TL;DR: We champion a DIY SEO approach—it’s central to our mission—but small businesses need to balance self-initiative and in-house efforts with professional guidance.
Is SEO easy? Yes, applying basic tactics is straightforward. Can you do your own SEO? Of course. Most small businesses can adopt a DIY approach to handling their website, digital marketing, and SEO. However, we’ve found that early training and seeking professional guidance when encountering challenges is as good as required. A balanced approach ensures your business is well-equipped to manage your online presence.
Mastering search engine optimization (SEO) can be compared to learning sports or musical instruments. Hitting a tennis ball is a great start, but it doesn’t prepare you for the club championship. Floating in a backyard pool is a needed skill, but considerable training is required before swimming long distances in open water. Similarly, learning a few chords on a guitar is like optimizing a site’s title tags—an important step, but not the whole picture. Proficiency in any skill requires practice and guidance from coaches who offer tough, constructive feedback.
You and your team built a great website, filled it with helpful content, and followed best practices, so why is the site lagging in search results? It isn’t because SEO principles are overly complex. And assuming you are a legitimate business, it isn’t Google’s fault.
Most SMBs struggle with their online presence for one of two reasons: (1) ineffective hiring—inexperienced marketers don’t know what they don’t know—or (2) an over-reliance on a “do-it-yourself” approach by the business owner or in-house team. For the hiring issue, we offer in-depth articles covering how to evaluate SEOs and spot bad SEO practices. This article explores why a strictly DIY marketing approach hinders progress.
DIY SEO is easy … right?
Yes, many aspects of SEO are straightforward and most small businesses can manage their online presence on their own. But unless your goal is to become an SEO expert, a purely do-it-yourself approach to digital strategy is not in your best interest. Tailored feedback or support for your specific situation will always help you get further, faster.
Years ago, as a new homeowner, I decided against regular pool maintenance services, but opted for a one-time training with a pool company. The session was tailored to my pool’s specific volume, finish, and filtration system. I printed and laminated the step-by-step instructions and successfully managed my pool maintenance for years. While most DIY pool owners struggle, my experience was the opposite from day one—it was easy.
The challenge with DIY SEO stems from two main pitfalls: (1) outdated or misleading information and (2) the difficulty of translating general concepts into actionable strategies for your unique situation:
Misinformation: Misinformation is a serious issue. There’s a wide range of quality in both free and paid learning materials, making it difficult to discern credible advice from misleading SEO information. Many self-proclaimed “experts” learned from dubious sources, only to turn around and create a YouTube channel or an “SEO course” to sell their “expertise.” Beginners are teaching beginners, creating a cycle of perpetual misinformation, such as the notion of a minimum word count for SEO.
The aggressive marketing of SaaS platforms is also partly to blame. These platforms encourage the idea that SEO is easy and the only missing link is their software. But most SMBs do not need paid SEO software to improve web visibility.
Application gap: The “application gap” is another challenge. Knowing a theory is one thing, but effectively applying it to your website is a different matter entirely. This disconnect can be attributed to several factors—listed below—ranging from the nature of the learning material to cognitive biases affecting self-assessment.
Why your website isn’t performing
If SEO is easy, why isn't your site performing? After training hundreds of small businesses over the past decade, here are key reasons why DIY SEO falls short:
Lack of practical experience: SEO courses provide knowledge in a structured and theoretical manner, which is important for learning SEO fundamentals. However, applying the concepts to your real-world site takes hands-on experience. Novices might understand the theory behind design and user experience, but can lack the practical skills to effectively implement best practices on their own sites.
Cognitive biases: Cognitive biases like the Dunning-Kruger effect lead individuals with limited knowledge or skills in a domain to overestimate their ability. If you’ve ever taught swimming, then you know that once a young child experiences a bit of success in the pool, their confidence immediately and dangerously outpaces their abilities. Similarly, after learning basic SEO tactics, beginners usually believe they understand more than they actually do. This makes it hard to identify gaps in their knowledge, apply what they’ve learned, or realize when they need support.
The Sunk Cost Fallacy is a cognitive bias that compels people to continue with a project when they’ve invested a significant amount of resources (money, time, effort) into it, rather than because of its current or future value. A training course might be a dud, but if it was expensive you may find it challenging to abandon it.
Inability to objectively assess own work: It’s difficult for almost everyone to critically assess their own work, especially after pouring hours of effort into it. An emotional investment clouds judgment, making it difficult to identify flaws in design, structure, or content that can be clear to others.
Even experienced organizations can struggle to see things from an outsider’s perspective and identify areas for improvement that are obvious to a fresh pair of eyes.
Overwhelm and information overload: SMB SEO is straightforward, but the breadth of SEO can be overwhelming and the sheer amount of information available can lead to paralysis by analysis. The proliferation of questionable content further muddies the waters. Novices can be unsure of where to start or how to prioritize improvements.
Misapplication of concepts: Understanding a concept in theory and applying it in practice are two different skills. For instance, DIYers might recognize the importance of internal linking, but not know how to structure links effectively. Beginners often believe they need to do “all the things” leading to unnecessary complication and over-optimization. And many novices overlook the value of a comprehensive approach, or Search Experience Optimization (SXO), addressing improved rankings and engaging user experiences throughout the entire customer journey.
Specificity and context: SEO resources provide general principles and best practices, but every business is unique. Many people struggle to translate general advice into specific actions for their particular site, especially when they face uncommon challenges or operate in a niche market.
Feedback and iteration: If your business relies on content strategy, then effective SEO for your site will include testing, feedback, and adjustment. Novices often lack the experience to interpret data from analytics platforms, hindering their ability to iterate and improve their SEO strategies over time.
Technical issues: Most sites fall short because of the DIY roadblocks listed above. However, it’s worth noting that, in rare cases, sites may face a genuine technical issue affecting their Google visibility. In this situation, websites that seek expert help recover quickly, while those that don’t have floundered for months or even years.
How do you solve these issues?
Bridging the gap requires the expertise of professionals.
Just as you don’t hesitate to hire a personal trainer to improve your fitness or a trusted mechanic to maintain your car, your business deserves the same level of expert attention.
When running a business, DIY approaches are time-consuming and inefficient. You or your team can spend hours watching tutorials, reading forums, and experimenting through trial and error, or you can get targeted, expert guidance and refocus your efforts on what you do best—running your business.
Contrary to what many agencies suggest, SEO guidance doesn’t need to be a monthly service. Many SMBs succeed with an initial SEO setup and periodic reviews. Expert consulting or tailored training offers immediate insights and constructive feedback.
Whether your site is new or underperforming, a professional site review brings an objective perspective. A skilled SEO can quickly identify mistakes, uncover opportunities, and suggest optimizations to align your site’s performance with your business goals.
The goal isn’t to make you reliant on SEO professionals, but to provide a solid foundation so that you can build and maintain a more effective online presence.
Final Thoughts
We 100% encourage a DIY SEO approach, just not 100% of the time.
Applying SEO principles to a website is certainly within reach for most website owners and in-house teams, but the nuanced insights of experienced professionals is the key to real progress. If you’ve just launched a website, a training session will set you on the proper path. Or if your site is struggling with an issue, getting expert help can quickly solve the problem and get you back on track.
Keep in mind, even larger companies struggle with SEO. We’ve set Squarespace straight on numerous occasions—such as when they had hreflang errors on their global sites or when they released a botched robots.txt feature to users. The takeaway is that businesses of all sizes can benefit from external expert guidance.
DIY SEO Resources
If you’re committed to a DIY approach, make sure your learning materials are current. SEO is a fast-paced field and resources quickly become outdated. We offer more information on how to learn SEO, but here are some reliable starting points:
Work your way through Google’s SEO Guide.
Moz’s learning center is always a good reference.
Our small business marketing blog is geared towards beginners.
Even with a DIY approach, remember that expert guidance is always available when you need it. We offer SEO training and consulting to give you a second set of eyes when it matters most.
