Some business owners are squeamish when it comes to working with a local search engine optimization (SEO) company. This is mostly due to the unfortunate truth that many local SEO firms are scams or use unaccepted SEO techniques. However, not all SEO companies are out to get you and although many SEO tactics and tools are free to use, getting to the top of the search engine rankings takes extensive time and knowledge. Here are the pros and cons of both utilizing the services of a top local SEO provider or taking a DIY approach.
DIY SEO:
Pros:
Most tools used for SEO are free and there’s plenty of free information about improving SEO on the Web. So to do local SEO for your company, it would essentially cost for your website and time.
It’s a great learning experience. Teaching yourself this valuable skill is advantageous and will continue to be as your business grows.
Cons:
DIY SEO is extremely time consuming. Achieving top rankings on Google and other search engines can be tedious and a lot of hard work.
There’s a lot of misinformation available on the Web and if you aren’t sure which sources are reliable, you could end up hurting your rankings or wasting your time and effort on an SEO campaign that doesn’t work.
Carrying out an SEO strategy is a full-time job. SEO is a long-term growth strategy and a huge commitment. It requires a lot of research, repetition and as time passes it only gets more complex.
Building an effective website or landing page can be expensive. You must pay for web hosting, copy writing, optimization and design.
Professional Local SEO:
Pros:
Let the professionals do all the heavy lifting. The hard, time consuming work can be passed off to a professional or company that has the time, tools and knowledge to get the job done efficiently. You can throw some money at the situation and leave the worries and stress to someone else.
Results come faster. Since an SEO company’s sole purpose is to perform Internet marketing and search engine optimization for companies like yours, they already have systems and tools in place to get started right away. They don’t need to teach themselves SEO first like you would have to do. Since they’re experts, they know all the best techniques and have the necessary connections to get you ranking as quick as possible.
