How much dev knowledge as an seo do I need to know in order to make small changes on websites?

[Ideas-Money-Art]

Hi mozzers

I am considering learning some dev just to be able to make minor changes on websites. I love seo but will never want to be a programmer. I get sometimes frustrated that I have to request my dev colleague to make minor changes such as adding a small piece of codes to a website for verification purposes or adding rich snippet or modifying the ga code to get more out of it. I know some HTML and understands the core elements and attributes.

My first question would be: what should I learn without learning A-Z of programming? My guess would be some php and?

My second question: based on your answer where can I learn about these programs? Any interactive learning services such as team treehouse ? Any online courses?

Thanks!

[BlueprintMarketing]

Hey Will,

I should be thanking you man. I started distilled/U in beta and I have learned so much from it I am very grateful.

I look forward to seeing you in Boston next year at Search Love.

J,

I agree with everything you said.

All the best,

Thomas

[willcritchlow]

Thanks to those giving a shout out to DistilledU (which includes the basics of HTML but no real programming).

If you are keen to learn to code, I'd definitely endorse the Treehouse and Codecademy recommendations given here.

I like people wanting to learn to code. You may find some of my presentations on the topic helpful as well.

Good luck!

[Ideas-Money-Art]

Thank you guys for all of your suggestions! I am lucky that my company has an account with teamtreehouse!  I will definitely try to learn some PHP, some Java and maybe checkout distilled/u even though it seems that distilled/u teach you SEO(broad concepts) but doesn't mention any of the dev stuff I can learn.

Is the dev stuff on the beginner's or advanced level?

Thanks Guys!

[JCurrier]

Thomas made some great suggestions. I personally use, and love, Team Treehouse (http://teamtreehouse.com/).

Distilled U is also great, you can find a Moz perk for them here: http://moz.com/perks.

I would definitely just start with HTML. More than knowing how to write simple tags, you should understand the structure of a webpage. Then focus on how java and php actually work. You may not need to learn a whole lot of java or php to do a great job at SEO.

[AsOneDesign]

Try http://www.codecademy.com/

Easy, free, interactive way to learn basic PHP, JavaScript, CSS and HTML.

[BlueprintMarketing]

Hi,

Adding the things that you're talking about our actually a lot easier than I think you're making them sound. Federico is right but I would start with HTML and Java PHP is harder. Use www.w3schools.com for that, or my fave - http://teamtreehouse.com/.

Best advice is use distilled.net/U & http://teamtreehouse.com/. It goes over learning HTML and how SEO's should understand HTML. In addition you can find money off of distilled.net/U as well as http://www.grovo.com/ ( and outstanding way to learn coding). Both have money saving offers through Moz.com/perks check it out as I believe there are other ways to learn HTML in their as well.

You said you had trouble with small piece of codes to a website for verification purposes or adding rich snippet try this is is easy http://schema-creator.org/ or https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2692911. I like the first for modifying the ga code to get more out of it. I know some HTML and understands the core elements and attributes. Any website made up word press or any CMS will have a box You Can Place Google analytics code in it. You essentially have to learn where the header begins and ends you can do this with the distilled course, or any of the other ways mentioned. If you are using WordPress and you want to get something verified simply use Yoast. Or if you're not using WordPress, use an FTP server to download the content make the changes only after learning them then upload the finished product.

It honestly is a lot easier than it seems. My developer friends bust my chops because I asked him how to center a video on the screen because I could not remember when I remembered, and he told me how I would feel when I was told I felt like I had forgot my keys but not lost my mind. What I'm getting at is if you can do search engine optimization well you'll be able to understand HTML, Java, PHP & all the other fun stuff out there.

All the best,
Thomas

[FedeEinhorn]

I would start with <cite class="vurls">www.w3schools.com/php/</cite> if your website is PHP based and a little of MySQL.

Anyway, here at Moz there's a HUGE community willing to help, and many of them, such as me, are programmers and I don't bother at all helping, in fact, I love it.

So just feel free to ask! You can private message me with questions