Best SEO Courses & Guides?

What have you found to be the most helpful courses in providing you with SEO knolwedge and advice you have actually being able to apply to improve your rankings and traffic?

I gained a lot of my knowledge from experience and working with mentors. I still get a lot of people ask me where they should start, so just wondering if you can recommend any good resources.

 

It's not really a course or a guide but Matt Cutts blog is always a great resource and teaches you to stay out of trouble at the same time!

 

thanks for share ...

 

When I started out I found that Matt Callen's SEO Made Easy to be really helpful. From the time I read that ebook, I gained a real understanding of what SEO is all about, now I run my own seo firm.

 

Personally, I think people who want to learn about SEO are idiots if they think they can just learn it online by reading blogs and forums. 99% of the crap you read here and other forums & blogs are either a) so basics, you would learn it in the first two chapters of Search Engine Optimization for Dummies or b) just plain wrong.

IMO the best place to start is a book. There are lots of good books out on SEO these days. As long as the book was written in the last year or so it should be fine. Books will teach the new SEO student the basic concepts and terminology. And more importantly, it will lay all of the basics out in a logical, orderly fashion. This is something you CANNOT get from trying to learn online through blogs and forums.

Then I tell people to follow some of the greats online - Eric Ward, Aaron Wall, Danny Sullivan, Bill Slawski, Rand Fishkin, etc. STAY AWAY FROM FORUMS AND BLOGS. About the only forum I would recommend is Webmaster World, and only because it is highly moderated.

As they start to gain some knowledge I highly recommend creating their own site and practicing what they have been learning about. The key to being a great SEO is having the ability to observe, hypothesize, develop and execute experiments, draw conclusions, repeat and rinse.

After they have a firm grasp on the fundamentals of SEO (i.e. possess the ability to discern who knows their $#!T and who is blowing smoke up people's AR$E_... THEN AND ONLY THEN should they start checking out forums and blogs.

I probably learn something from maybe 1 out of every 1000 posts I read on forums like this. Newbies just aren't equipped to sift through all the crap to find the occasional nugget of info until they have a firm grasp, and instead get mislead and sent on

 

Thanks for sharing. It is such a nice thread.

 

Personally I read threads on popular forums like DP,V7n,warriorforums,wedost,webmasters forum to learn.. It is good way to learn quickly..

 

Hi,
Thanks for your information. I will put it in remind if anyone ask for that.

 

best seo guide will be practical exp which u work it out.

 

Thanks for sharing it. Nice way you do it.

 

U r right billldodgesseo2.

 

We can learn many things from forums and blogs such as seomoz blog, search engine watch, search engine land.

 

He also does not mention a lot of what really does work well and can only say so much given his position, which can put you out of touch with how things work in the real world.

 

if you are not a regular reader then you may not various thinks but i have learnt a lot from Matt Cutts blog

 

You can learn more and more on net (online information is good) for that.

 

You can certainly learn a lot from Matt, but he promotes Google's ideal world, and not the real world. There's also a lot he can't say. Just bear that in mind.

 

Like Canonical said, there is a LOT of crap out there on blogs and even in some courses on SEO. Make sure you find something that is up to date. A great place to start is with the The Challenge by Ed Dale (challenge.co. It's online and it's 100% free. It walks a newbie through how to do keyword research, set up a blog, write and post content, and even get started link building. They give away from great tools for free too so it's a great place to start.

From there I'd move on to reading anything and everything from SEOBook.com, Wordtrakcer.com, and SEOmoz to gain a deeper understanding of SEO. Each of those sites has some type of training or tools you can participate in / use to help you truly grasp SEO.

 

I agree with Canonical . I believe that we should learn from the expert of all experts.What I like about this forum is that posters are genuine.

 

1) Google SEO Starter Guide
2) My Guide
3) SEOmoz's SEO Starter Guide
4) DP, V7N, SEOchat, forums.seo.com, and so on.. participate and openly discuss your projects breaking it down by specific problems. This way you get expert insight.
5) Listen to podcasts. A great way to stay current. Internet marketing podcast, SEM Synergy, SEO 101.
6) Subscribe to Bruce Clay's blog, Search Engine Land, SEOmoz/YOUmoz, Search Engine Watch, Marketing Pilgrim, and Google Webmaster Blog

 

Mattcutt blogs and other Google recommended blogs and forums for discussion are the best white papers for SEO....