Handling Your Own SEO: Is It A Good Decision For You?

by Jennifer Horowitz on October 11, 2012

Should I handle my own SEO? At least once a day, I get asked: “Should I handle my own SEO or hire someone?”

It’s an important question.

Everyone is trying to save money in today’s economy – but sometimes when you think you are saving money you are actually losing so much more than you save.

If you are considering handling your own SEO, it is only a good decision if;

a) You have the time to do the work
b) You know what you are doing

To determine if you should handle your own SEO here are a few questions to ask yourself.

1. Can you work within simple HTML?

At a bare minimum, you need to be able to add Meta tags to an HTML document. Ideally, you can also bold text, set up links, change formatting, rename images, move java script into a .js file etc. If your site isn’t SEO friendly, you’ll need to do more than this.

2. Do you have enough time to make your site search engine friendly and optimized?

Once you do an initial review and optimization, you’ll need to plan to spend time writing content, getting social and staying current on all things SEO. Can your business afford to “lend” this time to SEO and experience no significant negative impact in other areas? If the time is not truly extra time you have, then you would be “borrowing” the time from another area of your business.

3. Will you have time to start your SEO work within the next week?

Typically if people don’t take action in the immediate future (within the next 5 business days), the project ends up being delayed indefinitely. You need a clear scheduled start date for your SEO work – especially when the holidays are approaching! You need to get things going!

4. Are you an experienced and competent copywriter?

You need to be able to write strong text that compels people and also uses keywords well to communicate the theme of your site to the engines.

After those questions, if you think you can handle your own SEO, that is great. Just a few final details you need you consider:

What is your time worth per hour? Which option is more cost effective for you – hiring someone or spending your own time?

Can you recognize when your choice is not working for you and are you willing to try the other option at that time?

Are you prepared to commit to educating yourself and learning all that you need to know to truly run a successful SEO campaign. Inadvertently spamming, or using a questionable technique can result in a temporary loss of rankings. Be 100% sure you aren’t endangering your business.

No one but you can decide – I just wanted to arm you with some things to consider. It is all in the details, and you should consider them carefully before making a decision.

It’s a short week for many, so here’s a short post. :) Feel free to add anything you feel I left out – would love to hear your thoughts!

Jennifer Horowitz

With over 13 years in the industry, Jennifer Horowitz, Director of Marketing for EcomBuffet, has amassed much knowledge and experience and has much to say about all things SEO (marketing, copywriting & social media). Always happy to share with an audience, Jenn is now a regular contributor at Level343.