Choosing Between Manual and Automated SEO: Which Should You Use

Websites are known to help local businesses prosper or reach a more international market. But this wouldn’t be possible if no one is looking at your site. One way to get people to notice you and drive traffic to your site is through the use of search engine optimization or SEO.

SEO is the combination of techniques, tactics and strategies to increase the number of people who visit your website by placing your links high in the results page of search engines. When you talk about SEO, one of the first questions that has to be asked is whether to use manual SEO or through the use of automated SEO tools. The answer to that question would depend on a lot of things like expertise, available time to handle the SEO program and prior knowledge about the method.

This article will tackle on the differences, advantages and disadvantages of both manual and automated SEO so you would know which you should use.

Manual vs. Automation

Search engine optimization requires a lot of steps for your website to be visible. You would have to research for the keywords to put on your contents, write your content, know the difference between white hat and black hat SEO, execute your SEO strategies and many more things to get on the top five on any search results page. Why top five? Because one study done in 2014 revealed that 67% of all the clicks come from the first five results on Google’s results page.

When you are doing manual SEO, you would have to do all the SEO steps and methodologies manually. From keyword search to writing, these all have to be done by you. You could outsource them, but still they are done manually and not automated. Manual SEO requires that you plan and coordinate with your team for them to carry out the various tasks that have to be done. There are activities that will be done on page and off page. Because of this, using the manual SEO platform is slower and requires more in depth work.

On the other hand, automated SEO uses SEO software to make things easier and more efficient. The things that you need to do manually before can be done automatically by the software. Functions that can be done by your software includes keyword search, commenting on blogs, social bookmarking and posting on forums. Commenting and posting may seem spam like to some, but it is guaranteed that the software ensures full satisfaction for the business owner. Here are some more reasons why SEO software contribute to the success of your business.

Pros and Cons of Manual SEO

Even though it looks like the use of top SEO tools is the way to go for marketers and SEO experts, there are still advantages to using manual SEO.

1. When you use manual SEO, you have total control over the strategies that you will use. If you want to use an influencer to listen to the people, you could do so. If you want to generate links to different sites and pages, it is very possible. There are modern techniques that you can use to guarantee the success of your business. If you want power and authority over every, single thing that goes on in the SEO campaign, then using manual SEO is the way to go for you.

2. Because manual SEO requires careful planning and cooperation between the whole team, it also encourages a special kind of rapport between the team. The team eventually finds a pace that works best for them and even though they are doing more things manually, they are also efficient.

3. Off page SEO is the use of link building, social media and social bookmarking to improve the visibility and performance of your website. The use of manual SEO ensures that off page SEO is done properly and is bringing improvement to the website.

4. Backlinks are hyperlinks from a specific webpage to another website. This is one off page SEO that you can be sure is high quality when you do manual SEO. You could decide on your own where you can submit your links or where you don’t want your links to appear.

5. Even though manual SEO requires more work it is a much more stable process as compared to automated SEO with the use of search engine optimization software. You have control over the process and you could make changes quickly if you see errors in the methods you are using.

Although there are advantages of using manual SEO there are also disadvantage to using this type of search engine optimization.

1. As already mentioned above, the use of manual SEO requires you and your team to do everything manually. Because there are a lot of things to do to make your SEO process run smoothly, doing things manually requires a lot of time and effort. If you lots of time to ensure that your site is visible and high up in the results page, then this might be much of a disadvantage at all.

2. Using manual SEO can be more expensive, since you will be paying for people instead of an SEO management software. If you have no idea about the costs of operating an SEO process, here is the breakdown for how much you will need to pay for when using SEO service.

3. This strategy requires a high level of dedication and commitment from your team. A high concentration level is also needed for areas of SEO that can’t be automated.

4. Because this will be done by people and not tools, you would need exclusive manpower for the things that have to be done. You would have to hire backlinks experts, content creators, white and black hat SEO experts and other personnel that you might need. The control of the operation also have to be monitored closely. The staff that you have will also add to the expense that you would have to pay.

Pros and Cons of Automated SEO

You have seen the advantages and disadvantages of using manual SEO, now we go to automated SEO with the use of the best SEO software.

Here are some of the pros of using automated SEO:

1. Buying or renting an SEO software to handle most of the processes involved in SEO is faster as compared to doing things manually. It is also more economical since there is less manpower to pay and less work to do. If you don’t know the going rate for SEO services, this will give you an idea on how much you should really spend on SEO. You could also save money because you wouldn’t have to hire many people for your SEO teams.

2. With SEO tools, it is easier to check if there are broken links, Meta content, tags, keyword density and Meta tags in your website. The SEO tool will also allow you to handle more complex and bigger SEO campaigns which is hard to do when you are doing things manually.

3. Data and metrics are easily retrieved from the SEO software, rather than monitoring and computing data yourself. With the tools you would also get more accurate data and information. You can be guaranteed that your data are precise and correct and you can get them anytime you want or need.

4. The software also allows you to keep a look out on your competitors. You would get a look at the strategies they use and their progress in the SEO process. Not all SEO tools might not have this feature, so if you want it, you could do your research or read reviews of SEO software that can be found in review sites.

5. One more feature that the best SEO software offers is the easy scheduling of tasks and activities. Scheduling wouldn’t be daunting and time consuming anymore.

With advantages, come disadvantages. Here are some of the cons of automated SEO:

1. Because the software is doing most of the back linking, you can’t entirely be sure that the links are of high quality. The software might be putting your links in questionable sites which will waste your link juice.

2. Automated SEO focuses more on the numbers. Like page rankings and metrics, that sometimes the quality of the site is overlooked.

3. Most of the links that are sourced through the use of automation do not produce traffic for you site. So this is one big downside to using automated SEO if you want to increase the number of visitors to your site. Read SEO software reviews to know what other people are saying about the creation of links by specific SEO software.

Now that you know the differences between manual and automated SEO, you could make an informed decision on which style you want to adapt for your SEO program. Take note that it doesn’t have to be one or the other, you could make use of both if you feel comfortable using the two different methods.

Thinking of getting a fully automated SEO software? Head on to CrowdReviews.com to check the reviews and rankings of the best software.