Should I do my own SEO?

[BigBreak]

Trying to decide if I should do SEO-ing myself or pay a company to do for. It seems pretty easy but I'm no expert

[dannybuntu]

If you don't have money. Definitely. As much as possible give SEO about 5% of your total project expenses if you are starting out small. Gradually increase as revenue starts to come in. When you see a hefty amount of traffic increasing and conversions, ramp it up to a full blown campaign.

Cheers!

[veikoh]

For SEO you should:
1. Put tags in your site right, especially page titles. If you know HTML, it should be easy.
2. Do a link building campaign. If you know resources where you can get links, then it's OK.

It all depends how much time you are spending and how much your time is worth versus how much time a professional will spend and charge for it.

[The Stealthy One]

Ultimately, the choice is yours. I do caution you, however, when picking an SEO provider. Get references who you can contact directly to determine the quality of work. A large majority of SEO providers are worthless and have no clue what they're doing. It's a business with almost no startup costs, no overhead, and absolutely huge margins. It attracts the worst kinds of people. So tread carefully. Go with someone you know you can trust. Vetting their prior work would be key.

[veikoh]

It's a business with almost no startup costs, no overhead, and absolutely huge margins.

Where did you get that idea that SEO have huge margins? It's hard low paid work which pays less than McDonalds nowadays. To manually submit 600+ directories takes minimum 60h work and prices are something $60.

[rogercbryan]

It depends on what keywords you are trying to optimize for. If you are doing local or long term keywords you could probably pull it off on your own. If you are trying to get into competitive keywords you may need to go with a firm or service. SEO isn't hard but it isn't easy. It can be a bit expensive to get the proper training and tools to make SEO work. It's a time value thing. You could spend the next two years learning all the tricks of the trade with out spending a dime or you could invest $10,000 and get access to everything you need in 30 days. If you give me an idea of your keywords I can tell you what route to take..

[The Stealthy One]

Where did you get that idea that SEO have huge margins? It's hard low paid work which pays less than McDonalds nowadays. To manually submit 600+ directories takes minimum 60h work and prices are something $60.

There's no huge overhead expense, no equipment expense (besides a computer), and usually few workers in an SEO business. The shoddiest providers charge the most. Not sure where you've seen that you can get 60 hours of quality SEO work for only $60. Please send me the link, as I need some good SEO and that's a price I don't have a problem with.

[veikoh]

There's no huge overhead expense, no equipment expense (besides a computer), and usually few workers in an SEO business. The shoddiest providers charge the most. Not sure where you've seen that you can get 60 hours of quality SEO work for only $60. Please send me the link, as I need some good SEO and that's a price I don't have a problem with.

You do not need a computer because I have done it three years in public library for 8 pounds per hour with total project costs of 500-600 pounds. Ok... the SEO work contains three step:
1. Keywords analysis to compare best phrases to drive targeted traffic. Max 10h
2. The site tags (meta, title, alt, etc). depends on the size of the site, maximum I have charged was something 30h. For 5 page website it's 5h max.
3. Link building campaign - much more important step for Google. I have used free internet directories (I have around 300+ list of them which worked for Google tested out from 3600+ list). I have noticed the link building services starting from $59, a simple Google search brings me up this one - Link Building Services – One way links – 400 for $99.00 | Link Building Services One Way Links Service

[veikoh]

There's no huge overhead expense, no equipment expense (besides a computer), and usually few workers in an SEO business. The shoddiest providers charge the most. Not sure where you've seen that you can get 60 hours of quality SEO work for only $60. Please send me the link, as I need some good SEO and that's a price I don't have a problem with.

You do not need a computer because I have done it three years in public library for 8 pounds per hour with total project costs of 500-600 pounds. Ok... the SEO work contains three step:
1. Keywords analysis to compare best phrases to drive targeted traffic. Max 10h
2. The site tags (meta, title, alt, etc). depends on the size of the site, maximum I have charged was something 30h. For 5 page website it's 5h max.
3. Link building campaign - much more important step for Google. I have used free internet directories (I have around 300+ list of them which worked for Google tested out from 3600+ list). I have noticed the link building services starting from $59, a simple Google search brings me up this one - Link Building Services – One way links – 400 for $99.00 | Link Building Services One Way Links Service