When it comes to digital marketing, it’s impossible to overstate the importance of SEO. After all, how much of our day-to-day online activity begins with a search engine? Experts estimate around 93%.
That’s why if you want to attract traffic to your website and generate great leads, SEO is the way to go. By boosting your visibility on the results page when people search for relevant terms, you’ll be perfectly placed to convert active interest into solid sales.
Why Invest in SEO?
Before you decide whether an outsourced SEO professional or agency is right for your team, you have to be sure that SEO itself is worth investing in.
Here are 5 good reasons for marketing experts to push this to the top of their priority list and make space in their budgets.
Increased visibility
When you optimize your website for search engines, you ensure that your business can be easily found by people looking for your products or services. Why make your audience work harder than they need to?
Credibility
A website has to have proven its authority and trustworthiness to rank highly on search engines. This means people will feel more confident in your organization, so they should be easier to convert.
Quality traffic
Clicks are only meaningful when they come from people who are seriously interested in what you have to offer. The good news: visitors from search engines are already actively looking for websites like yours!
Complements your PPC ads
Have you been spending money on Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising SEM campaigns? Complementing these PPC ads with SEO will ensure a greater return on your investment because both PPC and SEO are better when used together.
SEO is a cost-effective method of expanding your audience, and through a PPC campaign you can discover the best keywords to target with your SEO.
Keeps you competitive
Just because you aren’t currently investing in SEO doesn’t mean your competitors aren’t. If they’re beating you in the rankings, they’re receiving clicks that could otherwise be yours.
With SEO, you can reclaim them and stay ahead of your industry peers.
What Makes SEO Difficult to DIY?
Once you’ve acknowledged SEO’s importance, you have to get to grips with its complexity. Unfortunately, this isn’t something that can be mastered in a day or through a quick YouTube tutorial.
SEO is a dynamic field, and expectations change frequently. Ensuring that your website continues to follow constantly-evolving best practices is time-consuming, and it also requires expertise to execute SEO with accuracy. All of that comes before you even consider the competitive side of SEO. Obviously, you’re not the only website clamoring for position on the first page of the search results. Other companies in your industry will have their sights set on the same goal, because they too appreciate that this is key to securing more sales.
Don’t panic! It is possible to edge them out, but you’ll have to be proactive and professional about it. When the algorithm changes, you must respond quickly. You’ll also have to create and publish quality content on a regular basis to stay relevant. If this sounds like a lot of work, that’s because it is.
The most frustrating part is that even when you give SEO your best go, you could still fall short if you’re not well informed.
For example, do you know Google offers Rich Results that can make your page stand out on a busy results page? This goes to show that without a comprehensive understanding of search engine strategies, you may miss out on many opportunities to boost your position.
No wonder so many organizations outsource their SEO to the experts! Here, you’ll learn what poorly-implemented SEO looks like.
You’ll soon see why it makes sense to outsource and pay for tried-and-tested services such as Papaya Search to improve your ranking.
Avoiding Common SEO Pitfalls
Poorly implemented SEO can hurt your business. What you might see as a short term solution could cause long term damage to your organization’s online presence.
If you’re determined to DIY your SEO strategy despite the difficulties involved, then it’s advisable to keep the following hazards in mind:
Strategies against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines
Those without specialist knowledge of SEO are more likely to accidentally disobey the Webmaster Guidelines.
Google, for example, has SEO guidelines that come with corresponding sanctions when you break them. You could even be entirely excluded from the results page if you’re caught!
Low-quality website linking
One way to build authority and create trust in your website is to generate backlinks from other websites. This sounds straightforward enough, but beware…
If the algorithm deems your backlink to be poor quality (for example, inserted in an irrelevant way or on a suspicious site) then this could have the opposite effect on your credibility.
Employing black hat SEO techniques
When you attempt your own SEO, it’s understandable to look for shortcuts. We get it; this process is tiring and time-consuming, especially if you’re not exactly sure what you’re doing.
However, what you think are shortcuts could actually be black hat techniques. Black hat techniques are considered unethical and, as a result, they’re seriously frowned upon by search engines.
Consequences of a Poorly Implemented SEO Strategy
Loss of site traffic
Google changes its algorithm often to address irritating issues like spam. If your website contains questionable practices, search engine algorithms simply won’t recommend it to their users.
Decrease in business
Extreme fluctuations in traffic will make it hard to measure the effectiveness of your website. Also, when you’re attracting less traffic, it naturally becomes harder to maintain high sales.
Failing Google’s Safe Browsing Filter
In extreme cases, like your website containing malware, you may find your domain blacklisted by search engines. This has a huge impact on your overall online presence, making it more difficult for customers to find (and trust) you.
6 Reasons to Outsource Your SEO
Search engine visibility should be a top priority, but you don’t have to abandon all your other priorities to get your SEO on track.
Thankfully, comprehensive services like Papaya Search are available, and they will take over this demanding aspect of your search marketing strategy.
Outsourcing your SEO could be the key to unlocking your organization’s full potential. You’ll certainly give it the best shot possible at that lucrative first page position!
Read on for 6 reasons you should leave the hard work of SEO to experienced experts.
SEO Knowledge and Expertise
You’re probably realizing that Search Engine Optimization is far from a walk in the park. It takes time to master even just the basics, and SEO education will always be an ongoing process because the field is constantly evolving.
Outsourcing your SEO gives you access to the expertise of professionals like Papaya Search who have made this their full-time focus. They will always be on standby to make the necessary adjustments to your SEO strategy as algorithm updates are introduced.
Another excellent benefit of outsourcing this work is that you receive data analyzed by the experts. They’ll be able to tell you what’s working about your SEO, where there’s room for improvement, how many visits your website is attracting, and how much time people spend on your site.
This can all drive better decision-making for your organization, getting you closer to your goals.
Professional Efficiency and Effectiveness
Sure, you could attempt to DIY your SEO. You might get there… eventually. However, we know that in business, there’s no time to wait.
With a dedicated SEO expert on your side, you can start ascending in the rankings right now. It’s a much more efficient and effective approach to see results as quickly as possible.
Instead of trying to apply generic SEO advice, you’ll receive a strategy that’s totally customized to your organization’s needs. Why wait to enjoy the benefits of increased online visibility? Outsource your SEO to a specialist and they’ll begin making impactful changes straight away. They’ll begin to boost your website traffic through strategic SEO. Now is the right time to start climbing the search results rankings.
Cost-effectiveness, or Great ROI
The great thing about outsourcing is that you don’t have to invest in an in-house SEO team. For many organizations, that simply isn’t a plausible option.
Budget-wise, it’s a huge commitment, and the recruitment process also represents a demand on resources.
You may think that learning and implementing basic SEO on your own is a cheaper option than outsourcing the work to an expert, but have you considered the cost of your time?
Unless you dedicate many hours to understanding search engine optimization, your strategy is unlikely to be successful. If your organic search traffic is stagnant, this is a sign it’s time to rethink your SEO strategy.
Wasting your valuable time and energy on ultimately ineffective SEO is a false economy. When weighing up prices, you also have to consider what it costs you in sales to have your website buried under pages of search results.
Investment in affordable SEO services provided by knowledgeable experts has the potential to provoke a steep rise in profits. Then, the service pays for itself!
Guaranteed White Hat SEO Practices
You already know what black hat SEO practices are: unethical tactics that are implemented as an SEO shortcut. When identified by search engine algorithms, they can be severely penalized.
This is a big risk when you try to teach yourself SEO using unverified online guidance. Imagine how devastated you’d be if you wasted time and energy on shoddy SEO strategies that ended up having the opposite effect on your ranking.
White hat SEO practices are the correct way to improve your position on the results page. The goal is to target people with valuable content identifiable by search engines as opposed to creating useless, deceptive content in a bid to game the algorithm.
A good SEO agency will stick to white hat SEO practices, ones that search engines are programmed to recognize and reward.
Access to The Latest SEO Tools
Learning SEO involves the accumulation of techniques, but it’s also about navigating state-of-the-art tools to obtain the best possible results.
SEO tools are used for website analysis, keyword research, and more. Of course, you can access a range of free tools online. However, their scope is limited. They won’t provide the same support that high quality tools offer.
Premium tools perform far better. However, there’s a steep learning curve involved in using them, and they cost money to obtain.
SEO agencies not only have access to these tools, but they also offer the services of seasoned professionals who have already mastered their usage. They can harness the power of the latest technology on behalf of your organization.
Outsourced Services Scale to Your Needs
Now that you understand how important SEO is, you may be thinking about hiring a full time SEO expert to join your team.
This is definitely an option, but it’s not a feasible one for many organizations. The cost and commitment involved in recruiting a permanent staff member is significant when compared to outsourcing.
One of the best aspects of outsourcing is the fact that you can scale the service up or down depending on your organization’s needs.
When a full SEO strategy revision is required, you can add more hours to your outsourced team member’s schedule. At quieter times, you can save money by reducing their time. Leaders love the flexibility that comes with this relationship.
Is SEO Outsourcing Right For You? A Checklist
If any of the following statements apply to you, it’s probably time to start outsourcing your SEO.
- You want to improve your website’s SEO, but you don’t know anything about this field, and you don’t have the time to learn.
- You’ve been trying to execute your own SEO, but it’s exhausting your resources and you haven’t been seeing great results.
- You want to grow your organization with organic traffic, but adding a permanent SEO expert to your team isn’t realistic right now.
- You need support with SEO right now, but that need could increase or decrease at any moment.
Stay One Step Ahead Using SEO
SEO is not going away. Smart website owners are constantly finding new ways to leverage it to increase website traffic and audience engagement. To win in the fast-paced world of search engines, you must stay one step ahead of your competitors.
Papaya Search is a leading SEO agency with several years of experience implementing high-end SEO strategies for websites of different niches. Our support may be exactly what you need to move closer to your objectives.
Here, we offer efficient outsourcing services that can help your company gain traction online. For more information on our customized SEO plans, book a free consultation call today.
