Self SEO is time consuming. It requires a great deal of research and a good technical grasp on Google, the web and web development. If you are starting your own SEO campaign, brushing up on the basics of search engine optimisation is very important. Your first step, before you even start optimising, is to understand how Google works and how search engines rank web pages, and with what criteria.

Here are a few key things to think about when starting an natural SEO campaign:

Is your web design SEO friendly?

Before you even start any optimisation work, you need to make sure that your website is SEO friendly. Flash menus, splash pages and messy coding could make your website hard to detect by Google.

Have you done your keyword research?

Knowing which keywords to pick for your website will help you uncover the best search potential for your products and services. Keyword research tools can help you analyse phrases, their monthly search numbers and their competitiveness. Determining the competitiveness of a phrase will give you a rough indication of how difficult it will be to rank for it in Google.

Do you have access to all the necessary tools?

Link building and SEO content writing are skills that are absolutely essential to good SEO. There are many external tools that are free to use and these will be able to help you get the best from link building and writing on-site content.

Self SEO can be executed effectively if you invest a great deal of time, research and training into what you’re doing. Some businesses will find that it’s more beneficial to hire an SEO specialist to deliver the best possible results.