30 Essential SEO Resources for Beginners

For many bloggers, SEO seems like some kind of black magic that only super technical people can ever get the hang of.

I’ll admit, starting out with SEO can be very intimidating.

The massive amounts of information (and misinformation) is enough to send any blogger into a state I like to call “information paralysis”, where they are unable to act.

I’d like to alleviate some of that today.

Below I’ve outlined some of the most essential and trusted SEO resources, from blogs, to tools, to guides, to forums and conferences: it’s all here.

Dive in below, and don’t let the fear of learning something new stop you from utilizing this great inbound marketing aspect.

SEO Blogs

It’s always good practice to keep updated on the world of SEO with the top SEO blogs.

Below I’ve outlined a few of my personal favorites, covering search engine news, tips, and algorithm changes.

• Search Engine Land – One of the biggest blogs on search engine news and information.
• SEOmoz – One of my favorite SEO blogs, I’m also a contributor, split between the main blog and the YouMoz blog, filled with good SEO articles.
• SEO Book – Aaron Wall creates some truly great articles, love him or hate him, you should be reading his blog.
• Matt Cutts – Head of Google’s webpam team, you should probably listen to him or something.
• Search Engine Journal – Great blog for link building, PPC, and optimization information.
• Google’s Blog – Google’s main blog, not much on SEO specifically, but it’s good to know what Big G is up to.

SEO Guides

Blogs can be an incredible source of information.

Unfortunately, for the newbie, they are too split up: info is spread throughout hundreds (or thousands) of posts.

These complete guides offer a more thorough offering on learning SEO.

• Google’s SEO Start Guide – Official Google guide to getting started with SEO.
• Beginner’s Guide to SEO – The most essential read for beginners, and it’s pretty too!
• The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors – Excellent visual guide to SEO.
• SEO Copywriting Guide – The SEO Copywriting guide is a must read
• Marketing Terms – Confused about what “SEO”, “SEM”, “PPC”, or “inbound marketing”? Learn all of the necessary phrases here.
• Search Engine Ranking Factors Guide – Another great guide, this time on ranking factors, from SEOmoz
• Simplifying SEO Guide – Great guide on how to keep SEO simple.
• SEO Cheat Sheet – Another must read for website owners from SEOmoz.

SEO Tools

SEO can be an immense time sink if you aren’t careful.

Definitely check out a few of the SEO tools below that can save you countless hours and a ton of frustration.

Just be sure not to spend too much time playing around with the tools instead of actually using them!

• Google Keyword Tool – If there is one “getting started” tool that you must learn about, it’s this one. Know it well, you’ll use it forever (or at least as long as Google is around).
• SEOmoz’s Tools – A comprehensive suite of tools that I’ve started to fall in love with. It’s paid (and a premium price), but very useful.
• Google Webmaster Tools – If you are going to play Big G’s game (whitehat style), you need to use their tools.
• Open Site Explorer – A individual SEOmoz tool that’s perfect for checking competitor’s backlinks, as well as other metrics. More comprehensive if you’re a pro user.
• Serp IQ – One of my recent favorite tools to emerge on the market, tons of great uses from competition analysis to keyword discovery, this tool is insanely fast and has a ton of great features.
• Scribe SEO – A super useful tool (especially if you are focusing on WordPress SEO) because it breaks down keyword density to perfection.
• SpyFu – Great for spying on your competitors, specifically their advertising.
• Wordtracker Keyword Tool – A classic, must use for keyword research.
• Market Samurai – Still one of the best keyword analysis tools on the market, perfect for checking SEO competition, although it runs somewhat slowly (Adobe Air).

SEO Forums

Although guides and blogs can offer a ton of essential information, sometimes you are going to have questions.

Forums are a great spot to get these questions answered.

• Webmaster World – One of the oldest forums for website owners.
• Digital Point Forum – Useful, but can be a time sink: remember, it’s always better to do more work and less reading.
• Search Engine Watch Forum – Very popular forum tied to Search Engine Watch.

Conferences

A bit advanced for most, but a great way to really dive into SEO is to know about (and go to) the many search engine related conferences.

• SES Conference – SES is the leading global event series about search and social marketing, with a focus on tactics and best practices.
• Blueglass – BlueGlass’ Internet Marketing Conferences have quickly become known in the web marketing circles as being premier events for learning the latest strategies, interacting with the speakers and networking
• Search Marketing Expo – Another leading search engine conference.