“How do I learn enough SEO to maybe just do a bit of work on my own website and demonstrate enough knowledge to increase my chances of bagging a junior role?”
During our recent round of recruitment at Tecmark, we received an overwhelming number of applicants for our junior role. The outstanding candidates were the most passionate ones – the ones who’d learnt the basics off their own backs and now just wanted to develop in an agency environment. With so much competition for jobs, every little advantage you can give yourself to bag an entry level role is critical.
But just where can you go to learn the basics of SEO without spending an absolute fortune?
1. The Moz Beginners Guide to SEO
For on page SEO basics, you need this in your life. This is a freely available guide and it’s remarkably easy reading.
2. Google’s Webmaster Guidelines
You will need to understand what Google expects of Webmasters, even if you don’t follow every single point to the letter. Check it out. Again, free (of course).
3. Hubspot’s SEO Webinar
This webinar is excellent for absolute beginners and is a great starting point for learning the basics of SEO.
4. Distilled University
Distilled is an awesome agency doing great work. Their online course isn’t free, but it’s incredibly low cost. It’s $40 per month to enroll for Distilled U online and you can get a free demo to help you make your mind up before committing. There’s no minimum contracts.
5. Paddy Moogan’s Link Building Book
On page is probably not even half of the battle with SEO. Once you’ve got the basic on page concepts nailed, you’re going to need to get a hold on this ‘link building’ malarkey. Paddy Moogan’s Link Building Book will set you back just $37 and it will be the best $37 you’ll spend in terms of getting to grips with link building. It takes you right through the basis, through the history of link building, how to spot a decent link, how to plan a link building campaign, spot link building penalties and ultimately goes through a number of link building tactics. It’s incredibly comprehensive and you should really have this in your life.
6. Read Blogs
Read loads of them. Do bear in mind that a lot of blogs are just opinion. But read them anyway and pay attention to any comments. Sometimes, debate arising in the comments on a post about SEO can be as (or even more) enlightening than the post itself.
A few worth checking out…
Keep an eye on the official Google blogs too. Again, this is a really small handful of a really huge selection out there. Don’t limit yourself.
7. Social Media
Follow SEOs on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus and take in some of the content they share.
8. Conferences
Now, some of them can be pricey if you’re self funding. However, there are some free ones. Brighton SEO is worth checking out, for example. Subscribe to the newsletter to be made aware when tickets go on release. When tickets were released yesterday, they were gone in 20 minutes, so you’ll need to be speedy.
9. Informal Meetups
Try out meetups.com or Eventbrite.com to find SEO meet ups in your local area. Meeting and talking to people working in the industry day in day out is a great way to learn.
10. Get a Work Experience Placement
If you’re struggling to find yourself a paid role, get in touch with agencies and ask about work experience. Even a day or two of shadowing a couple of members of an agency team will give you insight you can’t get from reading.
11. Test, test, test
Get yourself a website and test your own theories. Getting hands on is the best way to really put what you’ve learnt into practice and the single most effective way of truly understanding something.