The short answer is yes, you can do your own SEO. But you need to start right and use the right tools to assist you.

Let us start at the beginning – Keywords

In SEO, keywords are one of the aspects that search engines use to rank your website when a user conducts a search. A search engine sifts through their indexes for highly relevant content and then they rank that content in order or relevance in the hopes that it will solve the user’s search query. The longer your keyword or phrase, the easier it will be to get ranked. This is because you will be targeting a smaller group of people searching for that keyword or phrase.

Let’s say you are a hairdresser. You decide you want to get ranked by your profession, so you are going to make “hairdresser” your keyword. The problem is that “hairdresser” is a highly competitive keyword, used by lots of other sites. So, instead of just using “hairdresser” look at your ideal client. If you specialise in women, you might want to use a phrase like “ladies’ hairdresser” or make it even more relevant by adding your location – “ladies’ hairdresser in Cape Town.” Selecting the right keyphrase will play a big role in your ranking, so don’t rush this step.

Next, you will need to write a piece of content to publish to your site. Your keyword will need to feature in the content as well as in your URL, the header and at least one H2 heading. Getting the keyword density right (the number of times that the keyword appears) is difficult, but there is a small tool in WordPress that will make your life a lot easier – a plugin called Yoast. Yoast will help you to get the best ratios for keyword density as well as show you where else you need to optimise to get your page to full SEO optimisation.

Best practice for on-page SEO

1.     Keyword density – As mentioned, Yoast will help you find the balance, but it is close to 1 keyword appearance per 120 words
2.     Rich Content – Make sure you add an image, video, or infographic
3.     Keyword placement – Make sure your keyword appears in your URL, SEO Title, H1 and H2 heading
4.     Behind the scenes – Update your Meta tags as well as the Alt Text for your rich content

This was the fun part of doing your own SEO. The next step is where we start to get technical.

Now you need to make sure that your site speed is within the best practice times. Go to GTMetrix and enter your site address. You will get a report that highlights what needs to change on your site to have it in the acceptable boundaries. This step is crucial, but also very difficult without the technical knowledge. Small changes in your code can give you a nice speed boost on your site, but it can also slowdown your site, so be very careful about the changes you make.

The last part of a SEO strategy is getting backlinks to your site. A backlink can also be called an inbound link or an incoming link. It is a link from one website to another, and another aspect that search engines use when deciding on rankings. The best way to get backlinks is to create content that is valuable enough for other people to link to. Links from high domain sites to your site will give you an instant SEO boost. The second way is to contact admins from sites that might find your services of value and ask if they would be interested in linking to your site or article.

And there you go – the three basic steps that you will need to do your own SEO.

If, however, you decide that you don’t want to struggle with the keyword research, writing the article, optimising the site, or digging around in code – Contact us. Our team at Radical Cloud has all the knowledge to get your site in line with the latest SEO optimisation techniques.