Why You Can't DIY Your Way to the Top of Search Results

We know, we know. SEO can be frustrating sometimes, especially when you’ve done everything you can to follow all the best practices you can find online to a T, yet you’re still not getting the traffic or the leads you were expecting.

We can feel your frustration, and you probably have a lot of questions in your head right now.

“Should I hire an SEO expert instead of trying to do it myself?”

“How long will it take for SEO to work?”

“Where did I go wrong?”

Here’s a fact: SEO is complicated. It’s ever-changing, which makes it difficult to comprehend. As your go-to Florida SEO company, we believe that if you aren’t an expert, it’s best to leave your company’s SEO to those who are experienced in the field.

No, we’re not being biased here. We’ve worked with hundreds of businesses in the US, and believe us when we say that do-it-yourself SEO can cost you a lot more than you think.

Don’t believe us? These four reasons might just be what you need to change your mind!

Why Can’t You DIY Your Way to the Top of Search Results? Here Are 4 Reasons Why

1. You Only Have Basic SEO Knowledge or Skills

If you’ve been trying get your website to rank high on search results, then you probably already have a very good understanding of how SEO works.

You know how to properly do keyword research, produce original, high-quality content consistently, and how to build backlinks.

But, knowing the basics doesn’t always mean that it’s going to be enough to put you on the first page of Google.

There’s a huge difference between knowing and doing it a couple of times a month for your business vs. doing it every day.

And, SEO isn’t something you learn or train for and then you’re done. As long as the algorithm keeps changing, you will always be discovering something new every day.

To thrive in a fast-paced environment, you need to go beyond the basics and learn advanced SEO strategies.

Perfecting the basics is the first step towards ranking and driving more traffic, but it isn’t all there is to it.

2. You’re Using Outdated Strategies

Like we said, SEO changes every day. It’s how Google and other search engines make sure they only provide the best results and experience to its users.

What worked yesterday may no longer work today. So, if you feel like your SEO isn’t working, it’s probably because your strategies are outdated.

Here are some outdated SEO tactics for 2021 you need to avoid:‍‍

‍Creating One Keyword Pages

Ever since Google has gotten fairly good at identifying searches with similar intent, you no longer need to create a dedicated page for every keyword you want to rank for and those that are related to it.

Having too many nearly identical pages can result in keyword cannibalization, eventually lowering your ranking. What you should do instead is to create one page per subject matter and address the topic of the page using keywords you want to rank for, their synonyms, and other related terms. Check out the skyscraper technique and topic clusters to get a better understanding.

Overoptimizing Anchor Text

Exact match anchors used to be necessary to signal Google that a backlink is relevant to what a page is about.

Today, however, search engine bots see them as unnatural and part of a link scheme. These bots are now using the overall context of a page and the words surrounding an anchor text to establish relevance. This is why it's best to anchor your link to words or phrases that are descriptive but not overly optimized.

Converting to AMP or Accelerated Mobile Pages

The purpose of AMP is to ensure that a website and its pages load faster. However, unless you’re a news or media website, you won’t benefit much from converting to AMP.

In fact, many of those early adopters eventually reverted to non-AMP sites. Plus, it’s not a ranking factor. If you want to speed up your site, there are many ways to do it without having to convert to AMP.

Content Spinning

Believe it or not, many companies still mash up their content, either manually or with the help of software, to create new content. However, doing this results in poor quality blogs, and are either ignored or penalized by search engine bots. Rather than spinning your content, update your old blogs and create new high-quality content.

Keyword-Rich Domains

Keyword-rich domains, or exact match domains, serve as a strong signal for search relevance. Sad to say, they’re no longer applicable today. Google tweaked its algorithm to ignore keyword-rich domains and instead focus on the quality of content within a site or page.

3. You’ve Been Penalized

Google penalties are easy to trigger, hard to diagnose, and more difficult to conquer.

All it takes is a single innocent mistake - such as missing sitemap data, bad web design, slow page speed, or broken external links -  to get penalized and months’ worth of traffic.

The worse part is that you may be using black hat SEO and you’re completely unaware that you’re using them. It might take weeks, or even months, before you can diagnose a problem and get rid of a penalty.

If you’re wondering why your site lost its position, and is not ranking like before no matter how hard you try to make it work, it must be because your site got penalized.

Hiring the best SEO Florida company to diagnose, fix the problem, and get rid of any penalty is your best chance in ranking again. Experts like us are knowledgeable about the possible mistakes somebody who isn’t well-versed in SEO could commit.

Here are some of the most common SEO mistakes that often get penalized:

• Publishing poor quality content
• Slow page speed
• Keyword stuffing
• Missing ALT attributes
• Missing meta description
• Duplicate content
• Cloaking
• Link Schemes
• Sneaky Redirects
• Hidden Text
• Doorway pages

… and more.

It often costs more to repair SEO mistakes than it is to avoid them.

4. You’re Not Using Analytics to Track Progress

Just because you’re following industry best practices, it doesn’t mean that you no longer need to track your SEO campaigns. Of course, you still need to identify what’s working and what isn’t on your site.

Using Google Analytics can help you get started with goal tracking. It will help you see how your previous choices in strategies have affected your current performance. And, it will allow you to foresee what tactics you should use to achieve optimal results.

Below are some of the most important elements you need to track in Google Analytics:

• New visitor conversion
• Interactions per page visit
• Bounce rate
• Return visitor conversion
• Sources for incoming traffic
• Exit pages
• Average session duration
• Cost per conversion

If you aren’t using Google Analytics, now’s your moment to start learning about it so you can move to more advanced settings and access tools you can use to take your business to the next level.

Looking for a Florida SEO Company?

Anyone can try to DIY their way to the top of search results, but not everyone can succeed. If you’re a small or medium-sized business doing SEO on your own, but feel like you’re failing miserably, it’s never too late to turn things around.

Hiring the best Florida SEO Company can help your business get back on track, and maybe even outrank your competitors. Don’t hesitate to seek expert assistance.

Remember, it’ll cost you more if you lost traffic from trying to fix a mistake rather than to seek expert help right away.

At Digital Resource, our SEO experts can develop an SEO strategy that’s bespoke for your business needs and goals. Check out our client testimonials to see how we’ve helped hundreds of other businesses in Florida succeed online through effective SEO.