Outsourcing SEO might seem like the golden ticket to effortless online success, a bit like finding a genie in a bottle. But here’s the catch: it’s not as simple as rubbing the lamp and making a wish. Finding that perfect SEO outsourcing partner and crafting a strategy that really clicks is more complex than it appears.
You can’t just pick the first agency that pops up in your search results and expect to get on with your life as they catapult your site to the top of Google’s rankings. This SparkLaunch guide unpacks exactly how to go about the process of SEO outsourcing, so that your business and your clients can look forward to the really big wins.
Timing is Everything: Knowing When to Outsource Your SEO
Contrary to what Neil Patels and Matt Diggitys of the world may suggest, SEO is not easy. If it were, there wouldn’t be a $50 billion services market around it, much like there isn’t an industry built on microwaving people’s TV dinners for them.
It follows that the choice of when to outsource your SEO is also based on whether you have the resources to manage the complexity. Ask yourself these questions:
Optimizing Time, Resources, and Expertise
When your business grows to the point where your in-house team is stretched thin, or if SEO just isn’t in your wheelhouse, it’s time to look outward. Outsourcing can be the missing puzzle piece, offering you the freedom to focus on what you do best while leaving the SEO conundrums to the pros.
Consistent and Reliable SEO Results
Given the long-term nature of SEO, it’s often described with gardening metaphors. But mismanaged SEO results in a game of whack-a-mole rather than any kind of harvest of rankings, traffic and conversions.
When your current SEO efforts seem to miss the mark, leading to lost opportunities and a sense that you’re constantly playing catch-up with competitors (whether your own or your clients’), it’s a clear signal to consider outsourcing. An expert white label SEO partner brings a systematic, well-thought-out approach to your SEO. With their deep understanding of the digital landscape, they can revitalize your online presence, transforming missed opportunities into market gains and turning your business from a digital laggard to a leader.
Scaling Up Business
For a business to do well, scaling up is essential. A reliable white label SEO agency partner is like a skilled architect who can help transform your modest office block into a towering high-rise, all the while ensuring that it is sturdy, compliant, and amenable to further growth and expansion.
A Real Find: Identifying the Perfect SEO Partner
Choosing the right SEO partner can be as tricky as navigating a complex maze, in which succumbing to the lure of ‘cost savings’ and ‘increased website traffic’ are potential blind alleys. So, what should the real priorities be in selecting a white label SEO agency?
Freelance SEO vs. Full Service SEO Agency
One way to think of the difference between freelance SEO providers and a white label SEO agency that offers a full suite of services is to compare them to athletes in track and field events. Freelancers are like sprinters – good for intense, focused, short runs. In contrast, an agency partner is like a marathon runner – patient, steady, diligent and resilient.
Often, hiring freelancers seems like the more attractive option to businesses, as it is usually the cheaper option. This choice can be made to work well for short-term, highly specific SEO goals such as improving on-page SEO or expanding off-page SEO.
However, to be truly effective, SEO requires a long-term strategy. For SEO to lead to real business growth, a comprehensive approach is required in designing, implementing, monitoring and fine-tuning campaigns for optimal results. This is the forté of solid, white label SEO agencies such as SparkLaunch.
Selecting the Ideal SEO Agency: Essential Considerations
Tailored approach and industry expertise
The foremost factor in choosing a white label SEO agency is their experience and expertise. It’s crucial to ensure that the agency has a solid background and successful track record with businesses similar to yours. This specialized knowledge means they’re more likely to understand your unique challenges and opportunities, ensuring that the SEO strategies implemented are closely aligned with your specific business goals.
Robust analytics and in-house tools
Next, evaluate the tools the agency uses for managing and monitoring SEO campaigns. These tools should not only be effective for implementing and tracking your SEO strategy but also compatible with your existing company software. This compatibility is key to ensure a smooth integration and avoid the need for additional investments that can quickly drive up costs.
Effective campaign tracking
To use the earlier metaphor, SEO is a marathon. Understanding how an agency tracks the progress of your SEO campaign in the long-term is vital. Get clear on the agency’s methods for monitoring and reporting on SEO strategies, progress and even setbacks. It’s important that the agency has a transparent and systematic way of keeping you informed about your SEO efforts.
Clear communication
Right from the word ‘go’, you have clues to an agency’s communication style and responsiveness. Are they prompt in answering calls and emails? Do they provide clear and detailed explanations? Are they available for discussions or queries? Effective communication ensures that you’re always in the loop and confident about the strategies being implemented.
Charting the Course: Key Steps in Effective SEO Outsourcing
Producing sustainable business growth for you and your clients requires having a clear plan of action for the change of hands — even before you choose an SEO outsourcing partner.
Setting Clear Goals: The Outsourcing Roadmap
It is hard to overemphasize the importance of spelling out precisely the growth goals you want for your business (or those of your clients). Thus, instead of thinking, “I want my business to top Google SERPs”, it is helpful to formulate actionable goals such as, “For keywords X and Y, I want my business to rank in the top 3 SERP results on Google”. Clear goals not only guide your SEO strategy but also provide a tangible way to measure the effectiveness of your outsourced team’s efforts.
Defining the Scope: Collaboration Blueprint
The next step is to agree on the scope of work. What’s crucial at this stage is documentation; getting every important detail down in writing insures you against the delays and difficulties created by later misunderstandings.
Documenting the scope of your SEO outsourcing should provide clear details of:
- the specific services to be provided by the white label agency, such as product page optimization, backlink building, weekly SEO analytics reports, monthly or quarterly SEO audits and so on
- time-line for implementation of each step of your SEO strategy, with enough margin built in for the back-and-forth of communication, review and revision
- the SEO cost structure, with a detailed break-up of team man hours, software costs, training costs and any additional costs (such as those arising due to technology upgrades or outsourcing costs associated with specific SEO activities such as social media campaigns)
While the time and effort required to come up with a clearly documented agreement can be significant, this is indeed a worthwhile investment. A detailed agreement sets the tone for a transparent and accountable relationship, ensuring both parties are on the same page.
Granting Access: Collaboration Window
Finally, providing your SEO partner with the necessary access to information and any agreed-upon resources is crucial to an efficient transition to outsourced SEO services. While it may seem obvious, the nitty-gritties of collaborative access can often be overlooked.
For instance, your white label SEO partner needs access to your business website, its hosting service details, current analytics dashboard, Google Business profile and overall Content Management System or CM. Not only that, it may be advisable to provide them with access to historical analytics data, in order to facilitate a more data-driven SEO strategy.
SEO Outsourcing Pitfalls: Sidestepping Common Mistakes
Many of the problems experienced by businesses as they transition to outsourced SEO stem from one or more of the following factors. Knowledge, as they say, is power, so being aware of these potential problems should help your business steer clear of these potential pitfalls:
The Price Trap: Balance Cost with Quality
While budget is a critical consideration, focusing too much on cost savings can backfire. Cheap SEO services might save money upfront, but can have negative, long-term consequences, including lost SEO opportunities, subpar business growth and even, in the worst case scenario, damage to your brand’s online reputation and image. Choosing a slightly more expensive but trusted white label SEO partner could be a far wiser investment in your business’s future.
Relevancy, not Age
A widespread SEO half-truth goes that the older an SEO agency, the better the results they will deliver. The real truth, however, is that garnering great gains for your business’s SEO depends more on the agency’s experience with the relevant niche and with businesses of similar size and scale, than on age alone.
Particularly if you are a smaller business or part of a niche industry, be careful to avoid the temptation of thinking that ‘older is better’. Instead, assess how well the agency you’re considering understands your business’s digital dynamics and your market.
Beyond Vanity Metrics: Seek Meaningful Insights
By far the most common trap (and most seductive for businesses new to SEO outsourcing) is succumbing to the glamor of so-called ‘vanity metrics’ – metrics that seem connected to success and good performance, but in reality have little connection to a business’s brand growth or financial prosperity.
Let’s take the example of session duration, that is, the amount of time a visitor spends on your website, as a popular metric of SEO strategy. While increased session duration might mean greater engagement and increased sales, it might also mean that changes to the business’s website have made it more difficult for visitors to navigate or look up information!
In contrast, an increase in conversions – more people responding to a CTA (by giving their email addresses, clicking through to a website or buying a product) unambiguously points to growth for your business.
Unrealistic Targets: Gear Up for the Long Haul
Beware of a white label SEO agency that promises impressive results within a matter of hours or days. Alluring as it may sound, SEO is a long-term strategy, and significant results take time. Setting and adhering to realistic timelines is a hallmark of a trustworthy SEO partner.
Next Steps
To learn more about the best SEO outsourcing choices to boost your business’s growth trajectory, schedule a free discovery call with our team. There’s no obligation or pressure to sign up, and at the very least, you’ll have greater confidence on the best SEO model for your organization.
