I admire your decision to do SEO on your own. However, I also have some words of advice. As you’re getting started – the onslaught of SEO tutorials and guides you’re going to read will often provide 100’s of different optimization methods to you all at once, sometimes leaving you even more confused than when you started.
Of course we also understand that some smart business owners are just trying to do their homework to get an understanding of what Search Engine Optimization is so that you can either save a few bucks, or at least come to understand SEO well enough that you don’t get taken advantage of when the time comes to select an SEO consultant.
Our recommendation is to always choose ONE main source of SEO guidance – and stick to it like glue. Find an author you like, follow their advice, and see if you get anywhere. The only way to know that your “Guru” knows his stuff is to test their methods for yourself. Though we’d love to be that source of guidance, we still recommend limiting your information intake to one agency or provider regardless of who you choose. At least try to stick to a “one-at-a-time” strategy. If the first person you follow doesn’t work out, move on to the next best option. The worst thing you can ever do is put your eggs in multiple baskets at the same time – or even worse, hire multiple agencies. Wires are going to become crossed over time – and then you’ll be putting out fires as the SEO penalties from Google start to stack up.
Another warning about self-taught learning would be to watch out for out-of-date sources like SEO blogs & articles. For example you might come across a website that lists a method you want to put into practice for your business, but you miss the fact that the post date is from 2009. Why is that so bad you might ask? Well, any “cutting-edge” methods that may have worked well back in 2010, are quite likely to be of zero use to your website today in 2021. Google makes major updates to their PageRank Algorithm on a weekly basis! It’s completely understandable that most people running a business have little to no extra time to read an SEO blog every day to keep up with the latest best practices.