Businesses, non-profit organizations, charities, and writers of personal or affiliate blogs rely on SEO even if they don t know what it is. Sometimes they even try to use Search Engine Optimization techniques without technical consultation or support from professionals. Is it possible to do this successfully? Identify your measure of success, how much you know about how search engines work, and then decide for yourself. What Are You Writing? Virtually every website contains writing of some kind, what website designers refer to as content. Images and videos are also forms of content, but written words are the easiest to pick apart and understand within the SEO context. Your writing might be beautiful, punchy, emotive, or funny. If it is all of these things but fails to contain keywords, this part of your advertising has been a waste of time. A simple tool for SEO companies is to install these words and phrases into the written parts of one s website and/or blog. Keyword Determination First, an expert must determine the keywords. He uses analytical data provided by a search engine in order to discover what consumers ask for on the internet. Consider a search for Delaware Insurance Agencies. Terms used by members of the public might look like these examples: Insurance Agencies Delaware Insurance Insurance Delaware Consumers could be even more specific. They might ask for Smyrna, Wilmington, or New Castle Delaware. They might specify House or Car insurance. If the location is not important, consumers explore online possibilities, although searching for local hits has its advantages. Local Benefits The first example above will yield thousands of hits. That s too many, and results are likely to originate in another state. Specifying location reduces the number of results to a much smaller number of relevant companies. Selecting local key words is something an SEO consultant often highly recommends. He benefited from a local search and will pay it forward by suggesting you do the same. Meanwhile, many firms really only appeal to an audience in the neighborhood, perhaps within 20 to 50 km. Why would you call Pittsburgh Emergency Disaster Cleanup when you live in Newark, Delaware? The closest firm will arrive fastest, and if the company is run by people living in your town, employees probably care a whole lot because they know you. Search Engine Algorithms When an engine goes in search of terms, it uses calculations of probability called algorithms. These differ between engines, so your ratings could be high on AOL and low on Google or low on AOL and high on Yahoo. Google sets the standard by doing their best to weed out fraudulent sites, distinguish real from fake reviews, and penalize sites of poor security. Other engines are doing this too, but Google sets the bar high. There are hundreds of factors that determine whether a page is on or near the top of listings. Search terms are the most obvious and probably the weightiest of all factors. Meanwhile, algorithms change and are updated. SEO experts are aware of criteria and changes in algorithms. Lay People and Optimization In the meantime, most individuals who own or operate a business know their field construction, alternative health, catering, etc. Charitable organizations are run by people who are passionate about rare diseases, anti-smoking education, and safety for seniors. Computer software and technical aspects of the internet are like a foreign language. Whatever they know, it s not enough to keep up with professionals. But lay people can still manage to run Open Source (free, no-code) websites on WordPress et al. without expert advice. If, somehow, their strategies work, traffic is high, or conversion rates are good, maybe the added expense of SEO consultation is unnecessary. Small blogs are often run by people whose audience already knows they are there, for instance. Most firms, however, would love to increase revenue and make advertising more effective without paying a lot of money. TV ads are expensive. Better SEO is cheap by comparison, but it has to be working, so consumers need to know how to gauge effectiveness. Checking Effective Optimization Start with data regarding your current website status. Determine how much traffic you get people visiting a site. Calculate conversion rates as well which is the percentage of people who buy something after browsing the site. Figure out how much money you are making against outgoings and overheads. After working with an SEO consultant, wait three months. Check data again. Figures might not shift right away; this could require a further three months. Allow about six months, maximum, to see results change significantly, then follow them on a monthly basis. These figures should either remain high or even rise a little bit each time you check. What SEO Does There are more services provided besides keyword assessment and analytics. Customers can retain a firm for regular work or obtain an education which enables them to do a lot of the work themselves. Professionals would come in occasionally to monitor the situation.