Question: Should my growing company hire an SEO professional? Why or why not?
Question: Should my growing company hire an SEO professional? Why or why not?
Yes: Worth It for Attracting Talent Alone
"If your company is growing, your top priority is attracting the right talent. Recruitment options range from hiring recruiters (expensive) to posting jobs (ineffective) to relying on employee networks (limited). Hiring someone to create a SEO strategy around attracting talent is worth it alone when compared to the other recruiting options. Plus, they can attract customers as effectively as talent."
@BrettFarmiloe
Yes: Critical for Building a Foundation
"SEO is especially crucial in the early stages of business when you are laying your foundation. A good SEO consultant will help you design your website in an SEO friendly way so it ranks well. As you build your online presence, your website will become a key component of your inbound marketing strategy. It will help you attract leads and nurture them into paying customers."
@nicolemunoz
Yes: If You Build It, You'll Need SEO
"SEO can help with traffic and awareness, so it's relevant to any growing company. If you build it, people don't just come -- unless you've optimized. If you have limited budget, you can start with an audit and action plan to inject into your own content strategies. Then grow into a more robust, fully managed program over time or as your budget allows. When done right, it's a cost-effective marketing channel."
@realideal
Depends: You Need Content First
"Getting found online should be a priority, especially for a growing company. Hiring an SEO will help with that. But assuming you have a limited budget, start by working on a content strategy. Think about value that you can provide to potential customers and create content to do so. For example, answer questions, create how-to's, informative infographics, etc. Do this and SEO will be easy."
@FiveFifty
Yes: It's Part of Online Marketing
"SEO is only one part of the huge world of online marketing. I recommend having an online marketer on your team as soon as you have a web presence. Try to hire one with knowledge of organic and paid forms of marketing."
@cardcash
No: Focus on Social Web
"While the old web is built upon the strength of search optimization, the new web is built around social. If you’re investing in someone to expand your reach, I recommend hiring someone strong in building social communities and leveraging social ads, specifically for Facebook and Twitter. Search is still important, but much of our growth is coming from leveraging opportunities in social."
@emersonspartz
YES: SEO Can Create and Grow a Company
"As the CEO of an online business, there has been nothing more important to our success than SEO. I am an SEO (that's my background) and it allowed me to grow a multi-million dollar business. I would always suggest bringing an SEO in-house, because it will greatly benefit your company. If you're looking for one outside it, you'll need to do heavy due diligence and ask the right questions first."
@pablopalatnik
Maybe: Only if Your Company Is Ready
"Don't get too hasty in searching for and hiring SEO talent. Although having a SEO can put your company out there quickly and successfully, there are also many ways that you can easily optimize your search presence on your own. Strategies such as creating original content, using searchable keywords in titles and content, ensuring fast page load time and more can be used to optimize engine presence."
@milesj
Yes: But Make Sure They Can Also Do More
"It would be good if your SEO person at least knew SEM at a minimum, but preferably online analytics as well. This way you can keep them busy continually and get extra value from the hire. If you're early stage, there are some simple SEO tactics that you can apply to your site in order to rank better. Most online marketers or developers know the basics which include keywords, titles, etc."
@andykaruza
