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Should I Hire an In-House SEO professional? or Stick with a Consultant.

Here is some food for thought:

1. Costs of moving in-house versus engaging an outside vendor
2. Ability to find a qualified SEM professional who can handle all of the myriad of changes that happen very quickly within this field, and
3. Consideration of a combination of in-house and “outsourcing.”

Let’s take a quick look at each of these scenarios.

The Costs Associated with Moving In-House

Do you have enough work to keep a full-time SEM let alone a whole SEM department busy? If not you could be costing yourself money both in hard dollars and morale. If you have employees that are overworked in one area, they could become frustrated if they see Mr. SEO working a leisurely schedule.

Finding Qualified SEM Professionals who WANT to work In-House

SEO consulting can be lucrative which means it can be more difficult to find a qualified professional that wants to work in-house. Also, there is much more demand than there is supply for SEM professionals who have enough experience to handle the job in-house. At the very least, I would make sure that I hired a qualified SEO consultant to interview possible new hires for the position.

Creating an In-House / Consultant Hybrid

Depending on the size of the company, one solution might be to hire a consultant to help you bring this position in-house or you could outsource part of the work and keep part of it in-house. As Jessica Bowman pointed out in a blog post entitled The Challenges Of Bringing Search Marketing In-House, “Corporate attorneys have an outside council to assist with questions, accountants have auditors and SEOs need an SEO consultant that they can reach to with questions, concerns, unique situations and the "what happened" emergencies that pop up every now and again."

Here are a couple more articles that might be helpful in your quest to find the optimal solution:

http://www.allthingssem.com/in-house-seo-or-agency-seo/
How To Structure An In-House SEO Team

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