SEO Training & Learning Resources
Posted on 25. Aug, 2011 by Lee Odden in Blog, SEO Tips, SEO Training, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
To learn the art and science of SEO (search engine optimization) it is my belief that the best source is your own efforts at hypothesis, experimentation and refinement.
If you’re starting from scratch and really have no idea what SEO is, then certainly one of the popular SEO books would be a appropriate as well as attending an industry conference like SES, SMX, Pubcon or a regional event.
Both Google and Bing have made great efforts at providing webmasters with resources that are worth checking out as well. Online SEO training like that offered by Market Motive (affiliate link) can help those without the time to attend “real world” events.
For brand marketers, I’d suggest checking out the ad:tech New York Marketing Masters SEM Track in November that I’ve been putting together with case studies and best practices SEO and Integrated PPC insights from VW, REI, Salesforce and several others. (shameless plug)
Every other SEO resource has pretty much been covered in posts like this elsewhere on the web but when sourcing any kind of recommended list (including this one) care should be taken as to motive and real-world validity of the advice and information provided. There are plenty of smart pontificators that have taken “make shit up” to an art form, blending reasonable advice with pure theory and packaging it as SEO gospel. In fact, that same dose of healthy skepticism could be applied to anything you find and read on the web.
Literally everything you’d ever want to know about becoming a successful SEO is online, you just have to sort through what’s theory, rant and outdated information. That’s why, if you create a strong base of knowledge through your own testing and direct observation, you’ll be in a better position to filter quality signal from the noise.
Not to overwhelm, but here’s a list of over 100 SEM information sources and another list of over 400 SEM & Online Marketing Blogs that you may find useful in your journey to learn more about SEO.
We just added a review of the 2012 MarketingSherpa SEO Benchmark Report – a great source of data driven insights about SEO. Very useful as a SEO learning tool. A similar resource that we’ve reviewed: Econsultancy SEO Best Practices Guide is also a great aid in learning SEO.
Whether you’ve been in the search engine optimization game for 1 or 10 years, what have you found to be the best sources of information to learn, maintain and advance your SEO knowledge? What would you recommend to a SEO newbie? Or to an in-house interactive marketer with SEO responsibilities but limited time to test and learn on their own?
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Econsultancy SEO Best Practice Guide for 2011
Posted on 02. Jun, 2011 by Lee Odden in Blog, SEO Training, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
Guides about internet marketing tactics like Search Engine Optimization can be very useful tools; not only for practitioners to gain insight into what’s working and what’s not, but also for the agency/client side people working on the business side of things to understand where a particular tactic fits within an overall online marketing program.
While there are many, many credible SEO bloggers, conference speakers and pundits talking about the virtues of the latest SEO this and that, many business leaders are keen on recommendations that come with the credibility of an established marketing publication. The updated Guide on SEO edited by Jake Hird from Econsultancy, “SEO Best Practice Guide - Comprehensive advice for natural search marketers” is a great example of such a resource.
Originally created by Dr. Dave Chaffey, this most recent version has famous SEO expert contributors ranging from Lisa Myers of Verve Search to Dave Naylor of Bronco to Will Critchlow of Distilled to Nichola Stott of theMediaFlow who I did a SEO Dojo podcast with recently on SEO and Public Relations (podcast posts on Monday).
As a living document that gets peer reviewed and edited each year, this SEO guide is “soup to nuts” as they say, covering basics like keyword research, on-page optimization and link building to more advanced SEO topics like conversion optimization and optimizing for mobile. The guide is organized by Success Factors for SEO, including: Planning & Keywords, Indexing, On-Page Factors, Link Building, Process & Conversions.
There are also a number of Appendix items covering: SEO Copywriting, SEO Performance Audit, SEO Ranking Factors, Checklist for Links, a substantial section on Mobile SEO, RFP Template (I’m not a fan of SEO RFPs) and the inevitable SEO Glossary.
Overall, this guide is a great primer for those wanting to learn more about practical Search Engine Optimization as an independent marketing channel. It would be a good resource for marketing, advertising, public relations, copywriters, webmasters, interactive marketers and web designers that want to get a good baseline of SEO knowledge.
With advice on planning, process and sourcing SEO resources, this guide is also useful for companies from both a practical and logistical perspective, that want to include SEO more formally in their marketing mix.
Personally, I’d like to see a little more about strategy and how SEO intersects with other channels, but that would be at least double the size of the current SEO Best Practice Guide which currently weighs in at 323 pages. I’ve reviewed this guide before and I continue to believe it’s a very useful resource that’s practical and actionable for agencies and in-house marketers alike.
The guide is available to Econsultancy members (Silver membership $395/yr and above), or purchase the report individually for $350. Obviously, it’s a no brainer to get the Silver membership since you get access to a range of similar reports and guides for a little more than the cost of an individual report.
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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. |
Econsultancy SEO Best Practice Guide for 2011 | http://www.toprankblog.com
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