Which parts of this are worth paying somebody for

We sell this service, so treat what follows accordingly. We have also watched enough founders waste money on the wrong half of it that an honest split is more useful to us than a sales pitch.

Run the free check

The technical setup is finite and worth paying for if you dislike it, since it is done once. The writing is usually better done by you, because you know the product and the reader can tell. Community participation cannot be outsourced at all without it losing the thing that makes it work. And nobody should be paying a monthly retainer for a product with no users yet.

The honest framing

Licheo does this work for people, so this page has an obvious interest and you should read it with that in mind.

What follows is nonetheless what we tell people who ask. We would rather turn down work that will not succeed than take money for a monthly arrangement that produces nothing, because the second one ends badly for everybody and takes a reputation with it.

The useful question is not whether to hire help. It is which specific tasks transfer well to somebody else and which ones lose their value the moment they leave your hands.

Worth paying for: the technical setup

This transfers cleanly. It is a defined list with an observable definition of done, it requires knowing a set of specifics rather than knowing your product, and it is finished when it is finished.

Pre-rendering, per-route metadata, sitemap generation, robots.txt, structured data, the social preview image, Search Console. Somebody who has done it fifty times does it in a fraction of the time it takes you the first time, and the result is the same.

The case for doing it yourself anyway is that you learn how your own site works, which pays off later. If you enjoy that kind of work, do it yourself. If you have been avoiding it for two months, that avoidance is costing you more than the work would.

The thing to insist on either way: it should be a fixed piece of work with a defined end, not an ongoing arrangement. It is finite by nature.

Usually better done by you: the writing

This is where most money is wasted, and the reason is not that writers are bad at writing.

The pages that work are specific: they answer a real question with real detail, they name the situations where your product is the wrong choice, and they contain things that can only be known by somebody who built the thing and talked to the users. A competent outside writer produces something readable and general, because general is all they have access to.

General content does not get found and does not get cited, because there is a great deal of it already and none of it contains anything new.

The exception is worth naming: if you genuinely will not write, then paying somebody is better than the pages not existing. But the arrangement that works is one where you supply the substance in a conversation and they shape it, rather than one where they research a topic and hand you an article.

Cannot be outsourced: the community part

Answering questions in the places where your users are is the highest-converting channel available to a small product, and it is the one that breaks completely when delegated.

The value comes from a person who built the thing answering a question properly, with the specificity that only they have. A contractor posting on your behalf produces answers that are recognisably generic, and communities detect it quickly and punish it.

There is also a compounding effect that only accrues to a real participant. Being a familiar name in a community for six months is worth a great deal, and it belongs to the person, not to the account.

So this one is yours. If you will not do it, do not buy a version of it.

What nobody should be selling you yet

A short list of things to decline, offered because they are commonly sold to founders in exactly your position.

A monthly retainer for a product with no users. There is a finite pile of work to do first, and a monthly arrangement before that pile is cleared is charging you for time rather than for outcomes.

Link building packages. The links that matter for a new domain are the honest ones you can get yourself in an afternoon, and the ones sold in bulk carry a risk that is asymmetric against a two-month-old domain.

Any guaranteed ranking. Nobody controls the ranking, so a guarantee is either meaningless or is about to be met through something you would not want done to your domain.

Submission to hundreds of directories. Those directories have no audience, which is precisely why they can be sold in a bundle.

How to judge somebody before hiring

A few questions that separate people who will help from people who will invoice.

Ask what they would not do for you. Anybody who has done this work honestly has a list of things they decline, and somebody with no such list is selling everything.

Ask what they expect to happen and when. A confident promise of results in weeks, for a new domain, is either inexperience or dishonesty, and the honest answer involves months and some uncertainty.

Ask them to look at your site and tell you the largest problem before any money changes hands. Somebody competent can do that in a few minutes, and the answer tells you whether they looked at all.

And ask what happens when the engagement ends. Work that leaves you with pages you own, a domain you control and listings in your own accounts is work that keeps paying. Work that lives inside somebody's proprietary system disappears when you stop.

Part of a larger guide

This page is one part of Vibe coding SEO. The other parts:

Questions people ask

Should I hire someone for SEO or do it myself?
Split it by task. The technical setup transfers cleanly and is finite, so paying for it is reasonable if you have been avoiding it. The writing is usually better done by you because specificity is what works and only you have it. Community participation cannot be delegated without losing what makes it work.
Why is outsourced content usually a waste of money?
Because pages that get found and cited are specific, containing detail only somebody who built the product and talked to users could know. An outside writer produces something readable and general, and general content does not get found because a great deal of it already exists and none of it contains anything new.
Should I pay a monthly SEO retainer?
Not for a product with no users yet. There is a finite pile of work to clear first, and a monthly arrangement before that is charging for time rather than outcomes. A fixed piece of work with a defined end is the right shape at this stage.
Are link building packages worth buying?
No. The links that matter for a new domain are the honest ones you can get yourself in an afternoon, and links sold in bulk carry a risk that falls asymmetrically on a two-month-old domain you cannot easily replace.
What should I ask before hiring someone?
Ask what they would not do for you, since anybody honest has a list of declines. Ask what they expect and when, since a promise of results in weeks for a new domain is inexperience or dishonesty. And ask them to name your largest problem before any money changes hands.
What makes work worth paying for versus not?
Whether it leaves you with something you own. Pages, a domain you control, listings in your own accounts, and a technical setup that stays fixed all keep paying after the engagement ends. Work that lives inside somebody's proprietary system disappears when you stop paying.

Find out what your largest problem is first

Run the free Get Found Check before hiring anybody. Knowing what is actually wrong is the only way to judge whether somebody's proposal addresses it.

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