How should you handle the SEO for your site? You don't have enough time - you are running the business, but which method of SEO management is the most cost effective for your business?

As a website owner or manager, at some point you’ll need to make the decision about handling SEO. There are three basic options:

1. Hire and SEO Firm
2. Hire an employee to focus on SEO
3. Hire an independent contractor

If you are considering hiring an SEO firm, don’t think it has to mean tens of thousands of dollars. A reputable SEO firm will have options for large and small e-tailers and website owners alike. For instance, you can hire them for a set number of hours per month, or on a project contract basis. Although outsourcing your SEO work may seem risky or expensive, in most cases you can sign a contract for a set period of time with specific goals. If the company doesn’t meet your needs you can simply switch to another SEO firm.

When you’re looking for an SEO firm, there are several things you need to look out for. SEO firms of today need to be completely above-board in their tactics. The last thing your want is to cut corners and end up banned from Google, MSN or Yahoo. Here are some signs that an SEO firm is skirting dangerous territory:

1. Look out for SEO companies, or any company that promises you number one listings across the board. It’s almost impossible to promise or guarantee these kinds of listings and even harder to maintain them long-term. Remember that there is no SEO company that has an “in” with the Search Engines. They may speak to engineers at conferences, they may seem sincere in their beliefs, but lofty promises are usually full of hot air.
2. Make sure you understand the strategies being employed on your site and that they can be undone if need be. If your SEO firm is planning to overhaul your Meta tags, for instance, make sure they put them together in a document so you can review them first. Also ensure that they archive the site as it was so it can be restored.
3. If your SEO firm seems secretive about their tactics, you should be wary. Of course, some tactics may be protected as a matter of intellectual property. If it feels like they are hiding something because their tactics may not be above-board, watch what they do closely.
4. Be aware of the tactics that are explicitly banned by Google. Some examples are:
1. Doorway Pages – These are false web pages, stuffed with specific keywords that were designed to fool the search engines.
2. Link Spam – If you are getting links in from another site, whether by purchase or alternate agreement, don’t let all the links be for the same keyword. This is “link spam” and is frowned upon.
3. Shadow Domains - Web sites that use several domains to shoot visitors to a web site by using deceptive redirect code. In some cases, an SEO firm will buy several domains and point them to a client site. Sadly, if you get banned for this practice, you can’t point the finger at the nefarious SEO firm. You are stuck with the results.
4. Duplicate Content – If you cut and paste content from another website, especially a competitor, you can get yourself into big trouble. If an SEO firm sends you content to post, you should always search for a few sentences on the search engines, just to make sure the content is original.

If you decide you don’t want to hire an SEO firm, you can train an existing employee, or you can hire someone to come in and work on your SEO. This can mean spending anywhere from $20,000 (if SEO is not their full time job) to upwards of $75,000. SEO professionals with experience that can achieve results are hard to come by.

Outsourcing your SEO, depending on the cost structure may also ultimately be less expensive than hiring an employee or using an existing employee to work on your SEO. Remember that SEO is constantly changing. Although there are some basic site elements you need to keep in mind, if you are going to have an effective and evolving SEO strategy, your expert needs to be “in the know” at all times.

You can also hire an independent SEO contractor to help with your site. You’ll typically need to pay a monthly retainer and they’ll do a variety of services including link building, content development and an overhaul of your Meta strategy. In this case, you get the one on one contact you may want, without having to have a permanent employee.

No matter which way you decide to go, you can’t go without SEO. You site needs to be clean, useful, content rich and ready for the search engines. Don’t waste your time trying to keep up with this incredible fast paced industry – delegate properly and you’ll ultimately get better results.