Can You Handle An SEO Campaign Yourself?

Your marketing campaign is critical to the success of your business. But it’s also going to be one of the largest expenses that you will need to manage. Indeed, experts suggest that you spend a total 20% of your budget on marketing alone. So, it’s understandable why business owners would want to explore ways to cut the costs and save money. 

One of the ways that you can do this is by handling certain aspects of your marketing strategy yourself, instead of hiring a team to do it for you. DIY marketing is always going to be more budget friendly, but it also comes with substantial risk. Here’s why.

First, it’s unlikely that all of your competitors are taking the same tactic. A lot of them will be spending a fortune to ensure that the right marketing agency is in their corner. You could also stumble on some black hat tactics that either don’t work or could even damage the potential of your brand in the long term. 

There’s also the chance that if your marketing isn’t effective then you’re going to need to correct things further down the line which will cost you more money. It also depends on the type of marketing campaign you are interested in running.

So, let’s explore an SEO strategy and determine what you’ll need to ensure success here with a DIY campaign. 

Do You Have The Knowledge?

First, you need to make sure that you have the right knowledge to successfully handle an SEO strategy. If you’re just getting started running your business, there’s something you need to know about SEO. It’s not one strategy – this is an umbrella term that covers a range of different tactics. The list of tactics it covers grows on an annual basis as new options for marketing are continuously introduced on the market. 

The problem with SEO is that what works is determined by Google. Google has released statements in the past suggesting that different metrics are relevant to rankings. However, the search engine giant has never provided concrete details on what works and what doesn’t. Google also claims that they can’t guarantee a business a top space on the SERPs for target keywords. At this point, you might be starting to realize why businesses tend to rely on pros for SEO marketing. However, there are ways to learn the information you need and gain more knowledge. You can take a course on SEO and there are lots of online training options available online for budding marketers as well as business owners. 

Why do you need the right knowledge before you get started? Why can’t you just add keywords and links, hoping for the best? Well, as mentioned, you can end up using black hat tactics, quite accidentally. If this does happen then your company will be hit with a Google penalty. That’s going to mean a long and difficult recovery. Fixing an issue like this is also going to be expensive which defeats the purpose of starting a DIY marketing strategy in the first place. 

Do You Have The Time?

If you do have plenty of knowledge and you’re keeping up with the latest updates in the SEO world, then you might think you’re home clear. But wait, because you also need to consider the time commitment that comes with running your SEO strategy. Let’s start with on-page SEO. It’s easy to assume that once you optimize your pages for the first time that’s your website sorted. This isn’t the case and you do need to constantly update your website to ensure that it remains optimized. This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the time requirements that come with running your own SEO strategy. You need to think about off-page SEO too such as link building.

Building links with other websites online will be critical to your ranking because it will help you increase your domain authority. Essentially, it shows Google and other users that your website is a trusted resource which provides high quality services and content. 

That’s not the end either because there are lots of different aspects connected to a successful SEO campaign like social media marketing. A professional marketing agency will give you a social media manager. If you’re running your own campaign, then you’ll need to manage your different profiles without assistance. This is fine for a smaller company but if you need to provide regular updates to your user base through the day it could become quite overwhelming. 

Are Using The Right Tools?

There is some good news if you are interested in running your own SEO campaign. Technology is a huge help and there are lots of tools as well as applications that will make managing your marketing far easier than you might expect.

You just need to make sure that you are researching the best SEO tools and software that is available and accessible to you on the market. Some of these tools are free while others will cost you a little extra money each month. Usually, the costs are scalable so you can choose a plan that is going to match the limitations and requirements of your business. 

In terms of where to start, you are going to need an analytical tool such as Google Analytics. This will ensure that you can keep track of your marketing progress and determine whether it is going to deliver the results that you need. 

A keyword exploration tool will also be useful. Keywords aren’t the only aspect of an SEO campaign but they are the bread and butter. Without info on the right keywords to target, you’ll always be flying blind.

We hope this helps you understand some of the key factors that you’ll need to think about when determining whether you should run a DIY SEO marketing campaign. As you can see, there’s a lot of different things to think about here that go beyond whether it’s going to save you money. You have to make sure that it’s going to provide the right benefits in the long term and this won’t always be the case.