SEO Basics

If you're on this page, you probably want to learn the basics of modern SEO, right? Never fear! Here at Moz, we practically invented basic SEO, and we'll keep you up to date on the latest standards.

If you haven't already, you probably want to read the newly updated Beginner's Guide to SEO. It explains key concepts like how search engines work, keyword research, and the importance of links.

Here, we've listed some of our favorite posts on SEO basics, and you'll find the most recent blog posts below.

SEO 101: The Beginner's Guide to SEO : Start here to understand the basics of modern SEO.

SEO Learning Center : Moz's free SEO learning resources are continually updated, and a virtual encyclopedia of SEO tips and tactics.

The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet 3.0 : If you're looking for basic technical SEO considerations, this 4 page downloadable cheat sheet will get you started on the basics of meta tags and more.

How to Rank : The SEO Checklist: Ranking in Google really isn't as hard as some folks make it seem. In this video, our SEO guru Rand Fishkin gives you a simple checklist for greater visibility.

Keyword Research : The Beginner's Guide to SEO: SEO almost always starts with keywords, so we thought this would be a good place for you to start too.

Most Recent Articles on SEO Basics

SEO Pricing: 600+ Agencies Share Costs of Services & Pricing Models
Rand Fishkin

SEO Pricing: 600+ Agencies Share Costs of Services & Pricing Models

Near the end of December 2011, we ran a survey on this blog asking consultants and agencies of all sizes and geographies to contribute their pricing models and cost structures. I'm pleased to share the results of that survey in the hopes that it will give everyone in the search industry a better idea of the range of fees and the services provided. Obviously, this data is imperfec...

Proving Trust on the Web
Rand Fishkin

Proving Trust on the Web

For those of us who've been deep in the trenches of online marketing for years, the question of who to trust may seem inane. We've all gravitated to sources of one variety or another, and probably built up a few favorites based on past experience. I've shared some of my selected sources in the ...

Automatically Testing mod_rewrite Redirects
N

Automatically Testing mod_rewrite Redirects

I had a website with some placeholder stuff for some time and recently I updated it with proper content. The spider bots had crawled and indexed the earlier content before, and not only that also ascertained a certain crawl frequency for that domain which was obviously quite low.

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10 Ways to Get More SEO Clients
Joanna Lord

10 Ways to Get More SEO Clients

I've been traveling for the past few weeks and talking to dozens of SEO consultants, and you know what they are all saying? They are at their max for clients. Yup, that's right...they can't take on new clients. They have TOO much work! This is good for all sorts of reasons. One, it shows we are in a good place during an economically difficult time, and two, there are people out there desperately seeking out your services, with nowhere to turn.

Crafting an SEO Budget to Maximise ROI
Rishi Lakhani

Crafting an SEO Budget to Maximise ROI

I typically run a couple of a hundred queries a week around SEO long tails to try and capture SEO posts that may not be on my radar, but worth a read. The nature of these change from time to time based on my current interests – after all, I started out as a Small Business SEO and now work at advising...

SEO Site Audits: Getting Started
Lindsay Wassell

SEO Site Audits: Getting Started

A typical SEO site audit takes me around 50 hours to complete. If it is a small site (<1000 pages), I am working efficiently, and the client hasn't requested a lot of extra pieces, this estimate can come in as low as 35 hours. If the site is large and has a lot of issues to document, the time investment inches closer to 70 hours. At SEOmoz, we usually asked for a project time-line of...

The 8-Step SEO Strategy
L

The 8-Step SEO Strategy

Enjoy this SEO Strategy Plan. Step 1: Define your target audience & their interests --This is the first step in most marketing campaigns, define your target audience. Your target audience is a defined set of people who you are marketing your product to.

Leveraging Mechanical Turk, oDesk, ELance &amp; Craigslist for SEO
Rand Fishkin

Leveraging Mechanical Turk, oDesk, ELance & Craigslist for SEO

Web services that connect job seekers with paid employment have become powerful tools in the arsenals of those that know how to leverage them. Unfortunately, the services themselves and the concepts of how to apply them have often been overshadowed by fear, uncertainty and lack of knowledge about how to apply. No more. In this post, I'm going to walk you through how to use these web ser...