SEO Outsourcing

[keydow]

Has anyone outsourced SEO work with good results?

I have a good understanding of how it works. I have done most of the on page stuff (title, H1's, alt tags etc) but need some help with technical issues (se friendly urls + dynamic site map on joomla). I have been trying to get these issues sorted myself but realise now i have spent over 10 hours researching without fixing the problem.


I also need help with the off page side of SEO-mainly link building. I can do this myself but its very time consuming. I keep putting it off as I work full time and have a busy life generally.

I was hoping to pay about $200 to fix the issues and get some good quality inbound links.

1. Is $200 enough to get decent links?
2. Has anybody outsourced this?
3. Who would your recommend?
4. Should i just buy $200 worth of inlinks on directories?

Thanks,

Kieran

[Clicking]

I outsource on a daily basis and SEO is one of the things on that list. Most of the time I outsource to India and I find it cost efficient and professional. However there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

I think one shortcut that you should use is to look at the Elance projects being posted about SEO and see what the requirements are. One thing to keep in mind when outsourcing SEO and wanting to outsource it for $200 a month is that you will have to explain every single requirement and never assume that something is common sense.

Ok so let me try to put it into bullet points for you cause that's how I work with these guys:

- Expect to write allot of requirements. Make sure you document all these requirements.

- A lot of things are lost in translation and they will always say to you that they master the English language. Get a software like Jing to make short videos to show exactly what you want. I understand that SEO might be foreign to you but make the video based on the Elance projects posted by more seasoned outsourcers.
perience.

- Expect to spend a lot of time in back and forth communication.

- Expect to communicate with them at odd hours because there's a big time delay with India/Pakistan depending on where you live.

- Daily and/or weekly and/or monthly reports of work done based on the offshore relation you start so make sure to set the standard when you start. A team or dedicated employee for you may report daily, a time and material based resource or, work can be reported every week and some packaged SEO can be reported monthly.

- Make sure you have a requirement and delivery signoff before moving forward to next phase or work of same project on predetermined and agreed timeline.

- Desktop sharing or conference call as per the need... Skype comes in really handy and Go to Meeting is worth using.

- Make sure that the tactics they use isn't blackhat.

- Make sure you make them aware that your information is private.

- If a small bit of correction is required and you realized that only after India offshore center stopped working for the day, it could be you will have to wait until next day for outcome of the same, irrespective of how small or easy of a fix that it might be. This is a frustration point if you do not understand this, unless you have agreement for US
working hours.


Anyways, I personally think that the best place to outsource SEO to is by far Rent a Coder (RAC) (http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/SmallBiz.asp?txtFromURL=AId_7074152)

Elance is too expensive and the work is just as good on Rent a Coder.

[sadu]

Hi Keiran,

I would suggest hanging around the Joomla forums and asking if anyone can help you fix the technical issues that need to be fixed. You will have far more success getting a regular Joomla user to make these changes than to get a general offshore SEO guy to do them. Chances are, it will just be a matter of installign the right plugins and making a few small tweaks - easy if you have done them before, otherwise much harder.

For the offpage - recognise that this area has changed a lot in recent times. Link building isn't about submitting to directories and spamming blogs etc anymore - the link builder needs to really understand the site and market which makes it harder to outsource. Try to spend some of your allocated link building time on making the site better - writing good blog content - hanging around in the same groups / forums as your peers / customers.

Personally I find that a handful of natural / genuine links goes a lot further than the fabricated ones the offshore SEOs will build for you. (it's also possible that I haven't come across a good offshore SEO yet)