Many webmasters, business owners and marketing folks are sometimes more concerned about saving money than making it. Ever heard the expression, “Penny wise, pound foolish?” Save a buck today, lose two or three tomorrow. That’s what happens when you try to optimize your own website and don’t know what you’re doing. You’re likely going to fail or you won’t be patient long enough to wait for the results you hope to get. Often many times I have seen people that don’t take the time to truly understand how search engine optimization works, try to rush it or have unrealistic expectations and then vow that SEO does not work. I can assure you that search engine optimization is one of the most cost effective and best return driven mediums to drive targeted visitors to your website. But is there a time when you can, and should, optimize your own website? Yes. There may be times when performing the SEO work on your site is to your advantage.

The obvious time to optimize your own website is when you have taken the time to learn it on your own and have ample time to perform the on site optimization and ongoing link building and reporting efforts. You’ve studied it long enough and you’ve experimented enough with the tools that you can make it happen. I’m not talking about having read one e-book written in 1995. I’m talking about having actually tested some of the things that you’ve learned and you understand SEO well enough to employ its mysteries without giving up when things don’t go right. Because, inevitably, your first efforts are going to appear to fail; they actually may be succeeding, but you just won’t see the results for a while.