8 Ways On How To Do SEO On Your Own In 2024 Absolutely FREE!

Worried about budgets? Don’t want to hire expensive SEO consultants? But still, want your website to rank higher on Google?

Have you wondered how the world’s most successful business websites achieve such huge levels of success? 

Do you know how most business websites grow while others remain stuck in the same rut year after year?

All they do is optimize their websites for search engines to rank higher and drive more traffic.

And by chance, you are very lucky! I’ve got some legitimate ways for you to learn how to do SEO on your own.

No marketing budget is required; no need to pay for expensive software; nothing!

So without any delays, let’s get right into these ways to do SEO yourself:

Ways On How To Do SEO On Your Own

Start With Researching Keywords

Keywords are DAMN important! Keywords are required everywhere when writing content for websites, be it blog posts, landing pages, or homepages. These are the search queries that your target audience is typing into search engines.

And knowing this, would you leave any chance of not identifying the keywords? I would never have left myself any chance of doing that. 

After all, who wants their visitors to leave your website and find others to render services or buy products…

So, to make your website found by the audience, you have to find the best-suited keywords related to your niche.

There are numerous DIY SEO software options available to identify keywords that you can use on your website. Some are free, while others require payment. To name them, they are:

• Ahrefs Keyword Explorer (Paid)

• Google Keyword Planner (Free)

• SEMrush Keyword Research Tool (Paid)

• KWFinder (Free) and many more

Let me just show you how to perform keyword research. Let’s use Ahrefs Keyword Explorer to find keywords.

Suppose, you are an SEO Experts and have a website on SEO Services (which can be your seed keyword)

*Seed Keywords are what are known as broad terms to find more keyword ideas related to it*

When you insert this keyword into Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, you’ll find that it is SUPER HARD to rank for. “SEO,” which is your seed keyword, has a monthly search volume of 111k, but if you look at the difficulty level, it has a score of 97.

So, what you can do is… Enter your seed keyword into the keyword research tool and get the related keywords for your niche. Like this…

Now, you can brainstorm and write down what services you can offer to your audience.

For example, local SEO services, digital marketing, social media marketing, medical SEO services, link-building services, and many more…

The below image shows the related terms that I got from the seed keyword.

Rinse and repeat this step until you have a handful of keywords to use in your content. 

See how easy it is to do your own SEO. Who said that doing SEO on your own was a difficult task?

With this, let us move on to the next step in DIY SEO.

Find Long Tail Variations Of The Keywords

As mentioned in the previous step, targeting keywords that are best suited for your website is necessary, but at the same time, ranking for those keywords could take a bit of extra effort.

Well, to not fully be dependent on these keywords and to successfully do your own SEO, you have to list out a few long-tail keywords.

Long-tail keywords, as the name implies, are phrases or queries that are more specific to the users in order to find what they are looking for.

Plus, it is a fact that long keywords are more result-driven as compared to shorter ones. Below is an image to satisfy this statement.

According to the image, out of 20 search queries in the search engines, 14 are long-tail keywords, and only 6 are short-tail. And this is why you have to find long-tail variations of your identified keywords, as they can be of great help in conversions despite having a lower search volume.

Identifying the right keywords can be time-consuming but can result in wonders for your website. Therefore, you must be focused while doing this.

And with that, here are the two most important metrics to look for when conducting keyword research:

1. Search Volume

It is the number of searches for a search query within a specific timeframe. In simple English, it is the number of times that a search query is searched on Google. 

2. Keyword Difficulty (KD)

It refers to the difficulty for a keyword to rank in the SERPs and is represented as a number from 0-100. The higher the number, the more difficult it is to rank for that keyword.

So, to enhance your chances for an outstanding SEO strategy and higher rankings, you’ve got to grab the best search terms and create content around them.

Below is how you can get keywords by filtering the metrics.

Create Pages Including The Keywords

Now that you are done with keyword research and armed with a bunch of the best keywords, it is time to dedicate a page to each keyword and create outstanding content around them.

See, you can go for a variety of content, based on your keywords, you have to judge which keywords can be infused to write a blog, or can be included in the homepage, product page, etc.

But remember, you have to keep in mind the below-listed points while creating content.

1. Create Optimized Content Keeping Search Intent In Mind

Mind that! Google wants its users to get the required information quickly and easily. For Google, customer satisfaction is the top priority.

Therefore, if you want your website to rank higher and drive rich results, you have to create content that satisfies their search intent.

Read More: A Complete Guide To Search Intent SEO

Thanks to Google, it can help you start creating appealing content by simply inserting the keyword into the search bar and identifying what type of content others are writing that matches the search intent.

For example, when I inserted the keyword “how to write SEO content for a website,” the top-ranking content turned out to be blog posts telling tips or steps to write content. And this gave me a clear view of what type of content I can create and how I can use the listed keywords in that blog. 

This means, there are chances that if I create amazing content-sharing tips or steps on how to create SEO content for websites while matching the intent of the users, there are chances that my website may get ranked higher.

2. Make your Content Simple & Easy To Understand

Simplicity is the key. To develop the best DIY SEO strategy, you have to develop simple, easy-to-understand, and simple content for your users to find the required information easily and quickly. 

No one wants their users to bounce back from your website without even finding the required information. 

So, you have to make sure that your content is not only easy to understand but also simple. Refer to the tips listed below:

• Think from the perspective of your audience
• Use tempting headlines and titles
• Support your text with suitable visuals
• Include short and simple sentences without big words
• Use lists and bullet points to make it easy to remember and digest 
• Stay connected with your topic

3. Enhance On Page SEO

You have to make sure that content is fully optimized to appear higher in the search engines; this is known as “on-page optimization.”

On-Page SEO is the process of optimizing your website’s on-page factors, such as keywords, content, headings, meta tags, visuals, structured data, and much more.

Some elements of SEO that need to be optimized are:

1. Meta Titles 

• Make sure that your website’s title is short and simple; Google tends to cut the length when they reach the 60-character (for the title). And if the users won’t able to read the full title, then the chance would be less that they click on it. The below image tells how google truncates the title.

• Always include your target keyword in the Meta Title. See how I include the target keyword in the title.

• Include power words such as Awesome, Powerful, Irresistible, Proven, etc in your meta tags, especially the title. Powerful words can generate emotion among the users who see the title. Using powerful words can really boost the tendency of conversion (i.e clicking on the website’s link). Look below.

Read More: How To Create Perfect SEO Title Tags

2. Meta Descriptions

Similar to the titles, the meta descriptions also must have the target keyword and should be convincing to users so they understand what they’ll find after clicking on that link.

Furthermore, the description should be no more than 160 characters long.

To know more about how to craft titles and descriptions, head to my blog, “Tweaks for Page Title & Meta Description That’ll Boost Your SEO Traffic & CTR.”

3. Headings

Include only one H1 tag. You can use up to two H2 tags and also include H3, H4, and H5 tags. Your blogs should be structured in an organized manner according to these tags. 

This gives a simpler breakdown of the content on your website. Through these tags, you can break your content into several headings and subheadings. And this makes it easier for the search engine to crawl and for users to find the required information quickly and easily.

4. Visuals

Having visuals on your website can really boost its engagement power. Images tend to stop users from at least having a look at them…

And won’t you get fed up reading 2,000- or 3,000-word articles without any imagery? I personally look for examples and attractive images whenever I read any blog. 

Here are some facts about adding visuals to your content.

• Including images can make your content more engaging as well as appealing. But remember to include images relevant to the context.

• Do you know? Optimized images can drive traffic from search engines also. For this, you have to optimize a few things like the Image Alt Text, and Descriptions. To know how to optimize images, refer to, Everything You Need To Know About Image Optimization.

• Most important, adding images decreases the bounce rate.

5. Internal Linking

Internal linking refers to how well each page of your website is connected to the other web pages of your website. Building internal links is a great approach to providing a better user experience while guiding potential buyers closer to your conversion funnel.

For example, if a user visits a webpage and skims through the content, after reading a bit, there might be some questions that arise in their mind…

So, what you can do is provide an interlink over there to guide the users out of this funnel and provide them with the required information.

Let me explain this to you with an image.

The above image clearly shows that when reading a blog post, the visitor finds a term that he/she wants to get a little more information on…

So, what you could do is put a link to that webpage over there to make users take action and visit another page of your website.

This makes the users more likely to stay on your website and not go back to Google for answers when you provide them with what they want. This would increase the value of your brand and lead to more time spent on your website.

Not only users, but interlinking also helps search engine crawlers easily crawl each page of your website and understand the connectivity.

To gain better knowledge, here’s everything you need to know about internal linking for SEO

So, these are the factors that enhance the chances of your website getting a click. The formula is simple: the more clicks you get, the more traffic your website will receive. 

Moreover, increased CTR leads to higher rankings. 

Learn: How To Improve Click-Through Rate

But here’s a thing: most of the time, people think that publishing content while overusing keywords would immediately increase their website’s rankings. Well, that never works…

Google is smart enough to predict which content is natural and which one contains keyword stuffing.

And here’s proof: below is the first search result for the query “best hip-hop songs in 2022.” 

And how many times does the keyword appear on this page? ZERO! As a result, it has been demonstrated that Google prefers to rank content that meets users’ search intent.

So, if you want to develop a successful DIY SEO on your own website, then you must create optimized SEO content keeping the above-listed tips in mind.

Read More: 10 SEO Content Strategies To Boost Your Rankings in 2023

Use Optimized URLs

If you want to rank higher on SERPs, then you have to make sure that your URLs are clear and optimized, which is a crucial DIY SEO tip.

To start with, see the below images.

URL 1

URL 2

Out of the two, which one is more understandable and easy to read? Of course, the second one. But why? A simple answer to this is that this URL makes it easy for your users to read and understand the topic.

Let me give an example of this, here is a well-optimized URL of my own blog – https://www.incrementors.com/blog/steps-to-healthcare-seo/

Do you face any difficulty understanding that the URL is about healthcare SEO? Short and simple: Website ➡️ Category ➡️ Sub Category. 

Another way to create optimized URLs is by including the target keyword in them.

The key takeaways are: 

If you want your website to rank higher on SERPs, then you must focus on creating SEO-friendly URLs.

Now the tables have turned, and Google looks for the relevancy of the URLs and the content. Therefore, matching both of them is the key to helping you do your own SEO.

Build Relationships With Other Websites

Google stated that, if a website has quality links from other websites then the chances of ranking higher for that website would be high. It is classified as the capability of your website to produce quality content and build relationships with other websites.

Therefore, links are very important, which makes link-building a crucial aspect of DIY SEO.

But for this, you first have to create high-quality content that is informative enough and gives value to the users in order to get external links.

There are several SEO tactics to bring in high-quality links, but remember not to pay to get any links.

Natural link building techniques would enhance the ability of your website to rank higher, for this you can…

• Create content having in-depth information about a certain topic
• Participating in niche-specific events
• Answer to the questions asked by journalists (HARO techniques)

Some other techniques are: Guest Posting, Buying links, etc.

The ultimate goal is to rank higher, so to achieve this goal, you must make sure that your website gets some high-quality and solid external links. Not only will this improve your rankings, but it will also increase community trust and authority for your website.

Encourage Local SEO To Reach Local Customers

By conducting SEO on your own, you can target local customers who are looking for immediate services, which is the best way to build your business and get more traffic. 

So, if you have a small business and want to rank your website higher and reach more online customers, you can definitely opt for local DIY SEO.

What is to be done exactly? The steps are simple and already discussed above. 

All it includes is:

• Finding local keywords that are relevant to your business, this would enhance your ability to rank higher for local searches such as “doctors near me” or “best restaurants in California.”

• Creating content for your website, providing information to the users about your business and services. 

• Registering your website on Google My Business and providing accurate information or business details to the audience.

• Get cited in high-quality directories to be found easily by your customers.

Implementing local DIY SEO can improve your rankings for “near me” searches, resulting in higher conversion and revenue.

Improve Technical Issues

Keeping content aside, another thing that you must consider in your DIY SEO strategy is the technical part of your website. 

Though you’ve created over-the-top, highly optimized content…But the problem still stays.

What if your website has technical issues such as slow site speed, or your website page loading speed is slow, or it has some crawling errors, and maybe your website is not optimized for mobile devices?

Therefore, you must consider optimizing your website for technical issues that may affect your website’s SEO

Some common issues that you may encounter are listed below and are things that you have to work on to do SEO on your own.

1. Make A Mobile Friendly Website

Currently, there are around 311.8 million mobile users, and the figure may go up to 364.2 million by 2040. With this, you can get an idea of how much it is important to optimize your websites for mobile use.

Your website must be mobile-friendly in order to improve the user experience. Imagine if a user visits your website to gather some information or to purchase any product, but what he or she faces is a slow loading speed that frustrates him or her. At last, what is going to happen? The user would simply go back!

The issue could be that images do not load quickly, certain pop-ups appear, data is not structured, and many more…

As a result, you must fix these problems and make your website mobile-friendly in order to provide the best user experience to visitors.

2. Website Speed Issues

Don’t you get frustrated when a website takes a long time to load when you want to view it? Then think of your customers when they come to your website and face the same problem.

The reason: SLOW SITE SPEED!

And it found that if your webpages take more than a second or two to load, the bounce rate jumps by 32%. See the below images.

Therefore, you must ensure that your website loads quickly if you want to create a positive visitor experience.

Furthermore, “Google now considers page loading speed as a ranking factor.” This makes speed a factor to be improvised and leads to successful DIY SEO.

However, to check for these technical issues, you must run your website through a site audit tool such as Google Page Insights (it’s free!).

This site audit tool analyzes your performance and gives you reports on it. It would show you your website’s performance score on mobile devices and desktops. 

As a result, you can identify all the improvements that need to be made to tackle the technical issues. 

Look below; I’ve got a few issues detected by Google Page Insights that need to be improved.

It will tell you about pages that load slowly, images that are not compressed, and many more issues that are detected.

Plus, here are some elements that can slow down your website’s page speed: 

• Image format
• The number of heavy files
• Number of redirects
• Number of HTTP files

Also Read: 7 Supreme Practices For Website SEO Testing (Tools Included)

Be Socially Active

The final step in learning how to do SEO on your own is social media. 

Sharing your content on social media can be a great way to promote your brand and reach more audiences to enhance DIY SEO. 

If you’re looking to improve your website’s SEO, you need to be socially active. This means engaging with your audience and sharing your content in a way that is engaging and useful to them. 

It’s also important to be on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook more often, as these platforms are great places to share your thoughts and experiences with the world.

Additionally, it’s important to keep your website updated with new content and ideas. As your website gets older, it will become harder and harder to get new visitors. But by keeping your website updated and engaging with your audience, you can keep them coming back.

Read More; Impact Of Social Media On SEO And How It Boosts The Traffic

Conclusion

So this is how you can do SEO on your own for your website. The methods listed above are extremely beneficial and practically possible for driving rich results.

You can also follow them over and over to implement a successful DIY SEO strategy to rank well in the search engines.

SEO is a complicated process, but when approached systematically, it can work wonders for your website.

Are you still waiting? Go, implement these DIY SEO tips right now, and make your website thrash down your competitors and rank at the top.

And if you face any problems or get stuck anywhere, you can schedule an absolutely free 30-minute strategy session with me to discuss what can be done to take your business to the Next Level.

With our expert knowledge, we can cater to you with the best SEO services to increase your website traffic and generate more leads.