Lots of resources detailing SEO - some out of date, reader beware.

1. blog.kissmet rics.com http://blog.kissmetrics.com/58-seo-resources/
58 Resources to Help You Learn and Master SEO
As more and more new, quality websites are indexed by search engines, competition f or the top of the results
page is increasingly f ierce. And, since Google routinely updates its search algorithm, staying updated on the
changes is important. Things you were told 2 years ago may not matter at all today.
It can be a tough and technical job, which is why some companies have their own in-house SEO prof essional.
Fortunately, that really isn’t necessary if you have a little knowledge of SEO, have a quality website, and comply
with Google’s guidelines.
In this post, I’ll give you resources you can use to learn about SEO and stay on top of SEO, including some
f ree tools that’ll be usef ul f or f ixing any issues. Enjoy…
For Beginners
Just getting into SEO? Want to learn a little bit every day? These resources are a good place to start:
1. How Google Crawls – Discusses the basics of how Google crawls the web, indexes, and serves results.
2. How Google Works – If you want to get into SEO, you’ll need to understand the basics of how Google (and
other) search engines work. This video provides a background on Google search.
3. Getting the Basics – If you want to get traf f ic f rom Google and rank well, you’ll need to have a site that
Google views as high quality. It has certain signals that it uses to gauge a site’s quality. This article covers the
basics of what attributes you’ll need.
4. PageRank – To understand the Google search engine and why some sites rank higher than others, you’ll
need to have an understanding of PageRank. This Wikipedia article gives a good background. (It’s even
ref erenced by Google employees.)
5. Quick Sprout’s Guide to SEO – A 9 chapter, inf ographic-style guide to SEO. A good resource if you don’t
want to read a book but want something more thorough than a simple explanation.
6. Moz’s Guide to SEO – Don’t want to learn about SEO through long inf ographics? Then check out this 10
chapter guide written by the f olks over at Moz.
7. SEO Starter Guide – Written by Google – A 32 page document which explains how to run SEO. This
document was written by Google in 2010.
8. 8 First Step SEO Tips f or Bloggers – Are you a blogger who wants to increase traf f ic to your website? Try
reading this article f irst to get a good start on your SEO knowledge.
9. SEO Tips f or Beginners – Are you a total novice when it comes to SEO? If so, read this short article which
lists 5 things you can do right now to get you pointed in the right direction.
Free Tools
Quality, f ree tools – what could be better? Check them out:
10. Google Webmaster Tools – Bef ore you look at any other tool, check out this suite of tools provided by

2. Google. For help using Webmaster Tools, check out this page. Also check out Bing Webmaster Tools.
11. Open Site Explorer – Also known as the search engine f or links, Open Site Explorer is a Moz creation. This
tool allows you to see who links to your site, f ind links that point to old and broken pages, and research
competitors to see who links to them. To check out the toolbar and view the product demo, check out this
page. In order to understand this tool, you’ll need to be f amiliar with the terms Page Authority and Domain
Authority. Note: this is a limited f ree tool. You can pay f or enhanced access.
12. Microsof t SEO Toolkit – The Microsof t web team made an SEO tool. Check it out here.
13. Broken Link Finder – Having broken links lowers the quality of your website, which in turn hurts SEO. Find
them and squash them with this f ree tool.
14. SEO Site Tools – An extension f or Chrome that pulls up page rank, meta description, incoming links, and
more f or the site you’re visiting.
15. Keyword Suggestion Tool – A f ree tool (with an account) f rom SEO Book. Shows the number of searches
f or a specif ic keyword and gives suggestions.
16. Majestic SEO – A good tool f or viewing backlinks to your website. Also check out Link Diagnosis.
17. Spider View Simulator – View your website the way a spider would. This will give your site a dif f erent
perspective and may help you f ind and f ix errors. Also check out their other tools.
18. Spider Test Tool – Similar tool as above, but this one is f rom SEO Book.
19. Robots.txt Checker – Errors in your robots.txt can cause problems f or a spider’s ability to crawl your
webpage. Find them with this f ree tool.
20. WordPress SEO Plugin – A popular plugin f or WordPress. View the webpage to see a list of all the f eatures.
21. Anchor Text Over Optimization – Google is cracking down on websites that are overly optimized f or SEO.
Part of that involves anchor text. This tool highlights where you may be at risk f or anchor text over
optimization.
22. Test Page Speed – Your website speed af f ects your page ranking, so you want to ensure your website
loads as quickly as possible. This tool (f rom Google) will measure your site’s speed and of f er suggestions f or
improving speed.
23. Google Trends – Shows volume of searches over time. A good tool to view keyword popularity.
Knowing the Status of Your Website
Want to know how optimized your website is f or SEO? Check out these f or help:
24. Anatomy of a Perf ectly Optimized Web Page – Unsure of how to make an SEO optimized page? Or not
sure if your page is optimized? Print out this graphic and hang it in your of f ice.
25. Webmaster Guidelines – Take a while to read these guidelines and make sure your site is in compliance with
Google. Don’t f orget to check out the Link Schemes document, which has recently been updated. For a
background on the update, check out this article.
26. Marketing Grader – HubSpot’s popular f ree tool gives you an overview of your marketing ef f orts, including
an SEO analysis.

3. Tips and Tricks
By “tricks,” I don’t mean “If you just do x to your site, you’ll soar to the top!” That won’t work. These articles
don’t promise anything of that nature. They give quality inf ormation f or you to know:
27. Setting up an SEO Friendly WordPress Site – WordPress is a publishing platf orm that is used by millions of
websites. Read this article if you have a WordPress site or want to get set up with one and are not too f amiliar
with SEO.
28. SEO f or Blogs – Don’t have a WordPress site but still want SEO f or blogs? Have a WordPress site and
want to learn about SEO f or any kind of blog? If yes, check out this article.
29. Patrick McKenzie’s SEO Tricks – McKenzie provides some SEO tricks. Even if you’re advanced with SEO, it
won’t hurt to read this.
30. Making Content Memorable – If you run a blog, it’s important to not put your time and energy into getting
tweets, likes, +1′s, etc. Why? Because it’s still not totally clear how these play into Google’s ranking. You
should be spending your time f ocusing on producing great content. This SEO Copywriting (SuccessWorks)
article gives a good overview of how to turn an article f rom “meh” to memorable.
31. Strategic SEO f or Startups – More good SEO tips f rom McKenzie, this time f ocusing on “Startup SEO.”
32. Quick Wins in SEO – Want some quick wins (that you may not be f amiliar with already) in SEO? Are you
f amiliar with title tags and h2 tags? If not, check out this article. It’ll help bring some quick wins to your website.
33. SEO f or Sof tware Companies – Run a sof tware company and want to know how to get traf f ic to your
website via content creation? Check out this article f or all the details.
34. SEO Tips f rom Gabriel Weinberg – Ever heard of the DuckDuckGo search engine? The creator of that
search engine, Gabriel Weinberg, gives a f ew of his SEO tips here.
35. SEO f or ecommerce – An 8 part article which delves into optimizing an ecommerce site f or SEO.
36. Conducting a Competitive SEO Audit – HubSpot gives an overview of how to conduct an SEO audit of the
competitive landscape.
37. What Every Programmer Should Know – Are you a developer that’s a little unsure about SEO? Read this
article written by a developer explaining the ins and outs of SEO.
38. Best SEO Tactics Post-Panda – In February 2011, Google released a relatively signif icant update to its
algorithm. The update was known as Panda and it hurt the traf f ic of a lot of sites. This Quora thread gives
good tips f or surviving and maintaining strong Google traf f ic in a post-Panda world.
Staying Updated
As mentioned, staying updated on Google algorithm changes is important. Of course, there are a f ew principles
that are timeless and good policy. For example, maintaining a quality site with accurate inf ormation is top
priority, because content is king. These things won’t change.
But being aware of any changes or updates to the Google guidelines and complying with what they’re looking
f or is required, too. These resources will help you do that. They also contain solid advice that you can use f or
your SEO ef f orts. Add these blogs to your RSS reader to stay on top of all things SEO:
39. Google Webmaster Central Blog – The of f icial Google blog f or all things related to its search. Written f or

4. webmasters.
40. Google Algorithm Changelog – A good, unof f icial resource where you can f ind the change history to the
Google algorithm.
41. Google Webmaster YouTube Channel – Frequently updated with a Q&A f rom Matt Cutts. If anything about
SEO is a “must watch,” it’s this. No speculation, no conjecture, just accurate inf ormation f rom a key employee
on Google’s search team.
42. Moz Blog – A variety of topics in the SEO arena are covered. Features a variety of guest bloggers.
43. KISSmetrics SEO posts – A collection of SEO articles that have been posted to the KISSmetrics blog.
44. Search Engine Land – This homepage has lots of good articles related to SEO.
45. Dave Naylor – Dave Naylor is well respected in the SEO industry. Read his blog to get the latest insights.
46. HubSpot SEO Posts – A collection of posts HubSpot has relating to SEO.
47. SEO Book Blog – Aaron Wall is well known in the SEO community. This is his blog, which is part of his site.
48. Search Engine Journal – Gives you tips while also providing some industry news and commentary.
49. SEO Roundtable – Provides a good overview on SEO news.
50. YouMoz – Blog posts written by the Moz community.
51. Search Engine Guide – Contains lots of intriguing and educational posts..
52. Alltop SEO – A continuously updated collection of all the top posts f rom a variety of SEO blogs.
Getting Inside the SEO Industry
Want to engage and communicate with SEO enthusiasts? Check out these resources:
53. Webmaster Central Forum – A large f orum hosted by Google where you can get help with SEO issues.
54. Moz Community – A community hosted by Moz that f eatures a Q&A, articles written by others in the
community, and webinars.
55. SEO Subreddit – An SEO community in Reddit. Features news, Q&A, case studies, and more.
Get Help
In addition to getting help with the 3 resources mentioned above, you can also try these paid methods:
56. Talk with an Expert – Need to talk to someone f or help or advice with SEO? Check out the experts available
on Clarity.
57. SEO Book Community – A popular SEO community. It does require a paid account of $300 a month.
58. Inbound – A Hacker News-like discussion board where many inbound marketing issues are covered. There’s
a heavy f ocus on SEO here.
So, will using all of these tools, reading blogs and articles, and talking with SEO experts get you to the top of a
results page? Nope. The key thing to remember with SEO is that it all comes down to producing quality content.

5. Af ter that, promote it and make sure it spreads. These things will get you pretty f ar.
Because SEO, in the end, is not much dif f erent f rom a business. Giving people what they want and the
accurate inf ormation they need is job #1. If you do SEO exactly right but neglect the quality aspect, your
ef f orts won’t yield much in the way of results. You have to be f amiliar with SEO and have a quality site.
I hope you’ve f ound these resources helpf ul and inf ormative. Any f eedback? Let me hear it in the comments.
About the Author: Zach Bulygo is a blogger f or KISSmetrics, you can f ind him on Twitter here.