One of the most common questions I get asked in the realm of SEO/SEM and PPC is this: "Is hiring offshore SEO worth it?  It seems to much cheaper than domestic providers." My answer is a very qualified - yes - certainly, there must be many competent SEO shops offshore.  However, I haven't had the pleasure of working with them. (Full disclaimer:  I sell offshore SEO management services and help organizations build and manage competent offshore SEO teams)  Almost every offshore SEO firm or service provider I come acrosss appear to missing the mark by a long margin.  Their traditional marketing expertise is minimal.  Often, it is not clear who is actually doing your work.  Little attention is given to actually convert the traffic into sales or leads. I think this state of affairs is really due to the fact that traffic and rankings are not necessarily factors that will drive success for your business online.  Certainly, qualified traffic that is likely to convert is more valuable than mere traffic.  In the same vein, rankings for keywords that will drive qualified traffic are more valuable that ranking high  for esoteric  (or too broad)  non-conversion prone keywords. Herein, in my experience, lies the difference between onshore and offshore SEO.  Well managed offshore resources can make a difference in your core rankings.  They just need to be pursuing the right tasks and focusing on the correct, most conversion prone keywords.  Typically, inferior SEO shops spend the majority of their time in activities that will never drive a business result  by chasing things like never ending directory submissions, search engine submission and an obsession with social media.  Instead, SEO's should focus on building the absolute best site in the respective niche possible  - or even working closely to improve conversions. Beyond some very basic SEO strategies that repesent the foundation of search marketing there are few one sized fits all solutions.  Thus, when you approach SEO providers the two biggest factors to consider are : 1) understanding where to find qualified traffic and 2)  working tirelessly to obtain a piece of that traffic and 3) working tireslessly to convert those visitors when they arrive on your website.   If offshore SEO providers don't address these concers early and often -  they are probably not geared towards effective, white hat on-page optimization.