Some business owners wonder if do-it-yourself (DIY) SEO is a good thing to do. In other words, they weigh the options of paying for an SEO company to analyze their business’ web marketing and website, and doing it on their own. Below is a discussion of the pros and cons of each method. It should help you decide which approach is right for you.

Search Engine Optimization Companies
Hiring an SEO company can help your business immensely. Not only are they trained professionals that focus solely on driving traffic to your site, making your site user friendly, ensuring your content is adequate, and creating plans of action for your specific market, but they know much more about the technical end of SEO than you’ll ever be able to learn studying out of books. Unless you want to get a Certificate in Internet Marketing or an MBA, it’s highly recommended that you go through a company. If you run a site that doesn’t engage in e-commerce, you might be perfectly fine using your own SEO. In other words, if you don’t sell a product or service and you simply want to drive traffic to your site, like a blog, you may be able to get a relatively decent flow of traffic by using basic techniques.

Even then, though, the issue becomes that you don’t have the time in your day to do what a search engine optimization company will do for you. SEO companies routinely and constantly monitor your site, making changes in keywords, ads, content, and other marketing tactics to make sure that your site is up to par with everyone else in your industry, and, in fact, that it’s excelling. Since you spend your day doing what you do best – running your business – you don’t have all day to make those changes and improvements, so even if you’re an SEO professional you’ll likely be behind where you could be if you utilized an experienced search engine optimization company.

The DIY Route

The advantage of doing it yourself, of course, is that it saves money up front. But it might not actually save you money in the long run. After all, the point of having an SEO company monitor and manage your site is to keep your site ahead of the game, to draw in traffic, and make conversions, or sales. If you’re not bringing in the sales you could be by utilizing an SEO company, you’re not actually saving yourself any money by doing it yourself.

The DIY route can work for those who are very, very new. If you’re just starting up your website and you want to put a blog with a few optimized articles and do some basic SEO yourself, you’ll probably set a nice foundation for yourself. But for those who really want to get their sites off the ground, expand their business, stay ahead of the game, and experience a high rate of sales and conversions, getting professional help is likely best. After all, you can read a book about fixing the engine of your car, but doing it wrong can end up costing you time and money. Similarly, with your website, it’s best to go to the professionals first.