Delegating Link Development: Outsource or In-house?
The need for great links is essential in getting Search Engine Optimization to work. There are many ways to get these links but most Webmasters find they haven’t the time to spend hours each day building links to their sites. That’s why one of the first question’s that ever gets asked about link building is; do I delegate this in-house or outsource?
If you choose to outsource you should be aware that many firms that provide link development will often use under-trained people working with software programs tat crawl the Web automatically sending out emails to other Webmasters. As you’d expect this doesn’t provide quality links. If anything you might find yourself receiving email complaints instead.
Having said that, not everyone has the inclination to hire or train a link developer in-house. So, if you do choose to outsource here are a few questions you will want to ask.
1. How do you develop links?
2. Do you use automated programs?
3. What link types do you produce, one-way, reciprocal?
4. Do you plan to place links on networks you own?
5. How do you assess potential link partners?
6. What training do you provide your link developers?
7. Are you willing to sign a confidentiality agreement?
8. What is the average number of links your developers generate weekly?
9. What is the cost per link?
This will help you determine the company’s professionalism and the quality of links you would expect to get.
The problem with outsourcing is your dependency on someone who lacks the specific knowledge of your business. They may establish links with inappropriate sites, they may not take due care in dealing with sites involved in the same industry as you, they may be unwieldy in their link development – using too many instances of the same anchor for example. Sometimes the only solution is to sit down with the external link developer and ‘train’ them in your specific needs, but why would you do that with another company’s employee? Someone who may well perform link building for your competitors?
Bringing the development in-house is time consuming but far more productive in the longer term as the numbers and quality of the links generated will be much more beneficial than using an out-sourced firm. Hiring and training them requires time and effort but that’s where the Search Engine Optimization Report comes in.
The report will help you identify good links from bad and will help them to find those good links in the future. It will provide you with a list of the different types of links you may need to find. One-way, reciprocal, article submissions, message board posts, etc. It will provide detailed methodologies on how to find those links including all the usual search engine commands. Methods of tracking back links from your competitor’s sites.
Guidelines for reciprocal linking, to ensure the linked pages are clean of ‘nofollow’ tags for example. It will provide you with examples of links tailored to your specific informational needs. It will also provide good working knowledge and examples of good anchor text, and simple methodologies of how to buy links.
In short, the report will give you detailed information that you can use to train and organise your in-house SEO staff and ensure that the business knowledge you have will be used to enhance your presence on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP’s) and not your competitors.
The bottom line is whether you choose to outsource or train in-house, the Search Engine Optimization Report gives you valuable information to assess the quality of work either way.
For more information or to order your search engine optimization audit call us on 0800 066 4366 or send us an email.