yea, 10 hours isnt alot but we need to know more about your goals and keyword and site.

 

[mud-stx]

yes could you tell us your industry, that way we may be able to help you with your query..

 

[maxh]

Also what assets do you already have, in terms of a good website/content/backlinks

 

[wood1e2]

Re: Outsourcing

You have to be happy with whom ever you outsource to, whether an agency or individual.

There are generally cost implications between the two, due to overheads of a agency, but then a individual may not have the resources to work as efficiently as you require.

Re: The work invloved it all depends on what you have in place already, as others have said.

If your website does not convert visitor you may find a higher ranking is immaterial.

As for the number of hours spent working on the project each month that will also depend on what is needed, what is the competitive nature of the keywords.

Just as an extreme example 'your town Starship builders' would take a significant less time than getting a better ranking for 'Car Finance' or 'Baby nappies'

PM more details if you are not wanting to go public

 

[Ali-v-8]

Why are YOU deciding how much work needs to be done. Isnt that an SEO's job. Sorry but you haven't and idea about how to choose an SEO or what is involved (i mean that in a nice way).
I suggest keep reading the section then make a more informed choice.

Thats my £4.56 worth.

Hi

We are looking for a freelance SEO / SEO agency to conduct SEO /Social Media on our website on a monthly basis.

We were planning on allocating 10 hours per month to an SEO expert to do this.

What could we expect for 10 hours per month and on average what would the costs be?

We are looking to improve SERP rankings and awareness online

TIA

 

[harryboon]

Thats my £4.56 worth.

You cut your prices again Ali?

 

[Astaroth]

Your supplier should be telling you what they can accomplish within your 10 hours and what benefits you should see over what timescales.

With everything you ultimately see diminishing returns so again a supplier should be able to say what you get for £x per month or X, Y or Z hours etc.

You could be looking at anything as low as £10 per hour but also at over £100 depending on the person/ organisation, their experience, overheads etc. More expensive isnt always better but cheapest rarely gives you the best results too.

 

[maxh]

Yeah, the thing is you need to hire a good SEO who knows what they're doing.

You could say "I want 10,000 back links a month" Anyone could do that, easily. But they would be bad links, from bad places *wooooOOOOoo* Also is that a natural link growth? Google penalises the unnatural!

You could say you want content, I could write tons of content. Wouldn't be good

You could say get me to number one on google, great. I'll do that for an obscure term no problem.

I want to rank for my main product "Cheese wheels" great, I could do that too. But is that the term that converts best? Are you maximising your linkjuice by putting it all there or maybe you should attack the long tail for a better ROI.

I want lots more traffic! Again easy. I could get you tons of traffic. But is it the right traffic? Are people from Charagargh interested in your hostel in Ipswitch?

Basically any metric used to measure SEO performance can be diddled. Especially if you don't know the industry, I mean people are still reselling PPC for gods sake!!!

Find an SEO with proven experience, tell him how much you need to be earning from your online endeavours and go from there. He will tell you what it will take.

 

[maxh]

Find an SEO with proven experience, tell him how much you need to be earning from your online endeavours and go from there. He will tell you what it will take.

Or to slice this differently: You don't go into a tailors and tell them how long to take making your suit, you say how fabulous you want to look. And then they tell you how long it will take and what it will cost.

 

[Ali-v-8]

Or you go to Tesco's buy a suit and look no different from anyone else.

Or to slice this differently: You don't go into a tailors and tell them how long to take making your suit, you say how fabulous you want to look. And then they tell you how long it will take and what it will cost.

 

[JRBL]

Interesting, thing is though that if you go into a tailors for a suit you can see tangible examples of their work. There's so much spin with web developers and SEO us novices don't know where to turn.

 

[idv]

Thanks all for your advice. I'm still as unsure as before though!

The site is a football news portal and my goals are to increase traffic to the site and the conversions would be for people to stay on the site and participate in the forums area of the site.

What would a SEO package usually consist of? ie. site analysis, keyword analysis, competitor analysis, on site optimisation, link building etc?

 

[Ali-v-8]

depends on who you use, but you seem to have it all written down.

 

[jimbo2779]

Its hard to say what you can expect for 10hours a month. I would say if your site is already established and ranking an extra 10hours worth of link building and partnering with similar sites could help increase your rankings and get ranking for terms you currently dont.

Your prospective company should be able to tell you more likely what to expect than anyone without the knowledge of your site.