Do You Work At Home As An SEO Or Have An Office?

[donford]

I'm curious how many of you all work at home or mostly at home either through an company or freelance. Or are most of you employed at a corporation?

My company was recently bought by a very large global company. Recently I found out that all the SEO and web design is contracted through outside sources. With the headquarters in Europe, this being my primary job function I kinda feel well you know.... down..

Websites I put my life into for the last 7 years are going to be handed over to a corporation to do with whatever they feel they should. I know they were never really mine, but when you spend so much of your life to making them the best you can, so much so to attract the attention of a global billion dollar company, you should feel great right? But I feel like my dog just died.

I don't have a bad impression of the company but the shift of moving me to the IT guy has begun. Normal web updates I would have done, are now being pushed aside. I don't hate IT I like helping others, but I really loved being able to make a difference through the web.

Now I'm left contemplating my future, big corporations have so much bs, I just don't feel comfortable. I would really appreciate you all giving me your thoughts and tell me about any similar experiences you have had in your life.

Cheers,

Don

[donford]

I really appreciate all of you taking the time to tell me about your experiences.

I am only sorry I could only mark 3 of you as good answers. All your input was welcomed and helpful to me in one way or another.

I hope to continue to see you on the boards, maybe just not as much.

Don

[MonicaOConnor]

Don, sorry to hear you are having a tough time. You are so good at what you do, don't let the man get you down

I started working in SEO as a hobby because I loved to write content. I did it for free for my friends' businesses and then started teaching myself some of the technical stuff. Now I work in house as the online marketing director. I hate being the only one in the company who knows anything about SEO and AdWords. I feel like I am always speaking Chinese to these guys. I have a few consultants, but it isn't the same as having a team of people to bounce ideas off of or double check my strategies. That is kind of why I like the Moz Q&A so much, it is like my team away from home lol.

It is a tough decision, the rebel in me wants to find out if you considered starting your own shop and taking your clients with you because I know you could handle it. And if ever something came up that you couldn't tackle you could find answers online; Moz, Search Engine Land, or any other resource. That is kind of the beauty of SEO, you can find the answers without getting out of your pajamas.

Again, sorry to hear this is weighing you down.Good luck!

[LauraSultan]

I've been running my agency from a home office for the last 14 years. Those on my team all work remotely, and it works out well.  With a digital agency, there isn't much that you can do in an office that you can't do remotely. I'm very spoiled, so it would take a lot to get me to commute to an office every day. On the other hand, I like to attend networking events and conferences to keep from becoming a total recluse.

Of course, there's a downside to working from home. I don't recommend it if you're an extrovert, which I'm not. I don't recommend it if you can't manage your time and resist distractions. You also have to be able to resist the urge to work all the time.

[Kokolo]

Hey,

I own a blog, and except the contributors, there is nobody else working for me, for now.

BUT, I **work from office all the time. **My dad owns a company, and he lets me come and work there because I really enjoy the atmosphere.

In other works, when I am in the office, I don't have anything else to do but work.

If I work from home, there are thousands distraction that may come in my way.

Good day,

[Andy-Halliday]

I run an in house team for a large ecommorce company in the UK. We all work from the same office. I love having the team around me to bounce ideas of and debate new ways of solving problems.

I can fully understand how you feel, yes they are not yours and the site I work for I don't own - but I have put it a lot of long hours making the site as good as an experience as possible - I would hate for someone to come in and take control.

[MattAntonino]

I work in a large agency (we have 3 floors in our building) and I understand your concern.  Often I have "pet projects" that do well and go live out to everyone. Then I have to worry about whether someone will "mess up" the way I had it working perfectly.

On the other hand, I used to work at home alone in my own agency. I found it quieter but less productive. I get more done with a bit of interaction and people asking me questions. I like having more people around and I've decided if my pet projects go live, I have to assume I'll lose a bit of control but hopefully add something excellent to the business.

You sound like you've done a fantastic job at attracting a mammoth business to love your work. I think if you can fit into their plans you would enjoy that. You may not control 100% everything but if they can see the value in what you do, hopefully they can move you into a role that controls a piece of a much larger company and you can contribute that way.

[EGOL]

I work at an office.   My office with a couple employees.

I started making websites while working at a full time job.  Eventually I had to quit something and quit the job.

You sound like a dedicated person.  I respect the posts that you make here.  You are obviously good at your work.

So, think about building a couple websites of your own.  You might need to work for someone else while you do this but eventually you might be able to work entirely for yourself.