Do it yourself SEO, or outsourcing to a SEO agency? This is a question many small business owners ask themselves once they see the potential of organic traffic generation. Learning how to optimize a website for the search engines is attainable for most business owners. Most people can learn how to optimize a website for the search engines, the same as most people can learn how to fix their own car or refurbish their own home. However, sometimes it’s just not cost effective to do so.
The first thing you need to consider in order to decide whether you should do your own SEO or find an SEO expert to do it for you is if you have the time and the inclination to learn a whole host of new things including link building, copywriting for SEO, keyword research and web analytics. SEO is not rocket science, but if you are a very busy person who doesn’t know anything about HTML, computers or writing online, and you don’t really enjoy spending hours looking at graphs and testing new software, SEO may not be something you enjoy learning.
Consider also if you have the time to work on it. You may need to devote several weeks to months before you start seeing results, especially if you don’t have access to paid tools and software like a specialised SEO agency does. If you have several websites, learning SEO and getting those tools can be a worthy investment, but if you don’t it may never become cost effective and paying a monthly fee to a SEO expert may be the best option.
Lastly, consider your niche and the competition. Some niches are so competitive a SEO novice has little chance of success, while others are much more attainable. Would you try and fix a really expensive car yourself, if it involves teaching yourself how to? If your website is your main source of sales and the competition on your niche is high you’ll need the edge a professional SEO agency can provide.
While anybody can learn search engine optimization, as a business owner the real issue is whether it makes business sense to devote your time and energy to SEO instead of selling or developing new products. Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s too difficult to learn, or that only self-proclaimed experts can optimize your website for the search engines, as that’s not the case. Nevertheless, SEO is not something that should be taken lightly, as the consecuences of getting it wrong cannot be ignored.
Another option if you’d prefer to take a hands-on approach to your SEO efforts is to work with a SEO Search Engine Optimization agency for the planning and initial stages, then bring maintenance search engine optimization in house. If you understand basic SEO and search engine best practices and guidelines, you’ll be able to work more effectively with any SEO professional.