Should You Hire An Independent SEO Consultant?
Setting up your own online business is a pretty awesome thing. It’s a decision only a few select people take courage to make. It’s a gamble, you see. Then again, so are any kinds of business. It involves taking risks and leaps of faith. It means having to invest time, effort, and money. Really, if I were just to list down all the things required for a business to take off, I’d end up with one too many. This is especially true when we talk about businesses online.
So, what’s the big deal anyway? What makes an online business so different from an offline one?
Well, many of you would probably beg to differ when I say that online businesses have it rougher than offline ones. I mean, shouldn’t there be less risk involved with an online business? The manpower requirement is low, there is no rent, and the owner doesn’t have to worry about improving or beautifying an office or retail store. After hearing all that, an online business definitely sounds more advantageous right?
WRONG.
Online stores may be convenient in a lot of ways but they’re a lot harder to manage. The biggest challenge of it all is the heightened competition (read more). When you open a mini grocery shop downtown, you compete with neighboring stores that do the same business as you – convenience stores, one-stop shops, and supermarkets. But how many can there be? There’ll probably be just one, two – or maybe even five. But hey, it’s still totally doable. You can definitely compete against those using normal strategies (e.g. flash sales, discount offers, free items, etc.).
Now, try opening the same shop online. I tell you, you won’t just be surprised – you’ll be shocked to see just how many online grocery stores there are worldwide. And to make matters all the more challenging, most of them ship internationally too. Going against these giants is definitely a semi-suicide mission – with around 2{1ee0f0e63dc942ba3d284f59affb8525051230b659b52e4cd35a42f4103bcb75} of the odds going in your favor.
This is what makes online businesses very hard to operate. Sure, you’ve got no rent. Sure, you don’t need too much manpower. But if you’re good as invisible, how do you even plan on making a profit? Know more about the daily struggles of online establishments here: https://www.whoishostingthis.com/blog/2017/07/27/ecommerce-problems/.
Luckily, a silver lining still exists for business owners. There is still a way for them to claim the limelight.
And this ray of hope is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
What Is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a marketing strategy that primarily targets search engines. The basic premise is that if you rank higher on search engines, the higher your ROI will be.
People largely do their activities online nowadays – from shopping to socializing, bills payment and information gathering. And the most common mediums they use to surf online and locate certain websites are search engines like Google and Yahoo. Businesses that land in the first results page will undoubtedly do better than businesses that end up in other pages (page two and up). People are not akin to the idea of searching for too long, after all. Search engines present them with the most qualified results on the first page so why should they bother looking for information elsewhere? Make sense?
SEO integrates a combination of techniques to make your website look more appealing to search engines (find out more). It builds your website authority and affiliation through clean methods to earn your business a good spot in the SERPS. The higher your website rank is, the greater the number of visitors. This gives you the advantage of landing more leads and conversions.
Who Does SEO?
SEO is a learned skill (maybe craft is a better word for it). We have SEO professionals who have trained and honed their skills in SEO through years of experience and research. SEO is rather volatile so practitioners have to constantly update themselves with the latest trends to keep up with it.
Now, some businesses form their own SEO team. While it may work for them, I still advise new businesses to outsource their SEO activities to Independent SEO Consultants instead. Yes, just like VivaTraffic – company for SEO Outsourcing.
Why is this so?
Hiring an entire SEO team and creating your own SEO department right off the bat can be very costly. It is inefficient and may result in extreme losses – especially when you hire the wrong people. Outsourcing, on the other hand, will help you minimize cost. Other than paying for the service, you don’t have any other responsibility. You also have the option to terminate the service if you are unsatisfied with the results. If you see things this way, outsourcing is definitely far beneficial than hiring actual employees – don’t you think?