Search Executives to Publishers: Do-it-yourself Doesn’t Cut It

B-to-B-Online reports from the American Business Media’s 'It’s All About Search conference':

Quote:
"Farming out search engine optimization and paid search management to specialty firms is often the most effective way to go, according to panelists who spoke at American Business Media’s It’s All About Search conference Tuesday.

“A lot of people say, ‘We can do this internally,’ ” said Chris Hulse, VP-business development at business.com, adding marketers and publishers would benefit from investing in outside expertise. “This is one of those things where you wouldn’t defend yourself in court.” more

I do and I do not agree at the same time

1. Defending yourself in court is not exactly a core function of publishing and publishers
- Search and Search related business is!

2. You cannot just "do this internally" - you need the expertise much faster as you can develop it inside on your own

3. If you care about the future of your publishing business 'partner', do not think one moment about a 'plain outsourcing' concept

(I'm sure Google and Yahoo - also on the panel - offered their model of partnership)

Each day you do not build that knowledge on search, SEO and related business and foster your customer relation (and mind share) is one critical step out of a successful and profitable publishing business.

P.S.
Take Andrew Pancer (CEO About.com) advise. He said (according to B-to-B-Online): "optimization needs to be consistently maintained and requires significant resources to be effective. “From a publisher perspective, SEO needs to be something you focus on every day.”

I cannot agree more! It is not a 'case' for you lawyer, it is your core business!