What is the best way to learn SEO?
-
I was wondering if it's worth taking an SEO Training course.
If so is it better to take a live class or Online class.
Or is better to just read all the SEO Books out there?
Or is there a good video series anyone can recommend?
What is the best way to learn SEO?
I have a good understanding of SEO but I'm not a Pro ( Yet ). Obviously SEO is always evolving so even the Pro's are constantly updating their skill set but I want to make sure my foundation is solid and complete.
Advice Please.
Thank you all.
-
Thanks everyone for your tips and advice. I appreciate the help. That's why I enjoy SEO MOZ, it's a great community to be a member of.
-
One book that helped me a lot was Search Engine Optimization Secrets by Danny Dover. That one and the art of seo were my starting point. I keep going back again to both books over and over.
-
Brad has prepared a very good list.
-
Yes.. But read the SEOmoz Beginner's guide first. Don't hesitate to read the basic chapters twice.
I have read many SEObooks. None of them have been a waste of time as long as they are reasonably current. Since there have been so many changes in Google over the past year, I would read new editions of any that are published.
Also read "In the Plex". It's not SEO but will help you understand how google works and appreciate that they always have test algos running.
-
Hi Joel,
As for these books - I've only read the 2009 edition - http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-SEO-Mastering-Optimization/dp/0596518862. There was an updated version this year - http://www.amazon.com/Art-SEO-Eric-Enge/dp/1449304214/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339728490&sr=1-1 that I am yet to read but hope to soon.
Thanks
-
Hi Joel,
When I was talking about G+ I was talking more from a personal point of view, not your company point of view. I.e. just as a way of learning more about SEO.
Go on G+ and start following all the top SEOs - start with http://www.seomoz.org/article/recommended and http://www.linchpinseo.com/best-seos-lego-infographic (yes it's silly but it's still a great list). Each of these people will post some great resources on G+ daily.
Interact with them. Comment, share with them, mention them in shares/comments.
Also, any social profiles you have, link to all your other social profiles. I went to your SEOmoz profile thinking I would be able to get to your G+ personal profile, but alas there was no link. You'll miss out on some easy opportunities there.
Thanks
-
Do you recommend the book "Art of SEO"? or what book would you recommend?
-
Hey Brad,
What's the difference between the Art of SEO and the Art of SEO Theory in Practice?
-
I find myself spending 4 hours a day on something SEO related. Now granted most of the time its verifying what I just read to make sure it's accurate but I hear you, it's trial and error combined with constant learning and patience mixed in.
This is time well spent.
As you learn more you will be able to back off the time spent on SEO and increase the time spent improving your site.
It is better to get a good foundation on SEO now than spin your wheels for three years and then discover that you wasted your time.
-
Thanks Egol,
I find myself spending 4 hours a day on something SEO related. Now granted most of the time its verifying what I just read to make sure it's accurate but I hear you, it's trial and error combined with constant learning and patience mixed in.
-
Thanks Brad, My Facebok campaign has worked so far, so has Twitter and Linkedin, but I haven't been able to tackle Google+ effectively yet. I have a page on Google+ and I post and invite people from my other networks but no biters. Any tips on how to start a great Google+ campaign? I'm a local Realtor so my focus is Real Estate.
-
As Ben says... start by reading the Beginner's Guide to SEO.
====================
Then start working on a website, or a couple of websites.
Experiment with them by changing the title tag, adding more content to some of the pages, reoptimizing.
As you work on them, keep an SEO Log and write down the changes that you make and the dates that you make them. Watch how it influences rankings. If you do this diligently you will learn more from this than any reading.
If you are learning you should discover that your website now sucks because your knowledge has grown. That is a great thing. Rebuild the site. You will probably be amazed with the results.
====================
Install google analytics on these websites and become a student of the sources of traffic and the queries that people type in. When you improve a 200 word page to a 500 word page watch for the explosion of new long tail keywords that flood in. Watch how great content holds visitors and crap content bounces them. ( I spend a few hours a week on this - even after ten years watching the same sites.)
====================
Pick a subject that you are very familiar with and enjoy. Then create the best content on the web for that topic and post it on your site. Watch where it ranks right away (you will probably be disappointed). Check the rankings about once a week and watch what happens. You will be impressed with what happens to quality. But, be patient as this type of content rises very slowly in the SERPs -- but in 6 to 12 to 24 months you will be surprised where it ranks.
Be careful that you don't deceive yourself into thinking that your content is the best when it is merely pedestrian. Be prepared to keep it up-to-date and to improve it when someone else trumps it.
=====================
Pick a good SEO forum and visit once a day. Watch for people who come there posting titles like... "Wah! My site lost tons of traffic." Read all of those for a while and you will quickly start to see patterns. You will generally find that they have committed some type of sin, usually with links or shortcuts. Do not repeat their sins no matter how tempting. Then after each google update read the post of the people who are cryin' and you will soon learn that google is smacking down a different type of shortcut and that google rarely smacks down quality that is difficult to produce.
While you are on these forums never listen closely to all of the advice, because lots of the advice in SEO forums is really bad advice - even when it comes from gurus and oracles. Nobody understands google perfectly and most advice given is shooting from the hip with fragmentary data - especially if the advisor has not spend a lot of time on your website and studied your analytics carefully over time.
Spend a couple hours a week poking into busy forums. You will learn a lot, find strong allies and trusted people who will be worth hiring for jobs where you lack expertise.
=====================
After you think you have learn an awful lot, go back and reread the Beginner's Guide to SEO with a great desire to improve. You will probably discover again that you website sucks. This is a good thing. Don't hesitate to rebuild properly because you will most likely receive a great reward.
-
Thumbs up for Ben. I agree wholeheartedly.
These forums are a fantastic place to learn SEO, I think I've learnt the most from interacting on here. Keep asking questions, respond to others and learn, learn, learn.
As for books, I would start with these if you haven't already:
- http://www.amazon.com/Search-Engine-Optimization-SEO-Secrets/dp/0470554185/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1339725028&sr=8-7
- http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-SEO-Eric-Enge/dp/1449304214/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1339725028&sr=8-11
Subscribe to all the best blogs/sites out there and read constantly. Some of my favourites include:
- http://www.seomoz.org/blog
- http://www.distilled.net/blog/
- http://www.rosshudgens.com/
- http://searchengineland.com/
- http://mashable.com/follow/topics/SEO/
- http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog
Also, if you don't already, get active on G+. Like Ben said, the best SEOs respond to queries, and I find that G+ is the best place to interact with the higher level SEOs.
Thanks,
Brad
-
Thanks Ben, I've read a bunch of books, blogs and forums but I feel there are still gaps in my SEO for my site. Trying to figure the best way to fill those gaps. I'm on page one for almost all my main keywords but I feel like there is something missing.
-
I'd been dabbling in SEO since 2007 when I finally buckled down about 2 years and jumped in head first. The biggest influence on me was the Beginner's Guide To SEO that SEOmoz just updated. Then I went through every White Board Friday and Pro Webinar I could.
Followed key people on Twitter and asked some of the dumbest questions. SEO's (at least good ones) are so incredible helpful and willing to help you out. I can remember getting my first big client and I called just to get more acquainted with the Pro Tools here. Actually got to talk to Cyrus, before I knew who he was.
So basically: read, follow, and ask. With every change in the SEOsphere you become that much more of an expert.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Job Board SEO
Hello community, Should I be using canonical tags on every job posted on my job board and also every job category page? I currently use no canonicals on my job board but I still rank well organically.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SO_UK1 -
Why is hosting good for SEO?
I've heard a few people mention this now. I have seen hosting packages range from £5 to £1000 per month, and I understand that each comes with their own amounts of storage space, bandwidth and all. Now I understand that page speed is important to SEO and the type of hosting will dictate your page speed, but other than this why is hosting important to SEO?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | moon-boots0 -
What's the best way to noindex pages but still keep backlinks equity?
Hello everyone, Maybe it is a stupid question, but I ask to the experts... What's the best way to noindex pages but still keep backlinks equity from those noindexed pages? For example, let's say I have many pages that look similar to a "main" page which I solely want to appear on Google, so I want to noindex all pages with the exception of that "main" page... but, what if I also want to transfer any possible link equity present on the noindexed pages to the main page? The only solution I have thought is to add a canonical tag pointing to the main page on those noindexed pages... but will that work or cause wreak havoc in some way?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | fablau3 -
Whats the best way to implement rel = “next/prev” if we have filters?
Hi everyone, The filtered view results in paginated content and has different urls: example: https://modli.co/dresses.html?category=45&price=13%2C71&size=25 Look at what it says in search engine land: http://searchengineland.com/implementing-pagination-attributes-correctly-for-google-114970 Look at Advanced Techniques paragraph. do you agree? it seem like google will index the page multiple times for every filter variant. Thanks, Yehoshua
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Yehoshua0 -
Yoast seo title question
I was referred to this plugin and have found it to be the most irritating and poorly designed plugin in the world. I want to be able to set my titles without it changing my page headers as well. For instance - If I set my title to be "This is my article name | site name" it will make my H1 tag read the same. I do not want or desire this nonsense. Why would they think this is something wise? Why would I want my site name on every single H1 tag on my site? How can I fix this? I only want my title to be my title. I want my H1 tag to remain the post/page name that I define in wordpress.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Atomicx0 -
ECommerce product listed in multiple places, best SEO practice?
We have an eCommerce site we have built for a customer and the products are allowed to appear in more than one product category within the web site. Now I know this is a bad idea from a duplicate content point of view, But we are going to allow the customer to select which out of the multiple categories the product appears in will be the default category. This will mean we will have a way of defining what the default url is for a product. So am I correct in thinking all the other urls where the product appears we should add a rel canonical to these pages pointing to the default url to stop duplicate content? Is this the best way?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | spiralsites0 -
How to optimize an about page for SEO. Best practices? Word count?
Does anyone have any advice on word count and best practice SEO for a blog about page or even a website about page?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jdodd0 -
What is your best one sentence definition for SEO?
I have recently come across several bloggers that have been trying to formulate the best concise definition of SEO. What one sentence definitions have you used / seen? Avoid run-ons. Tweetable, even better.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Gyi0