Offshore SEO is becoming more and more prevalent—and more and more readily available. It can seem like an option worth exploring, and in an age where costs for digital marketing keep rising, we understand why your clients may be considering it. But we’re here to talk about why offshore SEO is rarely a good idea.
Offshore SEO work can seem attractive, but it’s not as good as it seems.
Lower costs are attractive, but they usually come at a cost. The old adage, “If it seems too good to be true, it usually is” definitely runs true in this scenario. Here’s why.
Language barriers can cause delays (or worse).
One of the biggest reasons offshore SEO work is so “affordable” is due to who fulfills the orders: non-native speakers. These fulfillment specialists generally have a basic grasp of the language they work in, but spend a few seconds reading original content and you’ll see that they haven’t quite gotten the hang of it. While it’s definitely true that non-native speakers can write with native-level fluency, most of the time, that’s not the case.
But it’s not just fulfillment that can suffer when you offshore your SEO work. Providing non-native customer service is also a concern, and can lead to added frustration in your clientele if they cannot get their questions answered in a way they understand.
On the other hand, Boostability fulfills every SEO order with native speakers, for every language we fulfill in, not just English. We do the same for our client services and relations teams. Top-notch SEO requires an intimate understanding of language peculiarities that aren’t usually present in non-native speakers. That’s why we’ve covered our bases for the nine languages we service.
Quality control is hard to manage.
We completely understand that most small businesses and the larger partners who service them can’t always have an SEO team in-house. (It’s why you came to us!) But a good outsourced team will make it feel like they work in-house for you, with streamlined processes and consistent white labeled branding. Offshore teams can rarely do this. With big differences in time zones and the quality of internet and other important services, a secure connection isn’t always a garauntee.
One of our best features at Boostability is our ability to fulfill orders and work with clients on their own time. For example, we service several partners in Australia. While the team that handles those English-speaking customers is based in the United States, team members work Australian business hours and observe Australian schedules, including holidays. SEO on your clients time, not ours, is the way we roll.
Instead, address your real pain points.
If you’re considering offshore SEO, there are most likely underlying concerns that you might not have properly addressed for your clients. Let’s walk through a few of them.
“I don’t think you’re targeting the right keywords.”
Deciding on keywords can be a tricky business. Our webinar from March 2019 talked about why this is the case. Sometimes, clients are concerned campaigns aren’t targeting the “big hitter” keywords. (For example, if they’re a local cake shop, they might be frustrated that an SEO firm has targeted “cake shop mesa arizona” rather than just “cake shop.”) Explain that keyword targeting starts in a specific order, and that we conduct in-depth research in order to know which ones to hit. We’ve been in the SEO business for a longtime, and with a track record of helping more than 27,000 small business clients over the past decade, we know a thing or two.
“I think I’m paying too much for SEO.”
When you’re working with small businesses (or even big ones, for that matter) cost is always going to be a concern. We completely understand. With so many options for digital marketing, it can be hard to settle on a place to spend your budget.
But SEO is worth it. We’ve talked about this topic at length before, but the crux of the matter is this: SEO is an investment that will pay off. When you choose the right keywords, you’ve also chosen the right target audience and the found the best way to reach them. While exact ROI can sometimes be hard to calculate, SEO does have a high return rate.
Boostability also believes that SEO should be affordable for small businesses. We can do something for almost any business at almost any budget, so encourage your customers to explore their options before they rule out SEO.
“SEO is taking too long to work.”
Unlike PPC ads which are a one-click spend, SEO is an investment that takes six to eight months to start seeing real results from. If you believe SEO is taking too long, check in on your time frame. If you’re expecting an immediate rise in rankings a few weeks after starting, adjust your expectations. Knowing when your clients will see their keywords reach page one—which, again, is six to eight months—should change how they understand your implementation timeline.
Invest in an SEO campaign that works for you.
Boostability believes in the power of small businesses. As the backbones for economies around the world, we know how vital they are to the communities they serve. That’s why we created our industry-breaking fulfillment model, designed to keep your costs low while ensuring enterprise-worthy SEO work.
Contact us today and start getting found online if you’re interested in learning more about our Partner Program, or want to chat with a member of our Sales Support team. We cant wait to get started.
