Once you make the decision to incorporate search engine optimization into your online marketing plan, you need to decide whether you are going to handle it through a third party or in-house.

At first glance, many businesses view the decision as only a financial one. Typically, it is cheaper to hire someone to come in-house and handle your SEO efforts. Basing your decision only on the financial cost, however, can lead to problems down the road.

The first issue with hiring someone to handle your SEO efforts internally is finding a qualified person. This is actually more difficult than you might think. The first issue is finding someone that is qualified and talented enough to produce results. As you are reading this, try to picture the advertisement you would issue to find such a person. Now try to picture what questions you would ask such a person in an interview. Pretty difficult, eh? How are you going to determine if the prospective individuals are what you need or just feeding you something that sounds good?

The second issue with hiring someone in-house is finding a qualified applicant. Most SEO professionals that have a clue are doing pretty well for themselves. They are not looking for jobs. I receive inquiries all the time from companies asking if I am interest in joining them as an in-house SEO manager. The answer is always no because I can’t see any benefit. The same will go for nearly every SEO professional that is worth anything. In short, your pool of qualified applicants is very small.

Let’s assume you find a person you are comfortable with to handle your in-house SEO efforts. Let’s go even farther and assume the person knows their stuff and starts producing results. You’ve hit the jackpot, but what happens when the person grows disillusioned or gets their own business idea? If they see their work is producing a ton of business for you, this is going to happen. The minute they walk out the door, you are back to square one. Not only do you need to find a replacement, but one that can deduce the particular strategies that were used to get the rankings and continue following them. This is going to be a tough person to find.

Ultimately, only you can decide whether taking your SEO efforts in-house makes sense. When doing so, make sure you understand what you need, what skills and talents the proper applicant should have and how you will deal with replacing them should it become necessary.

Halstatt Pires provides search engine optimization service packages through MarketingTitan.com.