Pros & Cons of DIY SEO

If you are a small business owner, you know the importance of having your website rank well in Google's search results. SEO services are expensive, the fee each month that a reputable SEO agency charges will certainly eat into your profits.

For many small business owners, the answer is DIY SEO, which has its advantages and it's disadvantages.

Pros of DIY SEO

• You can learn about SEO online.
• You can avoid SEO firm's high fees.
• When it comes to creating content, no one knows your business better.
• Google Analytics will show you how you are progressing.

Cons of DIY SEO

• Unless you are tech savvy, some of the SEO techniques may be confusing.
• SEO is time consuming, even after you master the basics.
• Creating content is not as easy as it initially appears.
• The data provided by Google Analytics is overwhelming.

A responsive website, one that adapts to user's devices, is essential to ranking well in the search results; it is also essential to keep mobile visitors from leaving your website. No one likes to scroll and pinch to find the information that they need. If you are not sure if your website is responsive, access it on multiple devices with different screen sizes to verify that the site renders properly.

Read all that you can about avoiding Google penalties. It is very tempting to pay a few dollars for a backlinks instead of spending time creating share-worthy content. As a business owner, your time is valuable, but SEO shortcuts will cost you in the end. It is very difficult to recover from a Google penalty.

If you have an employee that insists they can do your write your content and social media posts, keep a close eye on their work. Edit everything that they write and insist on approving images and video before they are deployed. Content is probably the most important aspect of SEO; Google does not reward content with grammar and spelling errors.