Nancy runs a small fast-food joint in Austin, Texas. For many years, she relied on word of mouth for footfalls. “If you are offering good food, customers will flock” was her favorite dialogue. But a few years back, Nancy noticed a drop in footfalls, prompting her to seek a friend’s advice. One thing led to another, and she finally had her own website. In the initial days, Nancy believed that having a website was enough and that prospects looking for meals would automatically come to her.
And truly, the website alone did the trick in the beginning. But then competition caught up. So again, Nancy pivoted—this time by opting for SEO expert services from a staff augmentation company. And it worked, as Nancy’s website started climbing the SERP ranks, thanks to the mix of off-site and on-site SEO strategies deployed by the hired SEO expert.
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Why Hire a Digital Marketing Expert?
Like Nancy, if you too were relying on word of mouth until now, it is time for a pivot. You need to embrace SEO and hire a digital marketing expert. But here is a word of caution: if you are trying to rank your business or make customers visit your website, relying only on SEO won’t be enough.
So, shouldn’t you invest your resources into SEO? Well, that’s not the point. Today, businesses operate in a highly interconnected digital world. By focusing only on gaming the search engine through SEO and ignoring other channels, you are forgoing a large customer base. A thoughtful digital marketing strategy looks after all the channels through which your business can interact with and draw customers.
Therefore, your business needs to hire a digital marketing expert in the first place. A digital marketing expert creates an overall strategy and lays down the roadmap to establish a strong digital footprint for your brand. This involves deciding on SEO, SMO, AIO, GEO, SXO, AEO, and other strategies.
We will talk about these in further detail in another blog. For this one, let’s focus on another important question that bothers businesses when they are starting: should you opt for onshore or offshore SEO services?
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Onshore Vs. Offshore SEO Services: The Difference?
Before we talk about the advantages and disadvantages of offshore and onshore SEO services, let’s first break down the difference between the two. Broadly speaking, onshore and offshore differs in the distance of the service provider’s location from your business. Onshore SEO services refer to working with SEO experts within the same country. On the other hand, offshore SEO services refer to availing of SEO expert services from a different nation.
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Advantages and Disadvantages of Onshore and Offshore SEO services
Onshore SEO service providers are located within the country, as we just discussed. Therefore, the greatest advantage they offer is better communication. It is very easy for your business to collaborate and communicate with onshore businesses offering SEO expert services. Moreover, these businesses have first-hand experience with local cultural and language nuances.
Further, it will be easier for you to have oversight over these local businesses, and you can easily visit their offices if something doesn’t work. However, since these businesses operate in the same country as yours, they will also have to select from a small talent pool and face similar challenges in sourcing and hiring top talent as you would if you were recruiting in-house. Additionally, outsourcing SEO work to onshore agencies would not give you any cost advantage- that comes with outsourcing to another nation.
In contrast, when you outsource your work to an offshore SEO agency, you can access a much wider talent pool. Additionally, you can take advantage of differences in purchasing power parity between two countries and hire digital marketing experts from an offshore country at rates far lower than local hires. You can also leverage the time difference effectively and enable your in-house and offshore teams to get twice the work done in a single day.
Further, having your SEO team in a faraway country helps you hedge your business against political, environmental, and natural disruptions. So, when forces beyond your control threaten your local operations, your offshore team can continue to serve your customers, ensuring business continuity.
Final Words
SEO has now become a must-have requirement for businesses. As businesses compete against each other to attract customers and increase footfalls, they must rely on SEO, SMO, and other strategies. However, if you are trying to do SEO for the first time, the top question becomes whether you should opt for onshore or offshore SEO services.
In the above sections, we have discussed in detail the differences between onshore and offshore SEO services and the advantages each offers. Moreover, you can consider outsourcing and hire virtual employees to work as an extension of your in-house team, offering SEO expertise. Connect with us at Remote Resource® to learn more and get started today with a one-week free trial.
