Getting started in SEO was a challenge enough, and you’ll quickly learn it takes consistent learning daily or weekly to keep up with. It’s easy to start going down a rabbit hole of blogs and other resources, so I want to share what I found to be the foundation for successful learning in my SEO career.
Where We All Begin:
Get started or refresh yourself with the most referenced Beginners Guide to SEO from Moz. Most of the time I see people ask where to begin, this is the resource they get in response.
Follow The Heavy Hitters:
To get started, and keep up on SEO today, let’s start with the big names. These resources are great because they both produce valuable content, as well as point you to more of it.You can expect that they will refer to other thought leaders whenever relevant, which is a great way to discover new sources to subscribe to. For instance, Local SEO isn’t going to consistently be a dominant topic, but when it comes up, you can be sure they will provide excellent resources worth reading up on.
They Are:
- Moz
- SEM Rush
- Search Engine Land
- Backlinko
Join the Conversation with Facebook and Linkedin Groups:
Join a group on one of these platforms that encourage people to post questions and share valuable content. Most of the time they are moderated so you don’t have to worry about spammy posts showing up in your feed. This is a great way to extend your network of SEO professionals, especially if you don’t live in an area that you can easily join in-person meetups.
Find Your Niche:
Once you have a good familiarity with the main contributors to SEO, you may focus on an even deeper specialization. Highly technical? then you may find yourself focusing most of your energy on how to keep websites up to date with best practices and emerging technologies. Find the thought leaders in these niche SEO topics, subscribe and engage with them.
Attend Events & Conferences:
“Attend an inspiring day or multi-day SEO event where you’ll get to make connections with other SEO professionals. This is the best opportunity to ask an expert, or group of them about your SEO challenges, and soak in the knowledge from experts often working on the worlds most cutting-edge brands. Since there is always a lot of focus on sharing thought leadership and advanced topics, expect to walk away with at least a couple weeks worth of new initiatives to try in your own SEO work.”
Popular Conferences in 2018:
www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-101/seo-conferences/
Commonly Recommended Resources:
Email subscriptions come and go, but these resources will continue for the forseeable future as go to’s for highly relevant and quality information.
- Google Algorithm Change History – Moz
- Whiteboard Friday – Moz
- This list of popular SEO sites – Alltop
