I recently noted that many sites were once again linking to Moz's Beginner's Guide to Search Engine Optimization, which made me feel guilty. The guide is now almost 3 years out of date, and so much has changed in that time that I feel almost irresponsible having it up in its current format (though I recognize it still can be a valuable resource in some sense).
To help remedy the situation, I've had the "re-write the Beginner's Guide" on my to-do list for months, but the project intially required about 100 hours of writing, research, fact-checking, screenshots and graphic creation. I think I'm faster at many of those tasks now, but I'm also far, far busier in my daily life. Thus, my plan is to actually use the blog to rewrite the guide. Here's what I'm thinking:
- Over the next 3-4 weeks, dedicate the 2-3 hours I spend blogging each night to authoring a section of the Beginner's Guide and posting it on the blog.
- Solicit feedback from everyone and include those that are valuable in the final version of the guide (with attributed credit).
- Re-create the guide in a single & multi-page format and 301 all of the blog entries that will be created over the next few weeks (on this topic) to the final version.
- Keep it 100% free to everyone - no registration required, no premium membership necessary.
Obviously I'm open to feedback on this, but this is my take on what might be the best path to pursue.
Whenever I write something large or comprehensive (like our premium guides) or when I make a presentation, I always like to create a roadmap. I think it's ingrained in me from middle school. And so, here's my initial stab at an outline:
- Introduction: What This Guide Can Help You Achieve
- Part I: How Search Engines Operate
- Crawling & Indexing the Web
- Retrieval & Rankings
- How Search Marketers Study & Learn from Algorithms & Patent Applications
- Understanding the Visuals of Search Results Pages
- Vertical, "Universal" & Specialized Search Results
- Part II: How People Interact with Search Engines
- Search Engine Market Share
- Search Engine Usage Data
- Commercial Activity Driven by Search
- Part III: Why Search Engine Marketing is Necessary
- Limitations of Search Indexing Technology
- Competition & Rankings
- A Constantly Changing Search Landscape
- Part IV: The Basics of Search-Engine Friendly Design & Development
- Indexable Markup
- Crawlable Link Structures
- Keyword Usage & Targeting
- Titles, URLs, Meta Data & Semantic Code
- Canonical & Duplicate Versions of Content
- Redirection, Server & Hosting Issues
- Part V: Keyword Research
- How to Judge the Value of a Keyword
- Keyword Research Sources
- Testing Keyword Efficacy
- Part VI: How Usability, User Experience and Content Affect Search Engine Rankings
- Why "Great" Sites Rise to the Top
- Recommendations for Usability & User Experience
- Content Strategies for Success
- Part VII: Growing Popularity & Links
- Links - A Proxy for Popularity & Importance
- Link Building Basics
- Link Signals Used by the Search Engines
- Starting a Link Building Campaign
- Five Sample Link Building Strategies
- An Aside on Buying Links
- Part VIII: Search Engine Tools & Services
- Sitemaps Protocol
- Google's Webmaster Central
- Live Search Tools
- Yahoo! Site Explorer
- Part IX: Myths, Penalties & Spam
- Common Myths & Misconceptions About Search Engines
- How Search Engines Identify Spam
- Penalty Signs & Re-Inclusion Requests
- Measuring & Tracking Success
- Employing Analytics
- Site & Brand Metrics from the Web
- Appendix A: Glossary of Terms
- Appendix B: List of Additional Resources
- Appendix C: Contributors & Credits
What do you think? Am I missing anything big? (besides paid search, which we're not equipped to cover)
Other quick news items (all event-centric):
- SMX is launching South & Latin American events, the first of which are taking place in just a few weeks with SMX Buenos Aires (Oct. 24th), then SMX Santiago De Chile (Oct. 25/26th). Incredibly, Dr. Ricardo Baeza-Yates of Yahoo! (who wrote the freakin' book on Modern Information Retrieval - literally) will be keynoting. Luckily, we've found a friend, Maria Balayan, to cover the Buenos Aires conference for Moz - make sure to say "Hi!" if you see her there.
- Jane & Gillian will both be speaking at SMX London next month. Gillian will be covering the business issues of running and growing a search marketing firm, while Jane tackles linkbait and viral media promotion.
- I'll be at SMX Social Media next week with Rebecca, giving an introduction to SMM and taking a deep look at mirco-communities, then leaving for Stockholm two weeks later, where I'm speaking on a number of panels about all sorts of issues for SMX Stockholm (I kept hearing how fantastic the Stockholm conferences used to be when SES did them with Danny and I couldn't pass up a chance to go).
Also - since most of my blogging is going to be re-creating the guide, this is a great chance for YOUmoz contributions on news items and hot topics to be promoted to the main blog (even more than normal). It also means that I won't be covering a lot of industry news (though I often don't do that anyway), so I suggest if you're not already reading SELand daily to make it a habit.
p.s. I may continue to try to post some links and news items at the bottom of entries as I have above - let me know if you think that's a good idea or not, too.
I think I'm one of those that keeps linking to the guide.
My first suggestion would be to offer a PDF version. In fact why not PDFs on all the guides here.
I think Social Media deserves a section of its own. I suppose you might be planning on including it in the section on popularity and links, but I think there's enough to say for social media to deserve a dedicated section.
Examples, examples, and more examples would be good. I remember when I first started learning SEO it was easy to get confused with all the conflicting information available. I think a healthy amount of examples where possible could sort of some confusion and help turn theory into practice.
Have you considered a section devoted to dispelling search engine myths?
I second that one, although the people hosting conferences on meta-keywords wouldn't like it much.
That's really considerate of you, Rand. I am truly convinced that being an SEO is like being a doctor, or a lawyer. There's always groundbreaking discoveries being made, and reading stuff like this gives me this "oh really!" response. Being an SEO is cool. It kinda fits into my whole "eternal student" schtick.
I still dress like I'm in college.
I hear ya. I'm wearing a sweater today, and I feel dressed up. Normally it's a Yoshi/Zissou/Rushmore Academy t-shirt and jeans.
Why not wiki it? Let the premium members have their play and the Mozzers moderate it.
I'm a blog fan myself, but for large articles and guides, Joomla is about as good as it can get. They have PDF and print options for each article.
But I heard that you and Matt make a mean CMS too. ;)
Blogging???
I just recently stumbled upon your site. I own an online boutique. So, I spend a lot of time working to drive traffic to my site. I am really looking forward to reading and learning from your guide. I revamped my entire site last year to incorporate SEO. I know there is so much more I can be doing, I just need good resources. So, I will be stalking this site for a while.
Hi GigiGirl! We're happy to see you on our blog, and thanks for stumbling in! Hopefully we can provide a lot of useful information to you that will benefit your boutique.
Guilty of continually sending people to the old guide too :P
I also like the idea of posting it as a blog, especially for the increased interaction (and, hopefully, retention) of new visitors. Whereas some people I have sent in the past would have only visited the "beginners guide" page, taken the information, and then left; if this is now posted in the main blog, it will allow more interaction with these new visitors who might not have been as exposed to "the moz culture".
Just in answer to your "ps" aside Rand, I'd also like to vote for still seeing links and news items at the bottom of the entries. Would be nice for those of us who may skim over certain sections of the beginners guide (although having said that, there's always something new to learn!)
I like the idea of dispelling myths. Add meta tags and you'll be #1 kinda stuff. ;)
Would it be worth touching on international search?
I made a bunch of updates based on the feedback here, including:
Addressing the "wiki" issue - we thought about that, but had two problems. One - we'd be basically taking volunteer work and turning it into a commercial piece of content for the site (even though it is free, much of the benefit comes to SEOmoz). Two - the writing style and voice would change and that's always hard to overcome. Even great writers often don't mesh well together.
Thanks for all the help and kind words - now off to start my first post on this.
Social Networking and Bookmarking or did I miss it??????
I have always found that people new to SEO have a difficult time grasping the importance of keywords and the required research. I have talked to too many people who think they can skip over this part.
I recommend using a real life example. Actually create a new site and actually apply SEO tactics so anyone interested can track its success in real time.
ddover
thank you so much for your comment. As a SEO beginner I agree 101.5 percent .
zorcolino
Rand, it seems is going to be the most complete guide on the web!
In Part II: How People Interact with Search Engines, I would add a comment about search engine demographics and how this is really useful to see where is better to concentrate your SEO efforts depending o the website's target audience. I read today that in the US more men than women use Google (53.42 for men and 46.58 for women).
I look forward to the updated SEO guide! Been loving everything on here especially the premium content.
Your current guide is the best resource out there and I also am responsible for sending the link to lots of people!
Are you planning to talk about 301 redirects and domain names at all? We've had several customers with large, established sites buy a new domain name that is more trendy or has a keyword in it, move their website, lose all their links and PageRank and then need emergency help.
Thanks!
Marion - great point... I'll try to add that in to the section on search-friendliness. Thanks for the catch!
I'd like to see a basic brief on internationali[z|s]ation issues.
There are the technical issues (character set, domain suffix (or subdomain prefix), meta content language, html lang attribute, content organi[z|s]aton on a multilingual site...) and linguistic issues (spelling, dialects).
While internationalization is a minimal issue for English language sites using the Ascii character set, it becomes a major issue for non-English sites. I can supply materials, e.g. https://www.antezeta.com/international/ .
Thanks Rand I'll be waiting for the new version of the guide. I'll be very interested in The Analitics section.
I reference the guide as well, so an updated version would be great.
I think Blogging needs a section. Its highly popular and there are so many options out there it can be hard to choose what's best or what's the best approach for your needs.
Keep up the great work.
There's a guide?
Just kidding. I hate change so don't update it just make it...
Beginner's Guide II, The Empire Strikes Back, the sequel
I still use the old one too. It's just a thought...
I'm really hoping that this new guide keeps making some more progress. When finished it will be an excellent place to be able to send people to give them a shotgun overview of SEO.
I would read your "book" in any form. I am a novice at this SEO understanding. Your outline seems to be just the thing I need in order to at least attempt to increase the success of my web site. Thanks for the article.
for starters like me.. this is a great help.. however case studios would to even more good... and insight on linking strategy would be wonderful.
Thanks
Jass
I think, what vangigh99 says is correct, me as beginner needs some examples, examples :) I've downloaded at first your beginner guide to start with SEO :)
My first impression is great and I hope that Version two will be better. On you concept I see this will be better and actual then more, so we beginners have easier start with seo with your Guide :).
I recoomend you to give an PDF and Word Version, too.
Some people likes pdf and word (like me :)) and some persons like only word. The best solution is to give the user/ members both version for download :)
regards
Eyüp A.
I think this is an excellent idea. Most of all I love how the concept of the blog is allowing everyone here to contribute easily to a higher purpose. It's one thing to blog about something. It's another to blog and improve upon the content as a community.This is what blogs were born to do. Great work and I'll be watching to see what I can learn and apply to my own SEO blog when it's done!
Thanks.
Chris Auman
I am guilty of printing out the old guide a lot of using it to introduce the new people to the terminology :-) I do explain them that some things may no longer be the way they are written in it but the overall thing is still good. I of course am happy about the update - all the suggestions have been pretty much listed here already so I don't think I can add anything to that. Great job Rand, keep it up!
I love that you plan it all so carefully Rand. I'm in awe of this plan though because it will be of such help to so many people. Go Rand!
Rand
this is great. I stumbled upon the first edition by chance and found it to be a valuable piece of information. However, as a SEO beginner I still had difficulties in understanding. I do think that if you could come up with a) examples or- even better b) o n e example i.e. a real site analyzed, explained from a to z -kind oc case - study and c) illustrations, screenshots .... would be amazing. The one-example strategy would facilitate things since one would see the whole bunch of little tricks in context. Oh, one last thing. I liked the first edition since -where possible, I guess- you explained why a certain strategy or tactic is suggested. Very helpful.
Thank you so much for your effort. I am looking forward to every piece that becomes available- oh, and please make it printer-friendly. I need things on paper to really digest. Why not PDF.
management summary :-)
examples, examples, examples, illustrations, illustrations, illustrations, explanations, explanations, explanations
zorcolino
Rand, that is awesome. Looking forward to reading the new version. Writing it as a blog should be a lot easier on you and benefficial for us.
Rand - I have to say your last guide is way better than most books, ebooks or whatever on SEO (new or old)
There is a new book out (no names) that is marginally chronic compared to what you were passing on all those years ago.
Honest
David
I think Part III could benefit from a section that briefly compares search marketing and older forms of advertising, in general validating the legitimacy of the market space even with the constant changes from the other three factors mentioned.
Great idea. Actually I like the current guide, but I can understand your concern.
I would recommend you write about how different Search Engines require different SEO techniques, and how to optimize for Yahoo, MSN, Google, one by one, if possible.
That for me is a puzzle. And I think you should consider a deeper link building chapter, rather than just splicing up the different kinds of LB.
Because it is a beginners guide, examples would be valuable.
The value of blogs in detail would be awesome. Like a lot of folks, I have a good understanding of bits and pieces of SEO stuff but don't have a single resource to put it all together. Sometimes I feel like a wisened old SEO master, other times I feel like a n00born.
I look forward to reading the new guide!
Hi Bruplex
I fully agree with you. I do hope that Rand finds a way integrating all / most ot those little pieces into kind of a system. Having read too many isolated articles about SEO, I am convinced that Rand is the person to come up with a nice mosaic.
zorcolino
I think your outline looks great Rand and I agree with Vangogh about social media needing its own section because it has definitely became its own monster so to speak. If time allows it would be nice to see several examples of the topics being covered.
Might be nice to see some information on analytics and how it ties into one's search efforts....
Very good idea, Rand.
Suggested additionsmight be sections on: Univeral and blended search, fact extraction, named entities, an increased role in determining relevancy by mining query logs and sessions and user behavior, and the impacts of personalization.
I also think that a section on measuring success, using analytics and log files, and determining conversions would be useful to a lot of people.
Wow - Bill...
my beginner guide = Dr. Seuss
your beginner guide = Stanley Kubrick ;)
I think those topics can be introduced at a beginner level, Mike.
This probably shouldn't delve into topics like a detailed look at probabilistic models, or an exploration of dual trustrank, but the basics of SEO have changed a lot over the past 3 years. :)
Measuring success would be very useful. For those of us who aren't specially trained but still find ourselves doing this, this is an issue. If nothing else, I'd like my bosses (who know even less than I do) to be confident that I'm not playing WoW all day. I find that my excited "Look! Look! We own the first page!" is met with blankness.
I don't know what the rest of those things mean. Therefore, I hope that any inclusion of those topics will be preceded by a clear explanation.
Bill
as I apreciate your proposals, I can tell you: As a SEO beginner I dont understand one single topic you mention. I agree with you that the SEO game has and will rapidly change. We certainly shoot at a moving target, but I think that for SEO beginners one should keep it simple . Upgrading to higher topics is alway possible, but if one doesnt understand the basics, frustration is sure to follow...
zorcolino
Hello,
First of all thanks for doing it..I like to give you only one suggestion. make your guide but add one example with it. Like if you are writing about keywords and add one examle for that with any website which can help all level of people.
I hope you will do it.
Thanks
Samir Vohra
Sounds like it will be a great guide, look forward to reading it. It will certainly be a lot of work, good luck.
Great idea. I first came to SEOmoz when I found the guide via Slashdot a couple years ago. I've been a daily visitor since. I look forward to the re-write.
Sounds like a great plan. Delegation meets outsourcing meets Web 2.0 (I'm sorry, I had to use my hype word for the day).
I'm game.
That sounds terrific. I'll read it.
Thanks for all of the input - I think I'll definitely make some edits to the outline tonight.
Just FYI - this is going to be a "beginner's" guide, so I don't want to overwhelm folks with information, but provide more of the basics. The goal is for those new to the practice to be able to understand the processes and principles, rather than having a full-fledged, inside and out tutorial like Aaron Wall's SEOBook. I know that a lot of c-level executives who read something like this will need brevity if they're going to get through it.
This sounds ike a great idea. I didn't realise the guide was so out of date and that makes me glad that I hadn't got around the reading it yet! :) Looking forward to the new updates. It's a fantastic resource and very generous of you to keep it free.
Nice to see you here Caro! :)