You don’t need an agency to start on SEO. Plenty of small business owners do a good job of it themselves, and some of the clients who come to us have already written excellent blog posts or fixed parts of their website on their own.
What we see again and again is that people learn SEO in bits. They read a tip here and a rule there, and without the context around each tip, it’s easy to put effort into the wrong things. This guide puts the steps in order, so you can do SEO yourself with a clear idea of why each step helps.
Before You Start: Learn SEO in the Right Order
The biggest risk with DIY SEO isn’t doing too little. It’s following advice out of context.
One business owner we worked with had put 1,000 words on their homepage, because they had read that every page needs at least 1,000 words for SEO. The homepage had become a wall of text that visitors scrolled past, and it didn’t rank any better for it. Google says there is “no magical word count target, minimum or maximum”. A page should be as long as it needs to be to help the person reading it.
The other pattern we see is people putting all their energy into backlinks, the links from other websites, and ignoring the links between their own pages. Internal linking is one of the simplest things you can control, and one of the most often missed. We cover it in step 7.
Work through the steps below in order. Each one builds on the one before. If you are completely new to SEO, start with our guide on what SEO is.
Step 1: Set Up Your Free Tools
Before you change anything, set up the tools that show you what is happening.
- Google Search Console shows the searches people use to find you, which pages are indexed and any problems Google has found.
- Google Analytics shows what visitors do on your website.
- Google Business Profile controls how you appear in Google Maps, if you serve customers in a local area.
These are all free. Search Console in particular is the closest thing you will get to seeing your website through Google’s eyes.
Step 2: Find Out What Your Customers Search For
SEO starts with your customers, not your website. Write down every service you offer, then write next to each one the words a customer would use to look for it.
Then check those words against what people search for:
- Type each phrase into Google and look at the suggestions that appear as you type.
- Scroll down to the “People also ask” box and note the questions.
- Look at the searches already bringing people to your site in Search Console, under Performance.
- If you want search volumes, free versions of tools such as Ubersuggest or Google Keyword Planner will give you a rough idea.
Imagine you run a tutoring business in Crawley. You might call your service “academic support”, but your customers search for “maths tutor Crawley” or “GCSE English tutor”. Those are the words your pages need to use.
Step 3: Give Each Service Its Own Page
One of the most common problems on small business websites is a single “Services” page that lists everything. Google can’t rank one page for ten different services.
Give each important service its own page. Each page should explain:
- what the service is and who it is for;
- what is included and how it works;
- where you offer it;
- the questions customers ask about it;
- how to get in touch.
This also helps your customers. Someone looking for GCSE maths tuition wants to land on a page about GCSE maths tuition, not a list of everything you do.
Step 4: Write Clear Page Titles and Headings
Your page title is the clickable headline that appears in Google. Google recommends titles that are “descriptive and concise” and says there is no reason to repeat the same words several times.
For each page:
- write a unique title that says what the page is about, with your business name at the end, such as “GCSE Maths Tutor in Crawley | Your Business”;
- give the page one main heading that matches the title;
- use subheadings to break the page into sections that answer different questions;
- write a short meta description, the summary under your title in Google, that gives people a reason to click.
Step 5: Check the Technical Basics
You don’t need to be technical to catch the most common problems.
- Mobile: use your website on your phone. Can you find a service, read it comfortably and contact the business?
- Speed: run your main pages through PageSpeed Insights. Large images are the usual cause of slow pages, so resize photos before uploading them.
- Indexing: check Search Console’s page indexing report to make sure your important pages are indexed. In WordPress, make sure “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is unticked under Settings, Reading.
- Security: your website address should start with https.
- Broken links: click through your menu and footer to make sure every link works.
If you find problems you can’t fix yourself, your web designer or platform’s support team can usually help. Our SEO checklist for small business websites covers each technical check in more detail.
Step 6: Create Content That Answers Questions
Use the questions you collected in step 2. Each one is a chance to show customers and Google that you know your subject.
- Answer short questions on the relevant service page.
- Answer bigger questions in a blog post or guide.
- Use examples from your own work, which no competitor can copy.
- Keep it in plain English and get to the answer quickly.
Google asks site owners to create “helpful, reliable, people-first content”. That means writing for the person asking the question first and for search engines second.
Step 7: Link Your Pages Together
This is the step most DIY SEO misses. Many of the business owners we meet have heard that links help with SEO, but they think only of backlinks from other websites. The links between your own pages are just as much a part of SEO, and you control every one of them.
Google says that “every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page on your site”. Internal links help Google find your pages, understand how they relate to each other and see which pages are most important.
To get your internal linking right:
- link every blog post to the service page it relates to;
- link related blog posts to each other;
- link from your homepage to your main service pages;
- use descriptive link text, such as “our GCSE maths tutoring”, rather than “click here” or “read more”;
- check that no important page is left with no links pointing to it.
A well-written blog post that doesn’t link to your services is a missed opportunity. Readers who enjoyed it have nowhere obvious to go next, and Google has no clear signal about which of your pages the post supports.
Step 8: Build Links From Other Websites
Once your own website is in good shape, look for links from other websites. Good places to start include:
- suppliers, partners and trade bodies you belong to;
- local business groups, charities and events you support;
- local news sites, if you have a story worth telling;
- reputable directories in your industry.
Google’s spam policies class buying links, swapping goods or services for links and creating links automatically as link spam, which can harm your rankings. Aim to earn links from websites your customers would recognise. Our guide on what backlinks are explains how.
Step 9: Look After Your Local Presence
If you serve customers in a particular area, local SEO can bring results faster than anything else on this list.
- Complete every section of your Google Business Profile.
- Keep your business name, address and phone number the same everywhere online.
- Ask happy customers for Google reviews and reply to every review.
Our guide on what local SEO is explains this in more detail.
Step 10: Check Your Progress Monthly
SEO takes months rather than weeks, so don’t judge it day by day. Once a month, check:
- the searches and pages bringing visitors in Search Console;
- whether those visitors are contacting you or buying;
- any new errors Google has reported;
- your Google Business Profile insights, if you have one.
Keep a simple note of what you changed and when. It makes it much easier to see what worked.
DIY SEO and AI Search
AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI Mode now recommend businesses as well as answering questions. Google says there are “no additional requirements” to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, so the steps in this guide help with AI search too.
Two habits help in particular. Answer questions clearly in plain sentences, and make sure your business details are described the same way everywhere. You can also ask an AI tool to describe your business and see whether the answer is accurate. Our guide on how to appear in AI search explains more.
Common DIY SEO Mistakes
- Following rules without context: such as padding pages to hit a word count.
- Ignoring internal links: focusing only on backlinks and leaving pages unlinked.
- One page for everything: listing every service on a single page.
- Writing for Google instead of people: repeating keywords until the page reads badly.
- Giving up too early: stopping after a few weeks because rankings haven’t moved yet.
- Changing everything at once: making it impossible to tell what worked.
When to Get Help
DIY SEO works well for the basics. It’s worth bringing in help when:
- you have done the basics but rankings have stalled;
- you have technical problems you can’t fix;
- you don’t know which searches to focus on;
- you don’t have time to keep going.
You don’t have to hand everything over. Many small businesses get an audit and a plan from an expert, then do much of the work themselves.
Our SEO services for small businesses can cover as much or as little as you need, from a one-off audit to ongoing support.
FAQs
Can I Do SEO Myself?
Yes. Most of the basics, such as setting up Search Console, giving each service its own page, writing clear titles and linking your pages together, need time rather than technical skill.
How Do I Do SEO for My Website for Free?
Use Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Business Profile and PageSpeed Insights, which are all free. Then follow the steps in this guide: research what customers search for, improve your pages, fix technical problems, create helpful content and link your pages together.
How Many Words Should a Page Have for SEO?
There is no set number. Google says there is “no magical word count target, minimum or maximum”. Write as much as the reader needs to understand the topic and take the next step.
What Is Internal Linking?
Internal linking means adding links from one page on your website to another, such as from a blog post to a service page. It helps visitors find related information and helps Google find and understand your pages.
How Long Does DIY SEO Take to Work?
It usually takes months to see steady results. How quickly depends on your website’s starting point, your competition and how consistently you work on it.