DIY SEO? It’s Not OK.

When it’s done right, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can do wonderful things for your business. Here are just some of them:

• It gives you the highest possible ranking on Search Engine Pages, making you more visible than your competition.
• SEO targets quality traffic and weeds out tyre kickers.
• It can make for a better user experience which will keep a potential customer online longer and increase your conversion rates.
• It’s a primary source of leads. The better your SEO, the more leads.
• Great SEO generates higher closure rates.
• SEO encourages local shopping by making more people visit a physical address after they’ve completed their search.
• SEO builds brand credibility and awareness.

That is just the tip of the SEO iceberg. There’s a substantial body of evidence built upon other benefits that confirm it’s worth doing and worth doing well. So why do so many businesses still think it’s OK to DIY their SEO?

With so much at stake and just as much to gain, you think every company would ask an SEO expert to handle this most important process. Unfortunately, old fashioned attitudes still prevail among a large section of the business community. Their outdated thinking has them believing that effective Search Engine Optimisation can be achieved through a self-built website and a liberal sprinkling of keywords in amongst some uninspiring web content. This sort of homemade SEO is just not enough and often violates a search engine’s guidelines. Google, the biggest of them all, is not afraid to penalise companies who don’t meet their regularly updated SEO standards, many of which DIYers are totally oblivious to.

The world of SEO has moved onwards, and upwards. By that, we mean that businesses that manage their SEO in a well-rounded way are rewarded. It’s been estimated that Google has more than 200 ranking factors, so by well-rounded, we’re talking about a rather large circumference. Anyone doing their own SEO who says they’re familiar with all of the factors, and how much impact each one has, needs to be taken with a grain of salt as big as that circumference we were just talking about.

Not every ranking factor is created equal. Some have more clout than others but, yet again, that’s where a professional can help a business capitalise on some of the more important elements that make up modern-day SEO. Some of the more influential factors responsible for increasing the quality and quantity of website traffic include:

• A website that enhances the user’s experience
• A well-structured URL
• Content quality
• Content length
• Page loading speed
• Mobile friendly
• Site security
• High-quality backlinks

We highly recommend you do all those things – but don’t even think about doing them yourself. Call an SEO expert in Auckland, or wherever you’re reading this, and ask them to do it right. Because when you DO get it right, the results can be phenomenal.