Newbie to SEO and SEOMOZ help

[buntrosgali]

Hey everyone i just came across SEOMOZ today, i have been building websites for 3 years now but SEO is something which has always been a scary topic to consider trying to master. I have made a decision to do this in 2012 and i have been looking for a software package which can stear me and teach me. I have been reading the site help today and i feel totally swamped! i have created my campaign but a lot of the results dont make much sense to me and i am unsure of how to fix the errors they found. For instance the crawl diagnostics shows i have 5 4xx client errors. They show me a link to the page where the error is http://www.mydomain.com/category/latest-news/function.require but when i go to see what this is i just find an error 404 not found page.How do i go about removing this error if i have no idea where the problem is? I have started reading SEO User guide and beginers guide and i know it is going to take me a long time to get use to this all, but i am struggling to find the starting point and hope someone can possible help me find the first few steps. Thanks

[buntrosgali]

Ok guys so i am exactly a month into my seo career, and i have learned a decent amount, but to be honest i still feel swamped!

Anyway i have no linked up with a friend and we are going to work together for 12 months to teach each other SEO.

There is so much content on this website i don't think i will ever read it all, but i have looked at the 2011 MozCon Video Bundle and id like some advice.

Would these videos help a rookie? or are they more advanced viewing?

[kbates]

Hi Stephen,

You are correct in your assumption that SEO is not the kind of thing you should sit and wait on, although there is some of that. For instance, there will be times where you do all you think you need to do or can do for a site and then you will wait for Google to re-cache the site and see how they treat it in the rankings. There is definitely that element to SEO. (Although there are also some things you can do to help your site get noticed faster by Google) But, where you are right now is the learn, learn, learn stage. Like I said in my first comment, I think a couple of weeks of learning is going to prove to be very valuable for you.

The changes you have made just might move you into the top 50. But, keep in mind that up to 73% of all Google searches end in the first five listings and up to 90% never go to page two. So, the ultimate goal is that top 5 on page one. That's where the real magic happens.

I have a feeling that your teachable spirit and your tenacious digging will get you there, Stephen. Don't forget, there are lots of people here on SEOmoz that will be willing to help you along your journey.

All the best, Kirk

[buntrosgali]

thanks guys, i actually have been reading about seo now off and on for about 3 months, but i took your comments on board above and have spent the last two days reading those booklets.

I have this 30 day trial so have started playing about with the software. I have so far created a campaign for a restaurant website i recently made and researched keywords which could prove good for their business but are not in to high a competitive field.

I selected three keyword sentences to use on the website and have ran the page optimisation for each. At start i had grade F on all and my site wasnt showing in top 50. I have today worked on this and brought two of the sentences up to a grade A report and one to a grade B. I have set the analysis to run each week from now on to hopefully see growth.

im now about to look into the rest of the link building etc etc. But this part seemed rather simple to implement, but i assume its just not a case of now sitting back and watching the site move up the search engines is it? can i assume that this work alone may get me into the top 50 at least?

Stephen

[ebenthurston]

Welcome Stephen.

I agree with kbates, do some homework before jumping in and implementing. The SEOMoz Beginner's Guide is a good one, so focus on that until you start to feel a little more comfortable.

I also like Google's official starter guide: http://bit.ly/w2wa65

In regard to the 4xx  client errors, the 404 page IS the error. It's not that there's a problem on the page, it's that the page doesn't load.

You don't want to link to pages that return a 404. You'll want to either fix the problem so the pages load, or remove any links to them. Removing the links is the easiest move if you don't know why the page returns a 404.

[kbates]

Hi Stephen,

The first thing I would recommend is that you hold off on performing any SEO stepsuntil you have a little better understanding of SEO. A week or two (or more) of intense reading and asking questions BEFORE you attempt changes to your site will be well worth the wait, IMHO.

Best of luck in your new adventure. SEO is an awesome thing and SEOmoz is a highly respected community with a ton of resources to help you get educated quickly. Everything you need is probably right here.

Read on!