By Avner (Local SEO Specialist and Former UX Researcher / E-Commerce Manager)
This article is a bit tongue-in-cheek. Of course, SEO is incredibly important – most people use Google for local searches (see below).
Social media is playing a larger role in diverting online business, but Google is still king.
That said, there are valid reasons someone might not hire an SEO agency. Here are the most important ones.
Reason 1 – You’re Already Ranked at the Top of Google
If you’re lucky enough to rank at the top (both on the map pack and organically), then you may not need additional SEO help. This is relatively rare – SEO is well known, and businesses are incentivized to keep working on it until they get results – but it’s possible in smaller cities.
That said, it’s important to stay greedy. If you’re ranked at the top in your city, why not also rank in nearby cities and dramatically increase your exposure? I, and other SEO professionals, can help with that.
Reason 2 – You Want to Do It Yourself
Given the low expense (around a third of minimum wage) for a good SEO person and the busy schedule of most business owners, this scenario is relatively rare. But I have met owners who have the time, interest, and discipline to take on SEO themselves – and do a great job. If that’s you, you can follow my quick guide here.
Reason 3 – You Already Have a Solid SEO Person
I’m the first to emphasize the importance of results. If you’re getting consistent new sales and seeing ranking improvements with your existing SEO person, you should keep them.
Questions to ask when deciding whether your SEO provider is “good” or truly “great”:
- Are they constantly hungry to improve and set new goals?
- Can they rank you in multiple cities (which is significantly harder)?
- Do they share their work and progress clearly and directly?
- Are they competent in related tasks like conversion optimization and review generation?
If the person you work with checks all these boxes – they’re excellent. Keep them.
Reason 4 – You Get Enough Sales From Other Channels
I once worked with a dentist who had a terrible website and zero online presence. They never needed SEO because their service quality was so exceptional that word of mouth alone filled their calendar. For some businesses, that level of demand is enough, and marketing isn’t necessary.
Reason 5 – You Simply Don’t Feel Like It
Some people just never warm up to SEO. I’ve met business owners who believed SEO was a scam, or that anyone could do it with no real expertise.
I’d humbly point to the principle of diminishing returns: While many people can achieve a basic level of SEO, because the field is so widespread, it’s the top 10% of expertise that drives the majority of success.
Your own search experience confirms this. If SEO required little skill, the top search results would constantly shuffle. Instead, the same businesses stay at the top consistently – and that happens for a reason.
Why I Believe You Shouldn’t Hire an Agency – But Hire an Individual
SEO agencies are middlemen – they take a cut of your payment. In the best case, this simply makes the service more expensive (most US agencies charge $1,500–$5,000 per site). In the worst case (often overseas agencies), the quality drops significantly.
Even if they offer “cheap” services ($400 per website), the agency is incentivized to pocket most of the fee and hire the lowest-paid workers to do the technical work.
There are also costs from task switching and communication. When the work is subcontracted, time is wasted passing instructions between front-facing reps and the actual SEO workers – and that cost gets offloaded to you.
With some overseas agencies, there’s also a risk factor: Google had 7 algorithm updates last year, 3 of them spam updates. Imagine your site disappearing for months because of over-reliance on low-quality link mills – which Google can punish without warning.
The Better Option: Hire an Individual
Hiring an individual means the person you pay is the person doing the actual work. They’re accountable, transparent, and not offloading your project to a junior contractor with questionable skills.
If you’d like to learn more about my SEO services, you can do so here.