One of the most common questions we receive here at SEOmoz is "What's the best way to learn SEO?" There are many ways to answer, but in this post, I'm going to cover the responses I give most often and those I've seen have the most success. But, before I describe each of these, it pays to understand that not all learning methodologies are the same in style, substance or where they can take you. If you're completely new to SEO, some of these won't be appropriate and if you're already a veteran, others won't teach you much you don't already know.
Thus, let's start with a chart of relative knowledge/experience levels (similar to this old/outdated post on levels of knowledge):
Now that we have some context, let's dive in to the ways I recommend learning SEO. For each, I've provided a description of the process, the ideal starting level(s) (and where you can expect to reach via that methodology) and a list of resources with my notes.
#1 - Free Online Guides
A number of free guides, eBooks and downloadable PDFs exist on the web to help provide insight into SEO. Some are highly comprehensive while others touch only lightly on the topic. The key to being successful with this process is to identify guides that are both up-to-date and accurate in their recommendations. No council exists to regulate the dispersal of SEO information and thus, a few proprietors of free guides can lead you down incomplete or even dead wrong paths.
Recommended for: New to SEO, Aspirant, Journeyman
List of Resources:
- SEOmoz's Free Beginner's Guide to SEO (just updated for 2010)
- Aaron Wall's SEO Guide for Bloggers
- Google's Starter Guide for Webmasters
- Danny's Checklist for Learning SEO
Time Investment / Commitment Required: 1-3 hours should get you through any of the guides above
#2 - Published Literary Works
For those who like to curl up with a book, a number of authors/publishers have come out with solid resources in the past couple years. Books have a unique advantage over online guides in that they're often better written, more carefully edited and can be more easily judged on the reputation of the authors/publishers. Conversely, they are hard to update (even in the book I wrote last year, a few links and references are already broken) and thus, don't always contain the most up-to-date information.
Recommended for: New to SEO, Aspirant, Journeyman
List of Resources:
- Inbound Marketing by Dharmesh Shah & Brian Halligan
- Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing by Kris Jones
- Search Engine Optimization Secrets by Danny Dover
- Marketing in the Age of Google by Vanessa Fox
- Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grapone & Gradiva Couzin
- The Art of SEO by Rand Fishkin, Jessie Stricchiola, Eric Enge & Stephan Spencer
Time Investment / Commitment Required: The largest of these is ~450 pages, which might take between 4-8 hours depending on how fast you read
#3 - Blogs, Forums & Search Communities
In my opinion, everyone learning SEO can garner value from discovering 3-5 favorite sources of information online and keeping up to date with each on a daily or weekly basis. Forums and blogs pump out a tremendous quantity of content, but just by browsing the headlines and reading teh stories that stand out, you can get exposure to strategies, techniques, news and trends that would otherwise be difficulty to stumble on by yourself.
Many SEOs (myself included) first learned the practice almost entirely through contributions, questions and threads on industry blogs & forums. Today, I'd suggest starting with a base from a free guide or book, then diving into the communities to stay sharp and get individual questions answered. I've provided a few of my personal favorite resources below, but will be working on a more comprehensive list in the near future.
Recommended for: All
List of Resources:
- Forums / Q+A
- Blogs
- Other
Time Investment / Commitment Required: 30-45 minutes per day or 90 minutes per week (if you aggregate your time into a single slot)
#4 - Building Sites & Earning Rankings
Many in the SEO field will say that building your own sites and practicing SEO in the real world is the only way to learn. I disagree with that message, but I do concur that it's possibly the most crucial step to advancing your career and abilities.
My view is that if, prior to building a site and attempting to earn some rankings, you have a great mental model of the field, you can build a truly defensible strategy for your site(s). If you simply register a domain that sounds nifty and start trying to rank for a keyword you think is popular, you can get a very warped sense for how to do SEO and what matters in the short, medium and long run. At the very least, read a free guide and engage a bit on some of the online communities.
Once you've got a base of knowledge, building a site is the next logical step. I strongly suggest starting small and preferrably with a topic that you're personally passionate about rather than one that just has high AdSense payouts. I'll recommend a number of options for building/hosting below, but if you have the technical know-how to configure your own server and write from scratch, that's a perfectly reasonable alternative (just make sure it's not too time consuming to leave room for some actual SEO).
Recommended for: Aspirant, Journeyman, Authority
List of Resources:
Time Investment / Commitment Required: A minimum of 4-5 hours for setup and creation of initial content, and more likely 40-50 hours to produce something high quality and robust and conduct initial off-site SEO/marketing efforts.
#5 - Conferences & Events
If you're hungry to learn SEO in person, see real life examples and hear stories from the front lines (as well as meeting the practitioners and evangelists), getting out to events is an excellent next step. The last few years has seen an explosion in the quantity and variety of events in the field and many have different foci and target audiences, so be sure to choose the right one for accomplishing your goals. Many of the large conferences are focused on drawing out discussion around topics, advancing the discourse in the field and promoting networking while some smaller events are more specifically geared to pure education or intimate networking.
Recommended for: Journeyman and Above
List of Resources (in order of upcoming dates):
- Blueglass Los Angeles - July 19-20
- SES San Francisco - August 16-20
- SEOmoz PRO Seattle - August 30-31
- SMX East New York - October 4-6
- Inbound Marketing Summit Boston - October 6-7
Time Investment / Commitment Required: Typically 2-4 days plus travel time
#6 - Online Classes
The online online learning series I'm familiar with in this category is Market Motive, but they're impressive enough to warrant both a category of their own and a recommendation. Founded by Michael Stebbins and John Marshall (who previously founded & sold ClickTracks) along with Avinash Kaushik, Todd Malicoat, Bryan Eisenberg and more, the staff is a who's who of Internet marketing. When this many great brains get together, the results are smashing. Market Motive combines webinars, phone calls, coursework and more into a comprehensive curriculum. They end the series with a dissertation defense given over the phone and only passing candidates earn certification.
I've personally been on a few calls with early entrants and master certification candidates and been seriously impressed. Since I'm recommending them so highly, I connected with the folks at Market Motive, and they've put together a discount for moz readers. You can sign up for MarketMotive using the code "SMZ6TOOLSMC" and get $600 off their master certification course + 3 months of SEOmoz PRO membership FREE. But, make sure to do it in the next 5 days as the upcoming master certication course starts on July 19th.
Recommended for: New to SEO, Aspirant, Journeyman and Authorities/Gurus seeking formal, recognized certification
List of Resources:
Time Investment / Commitment Required: Over the course of 90 days, this is a 10-20 hour per week commitment, possibly more when cramming for the dissertation.
The field is certainly much richer with options than when I began, but as we know from the science of conversion, more choices don't always indicate more actions. Hopefully, the recommendations above have helped to give you a starting point. I'd love to hear from you in the comments about where and how you learned SEO and what you'd recommend to others.
The best way to learn SEO is to build your own sites then optimize them, then working on large clients websites.
I have built over 50 websites personally when I was younger, then I moved onto working in house as an SEO and for the last 2 years I have been working in a glaboal agency on the top end clients, ones who spend multi millions on SEO/PPC/Display ect.
I think the problem with sites like digitalpoint/ cre8 site forums/ site point ect is that 5 years ago they were great places to learn a thing or two about SEO, today they are soo flooded with people spamming and asking the same questions over and over you are not going to have quality and advanced SEO's helping out. Today I find the best information is found by dealing with SEO's in complex high competition industries.
If you want to be at the top of your game in SEO you just can not be good at sitting behind a computer doing SEO, the top end clients want some one who can come in and present to them directly, also pitching for new business is another difficult and testing area for many SEO's.
... personally been working hard on my business communication skills. Especially for those circumstances when I'm not in the room to clarify or convince. This has improved my presentation, emails anddeliverables.
Due to improvements in these visual and written communication skills, I am now on more phone calls and flying to more client meetings.
Go figure ...
Mike, I'm interested to know what you did to work on your business communication skills. I find that communicating the value and potential of SEO/CRO/Usability/etc. accurately to the business owner is harder than actually doing the work.
goodnewscowboy,
I'm not out of the woods just yet in this regard. Case in point, after I'm asked to participate in a pitch (ala presentation, RFP response, fly-to-meeting) I still get the 5 minute refresher that I'm supposed to target my talk to "real" people. My boss once said that I should act as if I'm delivering my presentations to her ... to which I responded that imagining a client in a bikini was inappropriate.
Did I mention that my wit sucks and my humor isn't much better?
To get closer towards answering your question, what I do is massive amounts of research and collection. I grab as many PDFs and attend as many basic webinars as I can. I also made an open invitiation to the entire company to send me anything they find interesting. Then I actively glean insights into the presentation styles, word choices as well as topic priorities. I listen to how they speak to the audience and imagine, the "Why's?" of it all.
That's not to say that industry experts give good presentations, but I'm listening for communication styles and effectiveness based off people's responses, thoughts and follow up Q&A.
Now the books ... (these represent some of my recent reading, nothing more). Read these at your own risk.
Most of these have the following ideas in common:
My personal belief is that true intelligence, integrity and respect all share traits of clarity and simplicity. Don't be afraid to use them. Misdirection, obsfugation and convoluted speak are all children of ignorance, dishonesty and fear.
Take the challenge and prove just how much of genius you are by communicating effectively and succinctly. It's painful, but worth it.
As you can see, I failed here. But getting better takes time.
I think to add to this,
The way in which I have effectively sat with clients and given a very basic very top line SEO 101 with 15 slides.
I mean even the SEO Beginners guide here on SEOMOZ is too advanced for specific clients.
First you need to sit with the clients explain all the basic terms, basic every thing really in simple language. Once theny understand all the basics you can then procede with sending over the reports and what not becuase they will understand the jargon and understand what is going on.
connections8,
It's wonderful when a client can participate, isn't it? With that said, I will say that you are spot on ... if you have someone that is willing to sit with you. I love community and love to share knowledge with whomever is interested.
Yet ...
On my first full day (at my current company) I was sitting with the CMO of a large brand. She turned to my CEO and said, "'X' is my budget to do everything this year. Not a dollar more." Then she turned to me and continued, "I want 'Search'. I want it to work." She got up and walked out.
My CEO stared at me for a second. "You better make it work. OK ... time for lunch."
Sometimes you have to get the result and it's your own problem acquiring support and your piece of the budget pie. Go gettim' tiger!
Great tip connections8. All this feedback is giving me some great ideas.
Tips are ok, but my advice is to actually get out in the field get a few clients from different levels. The more expeirnece you have working on different verticals/ levels and working with different levels of cleint bases the better. I mean some companies I work on even have in house SEO teams yet they still outsource a large percentage of the work to the agencys.
Over the last 9 months I have been the head lead on a very large SEO project, and now the results are comming in I have even had a few emails from the CFO of this company with 1k+ employees saying well done, their is nothing better.
Wow Mike. What an excellent answer to my question. Thanks for taking the time and effort to give such a complete answer.
You know what? I bet you have enough stuff here to make a YOUmoz post. You ought to consider that.
As part of the communication and persuasion portion of my job, I'm certainly looking to write more blog posts, in general. Hopefully I'll get the knack for creating some infographics too. I love (while being annoyed) that Rand is so capable at producing so many of these things.
There will be some Youmoz posts in my future to be sure, but you probably won't see anything from me until I mature a bit. For example, I'll need to STOP giggling at the blog post title, "Take it, Take my SEO you Dirty Page Rank". Once I get past that I'll probably storm the Youmoz space.
SEOMoz, SEOBook and Search Engine Watch forums were three of my go-to resources when I started out.
I would also recommend two educational resources that weren't mentioned:
Great post Rand.
Thumbs up for the mentor comment. I can't find anyone in my area, so I'm left to sort of figure it out myself (tho I have access to many great online resources). I learn best with a mentor, but I guess I shouldn't complain.
I'm actually mentoring a new media jounralist in SEO and the realities of truly owning a web presence.
Mentoring is a "win" for everyone, let me tell (you me telling) you! Absolutely amazing experience! With that said, I need to track my padawan down. I lost her somewhere around Chapter 5 of SEOmoz's updated Beginner's Guide.
As already told by all the previous mozzers, surely this is a great "resources" kind of post.
I would like to suggest two fundamental books that every newvbie would have to read and all the more experienced SEO would have to reread from time to time.
Web Analytics 2.0 by Avinash Kaushik
Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug (or his more recent Rocket Surgery Made Easy)
They are not SEO centered, but any SEO should read them as they are about two disciplines strongly related to it: web analytics and CRO.
Finally, I like the classification, and I like to see that for years of experience and working responsability I should be an Authority, even though for so many things I still feel an Aspirant. Anyway - I've read the cited post - I have to tell that I'd like to become one day a Dark Lord of Search (or, to avoid any black hat suspects, a member of the White Council of Search).
Ah... last thing: to learn SEO is good to try to not do it all alone and without a guide. Asap as you can, try to find your Master Jedi and be his/her faithful Padawan.
Whoa. Wait a minute. I thought you were Yoda!
Ah!... the fact I find myself writing like Yoda does not mean I am at his levels... let's say that I'd like to be like him on the SEO front: just imagine what an SEO could do with his powers ;).
Rand - ten years from now SEO Science will be the hottest major at the University of Washington, and you will be the popular guest lecturer. In the meantime, in this largely self-taught field these resources are valuable.
Personally, I would add the value of making mistakes. My errors and missteps have often taught me more than my successes. Like you say, trial and error.
(And it would be fun to learn some of the mistakes you've made in your career. Top five?...)
I hope I'm still not Googling in 10 years :/
Likewise ... as Laura mentioned in her 8 Step Strategy series, there's nothing like impementing changes only to watch rankings and traffic tank.
Let's not even think about the hands-on lessons and experiences that turned me into a PPC "expert".
*shudder*
This was an awesome post, I've been looking for more resources to use as I work my way through all of this.
I wound up in charge of marketing for a small business right out of college (I've been here about five months) and when my boss wanted to make sure our website was optimized for search I got thrown into it (I have a degree in political science).
Turns out, I love the SEO side of things and would rather spend all day doing that than three-quarters of the other stuff I have to work on! But if I want to continue in this field, should I be looking into getting more education in web design? I understand website architecture and the design elements involved - from the outside, but I don't know how to code at all.
Any recommendations on how I - or anyone who didn't expect to end up in internet marketing - could further my education, or if it's even necessary to pay for the credits?
Ciao ellabrocca,
my suggestion come directly from my experience of totally code-dumb-kind-of-humanbeing (as you, I come from a not technical field, literature and creative writing).
So... the suggestion:
build a website by yourself. You don't know how much you can learn simply using everything can offer Dreamweaver in its 30 days of trial. I did it so to learn Html (with the guide of some basic books). I confess that I did it using the templates it offers and - thanks to the split screen (Code view and Final View), I was able to understand what code was behind, for instance, an heading and discovered that there were many...
Apart that, another way to experiment is the one suggested by Rand. Buy a domain (maybe your own name, and so you can do some personal brand marketing), an hosting and install one of the classical CMS: Joomla, Drupal, WordPress... and use the time to not only practice with the SEO aspect of the Internet, but also to discover any hidden secret of those CMS (and their communities are very supportive).
I hope this helps.
I like learning on my own a lot. I guess I was wondering if I was going to get passed over in a year or so because I didn't have formal education in web design or other areas of computing or even marketing. Learning on your own tends to be emphasized here from my reading, but I didn't know if that was on top of backgrounds in areas where I have no knowledge.
Great post as usual Rand. I guess I fit somewhere in between aspirant and journeyman. This is a lot of information to take in I'll definitely have to comb through all these resources in detail later. One quick question though, where on the scale do you consider yourself?
Hmmm... I'd say on some items, I'm pretty high on the scale, but with others (PPC, CPM Ads, Contextual), I'm very low.
I thought I was between an aspirant and journeyman until I read the term QDF:) I had to go look it up. Thanks for the tremendously helpful information!
Great response Rand, a little on the modest side. I like it.
But you make an excellent point in that many SEO's over stretch themselves and their area of expertise. It's either a "Jack of all trades or an Ace in one."
BTW, if I am ever asked my favorite SEO tool, I tell them "The Art of SEO."... Not ususally the answer people want to hear.
A Wonderful post - Full of useful links and resources - Thanks a looooooot!
Very cool. This is one of those posts that reaffirms seomoz's dominance over the SEO community. I think you guys are definitely one of the most influential sites on the subject. Kudos and thanks!
I really appreciate the openness with which you share your knowledge and experiences.
In 2004 when I was planning to start off with my career again after being affected by the dot com bubble I first designed my husband's company website and optimized it referring the webmaster resources available on Google and reading the various blogs and FAQs available on the net after this website started ranking on page 1 for the relevant keywords. all our friends and relatives wanted me to design a site for them and optimize it.
After working on about 7-8 sites and optimizing them successfully with page 1 rankings on Google and Yahoo I thought of sharing my knowledge and started conducting SEO batches at an educational institute which is focused on running job oriented courses.
When the first batch was announced in 2007 there were 28 participants and all of them were in some way related to the web designing or web development industry and had an idea about SEO but there were many myths surrounding them. Only then I came to know that this was the first time in Ahmedabad in India that an SEO training had been conducted at this scale and everyone went back feeling confident about starting their SEO careers or got the confidence to go to their bosses the next day to confidently tell them that they have an additional certificate and knowledge.
Now there are many books and a lot of information available on SEO but the best way to learn is to build sites and work on them and in order to be successful have a lot of patience, perseverence and a passion for SEO added with a flair of marketing.
Great post as usual Rand. I guess I fit somewhere in between an Oracle and God.
Hah-ha! I LOVE it.
Shall I audit your site and will you give me a testimonial signed, "God"?
I never SEO myself but feel free to audit any of my clients' sites
Seek and ye shall find.
Great post Rand. Nice to see posts aimed at us SEO people who are still learning. SEOMOZ is a great site, i've learnt loads and its making a big difference to my website. Sometimes I get a bit lost amongst the loads of tools on here and a post like this helps massively! keep up the good work!
Great post Rand. I am a little surprised webmasterworld & digitalpoint didn't get listed in your forum list. The forum I cut my teeth on and give a lot of respect to was/is Morgan's seoguy forum but it's not as intense as it was 6ish years ago I guess.
I forgot to mention I read The Art of SEO a couple months back and I it is a great book. I'm looking forward to reading Danny's book as well, he's a really smart guy.
Yes - sorry, that wasn't intended at all to be a comprehensive lists; just a selection of a few resources. I personally didn't participate at WebmasterWorld, but of course am familiar with it and haev great respect for Brett and the impressive community there.
Great post! thanks very much, Good books too
The compiled list is interesting, and it's kind of fun trying to place yourself on the list of experience somewhere. Although if I meet anyone who refers to themselves as an "Oracle" or a "Guru" in a non-ironic way, I do have to stifle a giggle at the pretentiousness of it.
I have a handful of my own sites with which I've learned SEO first hand, and I've been a fairly die hard SEOmoz reader for 2 years now. Having said that, I'm finishing up the Market Motive SEO certification course right now, and it's easily been some of the best money spent on my SEO education...
Really? What do you most like about it (I am considering taking it sometime in the future...)
It's been a great "blanket-SEO-foundation" program. In the beginning, it covers a lot of stuff that most of us already know... but as the course moves on, the program does a GREAT job of filling in knowledge gaps.
For me, there's always been a small nagging at being a self taught SEO in always having to question the reliability of certain information and comparing the importance of one SEO factor vs. another, and also not having a huge network of SEO people I trust to bounce ideas and questions off of. That feeling of reservation doesn't necessarily go away with this program, but I retained so much more information compared to what I usually do simply because it's taught by big names in the SEO industry, and you can bounce YOUR ideas and questions off these people in a personalized setting.
I trust the information I got out of this program, and have already seen a lift in some of my personal sites. I would highly, HIGHLY recommend it for anyone who's not "authority" status or higher :)
This is a great post. Have you considered making this a permanent page that new visitors can find into the future
Thanks For the Good read. I'm very interested in the Online Classes. I'm just curious, Any readers use any of the online SEO classes?
In my experience (however Limited it is) I have always loved reading what i can online and from books but no matter what (In my opinion) nothing surpasses learning in person from an accomplished "Authority" or up in the given scale with a Mentor/Mentee Relationship.
Thanks for all the GREAT! info. The resources provided are superb!
Hi Bailen,
I competed the Internet Marketing Master's degree program online through Full Sail University and I cannot praise the program and the professors enough for their format, knowledge, and ability to adapt to the changing SEO environment. The books that we read included many from the ones that Rand suggested above, as well as blogs and published works from industry thought leaders (i.e. Kaushik).
It's important to keep everything in perspective. Having one "authority" to learn from is great, but don't get caught in the trap of ONLY following their ideals. Whether you take classes, apprentice, or learn on your own - its important to pull ideas from multiple sources to give yourself a broad perspective into SEO.
Thanks for the reply! You having done that program. In your opinion what would be the best degree going into the program? Some "Programs" i have heard take Real life XP into consideration rather than a actual degree. To your knowledge do they do anything of the sort?
Full Sail offers a Bachelors and a Master's Degree in Internet Marketing (I completed the Master's Program). The great thing about the program is that it certainly helps to have SEO and general online marketing knowledge prior to attending, but it is not absolutely necessary. If you follow and understand the concepts on SEOmoz, then you would do great! The true benefit is that you get exposed to all elements of online marketing (SEO, PPC, PR, Social Media, Analytics, Legal, etc) and create a complete marketing plan for a real company. When you are done, you can go to a company and know how to make an impact which each element to best help them achieve their goals. Does that answer your question?
Useful list here. Im a college student and was wondering if there was any discount for Blueglass. I live in the Los Angeles area and its just a little over my budget but I think it be well worth it. Do they have any student discount offers for Blueglass? Just wondering. Thanks
Hey dannymac, I suggest you email them @ [email protected] with your questions. While Rand is one of the speakers, the event is run by the folks at blueglass.
If you become a PRO member, you can get the code for a 30% off discount. Otherwise, like goodnewscowboy said, give them a holler!
Brilliant point Jen! As the event costs $525, 30% of that = 2 months of SEOmoz for free.
Perfect timing Rand! Thankyou so much for this guide to Learning SEO. Joined PRO yesterday. Couldn't wish for a better start from this Kindergarden Novice Newbie.
So who is heading up the SEOMoz Education branch? Seems that the time is right and opportunity is knocking
Buy a domain name (probably your own name, and you can do some personal brand marketing), an archive and install one of the classic CMS: Joomla, Drupal, WordPress ... and use the time to practice not only with aspects of Internet SEO. Before, I was doing a e-marketing subject at uni part time at night and we actually had a SEO guest come in for a 3 hour lecturer, I mean I know most of the content back then but if you knew nothing about SEO it was great.
Found some interesting blogs and forums thanks to this post, thanks!
Very nice suggestion. Infact i have followed your sugggestion. I have 1 years experience in SEO.I have dowloaded the book for SEO and Google webmaster guide to improve my knowledge.
I tend to learn the SEO world all by myself and now I kam very happy that I encounter such information that is so informative.
Great post, This is a great stepping stone for those looking to get the best out of SEO. Fantastic, thank you.
Hi Rand, Once again an incredible post. This will help every seo's with any kind of experience. Thanks for all those great and informative links shared. Worth reading and useful one. Defiitely a great overview to learn seo better.
Thanks a lot. :)
Hi Rand, very useful post like always :)I have to say that I'm very interested on this topic because in my country, Argentina, there is no way to learn SEO if you don't surf on the web. And that's the same in a lot of different countries. But when you're already starting you really don't know what to do!
I'm currently writting a series of post about this topic called El camino del SEO ("The path of SEO") and although I do not usually do this, I'm putting a link to my blog, It's in Spanish but you can read it in English too https://spanishseoblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/analiza-tu-mercado-el-camino-del-seo-v.html
Thanks again for the links!
The first chart is just what many SEO aspirants should have it nailed to theri wall.
Your chart says I am an Aspirant.
Thanks for the killer post.
Thanks @randfish for this article.
Do you have other books to suggest ? (I'm "Aspirant" ^^)
Wow, that is a bunch of helpful tips and links. Thanx, dude I am sure they will be very helpfulf for creating my blog
#4 should read Building Sites and Making Money (after all that is the bottom line).
7+ years and still an aspirant =)
hi,randfish,you article is very useful!I am a chinese.I am a seoer yet!
Some great tips on how to learn seo, i would advise look at some of the experts advise online, even on u tube there are some excellent video tutorials which will guide you through the tips and give you visual aids - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcDQ65Sv_PY
This is a great set of resources. And it goes to show why I think the single most useful resource I've found for learning SEO is this site.
One question - can you really have only 0-1 years experience, only understand the basic principles of SEO, have no success putting them to use yet... and still be called an SEO Analyst?
I've seen a lot of new-to-SEO folks with that title. When we hired our first few team members at SEOmoz (Rebecca, Jane, Scott, etc) who were new to SEO, we did precisely this - giving them associate/analyst titles as they were ramping up their learning.
Great post and interesting knowledge level.
I think I'll have to put myself somewhere between Aspirant and Journeyman. What I find interesting is the fact that you can actually be called an Oracle after just over 4 years in the industry!! Thats amazing, cosidering the fact that some university courses actually take longer than that!!I wonder what that tells us about the industry...
I learnt most of what I know from blogs, free online guides and recently building sites. I still haven't gotten around to buying a book, I keep telling myself I haven't finished reading all the free information online so why go pay for a book! But I'm sure I'll eventually get around to buying one soon enough.
Next stop, an SEO conference!! Thats on my 2010 to-do list, fingers crossed still got 5 months...
My answer to your question: that 4+ in the industry means:
Anyway, it's also clear that the timescale is not the right way to judge in the Rank status of an SEO, but if he can say yes and prove what is in the brief description :)
I agree with you on that gfiorelli, the industry is still so new one can get away with a lot of things.
And yes, when you actually enjoy SEO, I think its quite easy to pick up things and learn pretty fast.
Thanks for that..
Hi Rand,
when you refer to levels compared to years of experience, what are you basing that information on?
Primarily my personal experience talking to and connecting with other SEOs. Through conferences, speaking, networking, hiring and, prior to 2010, consulting, I get to meet a ton of SEOs and learn about their backgrounds - it's actually one of my favorite parts of what I do!
Oh..so it's not an established set of rules and more along the lines of 'theoretically'..gotchya. Thanks!
Yes - absolutely. There's virtually no hard and fast rules or structures in the field of SEO.
Rand demonstrates his "Oracle" level of keeping a cool head 8)
Agreed. ;-)
Thanks Rand, these are the type of posts that I love
Keep'em coming
Useful post as I can't think enough of how many times people asked where to learn seo. Yes, there's a ton of good place but a lot of newbies are lost in and often misguided by all that content.
I really enjoyed this post Rand. I learned about several new resources of which I was not aware. I do have a question for you and the community.
I'm looking for one or two (non-local) good Internet marketing professional associations to join. Ideally, I would like the association to accept research papers from members that they can present at the association's conferences. The only association specific to search marketing association that I'm aware of is SEMPO. What is your opinion of it and associations in general?
SEMPO is a good association, as far as I was informed by other SEO who are associated. Especially it is good for the rich documentation you can access and for the professional networking. I've to admit that I am thinking to sign up to it too, also because is organized on territorial level.
On the other hand, to be part of a recognized Association is always a good reputation move, as it is somehow an "official" endorsement (in this sense like having any Google certificate), that can give a little % more of opportunities to close a deal with clients.
Said that, but it's just an idiosyncracy of mine (therefore take it not too seriously), I am at first always suspicious about official associations, as they remind me of "academic" and "ivory tower clubs" or "Lion's Club" kind of thing.
Rand, great break down.
If you want to learn how to swim you have to be willing to get wet.
Just going out there and finding opportunities, maybe a charity, just to practice and craft your skills, is very important.
Getting as many different expereinces is right up there as well. Every new client we take on teaches us something new.
last note, apparently linkedin hasnt gotten this memo. I cant believe how many social media guru's there are in this world....
I remember when i first started one of the first books i've read was search engine marketing inc, a book written by two folks at IBM and i found it very interesting because introduced to me concepts like the buying cycle which i never heard before. It gives you a good overview and i think it's important to zoom out and see the bigger picture.
Marco,
Those books are surpisingly good. I read the 2nd edition. While they will not list top 10 tricks and hacks (meaning that one actually has to read the book) the IBM series casts a wide net into related business needs and dependencies.
Can't say if their good for the pure business breed, but I liked what I read.
Thank you for the summary! Definitely an Aspirant here... I keep wanting to read through the Beginner's Guide a bit at a time every day! I like the idea about having multiple resources for garnering needed information; I'll have to check out the other blogs and online resources you recommended.
Great post! I've been really getting into SEO lately and I've been looking for more resources to expand my knowledge and this really helps!
Thanks!
Great post, it's interesting to get more of a grasp on where I stand with my skills and experience relative to the best in the world and the novice who just began looking into it.
The great thing about SEO that seems to differ from most other industries I've been involved with is how many really great people are willing to share their knowledge on it all.
There is this very cool, open-source kind of feel to the SEO community where everyone is willing to help one another in the name of good fellowship and better understanding for all.
I find myself thinking lately that while they weren't what got me interested in search initially, it's truly the people in this field that make me want to continue working with search for a long time. This blog and website in particular are the most shining example of what I'm talking about. So thanks!
Ditto here, Ryan! My favorite thing about SEO has long been the people. I love the mix of tech geekery, marketing acumen and overall business strategy.
My friends ... thanks for focusing on the light-side.
I avoided associating myself with SEO for years due to all the scammer, spammer douche bags nickle-and-diming for every dumb ass eBook or for the previlege of taking blackbox a tour through Web Position Gold. Let's not forget about the ... links.
I still get suspicious looks when I tell non-internet folks that I do search marketing or internet marketing.
Rand, do you think best practices (search friendly websites) will become obsolete for seos as web developers get more knowledgeable and our focus will solely be on building links etc, as that will just be the norm for dev teams?
It seems highly unlikely as people have been asking this question for more than a decade now, and development/engineering hasn't made much of a shift towards SEO as a basic core competency yet (and new technologies only seem to cause more potential problems/issues).
LOL your just showing my noobness now!
But I'll take that as good as at least it wasn't a stupid question if other seos have spoken about it :)
1 Way NOT to learn SEO
At a university or traditional education institution.
I was always against the "unaccredited" sources like market motive, but they'r probably the best bets for actually getting something useful out if your starting from scratch
I have to respectfully disagree here, as traditional education is certainly a great way to learn SEO. The benefit is that you can learn about online marketing as a whole and see how each channel (SEO, PPC, Analytics, Usability, etc) play a part in the bigger picture of search.
The common response that I here to online marketing in a formal education environment is that it evolves too fast for any university to keep up. To some extent this is true, as the search engines are constantly changing. But then again, there are numerous strategies and concepts that have held true for a long time in the realm of SEO. To put this in another context, technology is constantly changing, but software development is still considered a legitimate academic field. The reason is because although technology and SEO may evolve, one must start somewhere and learn the foundations and relevant tactics. It is then up to the student and the university to be agile and adapt to the changing environment so that they can teach relevant strategies.
In the long run, I believe it will be good for SEO to be taught in a formal setting as it helps to solidify and develop the field. Just look at video game development. It had been something that one could only learn in their parents basement, but now we have numerous schools that are offering coursework in game development.
I certainly understand that the formal education route is not for everyone, but I firmly stand behind the professors and university that have helped me to learn SEO.
Which University did you learn SEO at and from what Professor?
I would say that Game development is different to SEO. Much of the basics of programming are transferable, you are just more focused on your end product being a game.
And I can see many more IT programmers going into a teaching role and being succesful. Not sure I can think of any SEOs who are professors?
I went to Full Sail University in Florida. I had different professors for each element of online marketing, but for SEO in particular I had two that aren't celebrity status by any means, but have been in the SEO discipline for many years. Their teachings were supplemented by my own professional experience at both start ups and at a global search agency.
My point here is that there is value in learning online marketing at the university level. It's not as if we sat around reading books all day that were written 10 years ago. We certainly touched on the theory and history, but mainly focused on how the search engines operate, how to perform on page optimization, link building tactics, how to analyze data, how to prioritize and create an SEO strategy. Stuff like that. Best of all we actually applied it into a real website.
I get the sense that you took a different path in learning SEO. What methods of learning did you find to work best?
Ah, I was thinking more postgrad. OK, fullsail is not what I consider to be a university and falls into a completely different realm.
I looked at FullSail when i was looking to formaly "study SEO". They had nothing at postgrad level so I discounted it
TBH it looked like an online scam that rich people would send their kids to. Also, forcing people to buy a Mac seemed pretty dumb.
However I wish Id had somewhere like your kind of feedback when I was looking.
I ended up doing the worlds first MA Social Media, which turned out to be the least productive thing you could ever blow 10,000 pounds on. Still, guess i get a piece of paper with an MA on it at the end.
My experience is "academics" from traditional media schools thinking its just a type of media and hacking some stuff together and callling it a course. I see this in the "new journalism" and "new music" branches. They are 10 years behind and their view of the world has absolutely no cross over with the view everyone who reads SEOmoz does
Take a 10 second trip to a place like Stackoverflow and have a look at how the traditional IT industry still sees SEO and how ignorant they are of it. I can't imagine that traditional Universities would be any more use from the IT side either
Both sides have 0 business common sense, making their advise pretty dangerous or just not relevant
The program at Full Sail was indeed postgrad (Master's Degree), but not many know about it as it's still a fairly young program - launching in August of 2008.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but the reality is that the value of any program/university is determined by what the student puts into it and how they learn from it. In my case, Full Sail provided me with a strong foundation in SEO and I have aggregated professional and expert insights into my own work. I have seen direct results and application in my career, so in that regard, my investment in Full Sail has delivered.
I would disagree to some extent, I know uni will not set you up for the work force it just give you some basic skills.
I remember 3 years ago I was doing a e-marketing subject at uni part time at night and we actually had a SEO guest come in for a 3 hour lecturer, I mean I know most of the content back then but if you knew nothing about SEO it was great.
We also had a guest speaker come in from Google which was interesting.
And this is all in Australia, the market is around 1-2 years behing the US and UK.
a couple of hours from a guest lecturer doesnt cut it for me ^^ (or if i was employing an seo)
Really good and helpful post!
I've been following SEOmoz about an year, and this post helped a lot in defining how much there is still to learn :) Recognized myself as aspirant.. just started to scan through the "get to the top on google" by David viney. Any experience someone?
BTW, does someone know are there any universities in Europe offering SEO in their curriculum?
The way universitie sare structured means that there is unlikely to be anyone to teach you SEO at a Uni.
They may be able to bring in outside specialists, but your money would be better spent just going straight to those guys via SOEMOz pro vids or market motive
I speak from personal and expensive experience when I say that what is required and taught at a University is completely different to the knowledge you need for the real world where you have to deliver results
David Viney's book was the first one I read. It's good but pretty outdated actually. For example, the emphasis on keyword density, press releases, and article marketing...the first one is meaningless, and the second two have changed a lot in value. It probably has value less as a beginner's text and more as something you read with a critical eye.
after I read the headline I was thinking "the answer must be a very short joke". Thanks for the nice image on the top. It shows that it takes time and experience to get a SEO.Man, I should ask for more money! With 10 years experience I´m a Guru, I should be paid as one.... hold on Guru´s dont earn money Greetings from Berlin Germany...
If you're good, check out https://hackfwd.com/
Theres a ton of German and German based investment in start ups at the moment. If you keep your eyes open, im pretty sure there are more great doors about to open in Germany
Thanks very much Rand. Great post. I have a couple people this will bea tremendous resource for.
I am looking to get to grips with implementing an SEO strategy (plan of action), can anyone recommend somewhere I can read about this?
If you are brand new at this, I suggest you atart with The Beginners Guide that was mentioned in point #1.
If you know what you are doing technically, but need a push in the right direction to get started doing client work, I suggest reading all of laura's posts as well as Lindsay's posts.
@goodnewscowboy: Did you wake up early today or am I wrong?
Is it because I suggested that he "atart" that you ask :-p ?
I actually hit the computer before I had breakfast, which I am now off to eat.
I can highly recommend Market Motiv. I've taken their Fundamental class, and while some (but very few) teachers were hard to watch, I learned SO much! And it was worth the cost of $200 a month to see the videos. A++, I couldn't recommend Market Motiv more. This post is great, some real amazing resources :)
Inbound Marketing was a pretty good book, although I found it was very basic on SEO. I actually am finding some good value from Search Engine Optimization All In One for Dummies by Bruce Clay and Susan Esparza. It has 723 pages so it covers a lot of material and is more advanced than you would think based on the title. It was published in 09. https://www.amazon.com/Search-Engine-Optimization-All-Dummies/dp/0470379731/ref=dp_cp_ob_b_title_1
Hi Rand,
This topic is very near and dear to my heart as I have recently graduated from the Internet Marketing Master of Science degree program at Full Sail University. While SEO was only one part of the program, I was able to get a complete perspective into the world of online marketing. Prior to the program I had some professional experience with SEO, but I was able to solidify my SEO knowledge at Full Sail and bring it full circle. I should make it clear that I do not consider myself an expert as a result of obtaining the master's degree, rather that formal education is a powerful method for developing knowledge in the field of SEO. Not many universities have incorporated SEO into their curriculums, but will hopefully do so in the coming years as cyrusshepard suggests.
As always, thank you for sharing your knowledge with the SEO community!
Great post rand.. well done
Interesting post. I would say it has value as a "what help do I need" kind of post too. For example, as someone at the Aspirant level, it's hard to figure out what's worth shelling money out for anymore. For example, is it worth it to take the Market Motive class when Month 1 is all stuff I feel like I know? It's tough to figure out what's worth the money and what is not, especially when there are lots of good blogs out there.