Update: I am happy to report that the PDF printer difficulties have been fixed and the guide is now "printier" than ever ;-p You can download the PDF here.
Today, I am proud to announce the new and improved Beginner's Guide to SEO. This free tutorial covers everything you need to know to get started improving your search engine rankings in the major search engines. Put simply, this is the resource I would have kicked a fool in order to get my hands on when I was first diving into the wild world of SEO.
The New Beginner's Guide to SEO
Free
The Beginner's Guide to SEO won't cost you a dime. It is free to read, download and otherwise devour. (Be careful about paper cuts! E-paper cuts are the worst kind of paper cuts.)
Comprehensive
This guide is the result of hundreds of hours of research and includes chapters on all of the following topics:
- How Search Engines Operate
- How People Interact With Search Engines
- Why Search Engine Marketing is Necessary
- The Basics of Search Engine Friendly Design & Development
- Keyword Research
- How Usability, Experience, & Content Affect Rankings
- Growing Popularity and Links
- Search Engine’s Tools for Webmasters Intro
- Myths & Misconceptions About Search Engines
- Measuring and Tracking Success
Awesome
Moz scientists have measured spikes in the awesomeness level of the Beginners Guide to SEO that have been equivalent to:
- Getting lick attacked by seven puppies
- The feeling of putting on new socks
- Being in a hot tub when it is snowing
- Finding a Popsicle in the freezer
- The chocolate at the bottom of Drumstick ice cream cones
- An unicorn flying over a pack of exploding ninjas with lazer dinosaurs with beer for eyes
- Finding 10 dollars in your pocket
- Bowties on scientists
- David Bowie
I look forward to hearing your feedback about the new guide in the comments. Your input in these comments will serve as the official feedback form for this guide. I will use your recommendations to help improve and update the guide over time.
Great job getting this out there, Danny.
Also, a HUGE pile of chocolate-covered kudos to our designers, Matt & Derric for the awesome design work on this thing!!!!
Why cannot I thumb up several times!!!???
So long waited, also by all the "supposed" experts like me (as we all need a great refresher always on our desk).
ATTENTION > EDIT:
I think I found a bug:
If you click on "Chapters" (right up corner), the dropdown works... simply there's no text visible (even though the title tag of the links allows to understand what you'e going to click on).
Check it out (I've tried it on Firefox 3.6 and iExplorer 7.0)
Fixed :-)
You may have to do a hard refresh in your browser. Thanks for letting me know!
You're wellcome... let's consider this post a massive usability test too.
Chapter 10, in the freebies section, you have AWStats as AWStates :)
Fixed thanks!
In French in the text : "tout simplement excellent, bravo". Very nice job. Thank you.
Great stuff!!
Will take great pleasure in reading this myself and making sure I didn't miss anything out in the course of my learning...
Thanks Danny!!
I have a question about chapter 4 (https://guides.seomoz.org/chapter-4-basics-of-search-engine-friendly-design-and-development) "Old PageRank Algorithm and Effect of NoFollow Sculpting".
The graphic with the nofollow in the "old" section is the same as in the "new" section. Shouldn't there be a change shown in one of the graphics as to how much link juice gets passed now when using nofollow as opposed to before the change?
Or am I just confused? Which is entirely possible right now.
ps...thanks for releasing this. perfect timing as we have an intern joining our team in the next couple of weeks so this will be great to have her start with!
Hi Kimber,
That is a mistake. :-) You can see an uglier (but correct!) version of that image at https://www.seomoz.org/img/upload/new-pagerank-and-nofollow.gif.
Design is fixing the printing PDF issue first and will fix this a soon as they can!
Thanks!
aha! I thought i understood how it worked but then your graphic threw me off and I considered that I might not understand after all. Thanks for fixing that and proving that I do understand now. :)
Great work Mozzers, superb as usual!
Juggling Pandas looks a bit different though, maybe they realised they needed more content...
LOL! Amazing :-D
W o w !
This is absolutely amazing! I love the new graphics which makes it a lot easier to read!
A really big THUMBS UP to the whole team at seomoz...
*however, I do feel this is going to be a long day, not sure if I'm so thankful for that :)*
*btw: Danny: Love your dry humour again, can't you start a weekly blog or something? :)
Danny, Matt & Derric...It's drop dead gorgeous! Y'all have totally outdone all previous efforts. It looks really smooth, the material is very well written, and I declare it an unmitigated success!...with one tiny problem.
There's no way I can find to print it out so that it still looks like the original. Both Firefox and Opera throw the images around, and in Acrobat 9, as I mentioned above, it is 11 huge pages.
If anyone has any tips or hints as to how to print it out so it looks the same as it does in the browser, I am all ears.
But mainly I'd like to congratulate your whole team that worked on it. It's a beaut.
Wow. Thanks for putting this together.
Not only chock full of excellent information, but the infographics and design are fantastic.
Top notch work!
I'll be sharing this with clients and potential clients.
Great job! I've had a quick look at the (downloadable) PDF and the graphics and layout are brill... however, is it just me or is Chapter 4 in the PDF missing - just white space?
That is happening for a small number of PDF readers. The chapter is there, you just might need to switch readers. Alternatively, you can view it online.
Either way, I am looking into a better long term fix.
Thanks Danny.... I'll upgrade my reader; it's about time anyway!
I can't get Chapter 4 to work. It's either blank or cut off at the top. Tried it in latest version of Adobe Reader and Acrobat Pro.
Add me to the list of an invisible Chapter 4. And to add insult to injury, Acrobat 9 is only showing 11 pages total.
Each Chapter is being seen as a single page. For example, Chapter 2 has the measurements of 13.6" x 42.7".
Yep, can't see Chapter 4 on mine either and PDF file has 11 pages only. Weird.
*ooooh* *ahhhh*
First- I knew my post for beginners was timed well! :)
Second- so very happy to see you guys have revamped this. I know it's been a long work in progress but I genuinely think the beginner's guide is the absolute best intro to SEO out there and glad to see an update to keep up with the ever changing times!
I'm looking forward to thumbing through this all over again! I can only shudder thinking how lost I was when reading through this in my first day on the job.
Loving the design!
Looking forward to reading this in the next few days!
Well done - this practically reads like a Dustin Curtis post! Aesthetics are huge for retaining information/maintain interest, so for the newbies, this should be huge. Thanks!
Wow this is a huge upgrade on the old guides! Great work, I did notice similar to the other folks however that the printing is a bit off.
Thanks. This is a fantastic resource.
First time commenter here - let me say I love your site, and I love this!
But add me to the growing chorus of folks who wishes the PDF was a bit more printer friendly. I printed out the web pages, but it's a messy solution.
Also, Chapter 4 in the PDF was missing for me.
Otherwise, seriously guys and gals, HUGE pat on the back for you. This is epic.
Fantastic visual design on this! I'm an artist/designer first a foremost, and I appreciate great design, typography, and style. Very nice.
I love all things "SEO 101".... I've been doing SEO for several years now and it never ceases to amaze me how many times people overlook the basics. Great post for both the SEO noviced AND the seasoned pro (we all need a refresher sometimes!). Bravo.
Thanks !
Always a nice reading with great content. Will surely share this to all my friends !
Thanks Danny,
This is really great news... now newbie can update their knowledge with new information about SEO. :-)
Sweet guide... is anyone else having problems with the chapters being squeezed onto a single page in the PDF?
Edit:
I tried opening the PDF in Chrome, Firefox, Adobe Reader 9.3.2.
The online version prints fine, much easier solution. good thing I thought of that after goofing around for 10 minutes.
I'm having the same problem with the .pdf version. How did you print it right online? Did you print each Chapter page seperately?
Yes, it took about 5 minutes.
This is cool, even for seasoned SEO professionals. Every one needs to learn, every one needs contant reminders.
Great Job
I have been waiting for this new updated guide for months and months. At last you managed to get it refreshed however it will need to be continually updated.
thank you guys from SEOmoz, great job...
Wow, Danny. Great. Thanks for sharing this :-)
Absolut amazing design and brillant pictures. Looks much better than the usual seomoz-design ;-)
Nice! Looking forward to sharing this with the newbies!
OMG... remarkable work, amazing presentation and graphics.
Just brilliant - beautiful work, if you don't mind me saying so! :)
This needs to be on Book Store shelves, any plans to do that?
Maybe consider offering an option to download the printable PDF without providing any contact info. It would make it easier for one to share with others, simply link to the file.
lol...I took a snapshot of that no follow graphic and marked it up, then decided I couldn't be the first one to notice this error!
Anyway, great resource. Quite a few typos, but hey, good news is you get a lot of free editing here in this community. Seriously, the willingness to offer constructive criticism and the humility to receive it in this community never ceases to amaze me.
Anyone else agree?
This is a great guide. I'll be recommending people to it for a long time to come!
I can tell this took a lot of work, so thank you! It was a great refresher for me, and I know newbies will find it very useful :)
Great material for newbies and begginers. Most of them look like self explanatory and it is very easy to understand. No doubt a great guide to all seo's.
Thumbs up to seomoz. :)
Thank you!! :)
Hey Danny,
Great job! and I'm sure you will keep us all posted when design gets the printer friendly version done. ;)
Once again another great guide.
Danny you mentioned while ago about a project you were working on, to bring together all the knowledged amassed at SEOMOZ and turn it into a best practice guide.
I was just wondering if it is still sometyhing youplan to do ?
Keep up the good work,
Emma
Heyo,
It is still indeed in the works. You can see a sneak peak at https://www.seomoz.org/knowledge/ . Beware: that early version is UGLY :-p
Cheers!
having seen Rands tweet last week I had waited patiently for this. A great read and a great source of information. I enjoy going over these beginners guides over and over again to make sure I dont forgot things or even learn a new thing or two.
I hope the PDF issue doesnt take you too long to solve. This is the type of thing I like putting in front of the none marketing people in the company so they stay up to date and have a basic understanding as well.
Once again thanks for the useful info SEOmoz!!!
Wow, what a great update! I particularly like all the graphic illustrations! In chapter #4, within the rel nofollow paragraph, I have a question regarding the graphic illustration: In the old PR algorithm, shouldn't the link juice passed be X/4 in the second case where there's a nofollow attribute on link B ? Moreover, there's a small typo in the new PR algorithm part: there is a "n" missing in the word "longer" within "NO following a link no longer passed more juice...". Julien
Yes, this is a mistake. We are in the process of updating it :-) See my comment above for more info.
Extremely well written. will prove useful to even those with considerable seo knowledge.
And for those interested the missing chapter appears magically when viewed with Foxit pdf reader.
Fantastic work, Danny. Recommending this to a ton of friends. Thanks for creating this great resource for our community!
Wow. This is fantastic. You wanna talk about great link bait? This guide is the example haha. Thanks a lot for all the time you put into making this.
Thanks SEOMOZ! I've been waiting for this since I noticed Rand's tweet last week=D Just cracked the new manual open... time to devour. I know when I first opened it, I felt the awesomeness the Smurf's felt when they saw Smurfette for the first time!
thanks for share this guide!
Thanks!
I'm starting reading it right now. I'll post my feedback later to you...
Thanks, thanks!! :)
wooohooo! will be a great refresher and read!
Yeah I can't print that PDF correct either... The first page prints find then the rest groups like 4 pages per page.
Well that certainly is slick! Nicely done!
Quick question wrt the search engine myths section - if I'm looking at even a relevant directory and it has 0 or N/A as the PR, should I just assume it's links are being discounted and move along? Would any directory of PR 0 be worthwhile...is there any "good" reason for a site to have a PR of 0?
and now now...it may be as cool as David Bowie, but is it as cool as Ziggy?! ;)
Oh guys - thank you very much. I really love those charts, graphics and the style you designed this paper. Great work!
Take care,
Tobias
A very pleasant surprise that SeoMoz has come out with a new version of the beginners guide.
have just gone through the first chapter and looks like it will provide interesting information for even those who have considerable knowledge in this field.
Many thanks to Danny and the SeoMoz team!!
This is excellent. There go the next 24 hours....
Never stop learning!
Wow I agree with the Aesthetics...great use of graphics.
Flows nicely!
my own congrats! well done!
only thing is I did click on the .pdf button and never ever got an email with the URL...
anyone else suffer this too?Jim