u/SteakingBad Getting Into SEO, where to begin I have been working in social media and other positions where SEO has loomed in the background for many years. It looks as if I may have an SEO job coming up in the future and want to get ahead of the game. Can anyone please suggest some simple reading that can give me a basic introduction on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and also some insight on what goes into working with Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? Thanks! 24 💬🗨📰👈
searchcandy The resources in the sidebar here are aging a little, but are a good enough place to start. https://www.Reddit.com/r/SEO/wiki/index I and most others would say the best thing you can do to get a headstart in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is make your own websites, then SEO and promote them. There is nothing like learning first hand, and it will give you an advantage over the bizarre amount of SEO users that have still never bothered to actually create and SEO a website beyond a shitty personal blog. Being able to successfully SEO a website – even if it is just a small site – will then give you confidence that you actually know what you are doing. Beyond that, community, connections, and experience… Good luck
underwhelmedcactus Yeah I'm pretty sure I emailed the mods about that but never got a message back. I think we really need to update the sidebar because we get three posts like OP's a week.
searchcandy You are right. The old docs aren't too bad, but the dates alone make it look unreliable. I'm not really clued in, but I suspect the mods here mostly gave up caring a while ago! I don't really blame them either lol… StreichersHQ That's the problem with SEO. You get a lot of really good info articles from 2011 when you try using Google to find ideas.
karbyninc I would start here: Moz SEO Blog there is a trove of information there. This is also good: Yoast SEO Blog As is this Search Engine Land It's funny, a while back, there was a checklist I'd just go through. Title tag, meta title, meta description, and then your page's content. Link juice, good site map, webmaster tools, etc. Make sure the images have alt text, anchor tags have titles, etc. In the page itself, I'd start all my content titles with h1, then h2 for subdescriptions, and then some div, p, or h3 for everything else. These days, a lot of changes have occurred, and algorithms are better. It seems like most of those things I mentioned above are fading away, being replaced by simply writing great content. Sure, a lot of the above is still relevant. And you should be mindful of the ways you're negatively impacted as well (keyword stuffing, spam finding its way on your site, or being "all over the place" with your content and messaging). While it's still important to have a title tag, and your meta still shows up in search results, how you actually get to the top is a huge combination of how great your content is, how relevant your domain/ecosystem are, and how many other people link to you or talk about what you're doing via social media. What Google has done is say "what's the most natural way you can write your site" and that ends up trumping many of the other aspects. I feel like spending hours researching what keyword in best via the Google Keyword Tool is going to add like 5% more to your site compared to just writing awesome content that is 100% relevant and interesting to the reader. Check out their new algorithm that is going to be a huge factor (in the myriad other algorithms they run) to determine content relevancy: Google's new RankBrain Algorithm Also, I often found (as counter intuitive as this is) that linking to other people, even if they're competitors or can "out do" you in terms of what content they offer, is very helpful. Google likes to see that you're playing well with others and participating in the same ecosystem and contributing to categories that offer people some options to look at. And who knows, some people may also link to you. I would overanalyze every single word in every single paragraph I wrote on sites, and wonder why I wasn't as relevant. When I just said "screw it" and wrote a ton of things from the heart, and linked everything together, I got way more traffic. Now I don't know what sector you're in, so you may find yourself in a position where you'll have less content, so there are other ways you can get started, so check out the links above and let me know if any questions! mike_the_one Hi, I'd like to answer your question as once I was in the same situation as you are now. So here's how you should proceed: • Start following these blogs: moz, quicksprout, neil patel. These blogs contain beginners guide for SEO as well. Go through them also. • Start watching Moz's Friday Whiteboard from the start. • Go through Google's SEO starter guide. • Learn Screaming Frog tool. It's the best SEO tool ever. You will find about it in quicksprout advanced SEO guide. • Go to YouTube and learn about webmaster tool. There are many tutorials available there. • Find a way to practice what you learn. Without implementation, your knowledge will be worthless. That's how I learnt about SEO in the begining. Hope this will help you.
Blacklabel578 This is great advice
bongleblue Not going to respond with tons of responses like below but I have to say I was in your position years ago. I did a lot of research on the internet to learn SEO and was mostly all redderick and difficult to understand. I learned Bootstrap code to make my website mobile responsive and continued to experiment with SEO practices. From what I read, I didn't want to use WP templates and SEO plugins because so many people had problems with this. I learned most important was quality word content, on pages SEO and quality backlinks. Using Google Analytics (GA) and Google Search Console (GSC) also helped me with metrics. Local citations and Google maps was icing on the cake. Now what i enjoy more than the money is knocking businesses off page one of Google…kinda of a power trip.
