Agencies, bring your A-Game in-house

Inspired by discussions on Hugo Guzman's post and on sphinn submission, and frustrated by agencies that have pitched to me, I wanted to try and set a new ground zero for discussions on in-house SEO and agency co-operation. I hope this post offers some useful perspectives on the internal issues SEO face and some insight into how you can transform your approach to our businesses with existing SEM resources.

Resist the temptation to think that the reason we (or our bosses) have asked you to pitch to us is an admission of defeat. Here are some non-confrontational reasons why we may have invited you in:

Who dares, wins.
We're simply over stretched – we have absolutely hit the limits of our workload and would love to find a trustworthy outsource partner. The cost/benefit analysis of the saving we make by keeping the project internal, has actually been overshadowed by the unnecessary risks we are taking in under resourcing a project.

Courage doesn't always roar.
We have genuinely hit the limits of our knowledge – it's a curious fact that when you're completely dedicate to a cause, you can't see the wood for the trees anymore. We've been talking brand X for so long that we have completely lost the ability to audit ourselves against brand Y or take a wider view. The cost of your services, is outweighed by the futureproofing our strategy and we're probably in it for the duration. We're looking for a coach - someone who can help us to step up our game but not necessarily play for us - so don’t hold back in presenting your perspective.

Letting go makes you strong.
The new internal project that has recently cropped up just doesn't play to our skillset. If the company is big enough to require a full time SEO, the likelihood is that there are all kinds of new product launches and brand line extensions that require a more specialized knowledge. The cost/benefit analysis is much like scenario 1 except, we're probably quite happy for you to let you do your thing, with minimal interaction from us if you can keep us suitably upto date.

Knowledge talks, wisdom listens
We're bashing our heads against a brick wall – one issue has divided the company and we need an external point of view. This really does happen. SEO can be a real battle of diplomacy between internal departments and division heads. Just think about the average number of cosmetic, content and infrastructural changes that need to be made to a website to make it rank better on Google. Now imagine having to counter every possible objection with every possible stakeholder. Now ask me again if I need help??  Sometimes, businesses need a referee – and this is a chance for the agency to show how well they play with others and stamp their authority (hopefully without trampling anyone in the process). Nothing rallies the governing tendrils of a company like the prospect of external costs, but the benefit here is that frustration is so high, that we can no longer put a price on co-operation..

Change is as good as a rest.
We want to try something completely different – we've done well so far and now we lust to bust open the floodgates. At this point we tend to be at the mature stage of our SEO strategy and now we want to finesse it. There's nothing unique on the internal agenda, no project launches and pretty much everything else is humming along nicely. In fact, it's a little too quiet. We're asking you in because we have some unspent marketing budget floating around and we want to test our mettle and your skills. The cost is worth the new knowledge and you'll benefit from any astounding successes as, clearly, we could not achieve the same results alone.

This post has taken me longer to write than i had planned - there are so many topics in this area of how we can co-operate and collaborative which i would love to go into more detail on. Perhaps someone can kick off in the comments? And to all those who chimed in on Hugo's thread many thanks for your thoughts and getting me back into blogging about SEO!