Search Engine Optimization is a pretty saturated niche, with new blogs being dedicated for it almost on a daily basis. As always, every saturated (and also non-saturated) niche tend to have “top-dogs” and it’s nothing different here.
No matter how ill-equipped you are – when it comes to SEO; there’s countless number of free resources available for anyone willing to learn. Yet there are so many webmasters out there, that haven’t even heard about some of these sites – let alone their priceless resources.
So, let’s shed some light – shall we?
SearchEngineWatch, SEOmoz, SEO Book and SEO Chat are amongst the best of the best “SEO-Blogs”. Most of them have a team dedicated of writers, whom wholeheartedly share their expertise with us. They want us to learn, so why not take in everything we can – and decide for ourselves which SEO techniques we should engage in?
The advice they come up with is so well researched and laid out, you can start from the very beginning and end up “quite advanced” in a matter of weeks! All you need on your part; is the driving force to keep swallowing the “latest information.” This motivation is solely on your part because quite simply; no-one can force you to learn all this.
Before we get into the midst of things; I want to point out that I’ll break this into 4 different parts. Each part dedicated to one of the four blogs + their resources. So, if you think you have the motivation to get-going – let’s start shall we!
SearchEngineWatch
Mark Jackson, President and CEO of Vizion Interactive (a SEO company) wrote an article on 3 simple ways to have a successful web presence. It’s three very simple “matters” that effect your online web presence. Just like in the offline world; where your presence has a significant influence on the environment – your web presence is equally important.
Mr. Jackson explores the three fundamental rules; “Brand matters. Usability matters. Search Engine Optimization matters.” for identifying and then improving your web presence. The idea itself is pretty ordinary, but it’s the way Mr. Jackson goes about proving his point of view. It’s a must read for any serious blogger, who wants to make an impact on the blogosphere.
Eric Enge takes the liberty to run us through the basic fundamentals behind Search Engine Optimization. The article is pretty old, but a very valuable read indeed. The article helped me to grasp the importance of link-building and hopefully you can get a better insight yourself.
I think, I remember this article so vividly because it gave me an ideal “definition” of the value of link building. I don’t personally use it, but it’s always on the back of my mind. The quote goes;
Link building is often a slow and arduous process that unfolds over a long period of time. But the rewards are large and it’s a fundamental requirement for marketing any Web site, regardless of how established it may be.
As we all know, nothing ticks us off more than having to search a website valiantly for a specific piece of content – and then only run into a horrible 404 error-page. Chris Bogg from SEW explains some very common problems that are found in 404 pages, that can convince potential clients/subscribers/commentators to immediately leave your site.
Recently, Alex wrote up a really good article on a few ways to creating an informative 404 error page. Armed with Chris Boggs practices + Alex’s unprecedented help-guide; you can make your 404 error page – just as appealing as your homepage.
If you spend some time in any webmasters’ forum (ie. DigitalPoint, SitePoint, Warrior etc.) you will see the countless number threads being created on a daily basis – that has no “community-value” what-so-ever. It’s always just garbage-questions of “When’s the next PageRank Update?“ or “Is it safe to buy links?” or “Does SEO still matter?” – it drives me nuts.
Luckily, I’m not the only one thats overly concerned about it. Kevin Ryan talked about the “SEO Rehab discussion” almost six months – but I still urge you to read it. It really does help you bring back the true meaning of SEO.
There are heaps more resources over @ SearchEngineWatch but these are some of the articles that grabbed my attention over the last few months. Check it out and run through some of the later posts and you’ll find plenty of good information.
Stay tuned for Part 2 – where we explore the wonders of SEOmoz!
The Discussion
Leave a Comment Read Again?Glad to be a subscriber. This is a series I don’t want to miss!
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..Understanding The New Rules Of SEO
I’m glad you are too Dennis =D
Appreciate your contribution just as much as you seem to like our posts
Anyways, I won’t be releasing the series back-to-back because they are taking longer than I first thought; instead the four will be mixed in with a couple of other posts
Good decision. I’ve done multiple series on the different blogs I own, and the most successful ones have had posts in between to seperate them. Just means that if a reader isn’t interested in the series, they can still read something and you don’t lose them
Simon | Teenius’s last blog post..Destiny Decisions
You are correct about the amount of SEO information that is out there. Its hard to dismiss anything that can possibly have a great impact. However, the most helpful information is usually found from bloggers own experience. I have bookmarked your link to link building.
Laura-Whateverebay’s last blog post..Welcome to FeedBurner
Hey Laura, firstly let me welcome you to Blogussion – I believe its your first visit; or first comment at least.
Your right on the money, a blogger’s experience can teach them so many things an eBook or a guide can’t – somethings just have to be “hands-on” IMO.
BTW glad you found the link-building one useful! If there’s anything you would add to it – please be my guest
Great aritcle,
I’d like to add that who ever is doing manual link building these days, may have to work really hard to gain results. the best option for link building is to use an automated system and tell people to spread the word of your site – i know that when i see a really usefull site, i post a link for it in my social media sites and thats a whole lot of link building for a stranger.
tzveeka’s last blog post..Economic crises and Personal crises
Hey TzVeeka, Thank you for your comment
I’m curious to as what you mean by “an automated system”? Hope you can tell us what you meant by that. Also, just like you’ve said word-of-mouth can be a really good promotion tool, especially if your site’s unique and offers something extra ordinary.
Twitter didn’t get this big solely through from PPC
This article is interesting !
Customizing a 404 is the way to not lost potential user on your blog.
Seo forum become real not interesting if we compare to Seo blog ! Seo forum are infested of the same question from people who want to learn without working or searching with “search fonction”
If you monitor your traffic logs closely, you shouldn’t be surprised to see your 404 page to be one of the, if not the most active “exist page”.
There are so many websites out there, that just return useless 404s and not many of us hit-back. Some sites still even have the “default” 404 that just brings up the generic message, and has no back-links to the original site at all
Oh and I couldn’t agree with you anymore about the SEO Forums. Most of these “big’ forums would be dead if people used the search button! If you keep an eye out – I reckon the same questions get asked repeatedly on a daily basis, especially on DP.
All those blogs are indeed great resources Janith!
One word of caution though when you search for specific information on those blogs (which are huge in size) is to look at the time stamp of the post.
The reason is simply because SEO is changing quite fast and you want to make sure that the information you are reading is the latest and up to date one.
Nicolas Prudhon’s last blog post..Would you like to see a SEO Forum here?
Very true Nicholas, SEO is rapidly changing – there’s no doubt. I think it’s moreover because we still don’t know Google’s algorithm – and people keep guessing. When it seems to work (when you find a loophole) it’s not long before they come fix it up – then the whole process starts again of finding the “edge”.
This is why SEO is always changing (from Google’s perspective) so we need to stay updated with the latest.
Also – not only for SEO but pretty much anything in today’s world is so rapidly changing. In any blog or source of information you should be making sure that you are reading the “latest info”
It is very nice to give the best seo blogs.Very useful one to all of us.Hope all is benefited.Great info.
Thank you for the compliments Agnes, glad you stopped by and found this useful
Finally someone who can write a good blog ! . This is the kind of information that is useful to those want to increase their SERP’s.
I loved your post and will be telling others about it. Subscribing to your RSS feed now. Thanks
Very informative.A nice step for the learners of search engine optimization.
Very helpful! Thank you!
Nancy’s last blog post..Good Music? Pfft, No.
Hi,
Good discusion here. Please do mail me if anyone has a free blog directories
A really great post. SEO is something that seems to be a mystery for most bloggers. Learning how to use it is the key to finding success.
.-= Seth W´s last blog ..The Biggest Blogging Resource Page Ever! =-.
Really informative post. I’m off to Bruce Clay SEO article now. Thanks I hope I can improve my SEO skills.
.-= MichaelR´s last blog ..OneSuite Has Canada Covered! Up to 50% Cheaper =-.
Hi,
Wow, Nice blog,Nice tips.The information you provide on this site has helped me tremendously.Thank you for all your time & work.
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