How do you learn SEO effectively, with so much information out there
-
I’m reasonably new to the SEO market, but I find it hard to keep up with all the information that comes out daily. I not always sure what to believe or who for that matter present company accepted (SEOmoz).
But I’m sure I am not the only one who finds this difficult, does anyone know of accredited courses in SEO / Internet marketing, in the UK or distant learning that could give me a very good grounding.
Or if anyone just has some good ideas on how to take all this information in, I would very much appreciate their views.
Regards
Kevin
-
As far as accredited courses, the closest one that comes to mind is Market Motive which works with some colleges and has some excellent courses on SEO. (They have a couple free webinars each month that you can sign up for as well).
I have been trying out DistilledU ($40/month) which provides beginner and advanced modules on SEO and I think it is really well done.
A good starting point is to watch all the Whiteboard Friday videos by SEOMoz. They are very informative and cover a wide range of important issues.
-
Hi Eric
Thanks for the information and the addtional links. I will take on board what you say.
Kevin
-
Learn by doing. You'll make a lot of mistakes at first. That's fine as long as you're not wasting a bunch of money on it.
I focus on research and analytics. When it comes to execution, content creation, etc, I consult on it for my clients, but leave it to them or other vendors/partners. It took years to get to the point that I felt I could reasonably hold my own on the research and analytics side... Now, imagine I wanted to become a link builder or execute on CRO or something like that. It would take even longer.
There's a lot to learn. It'll take a long time. Read the beginner's guides:
- http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo
- http://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-101-resources-learn-with-guides-tutorials-and-more/35740/
- http://blog.kissmetrics.com/seo-guide/
- http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf
As far as keeping up goes, things change, but they don't change as fast as you think, so don't worry if you can't keep up. You're not missing much if you don't read every article or watch every video. In the end, the search engines want to give the best answers possible to their users so that the users will come back over and over and will use more of their services, so you have to figure how to get the search engines to understand that your pages have the best answers for A, B, and C customers, but not D, E, and F customers. That encompasses a lot more than strict SEO – UX, CRO, customer service maybe, SM, etc, etc, etc – but SEOs talk about so much more than strict SEO nowadays that you can learn a lot about overall online marketing just by hanging about SEOmoz, SEJ, SEL, and so on.
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
-
Where to Look for a Standard 9-5 SEO Job
Hello, I'm looking for a standard 20-30 hour a week SEO job. I'd like to make $30/hour. My resume is here. So far I'm making a list of all the SEO companies in Boise, Idaho. Then I'm going to also call up the larger companies in my local area. I'm interested in knowing how to best look for a job, and if there are any national companies where I could do work locally for. Let me know what other information I can provide.
Industry News | | BobGW0 -
What skills I need for a valuable SEO job
Hello, I want to get a valuable SEO job, something part time - 20 hours a week about, a top notch position - not an entry level $15/hour position. I'm in Boise Idaho. Will you look at my credentials and let me know what additional skills I need to get a good position?: I've been doing SEO since the mid 90s A lot of experience with on-site optimization. One to two years experience with quality content marketing and link building. I regular help write content that is fantastic and use buzzstream and Citation labs to push the content hard. Two years experience writing content that is high quality. six years doing ecommerce seo moderate facebook and twitter experience. I've helped create many facebook pages, and I have moderate experience as to how to best post and optimize on facebook. I've been doing twitter for about a year and have recently learned how to use it to push content or to gain traffic. I know just enough google plus for authorship and building out an account. Lots of experience with keyword research using keyword discovery and Google's tools. A lot of web design experience, mainly html, css, a little javascript and a little php I know my way around Adwords, and I've done about 10 large campaigns. My PCC experience is lacking I know good writing and grammar skills for writing and developing content. Graphical experience with photoshop, fireworks, Adobe Illustrator, of course also excel and word. 6 years of ecommerce customer service experience A couple years of using Open Site Explorer including competitive analysis and link building I may have left some things out. But that's most of it. What areas do I need to master more to get a great SEO job?
Industry News | | BobGW0 -
Effect of changes on the Content page on search ranking
Hi, I have a question related to my ranking on Google Search On the content pages of my website, there is a section where our content keeps on changing. Whenever a visitor enters new information, Old information will be removed from the page. Therefore our content page is dynamic. Does this make us difficult to rank for particular keyword / overall.
Industry News | | adiez12340 -
Ideal SEO / Social Media Employee Skillset
I’ve been wondering recently what makes a good SEO / Social Media employee. It seems to me that SEO and Social Media are in the process of merging into a single role. What are your thoughts on the skills that this new world SEO / Social Media employee would need? Or do you think these roles should ideally remain separate and that a “traditional” SEO is more what is needed? My own role has been moving much more towards social media recently and I was wondering if this was a common trend!
Industry News | | RG_SEO0 -
Is it OK to discuss SEO for an adult site?
Hey guys, I run a few big tube sites and sales pages that contain adult material. I'm also new to these forums, so before I do anything that might be considered rude or innapropriate, I wanted to know what the stance was on asking for advice related to the SEO of my adult sites and/or posting links. I've read the Etiquette disclaimer, however, I don't actually intend to post images or anything of the sort, only ask for your opinions and preferred strategies. If its completely frowned upon, then I completely understand and will never bring the subject back up again. Cheers and Happy to be amongst you all!
Industry News | | CrakJason1 -
What are some good organizations an SEO company can join that are strong trust signals?
We are working on a website redesign, and want to prominently include some trust signals that help people feel comfortable with us. We're including logos of a few places we've guest posted, and also the BBB and local chamber of commerce. Do you have any other ideas on logos we can include that are good trust signals? Any associations or organizations we could join? We are a trustworthy company, we just want a way to communicate that visually, and it seems organization seals and logos are the way to go. Thanks!
Industry News | | brianspatterson1 -
Is using Turkish characters like ş, ğ , ü in the URLs better for SEO?
My web site is Turkish. And my keyword is "yurtdışı üniversite" I want to know, using Turkish characters like ş, ğ , ü in my URLs better for SEO? http://www.studyzone.com.tr/haber-detay/2011/06/21/yurtdışı-üniversite-kayıtları-için-acele-edin! OR http://www.studyzone.com.tr/haber-detay/2011/06/21/yurtdisi-universite-kayitlari-icin-acele-edin!
Industry News | | apesteli0 -
SEO Certification + SEO Experience = Ideal SEO Consultant ???
Since the responsibilities of SEO have increased so much, I think there has to be a kind of basic industry wide Certification / Degree system. Many people may argue that experince is much more important than certification but how about like any other trade or profession; we have (1) SEO Certification PLUS (2) SEO Experience for the Internet Marketers. One of the reasons, I get so many calls from people that they claim they are SEO experts and they are trying to sell their services to us, but when you talk with them, you can easily tell that they do not have any knowledge about it. But they sell the service to business owners that do not understand SEO. It is very sad to see small business owners believe those people.. and I understand it is business owners responsibility to check the background & portfolio of SEO agency, but wouldn't it be nice to have another credential that they can ask "are you also certified SEO"? what do you think about "Certified SEO" or "Certified Internet Marketing Consultant" concept? can there be an international or national organization to coordinate and superwise the certifications? Thanks, Lewis
Industry News | | CertifiedSEO0