SEO outsourcing is a prevalent practice in digital marketing, as it allows companies to tackle cumbersome or repetitive tasks that they might not have the time for otherwise. Additionally, it provides access to expertise not available in-house, which is crucial for handling complex, specialized, or technical tasks.
At BrightLocal, we aimed to discover which tasks are most frequently outsourced by local SEOs, how common outsourcing is in the local search industry, and whether the most commonly outsourced tasks are changing over time. We conducted a survey with 345 SEOs to gather insights about their outsourcing activities and the pros and cons of outsourcing based on their experiences. This is the second time we’ve conducted this poll, with initial publication in 2015, allowing for year-on-year comparisons.
Note: Poll respondents included 80% from North America, 13% from the UK, and 7% from the rest of the world.
Which local SEO tasks are most commonly outsourced?
Key findings:
- Citation cleanup/building is the most commonly outsourced task.
- Content creation has seen the biggest increase in outsourcing since 2015.
- Link cleanup and reputation management are typically kept in-house.
Analysis:
There has not been significant year-on-year change in the most outsourced tasks, with citation building and citation cleanup remaining at the top. Content creation saw a five percent year-on-year increase, while link building remained consistent in third place. However, reputation management, link cleanup, and social media tasks are the least outsourced.
Outsourcing alleviates the burden of dull, tedious, or time-consuming tasks, making citation cleanup and building prime candidates for outsourcing. The outsourcing of content creation increased significantly year-on-year, rising from 16 percent in 2015 to 21 percent in 2016. However, caution is essential to ensure quality and avoid content penalties. Local businesses might benefit from producing their own content, as they understand their industry, services, and location better than hired bloggers, enabling them to create accurate, compelling content appealing to consumers and search engines alike.
Outsourcing link building
When it comes to links, many respondents highlighted the risks of outsourcing link building and link cleanup:
“The important stuff like link building with all the anchor text issues is too big of a deal to outsource. Errors can cause nightmares.” — Paul Tufts, Juiced SEO
“There are some tasks that we’d never outsource though, as it could cause more damage than good, such as link building and cleanups, and we need to outsource other tasks to ensure we have expertise and resource available in-house to focus on these." — Tom Etherington, Silverbean
Link building is perilous if done incorrectly. Hence, it must be outsourced to a reputable agency or consultant to avoid potential setbacks necessitating link cleanup.
Are local SEOs outsourcing more in 2016?
Outsourcing can cover any task if done with high quality. The challenge often lies in finding a trusted organization or individual. Thus, we investigated whether SEO outsourcing is becoming more or less common over the years. Among those who outsource, we explored if they were doing so more or less since 2015.
Key findings:
- 60 percent are outsourcing more SEO tasks year on year.
- 20 percent are outsourcing fewer SEO tasks year on year.
Analysis:
Of those outsourcing more tasks, over half are doing so "much more" than in 2015. Conversely, of those outsourcing fewer tasks, exactly half are doing so "much less".
SEO outsourcing increase can be due to the volume of tasks, their complexity, tediousness, or a rise in quality outsourcers. Our 2015 Local SEO Industry survey revealed that an SEO handles 14 clients on average, with over 20 percent handling more than 31 clients. The traditional role of an SEO has evolved over the years, and outsourcing allows consultants or agencies to compete with larger competitors on a manageable budget by offering services they might not handle in-house.
What are the pros & cons of SEO outsourcing?
PROS
- Cost efficiency in outsourcing certain types of work compared to handling in-house.
- Offloading mundane or repetitive tasks can free up internal resources for complex tasks.
- Hiring specialists can be more efficient than handling tasks internally.
- Outsourcing can facilitate business scalability and client acquisition, enabling smaller agencies to compete with larger competitors.
- Easier to terminate unsatisfactory outsourced work relationships than with salaried employees.
CONS
- Expensive, especially on tight deadlines for highly technical tasks.
- Reduced control over processes.
- Finding skilled freelancers or companies is challenging, particularly in niches like local SEO.
- Can undermine the opportunity to learn new skills or manage time effectively.
- Managing remote staff or freelancers can be challenging due to cultural or language barriers.
- Poor quality work by freelancers or companies can have devastating results, such as penalties from shady link building activities.
In conclusion, while outsourcing has multiple benefits, it requires careful consideration to ensure high-quality work and the selection of reputable outsourcers.
