Doing It Yourself vs Hiring a Specialist
Search engine optimisation always divides opinion, with many believing that it’s something best left to the experts, but with others believing that it’s best to do it yourself. The truth is that there are pros and cons of both ways:
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Doing It Yourself
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Hiring a Specialist
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Expertise
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You won’t have the knowledge base of a SEO firm but through putting in the effort a good understanding of SEO can be achieved
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Good SEO companies will know the latest techniques and be able to adjust to industry developments quickly
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Cost
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Relatively cheap – the only expense is buying links
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Can be expensive and is not ideal for cash flow as rankings take a while to be achieved
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Time
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Very time consuming
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SEO company usually deals with everything
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Importance
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If search engine optimisation is just one of many marketing strategies it may be best to initially try optimising your site on your own
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If achieving high search engine rankings is critical to business success it may be wise to recruit the services of a professional SEO firm
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Industry Competitiveness
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If a competitive industry many other companies will have hired SEO firms – it’s not easy to beat them on your own
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In an uncompetitive industry an SEO firm could obtain excellent results. In a competitive industry be careful that the SEO firm does not choose keywords in which they can obtain high rankings but will bring in no traffic
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Risk
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Be careful not to inadvertently get your web site blacklisted by search engines – one frequent way is through duplicate content by not properly redirecting .co.uk domain names to .com
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Some SEO companies use ‘black hat’ methods to achieve good rankings, which can result in search engines banning your web site. Make sure you aren’t recruiting one of these firms.
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