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.
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
-
What's an example of an SEO firm's site that lists their SEO packages excellently
Hello, I'd like to make a packages page on the site I'm still building bobweikelseo.com What's an example of a firm or SEO that lists their packages in a way that is appealing, useful, and all around excellent? I'm thinking of having a first package for analysis at $440, a second package for analysis and on-site SEO for $880, and a third package for analysis, on-site SEO, and link building for $2000-$4000/month depending on how fast they want the link building to go. Looking for some input on how to create a packages page, if my prices are appropriate (I want to be affordable), and an example of a website that does an excellent job at presenting their packages.
Industry News | | BobGW0 -
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 -
Redirecting International ccTLD affect SEO?
I've watched Rand's Whiteboard Friday video on How to Host and Where to Host for International Websites and read Gianluca's article on International SEO; however, I am still unable to find an answer or solution to this. ABC Company is a US based company with the website www.abcexample.com and plans to target people in Hong Kong. Therefore, they purchase .hk ccTLD. However, with the time restraint and budget limit, ABC Company is unable to create a completely new website under .hk ccTLD. Scenario 1: ABC Company plans to create different pages for each service offered in HK and 302 redirect .hk ccTLD blank service page to www.abcexample.com's same service page. Quesiton 1: Will this have the same benefit of creating a .hk website? Although ABC Company is redirecting, does the .hk ccTLD still tell Serach Engines that we are targeting people in Hong Kong? Will this solution harm or help with SEO with other search engines in Hong Kong? Scenario 2: ABC creates a /hk subdirectory under www.abcexample.com and have exactly same content in the same language as www.abcexample.com but use rel="alternate" hreflang="x" and use Webmaster to Geotarget Hong Kong. Question 2: By using rel="alternate" hreflang="x" and geotarget, will this avoid duplicate content if ABC Company has exact content in the /hk folder? Please let me know if my questions and scenarios are unclear. I understand that these are not best practices. Please advise the best way to work around this. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
Industry News | | TommyTan0 -
How to handle spam SEO companies soliciting your clients?
My clients keep getting spam email or messages in the contact form, about how they could be ranking better, they're not hitting keywords they should be, etc. Typical scare tactics trying to solicit new clients. How do you deal with this?
Industry News | | CFSSEO0 -
Problem with SOME Indian based SEO companies, HELP!
First of all I want to say that I hire 2 great Indian SEOs at my company and this question is in no way meant to offend, or single anyone out. However It's come to a point where the amount of emails we receive for "Ethical SEO, High PR Guaranteed Link building Services, SEO professionals etc" from Indian based companies is costing us a lot of time on a daily basis to filter out spam from real enquiries. Blocking their emails is not even working as they use gmail accounts and multiple domain emails so we can't keep up with them. I have even spoken to some of the owners of these 'companies' and they admit using different email accounts so as not to be blacklisted. They also seem to believe that the opt-out option (which is legally required when sending out promotional emails) is itself optional!!!!! Now when I asked how exactly they were getting my email they said that they get info from the, and I quote "first page of Google"!!!!! So my question is the following; is there anyway I can block my site from showing up in a particular country altogether? Again this is in no way attacking ALL Indian based SEO companies, my beef is with the 74 (we counted) different 'companies' that are flooding our email with offers P.S. Is anyone else having these issues?
Industry News | | MassivePrime0 -
What is the best place to learn reputation management, with regards to SEO
I have a new client that needs help with a bad review. Of course it may not be able to be deleted, but I have started to scratch the surface on how to help 'push it down' using SEO. Can any offer advice on a definitive source of learning reputation management? Many thanks!
Industry News | | adell500 -
Can anyone recommend SEO Vendors in the NY NJ area?
I am looking for an SEO consultancy service preferably in New York, any suggestions?
Industry News | | EBDM0 -
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