The Summary of Discussion 2: 3 Points to Learn SEO: Learning by Reading, by Implementation, through Courses
Ankit
Here is my approach to learning Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on a regular basis apart from work.
I will be really thankful if you can point out loopholes in this method or suggest improvements so that I can improve my system about learning SEO.
1. LEARNING BY READING:
– Reading Google Search Central documentation for 30 min each day. I feel all other materials are just an extended version of Google's official doc.
– Skimming through SEO news/updates on SERT, Twitter and TLDR marketing daily for 15 min.
– Weekly reading of SEO newsletters: SEOFOMO and SEO Notebook.
– Occasional reading of blogs/guides on SEJ.
– Occasional listening to SEO office hours on YouTube.
2. LEARNING BY IMPLEMENTATION:
– I have 2 websites which I built from scratch and planning to do Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for them.
In the process, coming across various bottlenecks, I will learn so much about SEO practically.
3. LEARNING THROUGH COURSES:
My agency has provided access to the following two SEO courses:
– The Affiliate Lab
– The Authority Hackers
This is my whole system to learn SEO and stay relevant.
Your suggestions will be really helpful.
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Do those courses and implement what you learn, and see what happens. Those are high quality courses.
Thank you Sam π
Browne Β» Ankit
No problem. It's great you're focused on how to learn.
Some other suggestions:
The Ahrefs YouTube channel is really, really excellent. It does constantly reference their product, but Ahrefs is the industry standard SEO tool. Sam Oh explains all aspects of SEO in a fun, easy to follow way.
https://www.YouTube.com/channel/UCWquNQV8Y0_defMKnGKrFOQ
This course used to be paid (I think like $1000?) and is now free. It's excellent:
https://ahrefs.com/academy/blogging-for-business
Brain Dean's Backlinko is also packed to the gills with great content.
https://Backlinko.com/blog
Keep reading, keep implementing, track your results, learn.
Aasim
These are great courses but they are for affiliate marketing. For Client SEO, there are other good courses.
After dabbling two years in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), I learned some things.
1. Agency experience will teach you more than any other thing.
2. Try to learn coding, (I'm just starting). It's a big handicap for new SEO users.
3. Follow the right guru. Practice and Test. Good Luck!
– Already working at an agency
– I am thining of going for python. I have basic understanding if html. I know I must opt for CSS and Javascript.
– which GURU do you recommend to follow?
Truslow
I did two of those steps, but prioritized them a bit differently. I did not do the "#3 Courses" step because – well, the courses didn't exist when I started and I've managed to keep a step or two ahead of the curve over the past 25 years. The right courses can definitely be helpful, though.
#1 and #2 are great ways for sure – and that's how I did it – but once I had the basic fundamentals down, I swapped their priorities. Running my own site (actually developing several from the ground up) let me implement the basics and then identify sticking points and obstacles that came up next – which then drove me to the specific topics I wanted to focus on in my "learning by reading" phase.
Keep in mind that there are many SEO resources that crank out really bad information, though. You need to learn the names and follow the ones you learn to trust and respect. SEJ has some great writers – and then it has some where I want to throw my shoe at my monitor because the advice is misleading or incorrect.
Though some of it may be a bit advanced for you at this stage, the one source that churns out consistently good and accurate info is https://gofishdigital.com/blog/
I'll occasionally find something I want to pick a nit with, but it's a strategic disagreement more than an outright factual issue.
With your own site, too – you can dig into technical SEO much earlier than you might otherwise during your learning process. Many think of technical SEO as things like Core Web Vitals (CWV) and page speed and the like – and that's part of it. But technical SEO is also about setting up a framework of semantic markup and accessibility labeled elements within your themes, developing a structured data/schema backend that makes it easier for content creators to just "fill in the blanks" to hit on knowledge graph entities when they get into the areas where playing "match the keyword" just won't cut it, and various things like that. Technical SEO is really the foundation that every other aspect of SEO gets built upon – so having a good foundation there makes all the other stuff easier and more effective.
That was very thorough. Really appreciate it.
Do you have any technical SEO resource in mind?
Truslow
Go Fish (linked above) has a lot of tech SEO stuff in there. That site, really, is less about how to do things and more about "how it works" so that you can then hop over to Google and learn how to implement the things you've learned.
It's hard to give specifics because I get info from so many places. I suppose "Google" is the best resource. In using #2 method, I identify a problem that I want to improve on, then go ask Google what it is and how to fix it.
And to be honest, I think one of the most important skills of being an SEO (technical or otherwise) is something a lot of SEO users neglect to learn – how to actually search. Many get stuck in a rut where they only really use Google to see where their site(s) show up in the ranking.
Having good skills at searching and researching helps you understand how to present your content in a way that it's going to match up with what people are going to ask in order to find what you've got. Keyword research is fine and dandy as a starting point, but SEO isn't just playing that "Match The Keywords to Win!" game.
Learning TO search, IMO, is one of the best ways to learn how to optimize for it. You know the landscape for the different types of questions, you know what types of things are going to give you a basic "10 Blue Links" page and which ones are going to give you two or three scrolls of featured and enhanced listings before you even get to the ten organic links.
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Ankit Β» Truslow
This is gold. Thank you so much for taking out time to write this π
Truslow
Happy to help! Best of luck to you!
And remember, SEO is like chess. You can learn it in a pretty short time, but it's going to take a lifetime to master. I've been digital marketing since before search engines were a thing – and now, 28 years after building my first web site, I learn something new every day.
Which reminds me of one last tipβ¦ groups like this. One of the ways I learn the most isn't in asking questions here, but in trying to answer them. Sometimes I may seem pretty damned smart, but in secret, I'm not really. When I see a question here, I look at it and consider it – how would I approach that? This often sends me out to Google to look up a few things that I don't already know and it gets me thinking about a challenge in a new way. And from there I can come up with how I would approach the situation and try to explain the relevant points that need to be considered.
So, while your #2 item above will present you challenges – looking at other people's questions on here and thinking about how you'd approach them is another great way to learn. Even if you don't offer up your answer for all to see – working through the challenge is great practice and helps you get a line on the challenges you'll personally be facing as you grow.
Ankit Β» Truslow
I will try to resolve questions asked in the group and research to find out solutions. Again, really appreciate for honestly and diligently contributing to my question.
Wanda Β» Truslow
The best response!
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Β» This Pretty Pinterest Expert opens Pinterest Courses within her website
The Summary of Discussion 1: What Are the 3 SEO Methods That Work Best for You So Far?
Robin
What are the 3 SEO methods that works best for you so far?
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1) ba
2) ck
3) links
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Truslow
Onpage, offpage, technical. π
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Kumar
1. Reading and forgetting immediately.
2. Know the difference between fluff and fact.
3. Repeat #1
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Keith L Evans π
On page, relevant quality links, and amazing content.
Here's why this works: basic signal shows G your page has the right foundation.
#2β the powerful links connect your page with relevancy and traffic
Finally the users are very satisfied and these moments are tracked by G giving you even more value and ranking increase.
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Loving your simple yet powerful answers, thanks! π
Steve
I log in, do some shit, log out. Bam 1st page. It's simple. Just YouTube it
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Kurt
Not watching Neil Patel videos x 3
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Benson
1. Become specialised into a sector (As I am on knives, guns, hunting assortment, and lightings). This is to dig deep into advanced keyword research for entity findings, but also to explore the eccentric speciality of potential updates and such (i.e: bulb evolution). π This can support your warehouse / sales team with your expertise.
2. Know the technicals that affects your frontend, but also write and consistently learn on your own for the passion you love of that field.
3. Be consistent in learning, keep up-to-date with calamities and trends for counter marketing. π
Your insights are rare & useful, thanks & keep up with your passion as well! π
Ammon
Content, Content, and Content.
Yes, you obviously need to fix anything that is completely broken first in terms of technical. No matter how good the content is if it takes 5 minutes for your page to load when stuff isn't already cached then nobody is going to see your content.
But otherwise content is the things that draws people, the thing that converts people, the thing people will link to, the thing Google will decide the importance and usefulness of even to determine how urgently to crawl your site.
And despite how obvious this is, I still see most companies massively underinvest in content, often having it written by people who have little or no writing talent, rarely investing in studies, or research, or otherwise *stuff* to create content about.
Half the websites out there have very, very poor content, written by unqualified amateurs, and hope that if they just keep buying links, or using social media, they can find enough people who don't mind third-rate content to make it all work.
You'd be surprised at how cheap it can be to get a B-list or C-list celebrity, a personality from a well-known but not quite hit TV show, to do a day of video shooting. Cheaper than to hire a small local video crew to shoot it. Yet still so many businesses have an uncomfortable looking staff member do their videos.
Seriously, the biggest low-hanging fruit in just about every possible market other than professional media, is better content. Great content can go viral, and do more for your business in a day than the average SEO company can do in a year.
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Wow, I couldn't agree with you more. Content is definitely the classic main purpose of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). π
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