SEO Consultant - Is it worth it?

[Musicstrawberry]

Hi all,

I just wondered what your thoughts were on getting the help of a third party to help with SEO. Is this something you outsource?

I have a fairly good understanding of the concept of SEO and some of the tools to use. I've been subscribing to semrush and making changes to my site based on keyword research, and I've been slowly building backlinks with websites which a good Domain Authority.

I've seen my estimated traffic rise in these tools, and I've actually seen an increase in organic traffic, but progress is slow. I know SEO is not a quick thing, and it will take time, but I keep being tempted by third party SEO companies I see advertising. Will they really add anything beyond what I already know though? I can't think what else they would do, and it makes me a bit nervous if they will be updating product descriptions and potentially it could have a negative impact on the progress I've made. I'm also a bit wary about them employing any black hat tactics which could cause me problems.

What's everyones thoughts on all this and what do you do?

 

[Spikerok]

Could be a good idea if you are struggling to find the time and on top of it someone who specialises in SEO does it every day and knows ins and outs.

I would personally recommend reading about "Inbound" Marketing.

 

[Thomas Harvey]

Honestly, the answer is "it depends" there's a massive difference in level of skill for SEO consultants. I've seen some who charge £100 per hour but know absolutely nothing and some that charge £10 per hour are absolutely brilliant.

The question to ask yourself is "will an seo consultant achieve a results above what you're doing AND cover what they charge too", if the answer to that is yes then I would look at going ahead.

As for what they know and you don't, that's something I can't answer, atleast without looking at your site anyway.

 

[Ian J]

What's everyones thoughts on all this and what do you do?

It all depends on your budget as "serious SEO" costs money.

Have you looked at forum member Tin's DIY course as that has been highly recommended by many people here. http://www.freshbananas.co.uk/

 

[Musicstrawberry]

Thanks for everyone's comments. Ian, I do not have much budget at all, so a "serious" budget would be well beyond what I could afford... but if it did lead to more sales then I could definitely invest a little in someone to help. I'm just not sure what they would do above and beyond what I am doing - unless it is just "time" as Spikerok suggested. Thank you for the link, I will have a look.

And Thomas, that's what I am worried about really. I don't mind paying someone if they know lots of tricks they've learnt a long the way from years of experience, but if they are just going to do the basic stuff I can do then I would be annoyed at paying someone.

Maybe my money would be better spent having someone help me with PPC. I am not having much luck with that at all, and I'm really struggling to see any return from Google shopping or Facebook ads. You've all given me food for thought, so thank you.

 

[The Wholesaler]

Maybe my money would be better spent having someone help me with PPC.

PPC is extremely tedious and on several occasions tried using agencies but each time ended up spending more money and getting worse results.

 

[stender]

You have a basic knowledge so I would suggest looking into the above mentioned course. Not done it personally but it has some glowing endoresments on here. The main thing with SEO costs is it's very time consuming if you include off site/social media so that won't be cheap. PPC works for some people. It's not rocket science, set a budget and try it. if you make more than you pay out...

 

[Rob2012]

so called seo specialists are completely utterly rubbish!!

I would NEVER hire these india specialists again in my life

your time and money would be much better invested in 1. social media 2. good photographs

Instagram is great
Youtube / fb / twitter are ok
and make sure youre on google business address list and such

 

[Spikerok]

Regarding ppc, facebook could be a fantastic starting point (for B2C). It is also a good idea to have some tracking in place, on your site, to get idea of return on your investment.

 

[webgeek]

so called seo specialists are completely utterly rubbish!!

I would NEVER hire these india specialists again in my life

your time and money would be much better invested in 1. social media 2. good photographs

Instagram is great
Youtube / fb / twitter are ok
and make sure youre on google business address list and such

1. Not all SEO specialists are from India
2. Not all SEO specialists in India are rubbish
3. For B2B, social media is a breakeven proposition, at best, 99% of the time
4. For B2C, someone great at organic SEO will drive more top line revenue than someone great at social media, 99% of the time

If you've had bad experiences, that's unfortunate. However, throwing the baby out with the bathwater is only going to cost YOU money in the long run.

There's no way you'll hope to be able to compete against a true professional SEO practitioner being a small business owner who just does this a couple of hours per day or per week.

But, to ignore the practice of on-page optimisation and link building (via quality content on appropriate sites) and instead going for Instagram and Youtube is akin to entering your horse into a Formula 1 race and expecting to beat team McLaren. It's just not gonna happen except in horror movies or alternate reality sci-fi.

 

[stender]

Might beat mclaren at the moment.

 

[Rob2012]

1. Not all SEO specialists are from India
2. Not all SEO specialists in India are rubbish
3. For B2B, social media is a breakeven proposition, at best, 99% of the time
4. For B2C, someone great at organic SEO will drive more top line revenue than someone great at social media, 99% of the time

If you've had bad experiences, that's unfortunate. However, throwing the baby out with the bathwater is only going to cost YOU money in the long run.

There's no way you'll hope to be able to compete against a true professional SEO practitioner being a small business owner who just does this a couple of hours per day or per week.

But, to ignore the practice of on-page optimisation and link building (via quality content on appropriate sites) and instead going for Instagram and Youtube is akin to entering your horse into a Formula 1 race and expecting to beat team McLaren. It's just not gonna happen except in horror movies or alternate reality sci-fi.

Might beat mclaren at the moment.

"3. For B2B, social media is a breakeven proposition, at best, 99% of the time
4. For B2C, someone great at organic SEO will drive more top line revenue than someone great at social media, 99% of the time"

WOW 99% you say... where are you getting these statistics?

show me atleast one proof to remotely suggest what you said is correct to justify the 99% assumptions

 

[stender]

was there a reason for the quote? it was a joke even if you have a fast horse.

 

[FreebieBoy34]

Hi all,

I just wondered what your thoughts were on getting the help of a third party to help with SEO. Is this something you outsource?

I have a fairly good understanding of the concept of SEO and some of the tools to use. I've been subscribing to semrush and making changes to my site based on keyword research, and I've been slowly building backlinks with websites which a good Domain Authority.

I've seen my estimated traffic rise in these tools, and I've actually seen an increase in organic traffic, but progress is slow. I know SEO is not a quick thing, and it will take time, but I keep being tempted by third party SEO companies I see advertising. Will they really add anything beyond what I already know though? I can't think what else they would do, and it makes me a bit nervous if they will be updating product descriptions and potentially it could have a negative impact on the progress I've made. I'm also a bit wary about them employing any black hat tactics which could cause me problems.

What's everyones thoughts on all this and what do you do?

Hi there! My advice on this is to go for it. If you have the hire an SEO expert and if you feel that your business/website will be pushed in the right direction with their help, then go for it. Just make sure that they do the job right...

 

[fisicx]

This is bad advice. Without knowing anything about their business, marketing strategy, finance or long term plans you don't know if an SEO expert will add any value.

 

[webgeek]

Yeah @Rob2012, I got those statistics from my sphincter. Oh, and from spending time educating myself about marketing over the past 20 years or so of doing it as a profession.

Hubspot data points out that SEO leads have a close rate of 15%, referrals 9%, ppc 7%, social 4% and outbound 2%. That's not exactly the stat we're looking for, but it goes a long way to show how ineffective B2B social lead generation is.

PulsePoint group and the Economist Intelligence research indicate that 84% of B2B companies are making use of social media. On average 5% of all leads come from social. The best of the best social media marketing amongst B2B companies generates 17% of their leads via social.

Just try to name a handful of BIG companies who generate more revenue from social media than they do from organic search. In case you haven't worked at any big companies marketing departments, I'll share a little secret - organic search pays the bills and social media is being used to catch complaints, make a mention when content is posted on the site, etc.

It is not the primary lead engine and therefore not the top driver of new business (revenue). In other words, you can't generate 5% of the leads with social and plausibly expect to outperform SEO.

A survey by Outbrain showed organic driving 300% more traffic than social. We know organic outconverts by about 4:1. Combine that with the added traffic of 4:1... Hint 4:1 x 4:1 = 16:1.

Yes, Organic Search pays the bills 16x more than social media does, according to the Outbrain study.

BrightEdge analyzed billions of pieces of information about organic, ppc and social. They found 51% of traffic comes from organic, 9% from ppc and 5% from social. You can get the details from them, or read about it on SearchEngineLand.

-----------------
Perhaps next time, rather than doubt and shout, it might be worth considering doing some of your own research.

Perhaps you'd like to share the contradictory evidence disproving what I said, and all the research quoted above???

 

[fisicx]

It's also worth noting that most social media conversions are the result of some external marketing. People have to know about you to end up on your SM page. Very few businesses have succeeded in marketing only on SM sites. Most businesses need to market themselves through (for example) SEO, advertising and so on.

And TV advertising as an initiator still trumps all other marketing methods. People still remember catchphrases from TV adverts that haven't been around for years: do the shake and vac...

 

[pickaweb]

If you can afford it and can find someone that knows their sutff yes go for it.
It is always a good idea to keep learning yourself.
But having someone to help you can be great.

 

[mtools]

It's also worth noting that most social media conversions are the result of some external marketing. People have to know about you to end up on your SM page.

You can target people who like specific pages with Facebook ads so I don't think this is strictly true, though I do take the other points you made.

Personally think a decent SEO consultant is worth it. I have a company that's done some SEO work for me, they've provided me with a whole list of all my different pages what I should change titles, h1 tags etc too with primary and secondary keywords including the monthly searches for each keyword, they've also done lots of other bits but that's the kind of headline SEO work.

They also manage my PPC but my organic hits always convert much higher (over 6% on organic, just over 4.5% for PPC). They have also started to manage my email marketing as well as helped me optimise my website so obviously I'm pretty happy with their work. It's not cheap, but if you want results you've really got to spend some money. Before they signed me up with their email marketing they walked me through 3 accounts they manage to show me the emails they send as well as the analytics including the important financials to show that it's worth it.

Personally I think Facebook adverts are the king of PPC for B2C you can be incredibly specific with who you target, especially with the new pixel which gives you even more info. You can create lookalike audiences to target new people similar to ones you've already converted; however I think it would be pretty useless for B2C. When I used to work for a small pharma firm I don't think I ever looked for anything on Facebook for work and if I saw an advert I probably wouldn't have taken it seriously.

 

[Yeongwonhi]

It is outsource worthy - yes, only if given to the right person with the right expertise to prop your business up, and if you can afford it.

I personally think it is well worth it to hire a specialist for SEO, but you had better be sure about their background and their portfolios. If you can, on interviews, ask them about what strategies they used to direct more traffic into their website via SEO, if not the past projects they have worked on.

If you also feel like there is nothing about what they know that you can't learn, then you can go ahead and do it on your own.

Best of luck on this one!

 

[Bat2100]

SEO is really hard. It takes huge amounts of money and a lot of time as well.

A consultant is good if you don't know what you are doing. But if you do I think it's not worth it, because it's the same everywhere.

I would suggest a partner with a budget to run your SEO instead of a consultant.

 

[Harvey Tait]

If you really want to succeed online answer this :
Have I got the time ? This is the biggest factor.
Second, can I earn more money focusing on my business with my time than learning and running new tools? Good tools, not the free stuff, they are free for a reason.
The biggest questions I get asked every day:
"How do I get ranked number one on Google ! ?"
Can you look at my website and tell me what's wrong ?
Where can I get leads from on the Internet ?
I'm not a fan or general direction pointing, however, Well here is some help :
1/ Why and what is it you want to be ranked for ?
2/ Look at who else is there, can you out budget them or out work them in time ?
I had a tea company who want to out rank Twinnings ! Got a £100K in the bank?
3/ SEO is a dark art and don't let anyone else tell it's not. This has been my job to help companies from their start up and get bigger companies out of the rut.
You're getting lots of advice from many sources .
So to get you started and anyone else -
SEO in 2016
Read this guy 24 tips, I could not have put it better.
marketinghangout dot co/u/496/campaign-1-dfy-seo
If you need any advice - PM me or find me on Facebook Harvey Tait