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
-
Magento missing SEO fields?
Hi Guys, Have a client who's blog is combined with there e-commerce site which is on Magento 2 but there are no SEO fields to add meta title, description. It only has the ability to add h1 tag see: https://cl.ly/3c6897aa5132 We want to add this ability to add meta data like this: https://d.pr/i/8GdbDc Does anyone know how to do this? Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | brandonegroup0 -
New Subdomain & Best Way To Index
We have an ecommerce site, we'll say at https://example.com. We have created a series of brand new landing pages, mainly for PPC and Social at https://sub.example.com, but would also like for these to get indexed. These are built on Unbounce so there is an easy option to simply uncheck the box that says "block page from search engines", however I am trying to speed up this process but also do this the best/correct way. I've read a lot about how we should build landing pages as a sub-directory, but one of the main issues we are dealing with is long page load time on https://example.com, so I wanted a kind of fresh start. I was thinking a potential solution to index these quickly/correctly was to make a redirect such as https://example.com/forward-1 -> https:sub.example.com/forward-1 then submit https://example.com/forward-1 to Search Console but I am not sure if that will even work. Another possible solution was to put some of the subdomain links accessed on the root domain say right on the pages or in the navigation. Also, will I definitely be hurt by 'starting over' with a new website? Even though my MozBar on my subdomain https://sub.example.com has the same domain authority (DA) as the root domain https://example.com? Recommendations and steps to be taken are welcome!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Markbwc0 -
Whats the best way to structure my site?
Hi All, Hope everyone is well. I have a hypothetical and would love some experts advice. For a product like a corporate credit card what's the best URL structure to get the most out of SEO. Assuming the Page Title is Corporate Credit Card (unless this isnt the best idea? However the product is called the "corporate credit card" ). The reason this is trickier than I thought is because they say the rule of thumb is to use the plural of everything for best SEO. However I have pluralized the sub page "credit cards". www.website.com.au/products/credit-cards/corporate 2) www.website.com.au/products/credit-cards/corporate-credit-card 3) www.website.com.au/products/credit-cards/corporate-credit-cards If someone were to search for corporate credit cards would option 1&2 show up correctly? Would moz rank this as an "F" ? Thanks everyone! Dave
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CFCU0 -
Video seo stats
I've come across various places that give statistics for things like "Video search results have a higher click-through than plain text results. " and
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Gordon_Hall
"Video is 50 times more likely to get organic page ranks in Google than plain text results" How true are these and does anyone have a definitive guide to video SEO?0 -
How to lay off your SEO compnay?
I have decided to replace my seo company. The pint is this company has been partly my developer too. So he has set up a demo server of my website. 1- Should I be worried about duplicate material when I end my cooperation with this company(The demo server) 2- Should I be worried that if they do not like it, they go and delete all the submitted materials and destroy my pages rankings? Thanks all
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AlirezaHamidian0 -
Local SEO tips
Hi! I'm working on http://www.hgsplumbingandheating.co.uk/ at the moment, and it's going pretty well for local terms such as 'Norwich plumber' etc. Has anyone got any tips though on how it can be improved, especially with regard to getting the homepage ranking above the Places listings? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | neooptic0 -
Best way to set up anchor text on parked pages?
Our company is no longer offering a series of products, much to the disappointment of our SEO team since we've spent a long time building up the pages and getting them ranked organically. The pages all have decent page rank and in some cases rank #1 for the primary keyword. We have a sister company that we acquired a year ago and they still offer these products on their website. They are a completely separate company with their own website which existed long before we acquired them and we have nothing to do with their website. Our team has proposed that rather than take down the URLs on our site for the products we no longer offer, to put a message saying something like "sorry we don't offer this anymore but you may be interested in this.." and then link to our sister company with anchor text so that they can get some benefit from our SEO efforts if we can't. The question/issue is how should we do that since there will be a lot of pages from the same domain, about 20 pages, all linking to a few pages on a different domain. Should the anchor text be varied unbranded or branded? On the one hand I think if we change up the anchor text used to link to another page many times from a single domain that looks strange and transparent to google. On the other hand unbranded text would be the better descriptor for users since we are deep linking to the product not the homepage of the other site.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | edu-SEO0 -
How do you Hire someone for SEO?
What questions do you ask when hiring an SEO person? What is the most important thing in selecting a company for SEO? Should they be able to make recommendations on changes in your website for seo?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Realtor1010