Do SEO Yourself: How to Make Your DIY Project Work

You may be an enthusiastic hobbyist and have already realized many successful DIY projects. Now you think that a little SEO can’t be so hard either and want to try to do it yourself. To give you an overview and show you what it means to do SEO yourself, we created this article.

Of course you can learn search engine optimization — you just have to be willing to invest a lot of time. After all, SEO basically never stops — it’s more of an ongoing process.

We’ll show you what’s important in search engine optimization, where to start, and what the advantages and disadvantages of doing it yourself or leaving it to a professional agency are. In addition, we give you a whole range of valuable and practical tips on how to do SEO yourself.

Do SEO Yourself: Is That Even Possible?

Yes, of course you can do SEO yourself and thus carry out all measures that should help your website to be found and positioned better in the search results of search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo.

It’s not magic, it’s also no science (or maybe it is) and you don’t need any programming skills. You just need to know SEO basics, know what matters and what areas it affects. There are a variety of factors that play a role in SEO, including technical aspects such as website load time, content optimization, and backlink structure.

Certainly, the biggest issue for many is the time aspect. To do SEO thoroughly and sustainably and get real results, you need to invest a lot of time in the subject. Let’s summarize and have a look at other aspects. To do your SEO yourself, you need the following:

• Some basic technical understanding or an affinity for technology and an interest in how search engines and websites like WordPress work (if your website was built with it)
• Knowledge of search engine optimization
• A lot of time because SEO is particularly time-consuming and often involves boring, repetitive tasks
• Perseverance, because search engine optimization is a continuous monitoring and adjustment of all measures
• Willingness to continuously learn and adapt SEO measures to changing requirements
• Analytical thinking and the ability to understand complex interrelationships
• Knowing the basics of Google search

You can then familiarize yourself with various SEO tools that help you analyze the current status of your website and identify potential for improvement. These include Google Analytics, Google Search Console or free SEO tools such as Screaming Frog.

Ultimately, however, the success of SEO measures also depends on other factors, such as the quality of the content, the competition in the respective area, and changes in the search algorithms. Therefore, you should not rely solely on technical optimizations, but also make sure to create high-quality content that is relevant and helpful for users.

What Matters in Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization comes down to several factors, all of which are aimed at making a website as relevant and valuable as possible for users. Here are some important aspects of SEO:

Technical Optimization

Technical optimization involves various measures to ensure that a website loads quickly and smoothly, and that search engines can understand the website’s content well. These include optimizing load time, creating an XML sitemap, using talking URLs, and using Schema.org markup to structure content.

Content Optimization

A website should provide high-quality and relevant content that adds value to users. This includes not only text content, but also images, videos, and other multimedia elements. Content should be well-structured and easy to understand, so users can quickly find what they are looking for. Delete old and outdated content or optimize it to achieve the desired results.

Keyword Optimization

Keywords still play an important role in SEO, as they help to indicate a website’s relevance to specific search queries. However, it is essential not to overdo it here and use unnaturally many keywords (keyword stuffing), as this can be considered spamming by search engines.

Backlinks

Backlinks, i.e., links from other websites to your website, are an important factor for SEO. However, it is not only the number of backlinks that matters, but also the quality and relevance of the linking websites.

Mobile Optimization

In times of smartphones and tablets, it is important that a website is also usable on mobile devices. This includes, among other things, optimizing the loading time, using a responsive design and using AMP pages.

Social Media

Social media activities can also have a positive impact on SEO, as they help to increase the visibility and awareness of your website.

It is important to emphasize that search engine optimization is a very complex topic and there is no guarantee of a position in the top ranks of search results. Therefore, you should not rely solely on SEO, but also take other marketing and promotional measures to increase the awareness and reach of your website.

Where to Start — 6 Steps to Success

If you want to do your search engine optimization (SEO) yourself, there are some basic steps you should take first. Here are our recommendations:

1. Current Conditions (SEO Audit)

To know how your website is doing in terms of SEO and to be able to adapt your measures accordingly, you should first perform an audit of your website. For this purpose, use the countless and often free tools on the web, or have this important step performed by a professional agency. Only if you know what is wrong, you can take the right steps.

2. Keyword Research

Before you can introduce changes to your website, you should first research which keywords are relevant for your target group and how frequently they are searched for in search engines. Free tools like the Google Keyword Planner can help you with this. Based on the results, you can then optimize the content and structure of the website.

3. On-page Optimization

Next, you should optimize your website in terms of technology and content when doing SEO yourself. This includes, for example, optimizing the loading time, creating speaking (i.e., easy to read and understand) URLs, using meta tags and improving internal linking.

4. Content Optimization

An important part in SEO is played by the content of your website. Make sure your content is of high quality, relevant and unique. Furthermore, use your previously researched keywords in the process. “Content is King” is not just a saying — content is still one of the most relevant aspects if you want to get your website into the top 10 search results.

5. Backlink Analysis

Check which websites link to your website. Always focus on quality instead of quantity when it comes to backlinks. Avoid links from dubious sources at all costs — in the worst case, this can even lead to a downgrading by the search engines.

6. Mobile Optimization

Optimize your website for mobile devices, as more and more users surf the internet with their smartphone or tablet. A few years ago, Google introduced the “Mobile First” policy — according to this, mobile content is ranked more important than regular websites.

It is especially significant to note that search engine optimization is a continuous process. Once you’ve implemented these basics, you should regularly monitor your pages’ rankings to see where there’s room for improvement and make adjustments accordingly.

Take Control of Your SEO with These 10 Tips

To help you do your SEO yourself, we’d like to give you ten practical tips. These will help you perform your search engine optimization in the best possible way:

Tip #1 — Use an SEO Plug-in

If you run your website with WordPress, for example, you can use an SEO plug-in like Yoast SEO or Rank Math. It will help you optimize meta tags, create a WordPress sitemap, check for duplicate content and much more.

Tip #2 — Use Meaningful URLs

Make sure that the URLs of your website are meaningful. Use your most important keywords as well. So instead of calling a page “Page-829”, it should rather be called “Do SEO yourself — useful tips and hints”. By the way: Such a title should never be longer than 55 characters to be displayed in its entirety in Google search results. Here is an example of a meaningful meta title including the corresponding meta description:

Tip #3 — Write High-quality Content

Write content that is tailored to the needs of your target audience. Make sure you have a clear structure and use your relevant keywords in the text. Moreover, make sure your content is unique and well-researched. If you are not that skilled in writing your texts yourself and would rather leave this task to professionals, we are happy to assist you with our professional copywriters.

Tip #4 — Improve the Loading Time of Your Website

A fast loading time is a critical factor for SEO. Reduce the size of images, use caching plugins, and choose a good web host.

Tip #5 — Provide Alt Text for All Images

The Googlebot is very sophisticated, but it cannot recognize the content of images. To be able to read the images, the bot requires an alternative text. But alt-texts are also significant for barrier-free access, as they can be used, for example, to read aloud to blind people what the image represents. Conversely, Google penalizes pages that lack alt texts with a ranking loss.

Tip #6 — Create a Sitemap

Create an XML sitemap to help search engines index your website. This can be created easily thanks to appropriate, usually free plug-ins. However, many good CMS (content management systems) also create the sitemap fully automatically.

Tip #7 — Analyze Your Competition

Check what keywords and strategies your competitors are using. This can help you improve your SEO game plan.

Tip #8 — Build Backlinks

In particular, create relevant content to get backlinks from other websites. The better your writing is and the more value it adds, the more likely other operators will link to your posts. However, avoid buying backlinks or links from dubious sources in any case. This is counterproductive and will do lasting damage to your website.

Tip #9 — Use HTTPS

Google and Co. reward secure websites with significantly better rankings compared to those that still rely on the old HTTP protocol. Through HTTPS, all data is transferred between the user and the website using SSL encryption, which not only increases security, but also the all-important user experience.

Tip #10 — Avoid the Three Biggest Mistakes

If you want to do SEO yourself, you should avoid these three mistakes in any case:

1. Keyword stuffing: Keyword stuffing means inserting unnaturally many keywords into the content or meta tags of the website to improve search engine rankings. This is recognized by search engines and can lead to a devaluation of your website.
2. Duplicate Content: Duplicate content is when there are pages on your website that have the exact same content as other pages on your website or completely unrelated websites. This can cause problems with search engines, as they may have difficulty deciding which page should appear in search results.
3. Use of purchased links: Buying links can lead to a quick boost in search engine rankings, but this is a rather risky practice as it violates Google’s guidelines. If you get caught doing this, it can lead to your website being devalued or even banned.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Taking Care of Your SEO Yourself

There are both advantages and disadvantages to doing search engine optimization yourself. Here are some examples:

Advantages

Probably among the most obvious advantages of doing your SEO yourself is the cost savings. If you do SEO yourself, you save the costs of an agency or an SEO expert. In addition, with many proposals, you do not know whether they are of any advantage.

Furthermore, you improve the understanding of your website. If you do SEO yourself, you will understand more about your site, the content, the target audience and learn a lot about SEO.

You can react flexibly and cost-neutrally to changes at any time and work continuously on optimization. Moreover, you have full control over all actions and can thus ensure that everything is done to comply with search engine guidelines.

Disadvantages

Conversely, probably the biggest disadvantage is that SEO takes a lot of time. If you want to do SEO yourself, you should have plenty of time, not only to carry out the initial measures, but to always keep it rolling and optimize your website more and more.

Furthermore, a certain basic technical understanding is required. SEO requires technical know-how, especially when it comes to optimizing the website structure and website technology. If you don’t have that or simply have no relation to it, it will be really difficult to do search engine optimization by yourself.

The error-proneness should not be underestimated when doing SEO on your own. Mistakes in performing SEO measures can lead to being penalized by the search engines. If you don’t have sufficient knowledge, you run the risk of making mistakes that can affect your entire SEO efforts.

Last but not least, you will probably have limited resources available. If you want to do SEO yourself, you may not have the same resources as an agency or an expert to access appropriate professional tools and technologies.

Let’s Briefly Summarize the Advantages and Disadvantages of Doing SEO Yourself

Advantages	Disadvantages
✅ Cost saving ✅ You get a more profound understanding of your website ✅ You get to know your target audience ✅ You have full control ✅ You can react flexibly to changes	❌ Time intensive ❌ SEO knowledge required ❌ Error-prone ❌ Often limited resources

It’s important to note that the decision to do SEO yourself or hire an agency or expert depends on several factors, such as your skill level, resources, schedule, and goals.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Entrusting Your SEO to a Professional Agency

Getting your SEO done by a professional agency also has its sunny and shady sides. Here are some examples:

Advantages

Among the most important advantages is certainly the experience and expertise. A professional SEO firm has the knowledge and experience to develop and execute a comprehensive SEO game plan tailored to your specific goals.

But you can’t ignore the time savings either. When you entrust SEO to an agency, you can focus on other aspects of your website or business while the agency takes care of SEO. While you take care of marketing efforts, improved UX design, your customers, and increasing sales, the SEO efforts are done for you in parallel in the background.

Innately, an agency has greater access to a wider range of resources and tools that can help with SEO, such as advanced analytics tools and technologies. Plus, you’ll be constantly updated on the progress of the SEO campaign. An SEO content agency can adjust the strategy as needed to ensure you achieve your goals.

Disadvantages

Among the advantages, the cost aspect is certainly the biggest for many. An agency usually charges fees for their services, which can be expensive — unless you find the right agency that offers quality affordably.

If you don’t work closely with the agency, there can be communication issues that can affect the progress of your SEO campaign — unless you choose an agency for which communication is as important as it is for you.

If you entrust the SEO to an agency, you may have less control over the SEO process than if you were to do it yourself — unless you choose an agency where you are constantly updated through your personal dashboard.

If you entrust yourself to an agency instead of doing SEO yourself, you are dependent on that agency to execute and monitor the SEO campaign — unless you look for an agency that presents prices, such as on SEO copywriting, in a completely transparent manner, and this way you have the option to take over yourself at any time.

Let’s briefly summarize the advantages and disadvantages of SEO by an agency again

Advantages	Disadvantages
✅ Experience and expertise ✅ Time saving ✅ Better Tools and more profound analysis ✅ Free resources	❌ Can be costly ❌ Communication problems may occur ❌ No full control ❌ Dependence

It’s important to note that the decision to entrust your SEO to an agency depends on several factors, such as your budget, goals, skill level, and available resources. Before making your decision, you should carefully consider whether an agency is the best option for you or if you want to do the SEO yourself.

With Blogtec, Not Only the Results Are Right, but Also the Price

It is generally said that you cannot have a quality service at a low price. Conversely, they also say that you can’t expect quality at a low price. But… it is possible!

In the field of SEO, it primarily comes down to two things — the expertise and the tools. Blogtec has created a perfect combination of these two areas and not only uses the concentrated expertise and personal touch of its experts, but also makes use of the best tools available.

For example, instead of laboriously creating and sending a report on SEO measures or the content plan, Blogtec provides all the information ready to hand at any time in a personalized dashboard. This not only saves costs, but is also particularly efficient. Where it counts, however, Blogtec makes no compromises.

Even the content creation process is automated in many phases. Only the actual preparation, writing and post-processing of high-quality content is not left to AI, but to professional and experienced editors and copywriters. In this way, Blogtec succeeds in offering top services at an excellent price. Get a no-obligation consultation and see how Blogtec can help you gain more customers and generate more revenue. Arrange a consultation right here.