Can you do SEO yourself? Yes — here’s the Liplyn IG playbook (and when to bring in pros)

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Updated on:

October 24, 2025

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3 min

You can absolutely handle a core set of SEO tasks in‑house — especially if you’re comfortable with analytics and content. For the more technical, time‑intensive, or risk‑prone areas (think Core Web Vitals, structured data, and scalable link acquisition), partnering with specialists pays off.

Who this guide is for

Growth‑minded teams in recruitment, media, and data who want search visibility that converts, without burning cycles on the wrong work.

What you can DIY (today)

1) Run an initial SEO audit

Goal: Establish a clean baseline and prioritize the biggest wins.

What to check:

Indexing status (Search Console → Pages).
Crawl issues and broken links.
Mobile friendliness and HTTPS.
Thin / duplicate pages to prune or merge.
Top pages by clicks + conversions (Search Console + Analytics).

Output: A prioritized backlog tagged by impact (High/Med/Low) and effort (S/M/L).

2) Do focused keyword research

Goal: Map demand to intent and to pages you own (or need).

How:

Start with 10–20 core themes (e.g., “software engineer jobs Utrecht”, “employer branding agency”, “programmatic recruitment”).
Expand with variations by seniority, location, and problem (“how to write a junior data scientist job description”, “salary guide Rotterdam”).
Set target intent per term (Informational, Consideration, Transactional) and match to a page type (blog, guide, service, job category, landing page).

Output: A simple keyword→page map with primary and secondary terms.

3) On‑page optimization that actually moves the needle

Goal: Make relevance unambiguous for users and search engines.

Checklist:

One page = one primary topic.
Title tag (<60 chars), meta description (<155 chars) with clear value.
H1 reflects the search intent; H2s structure the answer.
Alt text explains images.
Internal links: every important page gets 3–5 contextual links from relevant pages.
Add FAQs for real questions (and mark them up when appropriate).

4) Publish content with a job‑to‑be‑done

Goal: Earn traffic and trust.

What to ship:

Evergreen guides (e.g., “Complete guide to Core Web Vitals for career sites”).
Salary benchmarks and market updates per city/role.
Case studies with outcome metrics (time‑to‑hire, CPA, conversion rate).
Category pages with facet navigation (by role, city, seniority) and unique intro copy.

Quality bar: Original data or POV, clear next step (CTA), and an update cadence.

5) Manage your Google Business Profile (local)

Goal: Own high‑intent local queries and map visibility.

Do this weekly:

Keep NAP (name/address/phone) 100% consistent.
Post updates, add photos, answer Q&A.
Respond to reviews (and request new ones after wins).

6) Set up analytics that answer “so what?”

Goal: Measure beyond sessions.

Must‑haves:

GA4 + Search Console connected.
Events for leads, trial signups, job applies, contact form submissions.
Weekly KPI snapshot: clicks, impressions, avg position, top pages, conversions, and pages dropping in clicks.

When to partner with specialists

A) Technical SEO audits

Great for uncovering crawl traps, orphaned content, messy redirects, and internationalization issues before they snowball.

B) Page speed & Core Web Vitals

Performance engineering (image pipelines, critical CSS, server tuning, hydration strategies) is engineering work — and it impacts conversion, not just rankings.

C) Structured data (schema)

JobPosting, Article, FAQ, Organization, and Breadcrumb markup — implemented correctly and validated — improves eligibility for rich results.

D) Link building & digital PR

Quality links require assets worth linking to (original data, tools, or standout content) plus systematic outreach and relationship building.

E) Ongoing strategy & competitor intelligence

From SERP feature tracking to content portfolio planning and cannibalization clean‑up, a seasoned partner compounds gains.

A pragmatic 90‑day plan

Days 1–14

Baseline audit and quick fixes (404s, robots, sitemaps, titles).
Ship tracking: GA4 events + Search Console verified.

Days 15–45

Publish 6–8 high‑intent pages (service/job category/FAQ).
Optimize top 10 legacy pages for updated keywords and internal links.

Days 46–90

Launch one linkable asset (e.g., a quarterly salary index) + outreach.
Tackle speed issues on templates that drive 80% of traffic.
Implement schema on priority templates.

Cadence: Weekly stand‑up; monthly KPI review with decisions.

Success metrics that matter

Non‑brand organic clicks and impressions for target themes.
Application starts, demo requests, qualified leads from organic.
% of traffic landing on pages created/optimized in last 90 days.
Core Web Vitals pass rate on key templates.
Referring domains (quality > quantity).

FAQs

How long until we see results? 3–6 months for steady movement; faster if you fix technical blockers early and ship net‑new, high‑intent pages.

How much time does DIY take? Plan ~4 hours for an initial audit, ~2 hours for a seed keyword set, ~6 hours per substantial guide or landing page, and recurring time for improvements. Adjust up/down based on experience and site size.

Can we do everything in‑house? You can own the high‑leverage basics. Bring in specialists for deep technical work, structured data, performance engineering, and scalable link acquisition.

How Liplyn IG can help

Technical audits & remediation that clear crawl/indexing debt.
Performance tuning to improve Core Web Vitals on real user data.
Schema implementation (JobPosting, Article, FAQ, Organization) with validation.
Content systems: keyword→page mapping, briefs, and editorial operations.
Digital PR & distribution that earns authoritative links.
Recruitment SEO: category architecture, job template SEO, and apply‑flow conversion optimization.

Want a quick, free assessment? Share your domain and top markets; we’ll return a prioritized hit list with the fastest wins.