01What you can do yourself in a couple of afternoons
Start with what needs judgment about your own business, because nobody knows it better than you. Write a plain page for each service you sell, with a title that says what the page is. Google's starter guide asks for titles that are unique to the page, clear and concise, and for URLs with words that mean something to a visitor. Verify your site in Search Console so you can see which searches already show it. Claim your Google Business Profile and keep your name, address and phone number identical everywhere. After every finished job, ask for a review. It takes a few hours, not a specialist.
- One page per service, with a title that says what the page is
- Words in the URL that mean something to a visitor
- Search Console verified, so you see the searches your site already appears for
- Google Business Profile claimed, with the same name, address and phone number everywhere
- A review requested after every finished job
02What is slow or risky to do alone
Some SEO work fails quietly. A migration is the clearest case: if the old addresses are not redirected one by one to the new ones, pages Google already knew can drop out of the index, and nothing on your screen tells you. The same goes for a sitemap in the wrong format, duplicate titles across pages, wrong canonical tags or a robots.txt that blocks the wrong folder. PROOF48's SEO page states the order plainly: fix the floor before building the ceiling, because an article on a site Google cannot crawl is an article Google never reads. You can learn all of it. The question is whether your hours are worth more to you than the fee.
- Redirects when a page changes address or the whole site moves
- Crawl problems: sitemap format, robots.txt, canonical tags, duplicate titles
- Schema markup, which a visitor never sees and so it rarely gets checked
- Core Web Vitals, which depend on how the site was built
03A realistic time budget
DIY SEO costs hours, not euros, and the hours repeat. Google's starter guide says some changes show up within hours and others take months, and suggests waiting a few weeks before judging whether your work helped. So plan a routine you can keep, not a sprint. Our suggestion, not a measured figure: one session a month to read the Search Console queries and fix what looks off, one page improved or added each month, and a review request after each job. If you will not keep that up for a year, say so now and decide whether to pay someone. PROOF48 promises no Google position, because nobody controls one.
- Monthly: read the Search Console queries and note the surprises
- Monthly: improve or add one page, tied to a real service
- After every job: ask for a review
- Judge results after weeks, not days (Google's starter guide)
- The schedule is our suggestion: we have not measured how many hours DIY SEO takes
04If you hire someone, what Google says to check
Google's own page on whether you need an SEO is blunt. It says no one can guarantee a number one ranking, that you should never have to link to an SEO, and that hiring badly can risk damage to your site and reputation. It advises granting read access to Search Console at the audit stage and not write access. It adds that a good time to hire is when you are considering a redesign, and the earlier the better. Ask what results to expect and in what timeframe, a question Google itself suggests. Ask what the person will change on your site. And be wary of anyone who is secretive about their work.
- No one can guarantee a number one ranking
- You should never have to link to the SEO's own site
- Read access to Search Console at the audit stage, not write access
- Ask what results to expect and in what timeframe
- A redesign is a good moment to bring one in, the earlier the better
05Where PROOF48 is the wrong choice
PROOF48's FOUND plan costs 297 EUR a month. It includes Google Business Profile management, local SEO for 5 target keywords, 2 AI blog posts a month in your voice, schema, a monthly ranking report and competitor and review monitoring. If you have the hours and a site with nothing broken, the routine above costs you only your time, and we would rather you did it. FOUND is also the wrong buy if you want a guaranteed position, which nobody can sell, if you need customers this week, when ads are the faster channel, or if your site has nothing specific to say. Unsure which camp you are in? Send your URL. Our technical audit is free and we tell you what is broken in the first reply.
- FOUND, 297 EUR a month: Business Profile, local SEO for 5 keywords, 2 AI blog posts, schema, monthly ranking report
- Have the hours and a healthy site: do the routine yourself and keep the fee
- Want a guaranteed position: nobody can sell one, and we do not
- Need customers this week: ads, not organic search
- Free technical audit from your URL, answered in the first reply
A salon rebuilt with redirects and a page per service
SCP Shine & Style is a beauty salon in Sector 3, Bucharest. It had a website that was built badly and ranked badly, and PROOF48 rebuilt it. The case study lists the work in two groups. One is within reach of an owner: a homepage with a Romanian keyword in the H1 and a page for each service, each with its own copy and media. The other is where mistakes go unnoticed: every old WordPress URL redirected with a 301, 21 video clips declared in the sitemap so Search Console counts them, and VideoObject and Person schema. We publish no ranking, revenue or booking figure for the salon. We do not measure them and will not estimate them.
See the build: SCP Shine & StyleQuestions, answered
Can I do SEO myself with no experience?
For the basics, yes. Google says that if you run a small local business you can probably do much of the work yourself, and it publishes an SEO starter guide for that. The risky jobs are redirects, technical fixes and site moves.
How long until DIY SEO shows results?
Google's starter guide says some changes take effect within hours and others take months, and suggests waiting a few weeks before judging. We promise no position and publish no ranking figure for any client.
Should I give an SEO full access to Search Console?
Google advises read access only at the audit stage, not write access. You can widen it later if you trust the work.
What does it cost to hire instead of doing it myself?
PROOF48's FOUND plan is 297 EUR a month. Our post on SEO costs explains what that number includes.
Where PROOF48 fits
A small business owner can do the basics of SEO alone: clear pages and titles, Search Console, a claimed Business Profile and steady review requests. Hand over the work that fails quietly, such as redirects, crawl fixes and schema, or learn it before you touch it. Expect weeks before you can judge anything, and distrust anyone who guarantees a position. PROOF48's FOUND plan is 297 EUR a month, and our technical audit of your URL is free.
Cosmin Tiu · Founder, PROOF48
Cosmin has worked in online marketing and software development since 2018, and has built with AI every day since January 2023. He still writes code from scratch daily, in Python, React, Rust and C#. PROOF48 ships business websites in 48 hours and invoices afterwards, so every opinion on this blog was paid for in real builds, not in theory.