SEO Consultant VS SEO Agency: When To Hire One for SEO Needs

Artistic picture of the word SEO

Approximately 64% of marketers regularly devote time to streamlining their SEO strategy. From improving organic traffic to enhancing user experience and conversions, good SEO is one of the most important components of developing an effective website. The pandemic has forced more people to find solutions online, and as a result, the level of competition has skyrocketed, causing businesses to tweak their SEO efforts. If your site is not performing well, it is time you considered hiring an SEO agency to save the day. The big question is, when do you seek the services of an SEO consultant, and when do you opt for an agency?

When To Hire an SEO Consultant

You may be just beginning to realize that your in-house SEO investment is not converting as desired, and you can’t afford to fall behind. 75% of users never view beyond the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs). Considering that many of your competitors are likely already ahead, taking your game to the next level is a necessity. A good SEO consultant will audit your site, pinpoint areas of improvement, and establish what needs to be done. See the following situations that necessitate seeking the services of a consultant: 

When You Need To Rethink Your Business Structure

Generalization is never a good idea unless you have what it takes to become Amazon or Alibaba. As such, a great SEO campaign starts with establishing your niche. To discern this, your SEO consultant will:

  • Consider your passion, skill set, ideas, and dreams.
  • Pinpoint available market opportunities and define your target audience. 
  • Narrow down, factor in potential competitors, and use available tools to test the niche.

When You Need a Keyword Overhaul

The stepping stone to creating content within your niche that will engage and generate leads is conducting exhaustive keyword research. SEO consultants are experienced in this and will be able to pinpoint precisely what potential customers search for and how best to beat competitors for these keywords in the SERPs. They can advise you on optimal placement and how to use these keywords to derive vital marketing insights

When You Need Keyword Mapping

Mapping is the process of determining how best to rank every individual page for the ideal keywords. Of course, you can do this yourself or seek a freelancer for the same, but you are likely to have limited success. On the contrary, SEO consultants know how best to do keyword mapping, and they have the latest resources and tools at their disposal. If they are not equipped to offer that service, they may advise you to hire an SEO agency. While issues like keyword cannibalization may be relatively new to you, a consultant’s job revolves around advising against such common mistakes.

Through these analytics, market insights, audits, personalized strategies, implementation, and management, an SEO consultant can be the difference between failure and success. 

When To Hire an SEO Agency 

As excellent as the services of an SEO consultant are, there are times when you’ll benefit from working with an agency. Let’s examine some situations that are best served by hiring an SEO agency

When Looking for Long-Term Success

Have you ever noticed that many pages that appear on the first page of Google are more than 3 years old? With countless pages being created every day, you might wonder why this is the case. Well, the answer is simple — they optimized their keywords for long-term success. 

Armed with your keywords, analytics, and a budget, you can pass the baton to an SEO agency, and they will take their time to build SEO that will be relevant for years to come. Besides, the agency will be in charge of your site’s content, which means it will be updating existing content as years go by as well as add new optimized content, all geared towards the long-term success of your site and business at large.

When You Have Too Much on Your Plate

SEO writer developing content

Running a successful site is just one component of your business. A lot more business activities go into running a successful enterprise. Let’s say you sell spare vehicle parts — you have to oversee the development of optimized automotive content, but you also have to attend meetings with your carrier company to discuss a shipping deal for the next 5 years. Naturally, you might struggle to keep all the balls in the air. But if you hire an SEO agency, it will relieve you of all content struggles so that you can focus on other equally essential tasks.

When Your Link Building Efforts Struggle

As your SEO consultant may point out, 41% of experts agree that link building is the most challenging component of SEO, yet we all know how essential it is. Link building can help your business in the following ways:

  • Create mutually beneficial business-to-business relationships that also leverage guest posting
  • Boost your rankings on Google search and improve traffic, especially if you are linked to a relatively more vibrant site
  • Demonstrate authority in your niche, bolstering brand growth and enhancing your ability to sell your products and services. 

SEO agencies will also optimize content for mobile phones and provide augmented solutions and technology, all geared towards driving organic traffic. 

It’s Better To Centralize

The focus of an SEO consultant is to find ways to streamline your SEO, but they could have departments for implementation. However, agencies tend to have solutions to everything concerning online presence. Even better, it is advantageous to centralize everything from design to content to SEO and marketing. There are companies out there that will relieve you of all stress related to your website so you can focus on other things. Hiring such a company might seem expensive at the onset of your relationship but could be lucrative in the long term. 

As you know, SEO is a dynamic industry. Leveraging the individual elements of SEO is what counts in the end, which means the more you do in the right way, the better the results are likely to be. Most business owners probably lack all the skills needed to excel at SEO; you might be great at placing keywords but know nothing about result-oriented link building, for instance. And that is precisely why you need an SEO consultant or even could benefit from hiring an SEO agency. They know the industry in and out, so they will capture SEO changes and trends as they come, potentially keeping your site ahead of competitors. 

There’s so much to learn about SEO, and while we can’t all be experts, having sound resources to find out more is a huge help. SEO Best Service Companies updates its blog regularly with helpful articles on everything you need to know about the industry. Follow our posts to stay abreast of the latest trends.