With a global economy, outsourcing to overseas vendors is quickly becoming a popular and widely acceptable practice for USA based businesses. While it is easy to imagine outsourcing your customer support or manufacturing overseas, outsourcing your SEO is a new process entirely. To increase efficiency and focus workplace hours on high value tasks,India is becoming the marketplace of choice to outsource many lower-level business jobs. In order to reduce marketing costs, SEO is now something that a greater number of businesses and organizations are outsourced to India or the Philippines for. But is outsourcing Search Engine Optimization a real-time saver or are USA businesses being burned? Here are a few of the pros and cons of outsourcing your SEO overseas.
One of the biggest reasons that companies choose to outsource their SEO work to India is the lower cost. If you are looking for a cheap way to get some SEO for your business, this is the way to go. However, don't forget the old adage, you get what you pay for.
When you are hiring a firm overseas, you will be able to get a more globalized perspective for your SEO project. This can be great when you are selling products or services worldwide.
When you are hiring SEO professionals in America, you are many times hiring digital marketing professionals who hire out to India anyway.Often times, going straight to the source cuts out the middleman and save money. SEO firms in India just specialize in this one field and they will have a specialized knowledge of individual small tasks within SEO that can save time.
Time, money and specialized skills can be a major benefit to outsourcing. But does outsourcing really save time and SEO expenses when projects are complete?
Dan O’Donnell, President of 2 The Top Marketing, Inc., a top USA SEO agency, recommends keeping all marketing resources geographically close to a business. “The majority of our clients come to us with poor rankings and penalties attached to their websites from outsourcing overseas. Repairing damage can be expensive and time consuming. White-hat, safe and data-driven SEO campaigns are critical for business success and we are accountable to our customers for every marketing decision that we make. A face-to-face meeting, a phone call, a cup of coffee and a hand-shake carries a lot for both parties”.
It is really up to you in the end whether or not you keep your SEO services domestic. While there are some benefits of outsourcing overseas, you need to make sure you are willing to deal with the potential downsides.
The Pros Of Outsourcing SEO Overseas:
Lower cost for SEO services
You will get SEO with a global perspective
The professionals working on your SEO projects will be focused on one task
Time, money and specialized skills can be a major benefit to outsourcing. But does outsourcing really save time and SEO expenses when projects are complete?
The Cons Of Outsourcing SEO Overseas:
Differing time zones
A big issue with outsourcing your SEO to India is the difference in time zones. While your business is in operation, India is dark. Suggestions to edits and order placement can take a full 24 hours to go through based on opposite time zones.This can double the length it takes for projects to be completed. It is important that you figure out your time zone differences before you invest in overseas SEO.Face To Face
In a global economy the days of looking a customer in the eye and shaking their hand for a vote of confidence is quickly disappearing. Doing business with a vendor that you can speak to on the phone, take a flight and meet in person or even connect with for a cup of coffee can be worth gold. It really comes down to accountability. An overseas vendor will never meet you, you don’t even know their real name and they can bail out of a project with little to no ramifications. Hiring an SEO agency in the U.S. means that they are accountable for the work they complete. Poor work will result in poor reviews on Google, a bad Better Business Bureau profile or even a court appearance for breaking a large contract.Dan O’Donnell, President of 2 The Top Marketing, Inc., a top USA SEO agency, recommends keeping all marketing resources geographically close to a business. “The majority of our clients come to us with poor rankings and penalties attached to their websites from outsourcing overseas. Repairing damage can be expensive and time consuming. White-hat, safe and data-driven SEO campaigns are critical for business success and we are accountable to our customers for every marketing decision that we make. A face-to-face meeting, a phone call, a cup of coffee and a hand-shake carries a lot for both parties”.
There are certain firms in India that are unethical
First, India does not abide by U.S. business laws and broken contracts or damage done to your business with unethical marketing will be nearly impossible to recover in a court of law. It is important that you really do your research when you are trying to outsource your SEO to India. You need to invest your resources into an ethical SEO firm that doesn't practice black hat SEO that could get you in big trouble with Google rankings. Neil Patel, an SEO Guru, suggests requiring several test pieces, “Ask for a blog post or one chapter of a white paper” to verify the quality of work. Better yet, ask for recommendations and speak with past and current clients before hiring a vendor.Language barriers or lack of specialized knowledge
Language barriers can be a big issue when you are trying to get specialized content for very specific work completed for your site. Your visitors are going to know that your content wasn't written by a native English speaker and describing project needs can be difficult when English is not a first language. This can quickly increase the number of edits required to complete a project and get work done accurately. Also, if you are in a specialized field, these SEO firms may not have the knowledge needed to run a specialized SEO campaign for your business.Slow turn-around times
Local SEO companies or digital marketing companies can often take a long time completing projects. Add in language barriers and time zones and projects can be extended for a long period of time. Let’s face it, most businesses want the work done yesterday or as fast as possible. Project creep costs businesses revenue and man-power. If you are in need to SEO quickly, outsourcing to India might be the way to go. This will give you the ability to place rush orders that will be completed quickly. These are just a few of the many different pros and cons of outsourcing your SEO to India.It is really up to you in the end whether or not you keep your SEO services domestic. While there are some benefits of outsourcing overseas, you need to make sure you are willing to deal with the potential downsides.
