How To Learn SEO & Do It Yourself

One important consideration for every website is SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. Essentially, SEO is making sure that your website or business shows up on Google, Bing or other web searches. If you want people to find you online, SEO is not something to ignore.

So we asked our favorite SEO expert, Frank Leng to share some of his favorite tips and resources. Here’s what he had to say:

How to Get Started with SEO

Have you heard about this thing, SEO? Have you been wondering how you can start with SEO without spending any money?

It is possible. Learning SEO isn’t as hard as you might think.

In this blog post, I’ll show you how to learn the things you need to do SEO on your own.

The Value of SEO

Good SEO means growing your organic search traffic consistently. This means consistently generating more and visits to your website from search engines.

Organic search traffic is “free” traffic… free because you don’t have to pay for more traffic, but you do have to spend time and effort.

A quick disclaimer: As much as I love SEO and I believe it’s unbelievably valuable, understand that it is only one channel of marketing. While SEO is one way to generate money in your business, you can also use Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, email newsletters, referrals, direct mail…whatever works for you! Here’s one of my favorite articles about all the different ways you can acquire customers.

The Fundamentals of SEO

Before you get started with SEO yourself, you need to develop a good base of knowledge.

Here are my favorite resources to learn some of the fundamentals:

KPIs, Analytics and Analyzing Data: Moz has a great guide to Google Analytics, Quicksprout has a good one on Google Search Console and there are many tools you can use for managing backlinks (Ahrefs, Majestic SEO and Open Site Explorer).
Keyword Research: Backlinko has just updated their guide for 2017.
Competitor Analysis: Thanks, Neil Patel.
Technical Optimization: Use this Quicksprout guide to get started.
Page-Level Optimization: Backlinko’s guide is one of the best.
Site Architecture: Kissmetrics has a good site structure article.
Creating Content: Copyblogger has got your back.
Relationship Building and Outreach: This is the basis of effective link outreach.
Building Backlinks: Brian Dean is really, really good.
Conversion Rate Optimization: ConversionXL is brilliant at this.
Audits: Not only does Ahrefs have a great tool, but great content as well.

Give SEO a Try

I know this is a lot, but you can do this!

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, I would start with an audit to pinpoint your areas of improvement. Choose just three of those to work on at a time. Track your traffic and your rankings and see if your changes help.

The key to becoming an SEO expert is to trust the process and put in the work. Don’t be afraid to fail. Embrace it and learn from your mistakes.

(If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us!).

Stay Informed

I enjoy SEO so much because it is ever changing. The fundamentals will probably not change, but there are always new updates coming out. Here are a couple of blogs you should check to keep yourself on top of changes in SEO:

Frank is the resident SEO at FEAD MEdia, a Austin-based digital marketing agency that helps businesses get clients. They love working with small businesses and pizza. Connect with them on Facebook.