Rank Amateurs: How Beginners Can Learn Search Engine Optimization
Submitted by Tom Young on November 12, 2010 – 7:52 pmOne Comment
It’s all very good to write well about interesting things, but you need to get noticed to prosper on the Internet.
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the art and science of getting noticed. Some of this is the age-old dilemma of eggs and chickens: if no one likes you, no one will find you, and if they can’t find you they won’t know if they might like you. You need to be there when they look for you, and they need to be looking.
Where to turn for Optimizing advice and knowledge?
Search Engine Land is the Fount of Wisdom for all things SEO. It offers gazillions of tips and tricks in its vast array of how-to articles, as well as breaking news on all manner of Optimization sub-topics.
Google has an interest in your site being Google-friendly, so they offer tools and advice in varying degrees of complexity:
Google Analytics [registration required] gives you troves of information on who views you, where they look and how they got to you.
Google’s Keyword Search Tool allows you to think about how the googling public looks for information and things related to you, giving you insight into how to rope more of them into your corner.
Also check out Google’s own guide for making them love you.
And Google’s in-house wisdom is also available in easy video form:
Open Site Explorer has a free tool which analyzes both the both quantity and quality of links to your site.
Mashable covers the sprawling social media universe. Bulletin: traditional search isn’t the only way for you to get found.
SEO Guru-ess Jill Whalen offers her collected wisdom here, or follow her on Twitter for a refreshing stream of notions.
Seomoz consultants offer “The Beginners Guide To SEO” in ten chapters – you thought you were just going to watch a video?
Sitepoint has very useful SEO checklists and articles.
Finally, iMedia Connection says stop doing that in “10 ways to screw up your SEO”
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