Are you thinking about expanding your online presence and want to get more from your website? Then you’ve probably already heard of the world of SEO.

An acronym for Search Engine Optimisation, SEO is a set of good practices that can help you get the desired results -typically, more visits and conversions- from your online platform. 

SEO can be confusing at first and even more so once you start getting the gist of it. If you want to improve your online presence, you probably know that SEO tools are vital for getting reliable analytics… But still, having a general understanding of what search engines and search engine optimisation are and knowing how to operate them correctly are two different things.

That is why, when it comes to improving your online presence, you might need to hire an SEO agency to help you get the desired results. But if you are looking for a quick way to put yourself to the test and start improving your website right now, here’s all you need to know for some quick and easy DIY of your SEO…

SEO Where To Start: 

The first step to DYI your SEO is understanding what SEO is and what it can do for your website when done correctly. Once you know all the potential that relies on this tool, you will set more realistic goals for your platform. This is what could be achieved through the right SEO strategy:

#1 More Traffic

SEO works to prioritise the user seeing the content they need when they need it. So, for example, you are looking for a restaurant recommendation in your area, you type in the word “restaurant+ place where you are” and almost immediately receive results. 

This happens because search engine algorithms quickly select the content they deem appropriate for the research, analysing a series of factors – such as the rankings of a particular website- and then delivering them to you. 

Now, this is specifically good when you are new to the business, and you want to gain free visibility from search engines: someone looks for something that your business does, finds your platform and visits. 

With the correct rankings that come through SEO, you will increase the traffic to your website in no time.

#2 Better Rankings

So far, we’ve just barely scratched the surface of what rankings are. But, you absolutely need to know that they are some of the most important things that will benefit from the right SEO strategy… And that they are essential for the future of your business.

Rankings are how search engines evaluate the immensity of content that populates the internet, starting from the basics. For example, have you ever paid attention to the fact that, whenever you search for something on Google, you receive millions of results spread over multiple pages? 

The pages with better rankings are the ones you see on the first page, while the others are the ones you can hardly find if you are desperate enough to scroll past the second page (and nobody ever does). 

And how do you manage to improve your rankings? Well, there are many specific tactics you could use and improve your overall SEO strategy, as well as develop consistent, high-quality content are just two of those. 

While searching for “rankings”, you might have encountered agencies that promise to buy you good rankings. This is how vital rankings are!

But while you might feel tempted to give this a try, know that it’s a complete scam, and you should avoid it at all costs.

#3 Generate Leads

What are leads? Metaphorically speaking, leads are funnels through which new clients come in and help you achieve the desired results – better known as conversions. 

Meaning that if your website is easy to find and has exceptional rankings due to an effective SEO strategy, you will easily attract new clients. Your chances will dramatically increase if you also have excellent reviews from your previous customers. 

Social proof builds trust.

#4 You Could Gain More Trust

Yes, trust and a good business reputation are the fundamentals to your company’s success. While SEO can’t tamper with the practical quality of your business – meaning that you cannot fake something that it’s not already there-it can significantly help you gain authority on search engines.

How does that work?

Well, we started by discussing rankings. These are extremely important as they are determined by a wide range of factors such as keyword optimisation, user experience, and user experience. But, strictly speaking, your chances of getting higher rankings improve if you decide to take care of your website from a holistic perspective without neglecting any vital aspect. 

If you have a good website, you’ll have better rankings. And how does that translate into a common language? More users that will find you through a string of keywords on search engines will trust you. 

#5 Exceptional Cost Optimisation

The right SEO strategy can do wonders for your business, not just in terms of visibility and popularity. 

After all, you are not in business just to show off, right? You are probably in to try and get some money out of it. 

While the right SEO strategy isn’t cheap, the return on investment you will get through it is incredibly high.

Specifically, because SEO isn’t a quick and easy fix to gain immediate results, it’s a long and steady process that can go on for months on end before delivering what you were hoping for in the first place. This means that the results you will see are long-lasting and will repay you back of any initial investment you might have made to begin with.

 

DIY Your SEO: How To Get Started On Your Own…

Seeing all of the fantastic results you could get through SEO might have put you in an utter frenzy to get started. 

We understand that you feel impatient; after all, it’s your business we are talking about! But how can you start your SEO journey on your own if you’ve never done it before? 

Well, we wouldn’t suggest you do so because the risks are high… But here’s a small guide through the first steps you must take to easily DIY Your SEO -and have fun while doing it!

#1 Start By Doing Some Research

Whenever you plan a new strategy, you need to start by researching. This is even more essential when you want to do something particular such as doing your SEO. If you’ve never done anything like this before, please consider investing in an online class; this will help you understand the general rules of the process. If you don’t, you will soon feel incredibly lost and overwhelmed by all the technical jargon you will encounter on Google. Take the time to learn something and go on from there.

#2 Analyse Your Visibility

One of the main things that SEO impact are rankings. And to get started and set your goals, you have to know how your website is currently ranking. You can get started using some free tools such as Domain Overview, or Google Analytics. Both these tools can give you an insight into how your and your competitors’ websites are performed and can be set up by following some simple guides that you can find on the web. 

#3 Do Some Keyword Research

One of the most critical components of a successful SEO strategy is keywords. This powerful string of words related to a particular topic has the immense power of driving your potential customers literally to your virtual doorstep. That’s why they have to be the starting point of your strategy.

But how do you know which keywords are the right ones for your website? Don’t worry; there are free tools that can help you keep track of what you need to use related to your field. 

But of course, keywords as they are don’t have that much power. So the thing that you absolutely need to do next is…

#4 Optimise Your Content

Keywords? Fundamental. How do you use them? Well, let’s start by saying that you can’t just research the keywords your target audience is using and then think that it will be enough.

And you can’t even try and use them mindlessly only later to complain about the lack of results. 

To make keywords work, you must have your content optimised for them.

But be prepared, as it won’t be an easy feat. There are many general rules to follow to have the best content ready for posting: most of them regard the use of links and keywords, others cover the specific format your content has to follow.

#5 Analyse Your Backlinks 

One of the most essential criteria that search engines follow to guarantee that your website is valuable is if others are linking to it. And if so, who is. 

If your website gets linked on an essential and authoritative website (such as the one of a major company), you will receive better rankings because that proves you are reliable.

Start by using an online free tool to analyse your backlinks. See how your strategy can be implemented and, if so, where.

#6 Assess Any Kind Of Technical Difficulty

No one likes to visit a website with broken links and features. However, when working on your SEO, you have to consider that anything that slows down your website will negatively affect your rankings, drastically lowering them. And it would also, of course, decrease the user experience.

Start by fixing any broken links you might find and go on from there.

#7 Try To Stay Updated

Google Algorithms tend to change and evolve periodically. For example, it’s been reported that only at least 300 new measures were introduced to regulate the way rankings are distributed during the last year. 

You can’t miss a beat.

Stay updated with Google’s guidelines and see how your strategy can be improved wee-on-week. 

Why You Shouldn’t DIY SEO…

All things considered, SEO remains an incredibly complicated thing that it’s impossible to master professionally in a couple of days or just by reading a guide that tells you exactly how to do it.

While you might still be able to see some improvements, you wouldn’t probably be prepared to deal with other things that inevitably happen during the process.

That’s why you need an expert to help you with it. Do you still have doubts and fears? Find out why you shouldn’t DIY your SEO – and why you should be living a stress-free life instead!

#1 SEO is DIFFICULT…

Yes, we hate to repeat ourselves, but this is just the harsh truth. There’s more to SEO than just using the right keywords at the right time. First, SEO requires a lengthy and crafty research process that can be too much to take in if you are brand new to the world of digital marketing. Second, SEO is complicated and tricky. It takes a lot of time and attempts to be ready to finally deliver the right results, and it’s something that you don’t have. 

And finally, to do SEO correctly, you need to adopt a holistic approach to your website and marketing strategy: you have to take care of aspects such as web development, web design, user experience… And it is an awful lot of things to be doing on your own. 

#2 You Might Not Be Aware Of All The Variabilities There Are…

Google Algorithms like to change as the staircases in Harry Potter do. This means that criteria that enable you to reach higher rankings can dramatically change from one month to the next, and this could go unnoticed if you are not doing SEO for a living.

While an excellent introductory course can prepare you to deal with everyday situations, things can change quickly. As a result, you could encounter difficulties for which you haven’t been trained. 

There are a lot of variabilities that you can only learn about by doing it. Repeatedly. Daily. 

#2 It Will Cost You More…

Hiring an SEO agency can sound like a hefty investment initially, but the right professionals can provide you with results while you are not. Yes, it’s that easy.

Sure, you can dabble with a bit of DIY to know what they are all talking about, but it won’t bring you any return on your investment.

You start by doing your own SEO, and you decide to enrol in an online class, which you have to pay. Not being ready or enough of an expert to do your strategy, you make several attempts that go wrong. 

You get no results, and you cannot even get the initial investment -the price of the online class- back. That is a fail.

But it’s something that won’t happen if you hire a professional.

#3 It’s A Loss Of Resources For Your Business…

If you are the owner of your own company, you probably have other skills to offer for your company’s development. And, quite likely, SEO is not one of them. 

Learning how to do something completely new has the potential to result in a complete loss of time and resources for your business if it proves to be beyond you.

#4 You Might Fail. Badly…

Yes, there’s worse than just not acing rankings. But unfortunately, when someone who doesn’t know much about SEO starts dealing with it, they might be tempted to try and use some quick-fix techniques such as Black-Hat SEO which are wholly unethical and forbidden by Google.

Should you do that, you can risk a hefty penalty and see all of your results completely wiped off of search engines. 

I bet you hadn’t considered that… 

#5 It’s Not Just About Optimising Keywords…

SEO is real teamwork. You need to ask other professionals to collaborate to ace the standards that search engines have. 

In other words, knowing what keyword you should be using is just the tip of the iceberg. Knowing how to masterfully craft them into the posts you are writing, and the images you are using is another thing. 

And you can’t expect to learn that many things on your own!

Hire The Best And Forget The Rest

You might have fun doing your own SEO for a while, but once your goals are higher, you need to hire a team of professionals to deal with your strategy and help you achieve all of the dreams you have for your business. 

If you are looking for the best marketing agency around, book your free SEO audit today and get ready to see results!

Book Your FREE Consultation Now…