What Is The Best Way To Learn SEO?

I would have to say that there is no one way to learn SEO. I say this because there is a lot that goes into it. Some of these things are keyword research and writing quality content. I would say just get started by doing. Just start with one website or a couple of websites.

Experiment with them by changing the title tag, adding more content to some of the pages, re-optimizing. As you work on them, keep an SEO Log and write down the changes that you make and the dates that you make them. Watch how it influences rankings. If you do this diligently you will learn more from this than any reading.If you are learning you should discover that your website now sucks because your knowledge has grown. That is a great thing. Rebuild the site. You will probably be amazed with the results.

Install google analytics on these websites and become a student of the sources of traffic and the queries that people type in. When you improve a 200 word page to a 500 word page watch for the explosion of new long tail keywords that flood in. Watch how great content holds visitors and crap content bounces them.

Pick a subject that you are very familiar with and enjoy. Then create the best content on the web for that topic and post it on your site. Watch where it ranks right away (you will probably be disappointed). Check the rankings about once a week and watch what happens. You will be impressed with what happens to quality. But, be patient as this type of content rises very slowly in the SERPs -- but in 6 to 12 to 24 months you will be surprised where it ranks.

Be careful that you don't deceive yourself into thinking that your content is the best when it is merely pedestrian. Be prepared to keep it up-to-date and to improve it when someone else trumps it.

Pick a good SEO forum and visit once a day. Watch for people who come there posting titles like... "Wah! My site lost tons of traffic." Read all of those for a while and you will quickly start to see patterns. You will generally find that they have committed some type of sin, usually with links or shortcuts. Do not repeat their sins no matter how tempting. Then after each google update read the post of the people who are cryin' and you will soon learn that google is smacking down a different type of shortcut and that google rarely smacks down quality that is difficult to produce.

While you are on these forums never listen closely to all of the advice, because lots of the advice in SEO forums is really bad advice - even when it comes from gurus and oracles. Nobody understands google perfectly and most advice given is shooting from the hip with fragmentary data - especially if the advisor has not spend a lot of time on your website and studied your analytics carefully over time. Spend a couple hours a week poking into busy forums. You will learn a lot, find strong allies and trusted people who will be worth hiring for jobs where you lack expertise.

This is one way that you can get started with SEO. I know this is how I got started with SEO. As a matter of fact this online community and its training has helped me understand SEO better. You can sign up for free and give it a test drive and find out for yourself.