Trying to manage search engine optimization in-house can feel like playing a game where the rules change every week. One minute, you’re tweaking title tags; the next, you’re deep in technical audits or chasing Google’s latest algorithm mood swing.
On top of that, there’s content to produce, links to build, rankings to monitor, reports to make sense of—and somehow, all of it is supposed to drive real business results. It’s a lot. And unless you’ve got a deep bench of specialists or unlimited time (spoiler: most don’t), it’s easy to fall behind.
That’s where outsourcing SEO starts to look less like a nice-to-have and more like a strategic necessity. But here’s the catch: hiring the wrong search engine optimization service can burn your budget and tank your traffic. You don’t just need help—you need the right kind of help.
By the end of this article, you’ll have a clear framework to figure out whether outsourcing SEO makes sense for your business—and if it does, how to choose a partner who actually moves the needle.
When to Outsource SEO
You don’t have to do it all in-house. In fact, holding on too tightly to SEO can slow your growth more than help it. If you’ve been wrestling with SEO and wondering whether it’s time to bring in external help (freelancers or SEO agencies), here’s how to tell.
1. Organic traffic plateau or decline despite ongoing efforts
You’re publishing content regularly. You’re optimizing pages. You’re doing all the right things—or at least it feels that way. But your organic traffic isn’t growing, or worse, it’s slipping. This is a classic sign that your current SEO strategy has hit a ceiling.
An experienced SEO expert or agency can step in with fresh eyes, audit your content and backlink profile, and pinpoint where your growth is stuck. Sometimes, it’s a technical issue under the surface; other times, it’s your content not aligning with search intent.
Either way, a good external partner will diagnose what’s wrong—and help you fix it faster than you can alone.
2. Technical SEO challenges beyond internal expertise
Technical SEO is a different beast. It’s not just about meta tags and page speed—it’s crawling, indexing, structured data, site architecture, hreflang tags, and more. Unless you’ve got a seasoned technical SEO in-house (and let’s be honest, most teams don’t), these issues can get ignored or half-solved.
And Google’s bots are ruthless—they won’t rank a site they can’t crawl or understand.
Outsourcing to someone (or a team) that specializes in technical SEO means these problems get handled properly without dragging your dev team into a rabbit hole they’re not trained to navigate.
3. Content creation bottlenecks slowing down execution
You might have a killer content strategy, but if you don’t have the bandwidth to execute it, it’s just a plan on paper. Writing high-quality, optimized content at scale takes time, subject-matter expertise, and editorial polish.
If your internal team is drowning in other priorities or constantly missing publishing deadlines, outsourcing SEO can give you the horsepower you need to actually get content out the door—without sacrificing quality or SEO performance.
The right partner will understand both your brand voice and search strategy, so you’re not just publishing more content, but better content.
4. Difficulty keeping up with algorithm updates and industry changes
Google doesn’t exactly send out a memo when it changes the game—and it does so fairly often. In 2024, Google’s algorithms underwent seven official updates—four core updates and three spam updates, not to mention the hundreds of tiny algorithmic tweaks that happen every year.
One update can flip your rankings overnight—and if you’re not plugged into the SEO world 24/7, it’s easy to miss the shifts.
Good SEO specialists and agencies make it their job to stay on top of every core update, every best practice tweak, and every new SERP feature. When you outsource SEO, you’re not just buying services—you’re buying peace of mind that someone’s keeping an eye on the moving target, so you don’t have to.
5. Competitors outranking you in search results
If your competitors are outranking you consistently—even when your content is solid—it’s not just frustrating, it’s expensive. Every missed click is a missed lead or sale.
Outsourcing SEO can help you dissect exactly what your competitors are doing right: Are they earning more backlinks? Targeting different keywords? Structuring their content better?
A smart partner will analyze the competitive landscape and build an SEO strategy that helps you reclaim your spot (and, ideally, leapfrog ahead).
6. Opportunity cost analysis: What else could your team focus on?
Every hour your team spends on SEO is an hour they’re not spending on product, customer experience, or other high-leverage growth initiatives. That’s the opportunity cost most companies overlook.
Outsourcing your SEO isn’t just about getting help—it’s about creating space.
When a trusted partner handles SEO execution, your internal team gets to focus on what they do best. And that shift in focus can often unlock more growth than you’d get from squeezing out a few extra keyword wins in-house.
Read: Should You Hire an SEO Expert?—The Role, Benefits, and Hiring Process Explained
The Real Economics of In-House vs. Outsourced SEO
Outsourcing SEO can reshape your team’s focus, your cost structure, and your growth trajectory. But if you’re comparing it to building an in-house SEO team, the numbers can get fuzzy fast. Here’s a breakdown of the economics of in-house vs. outsourced SEO:
Hidden costs of in-house SEO: Training, tools, salaries, time investment
Building an in-house SEO team seems like a smart investment—until you start adding up everything it actually takes to make it work. Here’s where those costs start to pile up:
- Salaries and benefits: A mid-level SEO specialist typically commands a salary in the range of $56,000 to $97,000 per year, and that’s before you factor in healthcare, retirement contributions, bonuses, and other employee benefits. If you want a more senior strategist or plan to build out a small team, those numbers climb quickly.
- Training and ramp-up time. Even if you hire a seasoned pro, there’s still a learning curve. They’ll need time to understand your business, your audience, your content tone, and your competitive landscape.
- Tool subscriptions. SEO requires a serious toolkit—keyword research platforms, content optimization tools, analytics dashboards, and backlink monitors. If you’re serious about staying competitive, you’ll need to invest in tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, Screaming Frog, Clearscope, Surfer, and others. These SEO tools can easily cost several thousand dollars per year—even for a small team.
- Cross-team time drain. SEO doesn’t live in a vacuum. Your developers get pulled in for technical fixes. Your writers and editors have to work around SEO guidelines. Your marketing team gets roped into building backlinks or managing content calendars. All of that time adds up—and it’s time those teams could’ve spent on other high-impact projects.
- Execution bottlenecks. Hiring in-house doesn’t automatically speed things up. In many cases, small in-house teams get spread too thin, juggling SEO along with ten other responsibilities. That leads to delayed projects, inconsistent output, and SEO strategy fatigue—especially if your team is already stretched.
Common pricing models for outsourced SEO
Not every SEO specialist or agency works the same way, and knowing the standard pricing models can help you choose the one that fits your business goals—and your budget—without surprises down the road.
- Monthly retainer. This is the go-to model for most freelance SEO professionals and SEO agencies. You pay a flat monthly fee for ongoing services that typically include a mix of technical SEO, content strategy, content creation, link building, reporting, and strategic consultation.
It’s a good fit if you need a consistent SEO partner who can handle a broad scope of work, and it allows you to build a rhythm around delivery and results. Most retainers are tiered based on how much support you need and how aggressive your growth goals are.
- Project-based pricing. This structure is ideal when you have a defined SEO need with a clear start and end point—think full-site audits, content refresh initiatives, site migrations, technical cleanup projects, or keyword strategy development.
You pay a one-time fee based on the scope and complexity of the project. This model gives you flexibility if you don’t want an ongoing commitment but need expert execution on specific SEO tasks.
- Performance-based fees. In this model, you pay the freelancer or agency based on the results they deliver—like revenue growth, traffic increases, lead generation, or search rankings.
It sounds appealing, especially if you want to tie cost directly to outcomes. But it can get tricky. Attribution must be airtight, and expectations need to be clearly defined.
Still, this model works well when both parties are confident in the value the SEO efforts will generate—and trust is strong.
ROI comparison: Real-world cost-benefit analysis
So what does this all look like in practice? Let’s put the numbers side by side to see how in-house and outsourced SEO stack up—not just in cost but in how much value you can actually expect to get in return.
Read: Overview of AI in Marketing: SEO/content, personalization & customer engagement
What a Quality SEO Outsourcing Relationship Should Include
Outsourcing SEO isn’t just about handing off tasks—it’s about building a partnership that actually drives results. The right relationship should feel like an extension of your own team, not a black box you hope delivers search rankings someday.
So, if you’re evaluating SEO partners, here’s what a high-quality outsourcing relationship should include:
1. Comprehensive technical SEO audits and fixes
This is where everything starts. Before you worry about keyword research or content calendars, your SEO partner should be digging under the hood of your site to understand how search engines are crawling, indexing, and interpreting your pages.
A strong technical audit looks at site architecture, crawl errors, page speed, mobile usability, duplicate content, structured data, internal linking, and more. But an audit alone isn’t enough. You want a partner who can actually implement or guide the fixes—not just hand you a 30-page PDF and walk away.
The goal here is to create a clean, healthy technical foundation so everything else—content, links, rankings—has a chance to work.
2. Data-driven content strategy and creation
Effective SEO content starts with data. A quality partner will build a strategy that aligns with how your audience searches, what competitors are ranking for, and where your biggest traffic opportunities lie.
They’ll do deep keyword research, analyze content gaps, and identify topic clusters that support both user intent and SEO goals. But strategy without execution is just theory.
You also need writers who can turn those insights into engaging, well-structured content that hits both quality and optimization marks. This means content that’s not just optimized to rank—but built to convert.
3. On-page and off-page optimization
Your SEO partner should be dialing in both sides of the optimization equation. On-page optimization (or on-page SEO) covers everything from metadata and headers to internal linking and content structure. Done well, it helps search engines understand your site and improves user experience at the same time.
Off-page optimization, on the other hand, is all about building credibility and authority. That includes managing your backlink profile, improving brand mentions, and making sure your digital footprint aligns with your search engine optimization goals.
When both sides are handled in sync, you get compound gains—not just isolated improvements.
4. High-quality link building
Link building is still one of the most powerful ranking factors—but not all links are created equal. You want a partner that focuses on quality over quantity and uses white-hat techniques that stand the test of time.
That means outreach-driven links from relevant, reputable websites—not link farms, spam directories, or shady schemes that could get you penalized. Think guest posts on authoritative blogs, digital PR placements, industry partnerships, and earned mentions that make sense contextually.
If a potential partner talks more about volume than quality, that’s a red flag. Real link-building is slow, deliberate, and relationship-driven—and that’s exactly what you want.
5. Local SEO optimization
If you have a physical presence or serve specific geographic markets, local SEO should absolutely be part of the relationship.
That includes optimizing your Google Business Profile, building local citations, gathering reviews, and creating localized content that reflects what people are actually searching for in your area.
A good SEO partner will know how to fine-tune your strategy to boost online visibility in map packs and local results, without diluting your broader organic efforts.
6. Transparent reporting and meaningful KPIs
You shouldn’t have to chase your SEO partner for updates—or decipher vague reports with vanity metrics.
A strong relationship includes regular, transparent reporting that shows what’s working, what’s not, and what’s next. That means tracking meaningful KPIs like organic traffic growth, keyword rankings, conversions from organic search, backlink acquisition, and engagement metrics tied to content.
Bonus points if your partner also provides clear explanations behind the data—so your team isn’t just looking at charts but actually understanding the story behind the numbers.
7. Ongoing strategic consultation
SEO isn’t a one-time project; it’s a moving target. A high-quality partner doesn’t just execute tasks—they advise you. That means regular strategy calls, insights on market trends, recommendations when Google rolls out an update, and proactive pivots when something’s not working.
They should be helping you zoom out, assess the bigger picture, and adjust your SEO roadmap as your business evolves. This kind of partnership turns SEO from a cost center into a real growth driver.
Read: How to Predict and Measure SEO ROI
Case study
If you’re thinking about outsourcing SEO but unsure where to start, try hiring an SEO expert. At MarketerHire, we give you access to our talent pool of pre-vetted marketing professionals, including fractional SEO experts.
Our process is simple: You tell us your hiring needs, and we match you with the ideal SEO expert in as little as 48 hours.
We did it for an established roofing company in New Hampshire that wasn’t popping up on the SERPs when folks searched keyphrases like “roof replacement near me” or “EPDM roofing contractor.”
Despite having a sleek website and a strong local reputation, this company relied mostly on paid traffic, which didn’t always translate to sales. So, the owner reached out to us to find an SEO marketer who understood the roofing industry and could help him capture local search demand.
Within a few days, we paired him with a seasoned SEO marketer named Nour, who had 17 years of experience helping local businesses increase their organic visibility. In the initial scoping session, Nour identified several issues that were diminishing the roofing company’s online visibility, including an unclaimed Bing Places profile, bad content structure, and site speed issues.
The owner immediately hired Nour to help him rectify these issues and lay a strong foundation for SEO success.
Read: Hire a Local SEO Expert for Your Business in 2025
Types of SEO Service Providers: Finding Your Best Match
Not all SEO providers are built the same, and that’s a good thing. Depending on your goals, budget, and internal resources, the right partner for you might look very different from the one your competitor chooses.
The key is understanding what each type of provider brings to the table so you can make an informed decision that fits your business—not just your budget.
1. Full-service digital marketing agencies: Best for Integrated Strategies
If you’re looking for a one-stop shop that can handle more than just SEO, full-service digital marketing agencies are often the go-to choice. These agencies offer SEO alongside paid media, social media, content marketing, email, web design, and sometimes even branding.
The big upside here is integration—you get a cohesive strategy that connects SEO to other channels, which can lead to better attribution, smarter messaging, and stronger ROI across the board. This is ideal if you’re looking to scale multiple marketing functions at once or need strategic alignment across SEO campaigns.
However, the trade-off is that SEO might not always be the agency’s core specialty, so you’ll want to vet their depth of SEO expertise specifically.
2. SEO specialist agencies: Focused expertise for businesses that need deep SEO knowledge
Unlike full-service agencies, SEO specialist agencies live and breathe search. They’re laser-focused on rankings, organic traffic, technical audits, link building, content optimization, and all the nuances of the search landscape.
If SEO is a major growth lever for your business—or you’ve already got internal teams handling other marketing channels—this type of partner often delivers the most depth and precision. Specialist SEO agencies typically have stronger technical chops, more advanced strategies, and tighter feedback loops when it comes to algorithm changes and competitive shifts.
They’re a great fit when you need serious SEO horsepower without distractions from other marketing services.
3. Freelance SEO consultants: Cost-effective for smaller businesses
Freelancers can be a smart choice if you’re a smaller business or startup trying to get traction without breaking the bank.
A good freelance SEO consultant brings deep knowledge, flexible pricing, and a more hands-on working relationship than most SEO agencies. You’re not paying for overhead—you’re paying directly for their time and expertise. That can be a huge plus when your budget is tight, but you still need strategy and execution support.
The challenge, of course, is scale. One person can only do so much, so if your needs grow quickly or you require support across multiple areas (technical, content, link building, analytics), you might outgrow a freelancer faster than you think. But for targeted help—like strategy development, site audits, or content briefs—they can be incredibly effective.
💡 Pro tip: You can definitely hire multiple freelance experts to handle growing work or other parts of your marketing functions.
4. Industry-specific SEO providers: Specialized SEO for e-commerce, SaaS, legal, healthcare, etc.
Some SEO partners carve out a niche by focusing on specific industries—and for good reason. SEO for e-commerce stores looks wildly different from SEO for SaaS, healthcare, or legal companies. The keywords are different. The user intent is different. The content formats and technical requirements are different.
Industry-specific providers bring domain knowledge that generalist agencies might miss. They know what drives search behavior in your space, which competitors matter most, what content formats actually convert, and what compliance or technical standards apply.
If you operate in a highly regulated or niche market, this kind of specialized expertise can shave months off your learning curve and drive faster results.
5. Offshore vs. Onshore SEO providers: Weighing cost vs. expertise
One of the biggest decisions you’ll face is whether to go with an offshore provider (often more affordable) or an onshore provider (typically more expensive but closer to your market).
Offshore teams—often based in places like India, the Philippines, or Eastern Europe—can deliver significant cost savings, especially for labor-intensive work like content production or link outreach. But those savings can come at the cost of language nuance, market familiarity, or time zone challenges.
Onshore providers, on the other hand, tend to have a deeper cultural context, faster response times, and tighter alignment with local search trends. The best choice depends on your internal capabilities and quality control systems.
Some businesses even go hybrid—using offshore teams for execution and onshore consultants for strategy and quality oversight.
Read: 15 SEO Skills to Look for When Hiring an Expert in 2025
12 Critical Questions to Ask Before Outsourcing SEO
Choosing an SEO partner is about finding someone who fits your business, communicates clearly, and actually knows what they’re doing.
The best way to get clarity upfront? Ask the right questions before you sign anything.
The questions below aren’t just to help you check boxes—they’re filters to separate real SEO pros from surface-level sellers.
1. Do you have experience in my industry?
SEO isn’t one-size-fits-all. An SEO expert or agency that’s worked in your industry will understand your audience, your competitors, and your search landscape better. Ask for real case studies—they’ll tell you more than buzzwords ever will.
2. How do you approach technical SEO?
This question reveals whether they actually understand how search engines work under the hood. Look for a structured SEO process—SEO audits, diagnostics, implementation support—not vague talk about “making your site faster.”
3. What’s your content creation process? (Who writes? What’s the review process?)
You need to know who’s producing your content, how they ensure quality, and how involved your internal team will need to be (if you have one). Great SEO content isn’t just keyword-stuffed—it’s useful, polished, and on-brand.
4. How do you build backlinks? (Avoid SEO agencies that use black-hat tactics.)
This one’s non-negotiable. Ask them to walk you through their link-building methods. If it sounds spammy or automated, run. You want earned links from reputable sources—not cheap tricks that could get you penalized.
5. What reporting and transparency can I expect?
You shouldn’t be left guessing what’s happening. Ask how often they report, what SEO metrics they share, and whether you’ll have access to real-time dashboards or SEO tools.
6. How often do we communicate, and through what channels?
Communication frequency and format set the tone for your whole partnership. Whether it’s weekly Zooms, Slack messages, or monthly check-ins—make sure it works for your workflow.
7. What contract terms and performance guarantees do you offer?
Avoid getting locked into a long-term contract without a clear performance roadmap. Ask about minimum terms, cancellation policies, and whether they offer any service-level guarantees.
8. How do you stay up to date with Google algorithm changes?
SEO evolves constantly. A serious provider should have a clear process—whether it’s internal training, memberships in SEO communities, or ongoing research—to stay ahead of the curve.
9. What tools do you use for tracking performance?
Their answer tells you a lot about how they measure success. Look for tools you recognize (e.g., Ahrefs, SEMrush, GA4, Looker Studio) and ask how they’ll use them to track your progress.
10. How do you handle SEO for large vs. small businesses?
Their strategy should scale based on your business size and goals. If their approach sounds rigid or one-size-fits-all, that’s a red flag.
11. What happens if I want to transition SEO back in-house?
A transparent partner won’t hold your data or strategy hostage. Ask about documentation, handover processes, and how they’d support a smooth transition if you ever bring SEO in-house again.
12. Can you provide references from past or current clients?
Any credible provider should be willing(eager, even) to connect you with other clients who can vouch for their work. References offer real-world proof of results, reliability, and what it’s actually like to work with them.
Red Flags and Warning Signs When Evaluating SEO Services
It’s easy to get dazzled by big promises and slick sales decks, but not every SEO provider is worth your time or your budget. Some are outdated. Some are disorganized. Some sound impressive until you dig deeper and realize their strategies haven’t evolved since 2012.
Before you sign any contract, watch out for these common red flags that often signal a poor fit—or worse, a future headache.
1. Guarantees of specific rankings or timeframes
If an agency says they can get you to “#1 on Google in 30 days,”—walk away. No one, not even the best SEOs in the world, can guarantee specific rankings or exact timelines.
Search engine algorithms are too complex and too dynamic for those kinds of promises.
Real SEO partners talk in terms of strategy, growth potential, and measurable progress, not magic tricks or shortcuts.
2. Vague explanations of methodologies
When you ask how they plan to improve your SEO, do you get clear answers—or a jumble of buzzwords and fluff? If they can’t walk you through their approach in plain language (covering technical fixes, content strategy, link building, and measurement), there’s a good chance they’re either winging it or trying to hide weak execution behind jargon.
3. Reluctance to share case studies or reporting methods
If a provider hesitates when you ask for case studies or samples of their reporting dashboards, that’s a red flag. A reputable partner should be proud to show how they’ve helped other clients and the results they can potentially help you achieve.
Without transparency, you’re flying blind—and that’s not a position you want to be in.
4. Poor communication and unclear processes
Even the best strategy can fall apart if communication is messy.
If it takes them days to respond to simple questions, if their onboarding process is chaotic, or if they can’t explain how work will be delivered and reviewed, expect even more confusion down the road.
You’re not just outsourcing SEO tasks—you’re building a workflow together. If that workflow isn’t clear from the start, it won’t magically improve later.
5. Emphasis on quantity over quality for content and links
If an SEO provider brags about churning out “100 articles a month” or “building thousands of backlinks,” press pause. That kind of volume almost always comes at the cost of quality.
Google’s ranking systems are smarter than ever—they reward content that’s genuinely useful and links that are earned, not manufactured.
Quality-driven strategies take longer to build, but they also last longer and deliver better results.
6. Promotion of outdated SEO tactics
If you hear phrases like “article spinning,” “directory submissions,” or “private blog networks (PBNs),” you’re not dealing with a modern SEO expert or team. These tactics might have worked a decade ago—but today, they can actually hurt your rankings.
A forward-thinking SEO partner should be using current best practices, keeping pace with algorithm updates, and focusing on sustainable, user-first strategies.
How to Prepare Your Business for SEO Outsourcing Success
If you want your SEO outsourcing efforts to actually deliver results—not just activity—you need to set the stage internally. A little prep work on your end makes collaboration smoother, speeds up execution, and helps your SEO partner hit the ground running with real context.
Here’s how to get your business ready before you hand off the keys.
1. Gather key documentation
Think of this step as packing your partner’s toolkit. The more context you give them upfront, the better they can tailor their SEO strategy to your business needs.
Share whatever you already have—keyword research lists, historical ranking data, competitor research, Google Search Console insights, content audits, backlink profiles,and previous SEO experiments (wins and losses included).
Even if it’s messy or incomplete, it gives your partner a head start and prevents them from duplicating work you’ve already done. It also helps them spot gaps and opportunities much faster.
2. Define success metrics
One of the fastest ways to derail an SEO partnership is misaligned expectations. Don’t wait until the first report to decide what success looks like.
Be clear from the start about what you want to improve—whether it’s organic traffic volume, keyword rankings, conversion rates, inbound leads, time on page, or something else.
And be realistic: SEO is a long game. Setting measurable KPIs helps both sides stay focused, track progress over time, and make smarter adjustments when needed.
3. Set up communication expectations
Before work even begins, decide how often you want updates—and in what format. Do you want weekly Slack updates? A monthly Zoom review of performance data? A shared dashboard you can check anytime?
Setting these rhythms early prevents miscommunication and makes sure your team always knows what’s happening (and when). It also gives your partner a consistent channel for raising questions, sharing ideas, or flagging roadblocks early.
4. Timeline expectations for results and milestones
SEO results don’t happen overnight, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a timeline.
Set clear milestones based on phases of work: initial audits, technical fixes, content production, link building, and performance benchmarks. This helps you track momentum and avoid the “we’ll get back to you soon” black hole. It also keeps your internal team aligned on when to expect movement—and gives your SEO partner a framework to deliver against.
Just remember, the first few months are often foundational. The big wins tend to come after consistent execution, not in week two.
Case study
Another company MarketerHire helped find an SEO expert is Superkin. At the time, Superkin’s founders, Miriam Williams and Tara Elwell Henning, were trying to set up the business while working their regular full-time jobs.
However, they soon realized that they’d need to set up marketing initiatives to get the business off the ground. Problem was, neither of them had marketing expertise.
Since it was a brand-new company, they didn’t want to hire an agency because of the cost. So, they reached out to us to help them find an SEO specialist with a proven track record of success.
And we did.
Within days, we matched them with Grace Wilkins, an SEO specialist with expertise in the e-commerce and DTC space. They didn’t have to sift through countless resumes or do many interviews.
“We were so happy we got placed with her! She knew all of the nuances of our industry immediately,” says Tara. “It’s just the two of us full-time, so having her come on and already have expertise was really important for us.”
Grace immediately went to work implementing technical SEO best practices on Superkin’s Shopify website. She began with an audit, as all MarketerHire experts do, and extrapolated from there.
“Since I began working with Superkin, organic traffic has increased 106%,” says Grace Wilkins. “We still have a lot of work to get where we want those numbers to be, but I’m really happy that we've seen traffic double so far from work we've done with e-commerce SEO. Next, we’ll get started with content marketing.”
Read: Superkin Grows Organic Ranking & Builds Solid Technical SEO Foundation with MarketerHire
Creating an Effective SEO Partnership: Best Practices
Outsourcing SEO isn’t a “set it and forget it” arrangement. It’s a working relationship—and like any good relationship, it needs structure, trust, and collaboration to thrive.
When you treat your SEO provider like a strategic partner instead of just a vendor, you’ll get better results, smoother workflows, and fewer surprises.
Here’s how to build a partnership that actually works.
1. Finding the balance between oversight and trust
You hired your SEO partner for their expertise, so let them use it. That said, they still need direction and alignment with your business objectives.
The key is to stay involved without micromanaging. Set expectations, review the SEO strategy, and ask questions—but avoid hovering over every single keyword or page title.
Your job is to guide the vision; their job is to handle the execution. When you give them space to do what they’re good at (while keeping visibility on progress), you create room for better work and fewer bottlenecks.
2. Establishing regular review meetings
Even with great reporting, nothing beats a face-to-face (or screen-to-screen) check-in. Whether it’s biweekly or monthly, set up recurring meetings to review progress, dig into data, flag issues, and align on the next steps.
These meetings give your partner a chance to explain what’s working, what’s changing, and where new opportunities are emerging. They also give you space to ask deeper questions or bring up cross-functional updates that might impact SEO.
3. Integrating outsourced SEO with other marketing efforts
SEO doesn’t live in a silo—and if it does, it won’t reach its full potential.
Make sure your SEO partner is looped into your broader marketing efforts. Are you launching a new product line? Planning a PR push? Ramping up paid campaigns? All of these things affect your search performance.
The more your SEO team understands what’s happening across your channels, the better they can align content, messaging, and SEO strategy to support bigger business goals.
4. Building SEO knowledge internally while outsourcing execution
Just because you outsourced the heavy lifting doesn’t mean your team should stay in the dark. The more your internal marketers understand SEO fundamentals, like how rankings work, what good content looks like, and why technical fixes matter, the better decisions they’ll make day to day.
Ask your partner to share insights during review meetings. Ask for mini-trainings or playbooks when new processes are introduced. You don’t need to become an expert—you just need enough context to make smarter marketing moves across the board.
Outsource SEO Through MarketerHire
SEO is an ongoing, high-stakes investment that directly impacts your online visibility, credibility, and revenue. But outsourcing SEO doesn’t mean handing over control or crossing your fingers. When you partner with the right SEO expert, you gain more than bandwidth—you gain clarity, direction, and measurable results.
The right SEO professional helps you stay ahead of Google’s ever-shifting algorithm updates, build long-term organic traffic growth, and free up your internal team to focus on higher-impact work that actually moves the business forward.
If you’re ready to stop guessing and start scaling, MarketerHire can match you with a top-tier SEO specialist who knows precisely how to get you there. No guesswork. No hiring headaches. Just proven talent, ready to hit the ground running.
Let’s make SEO work for you—not against you. Schedule a call with us to get started.