If you don’t want to deal with SEO issues, that’s fine; some people have a knack for or interest in stuff that others simply don’t share. But do yourself a favor and keep an eye on the final product.
Loren Baker brought up the issue of outsourcing yesterday. Again, there’s nothing wrong with the concept, but a lot of money can be lost depending on how many levels the hand-off goes through. When a company shows you a shiny new building, then hires another company that hires another company with a guy “working in a basement office with mattresses on the floor,” you’re likely overpaying.
Even aside from the cost, there can be issues with this scenario. The basement guy may not have all the formal training and up-to-date equipment you were led to expect. Or his tactics may not be as “white hat” as you’d like.
This isn’t to say you need to be on a first-name basis with an outside firm’s every employee, or check in on your own guys (or girls) every five minutes if tasks get handed off in a more limited fashion. Just stay aware of the situation.
And as one last note: in the event this leads you to consider using software instead of people, well . . . think again.
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April 5th, 2008 at 3:32 am
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head here. We should always be careful about who’s really doing the work and how it’s being done.
April 8th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
I don’t think you should necessarily avoid outsourcing SEO, but you have to make sure the person/company you use knows what they’re talking about, and you should definitely be pushing quality over quantity. It’s when companies start asking for crazy things that SEOs are essentially forced to turn away the work or re-outsource it to even cheaper labor and more questionable methods.
April 14th, 2008 at 4:52 am
While I’m sure there are plenty of good SEOs out there, most of the people I’ve seen have pretty unreasonable performance demands for what they’re paying - to the point that the work almost has to be outsourced to the cheapest foreign labor to get done (and not usually very well). That doesn’t make it right, but it means you should definitely ask a lot of questions when you’re shopping for SEO services.
May 11th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
seo is being not ending.
June 10th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Hmmnn This is one of the area I really get confused about. There are too many technical details involved and I don’t really enjoy working on those details. I enjoy writing and interacting with human beings.
So I had been consoling myself that when I get enough fund I will simply outsource and then go to sleep. This little article has shown how foolish that decision is. I would have just wasted money.
I guess I have to understand enough SEO to determine that the job outsourced is well done. If I get you right, that is one responsibility that any serious webmaster cannot run away from.
Good post, thanks for the tip.