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The services of an SEO company have been most needed in recent years. Optimizing your site for search engines to achieve higher placement in search results will definitely increase traffic into your site, increase your number of customers and eventually improve profits. While search engine optimization is a process that you can do your best to learn about, in many cases, it is most sensible to hire a reputable SEO company instead. As in many other business decisions that you need to make, resorting for outside help will require you some additional investment in terms of time and money. So, the main question to ask is: is it worth it to hire an SEO company?

There are some pros and cons involved when you do SEO yourself, there are about just as much if you get outside help through an SEO company. It is important that you thoroughly consider these factors before you go on hiring an SEO company to help you.

DIY SEO

Advantages

When you optimize your site on your own, you will save more and you will learn a lot about running a website. Aside from this, you will retain complete command and control over your site and you may feel comfortable about it.

Disadvantages

It takes much time and effort to learn about how to properly optimize a website. Not only that, SEO is an ongoing process which needs continuous maintenance and regular managing. If do not know much about SEO practices, search engine guidelines and programming knowledge but would like to increase your site ranking in no time, you might be tempted to use spamming tactics to make this happen. When you do so, you stand the risk of search engines permanently banning your site.

Hiring an SEO Company

Advantages

Hiring outside help will allow you to maintain your focus on the main function and core competency of your business. You will entrust the SEO part of your site to an SEO company made up of professionals who are armed with the right knowledge, tools and resources that you might not have. Your SEO company will become your partner and it will help you to further achieve the most out of your investment.

Disadvantages

Hiring an SEO will cost you money. You also need to spend some time in explaining your goals and participating in the entire SEO process. In addition, you have to do your research to find the best SEO company which will be able to provide you with reliable services.

Selecting an SEO Company

Once you have decided to hire an SEO company, it is time to look around for one. A reliable SEO company will have a good reputation and should have some industry presence. You can start your search by asking colleagues, visiting popular SEO forums, contacting site owners of pages you frequently visit for good recommendations.

Make a list of all the SEO firms that turn up then do your research about each of them. Cross out the ones which have used black hat or spamming techniques, the ones who do not offer all the services you may need, the companies which charge more than you can afford, those that can't provide references, or those that don't respond to your query within 24 hours. These are firms which either do not fit your needs, are not reliable enough or just too busy to give you quality customer service.

Consider cost to be an important factor. Choose a company that has worked on businesses similar to yours in scope and size. An SEO company, who has worked on a concept like yours, can most likely offer you quality services that will fit your budget. However, cost should not be the sole contributing factor to the decision. The reliability of the SEO company should be examined with scrutiny as well. Asking references is often an easy way to know firm's credibility. The firm should be more than happy to provide references. The relationship you will establish with your SEO company will be a long term one so make sure you only work with one that you are comfortable dealing with on a regular basis.

The pros and cons of DIY and hiring an SEO company for your SEO needs can vary depending on your business's capacity, budget and goals. However, as long as SEO is done well, either by you or a good SEO company, search engine optimization is by far one of the most effective ways of promoting your business and generating more sales.