Can I do SEO myself?

Is SEO something you can do yourself?

The short answer is yes.

The longer answer is…

As with all areas of digital marketing, you can of course work on search engine optimisation (SEO) for your own website but a dedicated SEO consultant will get better results, quicker.

You’ll need to spend a lot of time researching the basics of SEO before you can get even get started.

If you’ve never looked at your CRM before, you could be in for a steep learning curve. But if you’ve been managing your website yourself, the chances are you’ve probably been doing a bit of SEO work already.

For in-house SEO, what actually needs doing?

SEO Research

Before you make any changes to your site, you’ll need to first educate yourself on SEO. There’s loads of information available that explains everything you would ever need to know – you just need to find the time to go through it all!

This stage shouldn’t cost you anything financially but it will take a lot of time, dedication, and understanding to master the basics of SEO.

Keyword research

Before starting any SEO project, you have to identify what keywords to target. This is an essential step and forms the basis of your SEO strategy.

You can do keyword research for free using Google’s keyword tool and AnswerThePublic,

On-site optimisation

Once you’ve done keyword research, you’ll need to optimise the structure of your website with that in mind. This can be a complex process – which is why most business owners turn to a professional.

If you’re confident making changes using your CRM, you can optimise your site’s page titles and meta descriptions as well as adding internal links and improving the site’s architecture.

Produce & optimise site content

SEO relies on high quality, unique content that will tick all of Google’s boxes. You may have heard of the maxim “Content is King”. Well, that’s what this stage is all about.

You need to optimise the main pages of your site in a way that aligns with your SEO strategy.

This is the time to add new content and update existing content across your site. Bear in mind that producing new content in-house will be quite time consuming and labour intensive.

Ongoing analytics

Now that you’ve put together an SEO strategy and implemented changes on your site, you need to stay on top of your analytics and keyword rankings to keep track of the changes that have come about following your improvements.

SEO resources that you should take a look at

There are tonnes of resources online you can read if you want to have a go at DIY SEO. I’d recommend all small business owners and marketers to have a look at some of the resources I’ve listed below – whether you’re looking to outsource SEO or do it yourself.

Is DIY SEO right for you?

So yes, there are elements of SEO you can do yourself, but a dedicated SEO consultant will get you better results in less time.

And wouldn’t your time be better spent doing what you do best, and leaving the SEO consultant to do their thing?

If you’re looking for help putting together an SEO strategy, performing a technical SEO review, or writing new metadata for your website, I can help. Contact me today.

jade gillham