I talked yesterday about the difficulty finding legit SEO advice, and how it’s hard to know just who to trust in the land of SEO gurudom.
Today I want to expand on that and talk about what to do if you are an absolute beginner in SEO. How can you learn SEO when you don’t know who to listen to?
It’s a problem, but I think I’ve got the solution.
First off, download my free 50-page Beginner’s Guide to SEO
Now I know, it’s hypocritical and self-serving to say that you shouldn’t listen to SEO guru’s and then turn around and suggest that you listen to me.
BUT, that guide has a dictionary of SEO terms in there that every new SEO should read. It doesn’t suggest “do this” or “do that”, it just defines terms like “Title Tag” and “Anchor Text”. You can’t learn anything in this life if you don’t understand the lingo. That’s why I suggest you read my guide if you’re an absolute beginner.
There’s a lot of other good stuff in there too, but I may not know what I’m talking about so feel free to disregard all the advice type stuff in the ebook. That’s what I suggest all beginner’s do, disregard all advice, I’m going to teach you to learn this stuff without guru advice!
Ok, so you’ve read the dictionary part of my guide, and you’re familiar with the lingo…what next?
Next you head over to Google and download their own guide to understanding SEO. From the main webmaster center home page there’s a link on the right that says “Webmaster Guidelines”, click that. Then on the right hand side of the next page, click the link that says Search Engine Optimization which will start to download “Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide” in pdf format.
Google originally wrote that guide for their own internal use, to give to their own new employees to help them quickly get up to speed and understand how Google works. It turned out to be so helpful that they decided to let anyone read it. So read it!
Read that guide and you’ll have a very solid beginner’s understanding of SEO. Better yet, you’ll be able to use that knowledge to start to gauge other SEO guru’s, to tell whether they are spouting gibberish or telling you something important and relevant.
Even better, at the bottom of the guide is a list of links to other Google resources where you can learn even more about SEO. Just go through the list, read everything you can. Once you devour all the helpful learning resources that Google offers, you’ll be well equipped to venture slowly out into the exciting world of SEO.
Then it’s just a matter of getting your feet wet and putting to use the things you’ve learned from Google. Once you start, you’ll run into tricky problems, you’ll encounter things that don’t make sense, or you’ll want to learn more advanced techniques. It’s THEN that you venture out into Guru world and start to learn from others. Heck, it won’t be until then that you even know the right questions to ask. But with your solid background gleaned from Google’s guides, you’ll already be head and shoulders above 90% of the weak SEO “guru’s” out there.
What are some of the resources YOU’VE used to learn SEO? Comment below…
October 23rd, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Great Article. I agree it’s hard to find good advice. There are lot of skeptics out there also who just don’t understand SEO
October 23rd, 2009 at 6:10 pm
And seo itself has always had a sort of funny vibe attached to it…people tend not to understand what a professional SEO really does. It’s slowly changing in a more positive way…slowly!
October 26th, 2009 at 8:27 am
I think people often times get really confused because there are just so many ways to get from point A to point B in this industry. It comes down to really finding out the right approach that works best for your or your business.
October 26th, 2009 at 9:44 am
Test test and test again, I always say…
October 31st, 2009 at 5:16 pm
I had just stumble upon your blog and I’m absolutely illiterate about SEO. So, be patient, I’ll come back after reading your free guide. Thanks a lot.
October 31st, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Welcome to the site Julieta! Let me know if you have any questions about the free guide, or anything else.
October 31st, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Dear John,
The guide is more than useful –it’s enlightening.
Now, tell mi why when I try my new acquired skills going to the links you suggest (i.e. Google WordAds) then I can’t go back to your .pdf in the same page where I left my reading?
October 31st, 2009 at 7:33 pm
I don’t know, guess it’s just the nature of pdf documents. :-) You can get around that by saving the guide to your computer, and viewing it from your desktop. Then when you click on a link in the guide, the guide itself will stay open and the link will open in a separate browser window.
To save it to your computer, click the “File–Save as” button at the very top left hand corner of your screen. Or it may be listed as “File — Save Page As”
October 31st, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Sorry. I hadn’t noticed I was working with the .pdf online.
October 31st, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Dear John,
The German Shepherd example is OK. But I’m working with very complex material –that’s books!!! Each book is as complex as a talkative human being. Following your example I should instruct our webmaster to create as many web pages as main subjects has a book? Gosh!
October 31st, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Hi,
It can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Do your keyword research and target just 5 or 10 keywords that relate to your subject. Then create 5-10 pages around those keywords. If you see results over time, do 5-10 more pages, and on and on…
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:04 am
Yes, you were correct D jones. Finding real SEO guide is hard, that why I didn’t do it, I choose to start use it than just learned it. When I use it automatically I will learn it, I am a beginner in SEO world, but I challenge my self to compete with thousand SEO expert outhere, I try to optimized, understanding Keywords and many more. Anyway this post is motivated me.