How To Learn The Basics Of SEO

Search engine optimization is a major component of online marketing. Businesses around the world can't think of their marketing without considering the SEO of their websites.

The fact that you’re here, I assume that you are from the digital marketing field. Or perhaps, you might be a business owner looking to ace your SEO skills to improve your business.

Whoever you are, I must confess that SEO might look like a big block that you can’t get over with. That’s because you’ve probably heard that you have to learn many concepts to master SEO. Apart from that, there are high chances that SEO will confuse you, because there are so many resources and terms that you need to absorb along the journey.

To counter that, you must know how to find authoritative sources to get you started. And that is exactly the goal of this article.

In this story, I will discuss how to learn the basics of SEO and mention some of the reliable and expert sources through which you can teach yourself.

But first, you must understand what SEO is.

What is SEO?

SEO is all about ticking a checklist of requirements that helps your website rank on the first page of any search engine.

Search engines like Google contain countless websites-good and bad in terms of quality. And these search engines need to ensure that their users spend quality time using them. So to improve the user experience and to provide information that is relevant to their search, search engines display only those websites on their first page that are most relevant to their user's search. So for you to be present on the first page, you need to make sure that you have a quality website.

All the actions you take to improve different components of your website to ensure that Google prefers you over others is what search engine optimization is.

Choosing words on your website that tells Google what your website is about, other's opinions about you, and organizing your website in a way that is easy to go along with are among the actions you need to take to increase your chances of ranking on the first page of search engines.

Why is SEO important?

Although there are so many businesses with a variety of niches, all of them share a common goal- revenue generation.

SEO assists in doing that because it brings a fresh and relevant audience to your website for free. And that increases your odds of boosting your revenue. So SEO is key to your brand's online success.

Besides, SEO provides you with a steady stream of new visitors to your website because SEO is a long-term strategy for marketing your business. Once you're on the first results page of search engines, you're there for a long time.

So how do you start with the basics? And how do you come by the above-mentioned benefits?

5 Simple Ways To Learn The Basics Of SEO

1. Beginner’s Guide

Beginner's guides are designed to introduce you to all the basic concepts of SEO. These are extremely helpful for the newcomers.

There are a lot of guides available on the internet. But to help you choose the best among the lot, I'd mention the single most effective guide that you can go for. Just type 'beginner's guide to SEO by Moz' on the search bar, and click on the first result.

Moz's guide is exceptionally comprehensive yet easy to understand and is perfect for freshers. It contains all that you need as a starter and every concept are taught in a fun way.

After you've completed this guide, I am sure you'll know more about SEO than many modern bloggers, content marketing professionals, and so-called SEO experts.

2. Follow the Masters

James Clear says in his book Atomic habits that the best way to adopt a habit is to choose the company where your desired behavior is the normal behavior.

The same is true for all the learning. When you surround yourself with the experts of the field, you can get among the best 10% of the field.

Also, following the experts will keep you updated on the changes and this is essential in a concept like SEO because it's constantly changing.

So who are the experts you can follow?

Rand Fishkin, the founder of Moz is the most reliable source for learning SEO. He knows this field from the inside out. Following him will keep you updated as he posts regularly on his Twitter account @randfish, and it will also increase your knowledge immensely.

Another master that you can follow is Will Reynolds, the CEO of Seer Interactive. He is extremely knowledgeable about all aspects of SEO and passes on his experience to others by teaching on his Youtube channel. Visit his channel Wil Reynolds and gain exposure to the concepts of SEO. You can also follow him on Twitter. His account is @willreynolds.

3. Books

Books are an excellent way to learn about any field in the world. There are hundreds of books available on every topic and SEO is no different.

You can type 'best books on SEO' on Google and can find many results. But to make things easy for you, I would suggest that you read 'How Google works'. This book is effective to learn about the history of SEO and explains how search engines transitioned in different phases.

Another book that is best for beginners is 'when search meets web usability'. This book is easy to understand and is structured to best suit beginners.

Apart from them, 'The Art of SEO' and 'Epic content marketing' are among the best books to learn SEO. These books address the concepts of SEO in detail and are very descriptive.

4. Blogs

Blogs are valuable because they're short and to the point. If you want to learn about SEO topic by topic, then reading blogs is the way to go.

Among the best SEO blogs are Moz Blog, Hubspot, SEMRUSH, Neil Patel, Brian Dean, and official Google Blog.

If you consistently follow and read from these blogs you can learn a lot more than just the basics of SEO.

5. Do Courses Online

Enrolling in courses to learn different skills is a great way to kickstart your journey. That's because you learn directly from an expert instructor which helps in catching the concepts easily.

But don't enroll in any ordinary course that you see. Instead, research about it before enrolling.

There are thousands of courses available online which might make it difficult for you to make your choice. So, I'd mention the three best free SEO courses you can take to build strong foundations.

The first one I would recommend is the 'SEO training course by Moz' on Udemy. It's a 3.5 hours long course that is instructed by Rand Fishkin. Remember him? Yes, he is an expert in the field, so you'd learn a lot from him.

The second one on the list is the 'Free SEO training by Yoast SEO'. This course is designed for beginners and you need to take it because it starts with the very basics. Further, this course is taught in an easy-to-understand language which will help you to grasp technical aspects easily.

And the final one is more like a suggestion and it is to enroll in the SEMRUSH academy. The academy is a gold mine for those who want to learn SEO because it has a lot of SEO courses. So you'll have access to a variety of topics related to SEO for free.

Final Thoughts

Whether you're a business owner, a digital marketing expert, or a blogger/writer, the skill of SEO is essential to have under your sleeves. All of the above professions require a basic knowledge of SEO.

And because this skill is in high demand currently, I felt it good to discuss how to learn the basics of SEO in this article. So I've shared five different ways to learn about the basics of SEO.

I hope this article has helped you in some way, so please don't forget to clap if it has. These claps are a source of great motivation for me.

And, If you know about any more effective resources to learn about SEO then kindly mention it in the comments for all our benefit.