To better ascertain if your company needs SEO you should cnsider the type of expertise which a good SEO provider can bring to your organization.  Identify the type of companies which do not really need outside SEO, those which should consider performing it in-house, and those which really need it.  Once you have confirmed your company requires outside SEO help, you should start to look at the type and scope of SEO services which meet your company's particular needs.

Most companies generating significant business from their website(s) have probably heard of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) if they are not already doing it.  How do you know whether or not your own company could really benefit from hiring an SEO firm?  To better answer this question, let us consider what a good SEO can provide your company.  Then, we will identify the type of companies which do not really need SEO and those which should consider doing SEO in-house.

Good SEO service can provide the following value-added to your company:

1.  Detailed knowledge.  Staying abreast of the SEO information curve takes lots of time.  SEO vendors are immered optimization and are well-acquainted with evens such as fluctuations within the engines and indexing cycles.  Even if you are considering to develop that expertise in-house, you can shorten your learning curve by investing in an SEO provider's services.  Also, it is difficult to find good SEO people for direct hire, since there is currently so much marketplace competition.

2. Sophisticated tools of the trade.  There's no real set of shared tools or processes used in this industry, and each SEO firm has developed its own tools and processes through trial and error.  Some marketers may think, "Well, I'll just hire away an employee from an SEO firm.  The difficulty with this approach is that you aren't hiring the proprietary tools as well.

3.  Relationships with the search engines.  Picture this. You’re in the middle of a domain transfer and the search engines are now ignoring your new site. Many vendors have developed relationships (note, these are not to be confused with partnerships) with the engines, where a staffer can call up an internal contact at the search engine and ask them to take a look at the site and see why it isn’t being picked up. An individual marketer is less likely to get a response

The picture isn’t entirely one-sided.  One of the drawbacks in outsourcing is the time it takes to get a vendor up to speed in understanding your business objectives. And, in a sense, outsourcing means you’re giving up control over  what can be a key part of your business.

There are several notable companies running successful in-house SEO operations, such as The New York Times. For many marketers, however, the benefits of outsourcing far outweigh the drawbacks.  Keep in mind that this isn’t an either/or situation, though. In the past couple of years, we’ve begun seeing a burgeoning industry of SEO consultants. Going outside your company for SEO services doesn’t necessarily mean turning over the entire project to a vendor. You may decide to do some of the work internally and outsource the rest.   Once you have decided you need outside SEO help, how can you determine which approach makes the best sense for you?   In order to answer that question well, first you need to better understand which types of companies do not need outside SEO, which should do it in-house and which do need outside SEO.              

A.  Companies that should not invest in outside SEO:

1. Tiny budgets:  Let’s face it - SEO costs money. It may not cost as much as other forms of search marketing (i.e. paid search advertising), but it’s still an investment. SEO work is time intensive. If you can’t buy a minimum number of hours from a practitioner, then it’s not worth investing your money in outside services that won’t get the job done. We’re reluctant to put a hard number on this because SEO needs vary by company, but as a very rough guideline if you’re anyone other than a one- or two-people company and you can’t afford to spend a baseline amount of $5,000 to $10,000 per year, you’ll likely have to do it in-house.

2.  No metrics: If your site doesn’t feature any measurable way to help convert a typical customer in your field into a buyer either online or offline, you’re not a candidate for SEO services yet. You should have something in place - printable coupons, sign-up forms, toll-free phone number with an offer, newsletter offer, FRP questionnaire, ecommerce, interactive bulletin boards, white papers, etc. - that visitors can use to either learn more about your offerings or to purchase them.

Plus, you’ll need some metrics or surveying software or services to be able to determine whether the traffic you are receiving from SEO tactics is actually converting. If you don’t have the budget or the time to install and track metrics or surveys, and you don’t plan on asking the SEO firm to help you as part of its engagement, then don’t invest in SEO. You’ll never know if your money is wasted or which terms you should invest in more.

3.  Lack of internal buy-in:  If your IT department, or whoever runs your Web site internally, is not ready, willing and able to work with the SEO firm you hire and implement changes quickly, don’t invest in an outside company. Get your internal politics done first. You don’t want to spend money on optimized site pages if no one is prepared to load them.

The same goes for corporate politics. In larger organizations especially, the person who does the shopping (you) isn’t necessarily the same person who will approve the overall budget for search marketing. Or, if your company has to be very careful about what you print on your site, you’re going to need buy-in from the legal department. You don’t want to go out, hire an SEO firm and then not have the power to implement or continue implementing recommended strategies.

B.  Companies that should do SEO in-house:

1.  Small, static site in a fairly non-competitive niche:  If you have a static site with a limited number of pages to optimize...and you are in a field that can be described by a fairly limited number of search terms (such as a very local niche company)...and your competitors are not currently investing in SEO and you have an in-house staffer who is longing to do SEO for you …then you may be able to do it yourself.

2. Large companies with the necessary infrastructure:  Just as large companies often rely on an internal legal department, large companies that are willing to hire, train and support a team of SEO experts can handle things in-house.

Keep in mind that if you fall into this category, you’ll probably want to keep a sophisticated SEO firm or consultant on retainer to assist you with training, paid inclusion feeds, major site updates or other aspects of SEO management. And, be forewarned. The pool of qualified SEO staffers is limited. (Even vendors are undergoing a shortage of qualified employees.) There are a lot more attorneys in the world than SEO experts. You may need to hire someone who is less experienced and invest significantly in their training.  

And, you can’t just hire a technician and leave that person in a cube in the corner working away to optimize your site. You’ll need to hire an SEO expert who is able to train, coordinate and influence the work done by everyone from your Web designers, IT staff, customer service department, copywriting crew, investor relations department, etc. Inshort, everyone who has a hand in touching your Web site.   For example, you may have a copywriter on staff who is completely familiar with writing for the search engines. But if your site designer is unfamiliar with how to design a crawler-friendly site, all your keyword-rich prose will never be discovered by the search engines. Your in-house SEO staff will need the authority and ability to train and coordinate both teams.

C.  Companies that should invest in outside SEO

If your site has some interactive or conversion elements to its design, and you have at least a rudimentary measurement system in place (or you plan to hire an SEO firm that provides this), and you strongly suspect enough of your sales prospects are searching for services like yours, we recommend that you hire an SEO firm.

If you have concluded that your company falls into this last category, then you should try to get onto the SEO horse sooner rather than later.  To help answer your follow-up question - how to determine which approach makes the best sense for you - please refer to two other informative articles available in the Yesup SEO information centre.

1.  How to hire the right SEO firm for your company

2.  When hiring an SEO firm, consider this...

Both articles were written by Brad Lombardo from Yesup SEO and are available in The SEO Chronicle, the Yesup SEO newsletter located in the Information Centre at www.yesupseo.com.