Do I Need an SEO Agency?

If you are looking to improve the SEO visibility and performance of your website, you should at least consider partnering with an SEO agency. Still, agencies aren't for everyone. Below we have started by listing those who definitely will benefit from hiring an SEO agency, before including details on those who might not see the most impact from doing so.

Who Needs an SEO Agency

1. You don't have an in-house marketing team

If you don't have anyone within your company on your SEO and marketing, an agency will provide a quick and efficient way to start promoting your business without the hassle of hiring a full-time member of staff.

Also, if you are considering hiring an SEO agency but have no in-house marketers/marketing employees, chances are this is because you either don't have the budget to make a full-time hire right now or you aren't sure how you would even hire and manage an SEO team (maybe both). Again an agency will help you start growing your business without spending a fortune on a full-time experienced professional.

2. Your SEO team is requesting agency support

Maybe you do have an SEO and/or marketing team, and they are the ones asking you to invest in a competent SEO agency.

If this is the case, most likely they have identified an area of weakness in your on-site and/or off-site performance that they aren't able to fill.

Although this can sound like a problem, in reality you are doing well since you have just found out that you have an honest and conscientious team.

SEO is a broad industry and there are many specialisms within it, like link building vs technical SEO.

If your in-house team has identified an internal weakness, they have also found a clear opportunity for growth.

Use their knowledge and experience to vet the SEO agencies that you are speaking to and to ensure that you hire the right agency for the task at hand.

3. You have serious growth ambitions

Hiring an SEO agency will free up time for your internal marketing team members to focus on other activity, so you may well need an SEO agency if you are looking to drive serious growth in the coming months and years.

Who May Not Need an SEO Agency

1. Start-ups and very early stage companies

SEO is a great channel for many businesses, but not all businesses and not for every objective.

If you are anew start-up and/or early-stage company looking to secure your very first customers and find product-market fit, long-term growth channels like SEO may not be the most effective.

For some companies, SEO is a long-term growth channel which can be looked at once product-market fit has been found and initial customers and/or funding secured.

2. Your internal marketing team isn't on-board

If your internal marketing team is saying that they have the experience, time, and resources needed to deliver the SEO campaigns that match your companies growth ambitions, then an SEO agency might not be all that useful at this time.

You see, to work effectively an SEO agency needs buy-in and trust from your internal team.

An agency will need to work with your staff to get technical and on-site recommendations implements, and off-site link building campaign ideas/processes signed off.

If your internal marketers aren't aligned with your agency, you could find that the agencies time and experience is wasted.

3. Companies with tiny budgets

Whilst it is true that you don't pay directly for the clicks sent to your website via the organic search results, this does not mean that SEO is cheap. In fact, if you don't invest properly in your SEO agency you risk hiring a cowboy who could cut corners and even get your website penalised.

If you only less than £1,000 per month to invest into your SEO support, we would suggest channeling this into other areas that you are more experienced in and building the business up to the point where you can invest properly into long-term SEO strategies.