Strategic digital marketing is a must nowadays. We are well past the point where simply having a website is enough. Every website must be optimized for search if it is to be effective at driving traffic and revenue to the business. Search engine optimization (SEO) can be intimidating if you aren’t familiar with it, but it's absolutely essential to helping your customers find you online. 

The thing about website optimization is that it's more complex than just adding keywords to your website content. There is a strategy behind it all with many different and seemingly unrelated features and functions all playing a role. 

It is because of this complexity that many companies decide to outsource their website optimization to a third-party. You benefit from the SEO experts' deep knowledge and expertise without having to learn all of the ins and outs yourself. As a business owner, you are no doubt pulled in many different directions every day. Taking SEO off your plate gives you the time and bandwidth to focus on those other important tasks while at the same time breathing a sigh of relief, secure in the knowledge that your SEO is being handled by a pro.

Below are five more reasons to consider outsourcing your website optimization.

Most people think SEO just means adding keywords to a website, but it goes much deeper than that. SEO can include any and all of the following:

• Competitive analysis

• Keyword research

• Creation of new content

• Technical optimization of the website

• Optimization and/or reorganization of existing pages

• Optimization of tags, headers, and meta descriptions

• Creation of a content strategy, especially for blogs

• Organize and optimize internal links

• Build backlinks

• Update/enroll in online directories

Having a professional SEO specialist optimize your website will achieve better results – and you'll get them faster - than doing it in-house. SEO is complex and has a steep learning curve. There are so many avenues to consider that businesses who do SEO in-house often miss some. An SEO professional who does this every day won’t miss those opportunities, which can dramatically affect your search ranking. You'll also see those results faster. SEO specialists can execute SEO campaigns much faster than in-house teams because they have that deep knowledge and background in the field. There is an instinctive knowledge about what works and what doesn't, which reduces the amount of time needed to research and align strategies with your goals.

Search engine optimization best practices are constantly changing. Every time a search engine makes a change to their search algorithm, it can affect how your website ranks. Google is constantly making changes to its algorithms. Some are minor tweaks; others are major overhauls. Unless you do SEO day in and day out, it's almost impossible to stay current on what's in and what's out as far as what search engines are looking for. 

In the long run, outsourcing your SEO will save your business money while also boosting revenue. You won’t have to invest in SEO training for your team or have them devote their time to SEO when it could be better spent performing core functions of the job or being available for customers. The fact that outsourced SEO can happen quicker than in-house efforts means you'll be ranking sooner and making sales far earlier than you would otherwise. It's helpful to think of SEO as an investment and not a cost.

One of the biggest challenges to doing SEO yourself is looking at it from an objective point of view. Sometimes, internal staff are too close to the business to remain objective in identifying keywords or even in how the business is marketed. It's very common for businesses to get overly technical or fill their website with industry jargon which no potential customer will use as a search term. When this happens, your website remains invisible. SEO must align with the customer's perception and experience more so than the business'. This is where an outside perspective can be invaluable. An external SEO team can approach your site from the view of a potential customer and identify and develop SEO strategies that target your desired audience or market.

One last, very important, point: SEO is an on-going process. It is never a "one and done" task. As we mentioned above search engines are constantly changing their algorithms. That means you have to be constantly on top of your SEO too. This constant need for analysis and updating your SEO is the biggest reason our clients trust us to manage their SEO. It's one less thing for them to think about every week and they know they can count on us to remain on top of the latest SEO trends.

Could your website benefit from an SEO audit? Use the link below to schedule one right now!