The importance of search engine optimization is very well documented. Without it your site will not show up in the search results which means you won’t generate as much traffic nor make as much money as you would like to.

Being that 90 percent of online searchers never make it past the first page of the search results, ensuring your company has a top spot is vitally important.

If you are a small company there is a good chance you can’t afford to hire a big marketing company.

And luckily you don’t have to. While SEO may seem a bit complicated, in reality it is something you can do on your own if you are willing to put in the time and effort.

The First and Most Important Thing You Must DO

When handling your own SEO, the first and most important thing you must do is clearly define your target audience. Most businesses completely miss this step and their rankings suffer because of it.

You see, writing content is only half of the equation. After all, how can you write relevant, optimized content if you have no idea who your audience is?

Before you write anything you need to take a few minutes to get to know your audience. Who are they? Where do they live? Are they male or female? What type of problems do they face? How can your products or services address those problems?

Once you have narrowly defined your audience you can start creating content that will attract them to your products and services.

For best results your content should be a minimum of 2000 words long and should include your main keywords sprinkled throughout.

The idea is to make your piece of content far more superior that other pieces of content on the same topic.

Don’t be afraid to include links to other sites within your article. Doing so can help your content rise in the rankings.

The bottom line is, doing it yourself search engine optimization is possible.