Search engine optimization (SEO) is widely considered as one of the most powerful digital marketing strategies for growing any business of any nature and size. How it is done, though, depends on the scale of the organization, particularly of their website.
For large companies with a plethora of webpages for each of their products and services, achieving success through SEO means investing a great deal of time and in-house resources, which could last for months or even years depending on their desired project goals.
To alleviate the cost- and time-burden and remain competitive in the organic search, it has become a trend for enterprises to outsource their SEO to agencies situated in countries like the Philippines – hence the rise of Enterprise SEO Outsourcing.
Enterprise SEO Outsourcing is an efficient and cost-effective way for large companies to have an actionable and scalable SEO strategy uniquely formulated for their business. Succeeding in using this approach, however, depends on how strategic you structure the outsourcing program and how capable your chosen SEO outsourcing agency is.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some tips and tricks that will ensure that your enterprise SEO outsourcing program will work for your organization.
1. Assign a Manager from In-House Staff
Like other outsourcing projects, enterprise SEO outsourcing requires someone from your own roster to oversee the agency’s efforts throughout the project and make timely decisions along the way.
Many enterprises fail to realize this, but not having in-house personnel to oversee the whole outsourcing project can lead to irreversible and costly mishaps on the part of the agency, and unmet objectives for the company.
When assigning personnel for the project, it is best to choose someone who has ample knowledge about SEO and the business functions that will be outsourced, so he/she can provide the outsourced SEO employees with the most accurate and reliable information required to kick-off all the SEO legwork.
2. Clarify the Roles with the Agency
It is also equally important to know everyone on the agency who will be working on your enterprise SEO project. Basically, the team should be able to fulfill the following roles:
- Project Leader – The key team player that will put an overarching SEO strategy in place, keep track of all initiatives, and will relay technical concepts and implementation both to the client’s internal lead manager and outsourced SEO team.
- Outreach and Link Building Staff – These are the people who will communicate and forge an on-going relationship with relevant bloggers and influencers that will create valuable opportunities for content distribution and promotion.
- Content Writers – These team players must have the content marketing and SEO acumen to effectively create engaging content pieces such as blogs, whitepapers, infographics, web copies, and email newsletters, among others.
- Graphic Designers – Having a pair or more of creative graphic designers is crucial to elevating text copies, designing enticing web pages, and creating visual assets for outreach campaigns.
- Account Management – The agency should also provide you with a dependable staff that will manage issues in the project as they arise, and present potential opportunities that could help maximize your outsourcing investment.
3. Check if the Agency Have a Capable Enterprise SEO Platform
Enterprise SEO platforms are usually subscription-based tools used to track the performance of an enterprise’ website and pages. Compared to basic SEO tools, enterprise-grade SEO tools have advanced features like international enterprise rank tracking and APIs for third-party data integration and management. They are also updated in near real-time by their developers, so they are capable of providing the most accurate performance reporting fit for an enterprise.
Some of the leading enterprise SEO platforms are:
- SEMRush
- BrightEdge
- Conductor
- SearchMetrics
- DeepCrawl
When used strategically, enterprise SEO platforms can make a large-scale SEO project more manageable, so it is a standard to choose an outsourcing agency with such a tool in place. It’s also important that the agency has significant experience using them; you can verify so by asking them on how they plan to use the platform to benefit your company and improve your bottom line.
4. Ensure that the Agency Uses a Project Management System
Indeed, an organized project is a project less likely to have problems. If you aim to execute the enterprise SEO outsourcing program as seamless and organized as possible, it is crucial that your chosen agency use project management that everyone in the team can access easily – even if they are outside the office.
At Digital Marketing Philippines, we use BaseCamp as our project management tool because of its intuitive interface that even the novices can easily navigate, plus it is cloud-based. There are many other options in the market, but what’s important is that your chosen agency should take time to guide your in-house personnel in using this platform.
5. Request for a Sample Report
Before diving straight into signing a contract, it’s also imperative that you have your expectations in line with what the agency can actually deliver, especially when it comes to SEO performance reports.
To gain a better insight into what their SEO performance report includes, you can request a sample from the agency and see if it includes the data that actually matters to your campaign.
Doing so will not only ensure you will get customized report relevant to your project objectives but also help you compare that report to other agencies you are currently vetting.
6. Run the Outsourcing Partnership One Action at a Time
Thinking that enterprise SEO outsourcing should instantly fix all that is wrong with your website can be a fatal mistake. Like in any outsourcing projects, rushing things out in enterprise SEO can lead to some fundamental aspects to be overlooked, and for many long-term opportunities to be missed.
The common success factor between any SEO work of any scale is patience. Even with enterprise SEO, a website that aims to be competitive in the long-run will require an investment of time and money – or both. If you focus too much of your investments into SEO, hoping that it would deliver your skyrocket results immediately, you are quickly setting yourself up for disappointment.
Also, your website may not be appropriately tweaked to accommodate that instant spike in traffic. If you make SEO changes to your website all at once, then it might not be able to convert those visitors into buyers effectively, so speeding up the process will only going to aggravate your losses.
Conclusion
When done right, enterprise SEO outsourcing cannot just help you achieve better organic search visibility, but also build an online platform that is capable of acquiring new business opportunities and even forming a strategic partnership with other industry players over the long haul. Be sure to implement these tips, and you will be on your way for a successful enterprise SEO outsourcing journey.
Jomer B. Gregorio is a well-rounded expert when it comes digital marketing. Jomer is also known as a semantic SEO evangelist and practitioner. Check out our Digital Marketing Services today and let us help you in achieving positive and profitable results for your business.