“Start your own website.”

If you’ve spent any time in SEO, you’ve heard this advice a hundred times.

And for a long time, I ignored it.

Working for various SEO agencies throughout the years, I had access to hundreds of client websites and worked on real businesses.

I figured – isn’t this an even better way to learn SEO? I never felt the need to run my own sites.

Now that I actually do run some websites, I realize it’s not just about learning SEO skills – it goes far beyond that and teaches you things that no amount of client work can.

Here’s what I’ve learned.

Google Traffic Isn’t Everything

Here’s what happened to one of the websites I started.

It started building momentum right off the bat with an increasing number of clicks and impressions from Google every day.

And then it got hit – or, completely buried – by Google’s December 2024 spam update.

That didn’t stop me from continuing to work on it.

The website is far from dead. It gets a decent amount of direct traffic, referral traffic, social media traffic, ChatGPT traffic, and Bing Search traffic.

Does it suck to lose Google Search traffic? Of course. But it’s not the end all be all.

I am receiving strong signals that the website is useful to my target audience, which makes me continue and even double down on this project.

Side note: The site got caught up in the spam update for no good reason – I didn’t violate Google’s guidelines in any way. I do understand what probably happened. I’m confident I’ll recover it, and when I do, I’ll publish a case study on it.

Ranking a New Website Is Not the Same as Ranking an Established Business

Most of my SEO experience and knowledge is based on working for existing businesses that already have an online presence and brand awareness.

I know how to optimize and increase traffic and sales for websites that already have an established base.

Starting a website from scratch and ranking it is not just a different ball game – it’s a completely different skill set.

Prepare to go back to the SEO basics when you launch your first website, and learn a thing or two along the way.

Hint: you’ll gain a new appreciation for backlinks when you’re faced with ranking a brand new website that has zero of them.

Beware of UX Blind Spots

It’s easy to point out User Experience (UX) inefficiencies and improvements on other websites.

Now try to nail it on your own website.

You can easily develop a blind spot about the UX of your site, because you know how it’s supposed to work.

Showing some of my websites to other people in real life has given me some aha moments.

The best thing you can do is just have someone open the website without telling them anything about it beforehand.

Observe how they interact with it.

If they don’t do what you want or expect them to do, there’s work to be done.

On one of my websites, I noticed people started scrolling a lot but they rarely clicked through to another page.

Turns out it wasn’t obvious that some of the page elements were clickable. It was to me, because I created it.

That was an easy lesson learned simply by observing users.

You Need to Either Learn New Skills or Outsource Things

When you start your own website, you’ll face problems you didn’t see coming and realize you lack the skills to fix or implement something.

Website hosting. Web design. Programming. Image creation. Sales copywriting. The list goes on.

If you have the budget, outsourcing small one off tasks is a no brainer if the alternative is spending hours and hours trying to figure it out.

If you don’t have the budget, it becomes a simple matter… Figure it out.

You will face situations where there’s no obvious best choice. Outsourcing could become very costly, while learning it yourself could end up costing you a lot of time.

A good rule of thumb that works for me is to evaluate if learning a new skill – even if it’s just the basics – would benefit me in other endeavors than the one I’m currently working on.

If the answer is a clear yes, I’ll learn the skill.

Tip: If you need to figure out something new, don’t be a perfectionist and use the pareto principle. You can often find a “good enough” solution and solve 80% of the problem in 20% of the time.

Building Something Takes Time and Hard Work

Building something will make you experience how much time and resources it takes.

Every hour you spend working on a new website or business idea is an hour you don’t get paid for until your project makes money.

This is a process every business owner goes through.

Running your own websites – even if small – will improve your ability to resonate with business owners and speak their language.

Even if you decide running your own projects is not for you, the fact you gave it a real shot will give you an edge when working for others.

Finding Product-Market Fit Is Not Easy

Some people will disagree with me on this.

I know people who seem to turn everything they touch into a pile of gold.

But what we don’t see is the mountain of failed projects – we only see what remains. The things that succeeded.

When you’re just starting out with your own websites and online projects, be prepared to add to the red section above.

Your project might never make money.

However, a wise man once said:

“The most successful people also fail the most.”

Very few successful online entrepreneurs got things right on their first try, or their second try, or the third.

But they kept at it, experimented, pivoted, iterated, added lots of failed projects to the pile, and eventually hit gold.

You Need to Let Go of Ideas

To build on the previous point… when you run your own websites, you need to learn when to let go.

Make sure you don’t end up spending hundreds of hours on a project that just isn’t going to work.

Something might seem like a great idea – to you.

But most ideas suck.

The best advice I can give here is to run your ideas by people who are more successful than you. Those who have been there and done that.

They will tell you if your idea has legs. If it doesn’t, let it go rather than trying to prove something.

Of course, things aren’t black and white – if your conviction is high then continue and give it a shot.

Tip: Create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and see if it generates interest. If it doesn’t, maybe your resources are best spent focusing on the next idea.

Having a Personal Brand Is a Necessity

I’m not the best at this, and prefer not to be in the spotlight too much.

But especially in an era where AI is rapidly taking over, how are you going to stand out?

Having a personal brand makes it so much easier to launch websites and validate ideas. Introduce it to your existing audience and you have instant eyeballs and feedback on your project.

And besides – people like to buy from people. I believe that’s something AI will never be able to change.

So start building your personal brand, even if it’s just growing your LinkedIn network or starting a personal blog like the one you’re reading now.

Everyone Should Build Their Own Stuff

Running your own websites is a different game from just working on other people’s sites.

It forces you to go beyond SEO, tackle unexpected challenges, and develop a whole new level of problem-solving skills.

Some projects will fail. Some will take way longer than expected. But every website you build – whether it takes off or crashes – teaches you something valuable.

If you’re serious about SEO, marketing, or online business in general, I highly recommend giving it a shot.

Worst case? You gain experience that makes you better at what you do. Best case? You build something that lasts.