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
-
Does the Year according to the URL have an SEO impact
I ask to Godaddy if there is an SEO impact between buying a url for 1 year or 10 years. They said me that there is no impact, however, I read the historical URL has one. So, the question is : buying with 1 year and autorenew might be the right choice. Warm regards,
Industry News | | johncurlee0 -
Community Discussion: The hardest (& most surprisingly valuable) thing you've gone through for your SEO career?
In the comment discussion for Thursday's blog post, An Essential Training Task List for Junior SEOs, there's been mild debate around some of the items, such as having a Junior SEO build a website by hand. It's a fantastic comment discussion (the kind that makes a blog manager's heart sing), and it's got me thinking. We've all gone through the wringer when it comes to boosting our careers. Heck, I was a poetry major and found myself learning SQL last week. What hurdles have you jumped that have been painful and challenging, but have taken your career to the finish line? Maybe even gotten you the gold?* What would you recommend to newbies just starting out (or warn them about)? *Yeah, I got Olympic about it. I went there. 🙂
Industry News | | FeliciaCrawford6 -
SEO Strategy Report Structure
I am looking to get a structure for an SEO strategy document. While I understand that the specific tactics that you will used will vary significantly from project to project I would love to get my hands on a document that has heading that should be covered off in an SEO strategy report. Any help is very much appreciated. Thanks
Industry News | | cbarron0 -
Is it reasonable to not give an SEO access to our CMS?
A client (we designed their website) recently employed an SEO who required FTP access or access to the CMS. We told the client they would need to take full responsibility for any updates the SEO carried out, otherwise, the SEO could send over the changes and we would put them in at no extra cost to the client. The client didn't want to take responsibility and denied the SEO access to the CMS, and told the SEO to send over the completed work for us to put into the site. The SEO was not happy with this arrangement, and didn't seem to understand that we needed to trust him before access was would be given at a future date. Other SEO's have never had a problem with this arrangement, but this SEO claimed what they do is secret and for no one else to see. SEO want's to proceed, client doesn't want to proceed, we are happy to update the website with the client's approval. This particular client has a reputation for backing out of things. Also from the initial client, SEO contact the SEO was ready to update the website within 24 hours. Are we being unreasonable?
Industry News | | ChristinaRadisic1 -
Local SEO issue
Hello, I have a client that is located just outside of Baltimore, MD. Their zip code is 21236, which is seen as sometimes Nottingham and sometimes Overlea. Their competitors come up for Baltimore with the same zip. This client seems to be having some problems, and I think it is because of this geo confusion? Is this so, and if so, how can I make location more clear to Google? Thanks
Industry News | | lfrazer0 -
What would an SEO be paid with these skills?
Hello, What would an SEO with these skills be paid (per hour in a larger company in a lower income state): 9 years in the field of SEO
Industry News | | BobGW
Beginning and moderate link building skills
Excellent on-site optimization skills
Moderate Google Analytic skills
Complete HTML skills
Good to advanced CSS
Some PHP
5 years experience as a small business web designer
6 years experience working with eCommerce SEO
beginning to somewhat moderate Social media skills
beginning to moderate PPC, mainly Adwords
A foundation for local SEO
All the platforms that go with the above, like Wordpress, MS Office, Adobe Creative Suite, etc. etc.0 -
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 -
SEO hosting (EU/Spanish IP's) any1?
Hello all, I'm currently trying to find a great hosting company which can offer a fast and stable service and more important, with the possibility of geolocalizing IP's of Europe and concretely for Spain. I've found Ixwebhosting but they only offer US Ip's, as their datacenters are there. I don't know if it's the same thing outside spain, but here the hosting companies only use to have a single "C-class" range so even buying them different IP's doesn't help that much, and it isn't cheap (2€/month/ip...). So if you know someone offering what I'm looking for (or really close to it) drop a line, I'll appreciate your help! 🙂
Industry News | | PabloGV0