When exploring all of the different aspects of SEO people often come to realize that hiring professionals for SEO-related services can be expensive. When contemplating if employing an SEO company is the best choice, these different scenarios should be considered:
- Putting more effort into SEO can potentially lower paid search spending
- Why are keywords important? If wanting to target higher search volume keywords then it may require professional assistance
- Hiring an SEO company may not be as well versed in the industry as you may like
- Monthly fees are normally mandatory for most SEO companies
- It can often take some time to find the right SEO Company for the industry niche
With these scenarios mentioned above, there are both pros and cons to hiring an SEO company. If an agency can be found that truly shows interest and has a proven record of success for the industry then they may be a great choice.
Here are the DIY SEO tips to save money.
1. Build out an SEO monthly plan
Building out an SEO monthly plan may seem like a huge undertaking, but with the right strategy, it can be more simple than you think! Below is a simple, yet effective SEO plan to help achieve higher rankings in search results:
- Conducting an SEO audit
- Researching your target audience
- Analyze competitors with a complete competitive analysis chart
- Researching & finding valuable keywords
- Creating SEO recommendations to focus on
With these 5 simple steps, a solid SEO monthly plan can be built that can achieve the desired results if done correctly. Having this template will make it much easier from a DIY standpoint so that everything is laid out in order of importance.
2. Avoid using low-quality content a regularly update
Oftentimes when creating content an individual tends to focus on quantity, not quality. For example, if the focus is on getting 10 blog posts completed in a week, but are rushing through the entire process it could do more harm than good. Google rewards high-quality content and will often ignore the rushed, low-quality content because they can see that it won’t be as useful to the person reading it.
It is always better to have 1 page full of useful and relevant info than multiple pages that seem rushed and not useful. It is also important that old content is regularly updated to stay relevant in this constantly changing environment. No longer should the mantra be to post and forget. By updating old content it is showing Google that the information that is being put out is current.
3. Be present on all social network channels
While it is pretty well known that having a social media presence is key to helping SEO traffic, often people don’t take full advantage of the many different social network channels out there. Not only does there need to be a presence on popular channels such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter but there are many great social media tools that many don’t take advantage of.
- LinkedIn: The most effective way of generating leads
- Quora: Can be used to answer related questions that the person may have answers to from their website
- Pinterest: Similar to Instagram with the main focus being visual content. The differentiating factor is producing a high-quality image that entices users to click the image link to the desired web page
- Reddit: Find a niche and create a linked post for a similar subreddit or discussion group for new users to find the targeted page
- Medium: Perfect for blogs in that it facilitates the publishing of original and repurposes content
Now there are so many social network channels to contribute to the overall SEO traffic and not exploring these options is a huge missed opportunity.
4. Check metadata to ensure web page data is accurate
The concept of metadata can be confusing, but it means it’s “data about data”. For example, when Google looks at a specific web page they don’t read the content, but they index by seeking out info from defined metadata fields. The following are forms of metadata:
- Title
- Description
- Keywords
- Copyright
- Event dates
Also, by using power tags and titles such as interest categories they will be able to mark items that are intended for dynamic display. By using metadata to ensure that the web page data is accurate is of the utmost importance because if not done correctly then Google with have much difficulty in crawling the page.
5. Use alt tags for images that provide a text alternative
A very simple, yet effective DIY SEO tip is using alt tags. Alt tags provide a text alternative to images so when someone is searching for a topic in particular in Google images there is a better chance of a specific image showing up on the feed. This is because search engines such as Google can’t see images until alt tags are used to help understand what the images are depicting. Don’t miss out on such an easy, but effective SEO tip to get even more quality traffic data because it is found that Google Images is the 2nd most used tab on Google search behind the normal search results tab.
6. Keep tabs on any changes in competition
Often when performing SEO individuals can forget that much of their competition is trying to constantly improve as well. It is always a smart idea to continually check what the competition is doing because it will always play to their advantage. For example, they notice that the competition’s blog has improved in ranking.
This will directly correlate to something that they have done right and the individual can use these updates that they have made to implement to their site. This not only applies to old competitors but new ones as well because if a new competitor starts to rank well for a related keyword it means they’re doing something right and can be a good example to follow.
7. Feel free to ask for advice
SEO is not easy and can take some time to get the hang of. Even with it being difficult the individual may still be wanting to do it on their own, and there are plenty of free resources out there to use. Resources such as YouTube can provide a great free video resource if the person is more of a visual learner than a reader. It just comes to show that anyone can do SEO, but it does take time and patience to this industry always evolving.
Conclusion
By implementing these do-it-yourself SEO tips to save money the results will truly show how it can affect the overall traffic to the website. Please note that there are times when employing an SEO company can be extremely beneficial, but having the opportunity to do some of the work individually can be a game-changer.
