SEO, handle it in house, hire an outside provider? What are the pros and cons? Well, meet my two friends: time and money.
Start by asking yourself, “how much time do I have?” If the answer is anything like, “None. I’m jam packed”, well…you don’t have time for search engine optimization.
Now, ask yourself, “can I afford to hire one, two, maybe three people at a combined cost of roughly $230,000 annually, just to have some search engine optimization professionals under my thumb?”
Maybe you can, maybe you can’t, but then you need to be honest with yourself about your own knowledge base and capacity. If your job is to be the GM or Marketing Manager of an auto dealership, you’re probably not an SEO specialist. So, even if you could afford the investment of in-house SEO staff, who’s auditing and analyzing data to map out the most informed strategies to determine their actions or gauge their efficacy? Well, this is when you know that hiring a quality marketing partner (who can handle your SEO) is definitely the right way to go.
And I’m not just saying that because it’s self-serving; I’m saying it because I’ve seen it countless times. Auto dealers who try to do it on their own, do a very poor job, and waste years trying to recover what they’ve lost. That said, it’s not universal. I’ve also seen many dealers find success bringing their SEO in house, but it’s not without an investment of time, money, and the expectation of a lengthy and potentially harmful learning curve. It just comes down to deciding which choice (and its built-in burdens) are you willing to bear?