Hiring a Freelancer SEO or A Seo Agency?

I would always go for the company, as they are more likely to have the correct liability insurance.

Never in a million years would I hire an SEO for content.

That's like hiring a plumber to fly an airplane.

Site/page optimization doesn't mean the SEO needs to be creating content.

Agree, if you must then hire a freelance writer for the content.

OP the problem with this question is that it supposes a difference where one may not even exist. Most SEO companies are started by one central figure that hires everyone else so he's pretty much a freelancer that hires other people to do parts of SEO. Many Freelancers do the same on a sub-contracted basis.

Plus unless the SEO is local you will never know whether an agency has many full time employees. In many cases they are the same as freelancers.

Unless you have an extremely incompetent SEO that creates content for your money sites liability insurance means nothing. In the environment of a secret algo such as Google you will have an almost impossible time of proving liability.

You should hire a freelancer. He will beneficiary from money point of you and also he will always in contect with you.

Guys the point is not comparing a writer with a SEO , of course a SEO will hire writers to write content for his/her campaigns! The question is if you would hire a freelancer or a digital marketing agency for high tier content driven seo services for your business website!

Hire a company if you feel like paying 500% more for SEO services.

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See..? Doesn't matter whether it's "agency" or "freelancer". Both can do a lot of damage to your site.

So choose carefully... Also don't go with link packages and be aware that the high quality SEO is pretty expensive.

for less risk, it's better to hire a professionl seo agency with high credibility,
but if you know any platform where you are guaranteed to get a professional and experienced seo freelancer, then it could save you couple of bucks! but there is always a risk.

That would depend on the situation. If you think you are the person who is afraid of risking your online business and you have the money to spend, then perhaps hiring a professional SEO is a good 'less risky' option. BUT there are also people who like to learn while they build their website.

My company hired an agency

thesearchagency.com

They do deep dive link analysis and our competitors. They provide us detailed info and what to do in the future.

As far as content writing, ha they wont' do that. And we pay them probably 11k a month.

I don't think there's that much difference and I don't think freelancers are always cheaper then agencies. When people know what they are worth and they have a high demand the prices go up, simple like that.

You know when dealing with an agency who have an office and all doesn't give that much benefit in most cases. I mean what's it worth when the additional stuff is only busy with generating leads, setting up PPC campaigns and designing websites when all you want is ranking organically in Google.

You could say I'm a freelancer, but backed up with a dozen or so people so it's like an agency in disguise, I guess most freelancers work like that, no one has the time to do it all their selves unless they have a handful of clients.

Actually I though about setting up an agency here in Thailand but most people are not very experienced with operating a computer, even the people who studied at universities.

Surprising fact here in Thailand, you don't even need to go to school to get diploma's/certificates, a friend of mine works here in Pattaya and he has a paper from College for computer engineering. He doesn't even know how Windows works. Why? Cause he never went to school, he only pays each 3 months, actually he works in a restaurant now where you don't need papers but if he wants to work in some official shop or factory or Tesco or 7/11 or any international company they do need papers from college. Those jobs always pay better as they are restricted to the minimum wage of about 200 euro. Restaurants often pay better though cause of tips.

if you want result for your seo you should hire agency otherwise freelancer with minimum investment, because you can find lot of cheep seo specialist in the market.

I want to go out of the country. Los Angeles is killing me softly with all the traffic.

I would like to hire Agency i have voted for it as well

Both have their pro's and con's, when you hire a SEO agency you have the assurance of getting work done properly as the agency have a reputation to maintain whereas a freelancer is usually ready to work until you are completely satisfied because his only way of getting paid is by satisfying you, he might as well change that one bright pixel on right hand corner if you tell him to.

Talking about content quality by SEO agency, I would like to say that many of the SEO agency usually outsource their content writing jobs to professional writers, most of the time they hire off shore partners who have English as their first language.

Peace!

Guys and gals, Here's how I see the general case of the legitimate SEO freelancer vs the legitimate SEO agency. It's a bit of a "Zen" answer, if you'll permit.

Any competent freelancer is a wannabe SEO agency, that's the only difference. (Otherwise he has no brains).

And an agency was once a freelancer, but now has better means. This means, there's both brains AND means.

He or she is not just there yet.

This means that an agency has things that a freelancer does not have. And make no mistake, those things are valuable.

People say that with an SEO agency you'll be paying 500% more. That's not necessarily true. Competition has some influence on pricing, and SEO is very competitive.

Moreover, perhaps paradoxically, agencies are better positioned to discount their services than are freelancers, because agencies operate in bulk, which means lower costs-per-unit for them.

Only agencies that have a great track record can afford to charge 500% more than the low end or the mid-range, and I tell you, a great track record can be worth a lot of value, a lot of money. It's not "nothing."

A freelancer with a verifiable stellar record should become an SEO agency! It's a no-brainer.

Therefore, the correct answer is (IMHO), is: unless the volume of work is small and is not expected to increase, hire a good agency, but try to get a freelancer price. You might not, but if you meet halfway that's not half bad.

(I can't believe I'm giving you tips on how to negotiate with me, but ah well. And don't get your hopes up! )

All that said, some caveats:
1. An agency often has the luxury to pick and choose choose the kinds of business it wants. It may show flexibility. Freelancers are more eager to get small contracts, are more flexible, "will do anything." If your business is very small, you may be stuck with trying your chances with a freelancer. And there is also room in the market for specialty freelancers (geniuses at some specialized thing that they do extremely well, especially if it's the kind of thing that mainstream providers are unlikely to take on -- for example, this could be custom keyword analysis on a very large scale, or certain kinds of online competitive analysis, or whatever, such things can be worth a lot of money). This, however, is not a question of "hiring a freelancer," but one of hiring a specialist, a different matter.

2. Caveat 2. Both agencies and freelancers strive to cut down their costs, but agencies are more efficient in it. When dealing with an agency, make sure they don't stick you with some low-lever employee who needs to "escalate" every time there's a problem. Try dealing either with the head honcho or with someone as close to him as you can get.

Lastly, another thought for the original poster. Your poll results will simply reflect the number of freelancers vs agencies among us. I'll be up front: I'm an agency, so I voted for agencies. But I feel my reasons for believing this are rock-solid. Freelancers will keep harping on their lower price. But keep one thing in mind: they are not agencies, they are merely wannabe agencies.

Just my 2 yen's worth, or whatever...

I must be voting in favor of the SEO company But, we must also provide single chance to freelancers to prove their best.

A lot of people forget this fact when they see a lot of cheap SEO packages offering almost overnight ranking guarantee :p.

I honestly don't know why I come here.

Go for the company

I don't think I can based on the description or discussion. It depends so much on goals, client and the actual project at hand. I like @PhilipSEO's comment.

If you can manage SEO on some level, roughly know what you need and/or want, and can manage outsourcing, freelancer might be a good choice. Just make sure you know what he/she is up to, and don't go for the cheapest price.

If you need someone with resources to really dig in your business and industry, and perhaps come up with marketing ideas outside SEO, then definitely do get an agency.

I would hire an SEO agency