SEO question for ALL

I was curious. If you have a startup would it be wise to give equity to a partner to come on board and do SEO or would it be cheaper to outsource SEO in the long run?

In your scenario, is the partner someone you know and trust and is the SEO company one you know does quality work?

I would need more information to answer the question and while I normally trust no one to do my SEO but myself, if I had to choose, I would go with giving a partner whom I did trust equity over outsourcing to some SEO company. I'd argue that it would be cheaper in the long run just because you can control how much you give your in-house SEO guy.

Depends on what the partner can bring to the startup. Do you think you can outsource SEO to someone reliable and get good results? Then you don't need a partner. If money can buy what the partner can offer, then it's best to go that way.

That's a good question. My opinion, Since SEO is a little factor I would probably not create the headache of giving equity just for SEO. If the SEO doesn't work or turns blackhat he/she still has ownership and I would hate that lol even if its 0.001%

No, no and no. If your business is worth anything I wouldn't trade any amount of equity in any form. The first company I worked for offered me 12% on all their sales to handle their marketing. However, they were in a desperate position and planning to file for bankruptcy in a matter of months.

This is what happened.

I took over their marketing. In 1 year I brought them up to $800k in sales. At least 1/2 of that thanks to a random weather event (hurricane) that skyrocketed our profits. During this time I kept feeding approx 8% into my own funnel secretly competing against them.

The owner wasn't that smart (neither was I tbo I just got lucky). I only signed 1 - 1 page contract. Nowhere in that contract did it speak about ownership of the funnel I was building. So the entire funnel, all the online real estate, aside from his website..... was owned, paid for & registered by me under my name. Before that first year I got LLCd, broke off, rebranded the whole funnel and started my own business. He was mad but I didn't care. I did at least 80% of the work for that business. All he did at work was sit in his office on his fat ass taking calls and telling other people what to do. Like he was some big time CEO lol. In his spare time he gambled and blew most his profits at casinos, a benz, strip joints, parties, cheating on his wife who was at home pregnant with a 2nd child. I knew there was no way we could continue to grow as long as he couldn't get his finances in order.

Fast forward a little over a year after I broke off. He went bankrupt and now works a shit job at a security company. Had to sell his home, his benz, his hummer and move.

I had a very trusted member on here try to buy equity in my business. Someone who's got way more marketing skills than I do. I didn't consider it for a second.

I'm not saying this applies in all situations. But most businesses give equity when they're in a vulnerable position, stalled, or doomed to fail.

Its better you can do that your self. Becuase no one will do seo like you want.

Outsourcing your SEO work might be more expensive than just making someone your partner, depending on how well your business is going. The cheapest alternative is mostly to hire someone on a fulltime payroll - depending on what country you're in, that's mostly the best & cheapest way to go

You need to break down how much SEO would cost you, and see if it's a fair compensation to give equity. I would try to get all 3 under there - SEO, Paid ads and social. The cost is ongoing, so it does make sense to pay a onetime for something you'll continue getting long term. Also, if the friend has equity, he has a bigger incentive to do great work, which is always nice.

If you have the money, hire an SEO Agency to do the work for you. Me personally, I would never offer or give up equity in my company to anyone unless cash was being invested as the risk being invested from a possible partner would need to be the same as my invested risk.

Thankfully, this usually is never a concern of mine as I don't start businesses, websites or companies that I can't finance/fund 100% out of my own pocket. I don't like partnerships (For the most part) as it can cause quite a lot of issues, especially if it's a 50/50 partnership.

I would never want anything to do with a startup/company that I don't have controlling interest in.

Strongly depends on the partner mate.

Way too much, if you are just starting it's better to do it yourself, you will learn a lot and wont be lost in case you have problem with SEO in the future.

I wouldnt give equity to a person who does only SEO, its like giving equity to a computer technician.
Marketing (including SEO) - yes, that could be worth 10%-15%.

Giving Equity means, you have to stick with that person even you are not satisfied with results because of bond. But, hiring agency is helpful as you can gain knowledge of marketin and you can easily move to better in desperate times.

I love all your responses but say you pay someone to do SEO.................. I have asked so many people on here, what are the best SEO services on here and why? You know what i get when i ask that question.........crickets. It would be nice to find services that actually increase you in SERPS. If we could find that then we could just outsource it and not give away anything. If any one of you have suggestions on services that actually worked for you or that you know works we would love to hear it. Thats the biggest problem we find with outsourcing is finding and trusting your contractor to do a good job!

It depends on how much risk you want to take.

Does your startup require a large web presence? If not, it wouldn't be too hard to learn some basic SEO and work on it yourself.