“You can’t handle the truth!” – Col. Jessup, A Few Good Men.

The truth is many companies are outsourcing. Outsourcing isn’t just a hot button in the SEO industry, it is a topic of heated discussion in most businesses. Outsourcing overseas hurts because it takes away jobs from Americans, but American companies must outsource to keep costs low and competitive. It is a no-win situation most of the time, higher costs and less profit or lower costs and being vilified for using overseas help. For SEO companies it can be seen as the forbidden fruit: Use inexpensive (cheap) labor to build your client’s links, write articles, etc., and keep the profits while hoping you are not exploiting human lives in the process.

Of course outsourcing is being done by many SEO firms, whether they will admit it or not. Using freelancers, American or not, is a form of outsourcing and it keeps internal costs down for the company and allows the client to do more with their money, when done correctly. I have no problem with outsourcing; that is an individual decision. I would only hope it is being done ethically and honestly. And, you would hope the quality is there too. Unfortunately, I have seen many emails from overseas companies written in a mutant form of English offering to help my SEO company. These emails would lead me to believe that the highest quality work for the SEO community isn’t being delivered from overseas.

How do you feel about outsourcing in the SEO world? Is it okay to use American labor and not overseas? What are considered good practices?