Can DIY SEO Ever Produce Great Results?

The importance of SEO to a modern business simply cannot be overstated. Without an effective SEO strategy, the chances are that your business will go unnoticed online – and this lack of visibility can be genuinely ruinous. The importance of SEO has long been an accepted fact for most business owners, but the way that companies choose to actually utilise the power of SEO tends to vary wildly.
In implementing and managing an SEO strategy, business owners usually have to choose one of the following options:

• Outsourced SEO services from a professional agency. The agency manages the requirements of the business owner’s company entirely, with the business owner having relatively little input into the day-to-day management.
• DIY SEO, which is essentially the exact opposite; the business owner manages their company’s SEO themselves, implementing techniques they have found online.

For the most part, the decision between the two is usually influenced primarily by cost. If a business can afford to hire an agency to perform their SEO work, they will do so; if the company isn’t yet at a point where it can withstand such a cost, DIY methods will have to suffice. This seems like a sensible division, but there is one question that tends to be overlooked: are DIY SEO strategies really capable of producing great results?
After all, if a business owner is going to dedicate hours of their time to learning the intricacies of SEO, implementing techniques, and tweaking their overall strategy, the time they have available to manage the core operations of their business becomes limited. If a business owner is going to sacrifice hours of time – hours that could otherwise be spent refining the business itself – then it’s definitely worth asking if DIY SEO is actually a justifiable use of time.
The simple truth is that no DIY SEO tactics will ever be able to produce results that are even close to what a true SEO professional agency is able to achieve. To an extent, this is expected; it’s the trade-off that entrepreneurs make, opting for a lower level of proficiency in exchange for extra costs. If a business is serious about achieving results, then SEO has to be outsourced and seen as an essential outgoing that is vital to achieving business success.
So, we’ve established that DIY SEO can’t ever really compete with professional services, but is there still some value to DIY SEO?
Realistically, it depends on the time the business owner has available. If you have opted to DIY your SEO, then you have to ensure that going through SEO techniques is not harming your ability to work on other tasks that are related to the business itself. It could be argued that, actually, it’s preferable to seek to build your business to a point where you can hire professional SEO services, rather than losing valuable hours trying to self-learn a complex, challenging task that is unlikely to ever truly match expert techniques.
In conclusion
If attempting DIY SEO is taking too much time from your ability to work on the basics of your business, it may be best to opt for the bare minimum and focus primarily on building your business to a point where outsourcing SEO is a viable option for your company.