Positioning websites yourself – is it worth it?
You can easily find numerous websites, guides, courses, articles, blogs, etc. devoted to SEO on the internet. Some of these are free. The availability of these materials may prompt you to ask yourself, "Maybe I should become my own SEO specialist?"
Is it possible to position websites yourself?
Let's not keep you in suspense any longer and start with the answer. Yes, it's absolutely possible. You can find plenty of material on this topic online, and there are plenty of Facebook groups where you can share your doubts and get advice. Verseo itself is contributing, not so small, by publishing educational materials on SEO . You might ask: where's the point in sharing this knowledge, where's the logic? You're sawing off the branch you're sitting on, dear SEO specialists.
Availability of educational materials is one thing…
…and time for education is another. Let's be honest, it's one thing to familiarize yourself with SEO to a level where you feel confident and comfortable talking to your account manager, and quite another to master the concepts of website positioning to the point where you can confidently promote your website—without fear of breaking something and seriously damaging your site.
Achieving a level of knowledge and skill that allows us to confidently deliver the best results for our website doesn't happen overnight. An experienced SEO specialist has worked with hundreds of websites across various industries, encountered a variety of surprising situations, and achieved numerous keyword rankings in the top 10, top 3, and even first position. Working with just one website, it's impossible to gain such a comprehensive overview.
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When it comes to positioning, tools are useful…
…and they can be quite expensive. Investing in tools that support SEO work may not be as cost-effective for a single website. This cost is distributed differently when working with an agency.
Positioning is time-consuming…
…so there may not be enough time for just running the business. The SEO process involves many elements that require development and implementation . Depending on the size of the website and the scope of work required, this can be quite time-consuming. The question is whether the business owner will be able to find this time in their busy schedule.
Google's algorithm is variable…
…and that means you have to stay on top of things, change optimizations, edit texts, modify link profiles, etc. A lot depends on the speed of implementing changes. It may turn out that finding the time to write new text for your website or rework all your meta tags is not so easy, as Google now prefers longer meta descriptions.
We don't want to discourage you, though, because it's possible to position your website yourself. However, you should be fully aware that it's a very complex process that requires a well-developed strategy, systematic action, and immediate response to any problems.
How to position a website yourself?
You're well aware of the challenges involved in positioning your website yourself. You know you need to acquire at least the basics, as relying solely on your intuition can lead you astray. So what should you keep in mind to ensure that the website positioning process delivers results even remotely comparable to those of a professional SEO agency?
Website audit
If you're wondering how to optimize your website yourself, it's a good idea to start by conducting a thorough audit. Its goal is to identify areas that need improvement, as they could negatively impact your site's ranking in search results.
Further actions will largely depend on the audit's accuracy, so it's a good idea to outsource it to specialists in this field. However, if you're like "Zosia-Samosia," you can conduct such an analysis yourself – using the necessary tools. Access to Google Search Console, Google Analytics , Google Keyword Planner, Screaming Frog, and Ahrefs, among others, will be useful. Many of these tools are free, but some require payment. Another option is to take advantage of a free trial period – especially if you're auditing your own website and will be using such tools primarily on a one-time basis.
Arming yourself with a complete set of tools is just the beginning – you need to know how to use them. They will be helpful in things like measuring your website's visibility, analyzing keywords, and verifying the correctness of your website structure. Another step involves verifying content for things like uniqueness (Google hates duplicates), cannibalization, and proper formatting. Technical aspects, such as page loading speed, are also important.
Implementation of optimization recommendations
Wondering how to optimize your website based on the results of your audit? Now it's time to implement optimization recommendations that will help strengthen your site's position in search results.
It's at this stage that the actual SEO process begins. It's a difficult, time-consuming, and arduous process that requires ongoing action, constant monitoring of the position of specific phrases in search results, and rapid response to unfavorable changes.
Selection of keywords
SEO results depend largely on the proper selection of keywords . There's no room for haphazard decisions here – keywords must be carefully selected. It's important to consider more than just the number of monthly searches. Competitiveness, seasonality, and the relevance of keywords to the industry are also factors to consider. The potential customer's intentions must also be taken into account.
There are several types of keywords. These include:
- general phrases – although they have a high number of monthly searches, they have the lowest conversion rate;
- long tail phrases – they consist of several words, which allows you to identify the user's intentions; choosing them increases the chance of achieving a higher conversion rate;
- Local keywords – are phrases that include the name of a city or a specific location; they are essential for businesses operating locally.
A keyword's competitiveness is crucial. This refers to the "interest" other companies have in vying for the highest possible position in search results for that phrase. The higher the competitiveness (the more companies using the phrase), the more difficult it is to rise to the top of Google's results. How can you check the competitiveness of a given keyword? Advanced analysis tools like Ahrefs provide this type of data (though it's not always accurate). However, you can also use Google Ads – the higher the bid for a given phrase, the more competitive the keyword.
Content expansion
If you're wondering how to position your website yourself based on the audit results, one of the key elements is expanding your content. The key is modifying existing texts on your website. It's essential to lengthen them and infuse them with relevant keywords. Expanding your content can also mean running a company blog, which provides additional space for posting texts with selected keywords.
It's worth remembering that content creation should be systematic. However, it's important to deliver valuable content—one that will be useful to users while also meeting SEO principles.
Building a domain link profile
From an SEO perspective, building a domain's link profile is crucial. The key here is to ensure both proper internal and external linking. If you're managing your website's SEO yourself, you'll need to manage it yourself. What does this involve?
Internal linking
Its essence is to place links to specific subpages within the same page. This is necessary, among other reasons, because it makes it easier for Google search engine robots to index individual tabs. It also increases the user's time on the page, which can also improve the site's ranking in search results.
External linking
External linking is simply acquiring links to a given website from external sources. These include forums, industry portals, social media , and company directories. However, acquiring a large number of links of questionable quality isn't an easy feat. Google values a large number of links, but these links must be of high quality – they must come from credible sources.
And here, anyone who decides to do their own SEO faces a huge challenge. They must take steps to acquire only valuable links. Simply posting comments on forums or creating content for directories is definitely not enough. Articles must be published on external websites, in back-end services, and so on. Of course, this is possible, but... it requires a significant amount of time – if only to create the necessary resources for acquiring external links.
Monitoring activities
Doing your own website positioning requires systematic monitoring of your activities. This is the only way to determine whether the implemented steps have produced the expected results. How can you verify this?
Appropriate tools like Google Search Console come in handy. This platform provides access to reports on clicks, impressions, click-through rates, and search engine rankings. However, the data obtained must be correctly interpreted to assess SEO results. This, in turn, requires knowledge, which means devoting additional time to acquiring skills in using this program.
The need to monitor the results of ongoing activities necessitates implementing certain modifications to the developed strategy. This begs the question: how can a website be positioned if it hasn't improved or—worse yet—has fallen lower in the rankings? It's essential to identify the cause of this situation and undertake corrective action.
Do-it-yourself website positioning – is it always profitable?
You already know how to position your website yourself. However, theory is one thing, practice is another. It's not even about lack of experience anymore, but about... time.
If you want your website to actually reach the top of search results, you need to take diligent and systematic action. Just because your website appears higher in Google doesn't mean it will stay there forever. You have to keep fighting to maintain your ranking, because the competition is certainly not idle. This means devoting a lot of time. Do you really have enough of it?
If you want to achieve measurable SEO results, you need to be relentless. If you let up, your competitors will surely take advantage of you. Therefore, you need to focus all your energy and attention on SEO. Dedicating yourself to SEO will likely impact other aspects of your business – because will you find the time to support your company's growth?
If you expect SEO efforts to function without your intervention, you'll undoubtedly be disappointed. If you want to achieve higher search engine rankings, you need to constantly strive for them. You need to constantly monitor the situation and react immediately if results are below expectations. This is crucial, especially since Google is prone to changing its search engine algorithms, as its history demonstrates.
Even though you'll gain the knowledge to optimize your website yourself, it won't always pay off. Sometimes it's better to leave these matters in the hands of professionals, who will not only do it better but also allow you to focus on what's most important to you and what you know best.
So before you make a final decision, carefully consider which option is more beneficial for you. Sometimes it's worth investing in SEO services performed by an experienced SEO agency . Remember that carefully conducted efforts will yield far more results than blindly trying to find the right solution – which is often the case with DIY SEO.
Still wondering which option is better: DIY or an external SEO specialist? The decision is yours! However, it's always better to know more than less, so we encourage you to visit our SEO COMPENDIUM, where we've collected our best guides and tools related to SEO activities. Use them even if you're choosing to work with an experienced SEO agency instead of doing your own SEO. It's good to know what services an external SEO specialist provides.
Summary
The above article covers the following topics:
- dilemmas related to independent SEO and opportunities to gain knowledge thanks to available guides and online courses,
- challenges of learning SEO,
- costs of tools supporting website positioning,
- the limitations of independent SEO resulting from the large amount of time required, which may make it difficult to focus on business development,
- the impact of search engine algorithm variability on the positioning process,
- activities necessary for effective website positioning, including analysis, optimization, content marketing and link building,
- the advantages and disadvantages of self-positioning and situations in which it is worth using the help of specialists.
