Can I Do My Own SEO?

Can I Do My Own SEO?

Yes. You absolutely can. Thats not something most agencies will tell you. We have done it ourselves. If you've got the time, the interest, and a clear offer to promote, theres nothing stopping you from learning enough to build steady organic traffic. Not just views. Real leads. The kind of customers you want to work with. The problem is not whether you can. The problem is that most people dont know where to begin or realise what is worth doing.

This post is here to give you a clear path forward.

Why Most Businesses Don't Do Any SEO

There's a misconception that SEO is too difficult. It needs a specialist in the same way you might pay someone to build the website in the first place. It is one of those terms that some business owners dread and others simply don't know. It seems unquantifiable in many ways and so a majority of people are too confused to even start or are blissfully unaware of how big of an impact it could have. I have a post on how to tell is your SEO is working without an agency report, you can read that here. That post will tell you how to assess just how visible your business is online whether you do SEO or not.

The reality is every time you speak to a new client, add a service to your business, complete a project, sell a product, win an award, partner with a new supplier, develop a new process, post something on social media, get a 5 star review you're gainig the content that makes up the very basis of organic SEO. Yes there's a technical element but actually If you posted these pieces of news and new developments on your site you'd already be doing a huge amount towards improving your rankings and therefore your Search Engine Optimisation.

You're the expert when it comes to your business. Make it one of the reasons people want to use your company.

Why Most People Give Up

If you've ever started researching SEO, you'll know how quickly it becomes overwhelming.

There are endless tutorials, tools, trends, and opinions. Most of them contradict each other. Most are written by people trying to sell something. And most make SEO sound more technical than it really is.

The three things that usually throw people off track:

- Too much jargon and theory

If you've ever seen that chanel on social media with the bloke pretending to be an expert in photography, or outdoor gear or audio equipment, that's how it feels to meet someone who claims to be an SEO guru. The buzzwords alone are mind bogglingly dull. In my opinion, this is the biggest reason most people don't do their own SEO.

If you can get through the jargon and mental elitism, It's a fairly straightforward process. You use terms your customers use, you publish honest and organic content, you optimise your website so search engines are happy to recommend you to their users, and you make sure the website operates as smoothly and effectively as possible. That's it. If you can make it through the great filter of boredom, you too can one day bore the face off a small business owner at a party by telling them you do your own SEO!.

- Obsession with traffic over quality

The obsession with the highest number, the biggest increase, the number 1 spot is literally drilled into us from the moment it's acceptible to tell kids that winning is the most important thing in life. It must stem back to survival, I'm sure it's an evolutuonary advantage. Does it matter when it comes to SEO?

In some cases high numbers of targeted visitors is the goal. If you work on a tiny conversion rate or a small profit, getting as many people to your site is crucial. If you sell badges online and make pennies and not pounds for every sale then you need thousands and thousands of potential customers each month to make it work, but if your a metal fabrication business in Blackburn you may only need a fraction of this traffic. Maybe your goal is 10 new leads a month. You can achieve that with 200 visits to your site from potential clients rather than thousands.

Quality of information, transparancy and social proof are the best ways to gain the traffic you need month in month out. You'll find the perfect number for your business.

- Lack of time and structure

I don't want to sound like an over zealous personal trainer...but...everyone has time in their business to do SEO. You don't always need a full time SEO employee. If you're a local business selling fence panels to local landscapers and diy types, making sure your reviews, business details, directory listings and product updates are done regularly along with 1 or 2 blog posts a week on featured products or industry how to guides and info will be monumental to your search visibility. That's not a full time position. It can be part of your working week easily.

The bigger the organisation the harder it becomes to effectively implement. By making weekly SEO part of a job role for a existing employee, or doing it yourself as a business owner and having structure, a content calendar and a process, you'll save hours in guesswork and head scratching.

The result of the three points above is that good businesses give up, or they hand it off to someone who may do one of the following:

Actually improve your visibility and sales.

Make it worse.

Keep you in limbo to earn as much money as possible.

Generate more traffic but not understand what you want to get out of that extra traffic.

It's a bit of a lottery though. It can take months before you realise which results you'll get.

There is another option. Learn the bits that matter, ignore the rest, and build something that

works. Best case you won't need to pay someone thousands a month to remain viable, worst case, you need that monthly package from an agency to increase your enquiry, but now you'll have the knowledge to understand what an agency is or isn't doing for their monthly fee.

When Should Businesses Consider Doing Their Own SEO

My opinion on this is that ALL busniesses should be able to at least cover the basics. I've talked about our previous business in other posts. Our business was our life. In a good way it was part of everything we did, and it provided us with more than we'd previously had both financially and professionally. There were some changes in our life though. My partner is my Wife and so those changes impacted both uf us. We wanted to do something else, and so when the opportunity arose we sold the commercial website that brought in the leads for our manufacturing and installation side to the business. A big part of the reason for selling was that I was away alot and I wanted more time with the kids. A former Supplier/competitor/customer (we bought from them, sold other items to them, and serviced similar clients) bought it from us to develop that side to their business.

When we handed the website over to them it was regularly achieving 2000-2500 organic visits every month with no ad spend. It delivered 20-40 high quality leads every month. That was 19 months ago. We have nothing to do with that website anymore but out of curiosity I checked in on it every few months on my audit software and by looking at the actual site, It had been a huge part of our lives and I was proud of everything we had achieved project wise. It's the reason we sold it to this company in particular rather than offer it to the highest bidder, we knew their professionalism and wanted to preserve some of that for our customers. It's quite sad to see that after 19 months and almost no new content, updates, images, blogs the site now struggles to achieve just 14 visits per month. SEO isnt a set and forget, one time hardship that will keep you ranked for years to come. It's as much a part of your business as paying suppliers, buying materials, researching new products and any of the other million things it takes to run a sucessful business.

What You Actually Need to Do (And Why)

Let's break it down into the basics, the parts that matter most if you're doing your own SEO.

1. Understand How People Search

Forget keyword tools for a minute. Just start with common sense.

If someone was looking for what you sell or offer, what would they type into Google?

Start there. Then type it in yourself and study the results.

Look at:

- The page titles showing up

- The People Also Ask box

- The related searches at the bottom

- The kind of content ranking well

This tells you what Google thinks is a good answer and gives you clues on how to shape your own.

2. Create Pages That Match Real Search Terms

You dont need hundreds of pages. You just need good ones.

That might include:

- A clear home page that explains what you offer and where.

- Specific service pages that focus on one thing at a time or for e-commerce clear product pages and product collections with related products to make navigation as easy as possible.

- Blog posts that answer common questions or show your work.

- A contact page that actually works or for e-commerce a checkout process that has as little friction as possible.

Every page should focus on one intent. One idea. Just useful, honest, clear content.

3. Structure Content Properly

Use simple headings. Write like a human. Avoid waffling. Keep it practical.

A good blog post should include:

- A clear title.

- A short intro that explains what the post is about.

- Subheadings to guide the reader.

- Real examples or useful takeaways.

Add internal links where it makes sense. Link to related posts or relevant pages. It helps readers

and it helps search engines understand your site.

4. Get the Technical Bits Right (Enough)

You dont need to be a developer but you do need to:

- Make sure your pages load quickly.

- Use alt tags on images. (I'll link to a post on ALT tags here)

- Write proper page titles and meta descriptions.

- Set up Google Search Console and submit your sitemap.

- Make sure your site works well on mobile.

You can check most of this yourself with free tools. If you get stuck, ask for help but you dont need to wait on an agency just to fix small things.

5. Publish Regularly and Be Patient

Organic SEO is not instant. Sometimes you'll find that it works quicker than you expected, but be prepared for results to take longer than paid ads for example.

You might not see much in the first few weeks but give it three to six months, and youll start to

notice which pages bring traffic and which posts get read. It builds slowly and it sticks. As I warned above, this is part of your weekly process now, It's as much a part of your business as doing a VAT return or sending an invoice. If you have physical premises, it is as important as keeping your place of work clean and presentable. When a client visits your site they make a judgement about your business just as they would if they turned up to your shop and the place was a mess.

If you keep writing and improving, your site becomes an asset that keeps working in the

background.

What You Might Still Need

Doing your own SEO works until you get too busy or unsure where to focus next.

You might write ten blog posts and not be sure which ones helped. You might wonder whether to write more or update what you've got. You might notice traffic but not see more enquiries. Thats when a second pair of eyes is useful. Not to take it all over. Just to help you move forward with clarity. Thats what we offer.

A quiet look at your site, your content, and your goals followed by clear, direct advice you can use.

If that sounds helpful, get in touch, book a free review or order a full site audit.