Can a small business owner do SEO?

Question: As the owner and administrator of the site not the designer am I able to do the SEO?

Answer: It depends. First, I recommend taking my SEO classes just to educate yourself so you don’t get ripped off. Unfortunately there are many SEO con artists out there as well as many good ones; knowledge is power, so even if you do not actually do the SEO, learning how the game is played makes you a better manager.

Second, I do believe that the business owner needs to be involved. You don’t have to ‘do it yourself’ but SEO is a part of marketing, and usually only people ‘inside’ the business can explain what your product or service is, who your customers are, etc. SEO is not a purely technical pursuit; you need to be able to position it as PART OF your MARKETING not separate.

Finally, you need to have control of the website to do SEO. For instance, after you identify the keywords you need to place them strategically in the page tags of the various web pages. So there you either have to do it yourself, or give directions to the webmaster.