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Business Owners: Should You Handle Your Own SEO?

These days all businesses are conscious of trying to save money – or at least, not to waste it. It’s a question almost every business owner will ask themselves at some point: Should we handle our website Search Engine Optimisation ourselves? What this boils down to in effect is whether:

  • You have the time and resources to carry out SEO properly.
  • You understand what needs to be done to attract top rankings for your identified keywords and phrases.

Your replies to the following questions can be used as pointers to help you decide whether you will optimise your website or blog yourself, or whether you should engage an SEO consultant or agency:

     1.   How much is an hour of your time worth to you currently?

Once you know what this figure is, it’s worth getting some ‘ballpark’ quotes from prospective SEO experts to see whether using an outsourced SEO service might be a viable option for you. 

     2.  What ‘sacrifices’ from your weekly workload could you reasonably make?

How will you juggle current duties within your weekly schedule in order to make room for SEO? Or perhaps you intend delegating this responsibility to a member of your team, in which case, what aspects of their current workload can reasonably be sacrificed to make room for SEO activities?

    3.   How much do you understand about SEO processes?

Are you able to grasp the fluid nature of SEO by keeping on top of algorithms changes and so forth? Many businesses have unwittingly seen their websites plummet overnight for falling foul of Google and the like.

    4.   Can you grasp basic HTML?

Fair enough, you won’t need to be an expert coder, but you will need to understand the essentials: adding meta tags to content, inserting page links, renaming imagesand formatting text so your site is SEO-friendly.

    5.  Can you write compelling copy?

Being able to write compelling copy that people will want to read and will derive value from is an essential element of good SEO. Remember you won’t only be writing for your own website, but for ezines and article sites, PR purposes and authority blogs too. You will need to be able to produce (and publish) a constant stream of keyword-rich content in order to boost your search engine rankings.

    6.  Do you have the tools with which to analyse your SEO performance?

Having the right tools to set up your SEO strategy and measure your website’s performance is essential. As is being able to interpret Google analytics and other reporting tools, so you are able to constantly ‘tweak’ your SEO activities to ensure that your efforts are delivering the results you need.There is little point in having a business website if prospective customers don’t know you exist. Not optimising your website fully is akin to pitching a refreshments hut in the middle of a deep forest without telling visitors where to locate it. Also bear in mind that SEO is not a quick fix ‘one size fits all’ solution – it’s something that needs to worked at – continuously.

And finally you should ask yourself:

Would grappling with SEO amount to good use of my time? Or would my business be better served if I could free up more time through outsourcing to a reputable SEO specialist?