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, the MD TECH TEAM 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.

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. 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 small business clients over the past decade, we have the experience to help elevate your website.

“I think I’m paying too much for SEO.”

With so many options for digital marketing, it can be hard to settle on a place to spend your budget.

SEO is worth it. 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.

The MD TECH TEAM also believes that SEO should be affordable for your business. We can do something for almost any business at almost any budget, we encourage our 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.

Invest in an SEO campaign that works for you.

We would love to work with you. If you have any interest in seeing real results from our SEO campaigns, click here to get your website analyzed and we can take it from there. Simply click on Free Website Analyzer. Looking forward to hearing from you!