What’s The Best Way To Learn SEO?
The Best Way To Learn SEO –
We write books and produce videos teaching people how to get started with SEO. A lot of people contact us with hundreds of questions asking the “exact way” to execute SEO, and asking us what will work and what will not work.
There is no exact way to do SEO. Asking someone for a step-by-step guaranteed way to get to the first page of Google is the same as asking someone for a step-by-step blueprint to become a millionaire.
The best way to learn how to do SEO is to just do it. If you’ve already read our books and watched our videos, then you have all the information you need. The next step is to apply the techniques you’ve learned from us and other sources on the internet.
No one is going to tell you their exact method for SEO to begin with. If you’re looking for someone to truly show you how to get your website on the first page of Google via a free blog or free YouTube videos, then you’ll be looking until the end of time.
An SEO Expert or SEO Company that provides SEO services isn’t going tell you the best way to do the service yourself. SEO companies are similar to Google in regards to information with SEO. Google makes money when you pay for Google Adwords, and that’s what they want you to do; pay for ads. Google is not going to tell you how to manipulate their search engine to rank on the first page of Google for free.
Similarly, SEO companies make money when you pay for their services. So if someone is actually good at SEO, they’re not going to tell you how to get on the first page of Google for free in a blog post, YouTube video, or a video course you paid $10 for on Udemy.
The best way to learn SEO is to create a website to practice on. SEO is different for every industry because the competition is different. SEO techniques that work for a local hair salon with not work for a garage door repair or locksmith company. Some industries have a high level of spam, so Google is more strict on how they rank certain websites in certain industries. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all SEO strategy that works the same for everybody.
If you want to learn SEO, apply the things you’ve already learned instead of reading hundreds of blogs. You can’t be scared to take risks when it comes to SEO. If there’s no risk, then there’s no reward. You can’t be scared to fail. If you’re scared to fail, you’ll never know what works and what doesn’t work.
So what’s the best way to learn SEO? Stop reading and start doing. SEO is not that complicated, and most of it is just common sense. We’ve been doing SEO exactly the same for the past 8 years and nothing has changed. The only people that get affected by Google algorithm changes are people that do blackhat SEO. The kind of blackhat SEO that’ll get your website penalized is so technical that most wouldn’t know how to do it anyway.
Also, there’s no such thing as “the best WordPress plugin for SEO.” SEO plugins just provide a shortcut so you don’t have to manually add anything to the HTML code on your website. Asking, “what’s the best WordPress plugin for SEO?” is like asking, “What’s the best hammer to bang in nail?” There isn’t a best hammer to bang in a nail. In fact, you don’t even need a hammer to bang in a nail, it just a tool that makes it easier. Similarly, SEO plugins for WordPress are just tools to save you time. Tools are completely useless if you don’t know how to use them.
Before you get started with SEO, you should:
- Learn basic HTML code
- Learn web design
- Learn where all the important SEO tags are located that need to be edited
- Then you can choose an SEO plugin to edit the SEO tags quickly without manually editing the code
Once you master on-page SEO, then you’re ready to move on to off-page SEO which involves backlinks. If you don’t have the time and commitment to learn SEO because you’re busy running your business, that completely understandable. SEO is a skilled profession that takes experience. SEO isn’t something that you master over the weekend and magically surpass businesses on the first page of Google.
If you have a marketing budget, you should hire a local SEO company to do this work for you. Just make sure the company you hire is on the first page of Google themselves. If the company you hire isn’t on the first page of Google for “SEO Company + enter your city here” (ex: SEO Company Los Angeles), then you’re setting yourself up for a big disappointment.
Also, don’t bargain shop when it comes to SEO. If you run a professional business, then hire a professional company. The average cost of SEO is $100 per hour, and the average business owner on page #1 of Google pays a minimum of $1,500/month for SEO and Digital Marketing.
If you’re looking to hire an SEO company for $500/month, then you’ll waste your money because you can’t compete on page #1 of Google with that type of budget. There’s way too many business owners willing to pay more, so you won’t be able to keep pace. Google real estate isn’t cheap.
If you have a max budget of $500/month for marketing, then it’s better to use that money for Google Adwords. With that budget, you’ll get at least 100 websites visitors per month ($5 per ad click), depending on your industry. Contact us to learn more about SEO and how we can improve your online visibility.
