Posted by: Tanya Vaughan, Global SEO Program Manager, HP.com

When I sit on panels at conferences and have conversations outside the panels I often get asked whether I think it's better to have an in-house SEO or an agency. My answer is always "both" but my recommendation is start with a good in-house SEO.

I realize for a small company with a small web site it may not make sense to hire a full-time SEO in house and also retain an agency, so for this post, I'm speaking more from a perspective of a mid-to-large organization with a large web presence.

I wrote a blog post about the topic of bringing search marketing in house in September 07 so I won't restate any of those comments as to why it makes sense to bring search marketing in house. However, once your company decides to hire an in-house SEO, what experience or qualities should they look for? I've talked to a few recruiters to try and help them find the right people and I can see why it's difficult for them to narrow it down. I see lists and groups of self-titled SEOs all over LinkedIn, Facebook and other social networking and job sites and sometimes I run across names of people I know - either through networking or having had worked with them - who I would never consider to be an SEO. Sure they might have dabbled in it - hiring an agency to do an SEO project a time or two or they managed paid search so naturally they are also an SEO but does that really make them an SEO? Not even close.

Not all SEOs are the same so be careful if/when you decide to recruit one. A true SEO will have looked at your site and likely be telling you where you have areas of opportunity in the interview. A true SEO will challenge any agency they work with to answer tough questions and debate topics that haven't been fully answered. A true SEO also doesn't throw every SEO topic or question from the company over the wall to their agency, but rather answers most thoughtfully and completely from their own perspective. A true SEO sees opportunities within the company to which an agency will never have insight. A true SEO shouldn't need an agency for much more than collaboration, trouble shooting and bandwidth; the SEO agency should simply be an extension of the team the in-house SEO manages.

So how do you find a "true" in-house SEO?

I believe there are certain types of people that will naturally be good at SEO whether they are experienced yet or not. I can tell when talking to someone if they are truly interested in learning and really digging in or if they just want to land a job that makes them highly marketable. This is what sets apart a great SEO from a fraud (caveat emptor - it's easy to be a fraud in an industry few hiring companies are yet to fully understand).

Then should you recruit an expert or just give someone in the company the SEO job? You really can do either one but you have to be careful in either instance to make sure you get hat individual who has what it takes to be a true SEO - and in many cases "what it takes" is desire and as cliche as it sounds - passion. It's harder to gauge whether a newbie will retain the desire long-term but anyone who has been doing real SEO for a while - or even trying to learn about it - will have some strong opinions, thoughts or questions on topics beyond title tags. Once you start interviewing candidates you'll get a feel for whether they have the right attitude because if they do, you'll probably have a hard time getting them to stop talking about it. SEOs are geeks and many of the best SEOs don't stop at their own company's web site. There are a lot of great SEOs and great potential SEOs out there - be patient and find the right one.

Now that you've hired your in-house SEO, how do you select an agency? Well, fortunately, you've got an expert now to ask the right questions in the RFP process. If you haven't hired an SEO in house yet, do your homework and know how to ensure you select a solid, experienced SEO agency.