DIY SEO is free.
Except for the part that costs you the most.
There is nothing about SEO a business owner cannot learn. The problem is never capability. It is that the work is weekly, it takes a year to pay off, and it is always the thing that gets dropped when the business gets busy.
Plans from $197/mo. No lock-in contract.
When doing it yourself is the right call
Nobody knows your customers better than you do, and that is the single biggest advantage in this work. The words your buyers actually use are already in your head.
If you enjoy it, do it. Someone who finds this interesting and gives it a couple of hours a week will beat a business that outsources it and never thinks about it again.
The basics are genuinely free. Claiming your Google listing, fixing your titles and answering your customers' real questions on your own site will move you, and none of it needs a subscription.
Side by side
What each one actually does for you, in the same words you would use yourself.
| Doing it yourself | Ranki | |
|---|---|---|
| Money out | Almost nothing | From $197 a month |
| Time out | Several hours every month, forever | None after onboarding |
| What usually happens | Strong for six weeks, then it stops | Same volume every month |
| Knowing what to write | Guesswork unless you buy data | Live search volume for your services and suburbs |
| Technical setup | Yours to learn and maintain | Structured data, links and submissions handled |
| Measuring it | Whatever you set up yourself | Weekly rankings, calls and forms per page |
| Best for | Owners who enjoy it and will keep at it | Owners who know they will not |
Which one is right for you
Do it yourself if
- You find this interesting and will genuinely keep at it
- You have a couple of quiet hours a week that are reliably yours
- Your market is small enough that a handful of pages will cover it
- Cash is tight and time is the thing you have more of
Pick Ranki if
- You have started before and it stopped when work got busy
- Your time is worth more doing the actual job than writing about it
- You do not want to learn what structured data is to get found
- You want proof it is working, in enquiries rather than in charts
What Ranki costs
One monthly price, everything included. Cancel any time.
Growth
- 20 articles written and published a month
- 25 keywords tracked weekly
- Posted to your social channels
Pro
- 30 articles written and published a month
- 50 keywords tracked weekly
- Posted to your social channels
- Older pages rewritten when they stall
- Competitor gap analysis
- Quarterly strategy review
Questions people ask first
Can I really do SEO myself?
Yes. Claim your Google Business Profile, write a proper page for each service you sell, name the suburbs you cover and answer the questions customers actually ask you. That alone puts you ahead of most competitors. The hard part is doing it every month for a year.
How long before SEO pays off?
Usually months rather than weeks, which is exactly why doing it yourself so often fails. The results arrive well after the enthusiasm does, so the work has to keep happening through the quiet stretch.
What is the minimum I should do if I am not ready to pay for anything?
Claim and fill out your Google Business Profile, make sure every service has its own page, put your suburbs and your prices on the site, and ask happy customers for reviews. Run our free site check to see what is missing before you spend anything.