SEO resources you should bookmark
I know a lot of people who are starting to do SEO for the first time and are struggling to know where to start. There’s so many resources and guides out there, it’s hard to know where to start!
So, I’ve compiled a lot of resources that I’ve found useful. I’m hoping this is particularly useful for people who are finding themselves in a position where they need to take on more SEO responsibilities because they don’t want, or can’t afford to, hire an SEO consultant or agency right now.
The basics of search from Google
Steps to Create a Google-Friendly Site – Google have put together this pretty concise list of some tips they recommend to create a ‘Google-friendly’ site.
SEO Starter Guide – This guide is more comprehensive but worth a read (or maybe just a skim-read…)
Super useful guides
Moz’s SEO Learning Center – Moz’s guide is a great resource. You can read through each chapter or watch their hour-long video series instead if that’s more your thing.
Local SEO
How to Optimise Your Google My Business Listing – This short post walks you through how to create and verify your GMB listing and how to optimise it to get the most value from it.
SEO keywords & content
SEO Content: Complete Beginner’s Guide – If you want learn how to write content for SEO, you’ll find this guide from Backlinko really helpful.
Writing for SEO: How to Write Blogs That Rank on Page 1 of Google – This post shares 13 ways you can master writing for SEO to get that high ranking your content deserves.
On-page SEO
10 Essential On-page SEO Factors – Discover what on-page SEO is, why it matters, and 10 of the most important on-page SEO considerations you need to focus on.
What is a Meta Title Tag? – A useful read if you need to work on your page titles. It has a page title preview tool too which you can use to see how your page titles would appear in search reuslts. They have a useful meta description guide too.
How to use Headings on Your Site – Get pointers on how to think about headers and use them to improve your content.
Internal Linking for SEO: How and why? – Using the right internal linking strategy can boost your SEO. Find out how with this guide from Yoast.
Analytics
Google Analytics – Make sure Analytics is set up and tracking properly before you do anything else. It’s such a valuable tool full of data – but you need to know what you’re looking for.
Google Search Console – Another free Google tool that you should have as standard.
How to use analytics to discover SEO opportunities – I recently watched this talk as part of The Marketing Meetup series of webinars and found it full of practical tips that can help you take your SEO to the next level.
SEO tools
Meta SEO Inspector – A Chrome extension that pulls up the page title, meta description and H1 titles of any URL. I find this most useful for a quick check of specific page.
Yoast SEO – A super popular plugin for WordPress. Really easy to use to update page titles and meta descriptions on each page of your WordPress site.
Google Page Speed Insights – Page speed is one of the ranking factors Google uses. Use this tool to evaluate your page load speed.
Mobile-Friendly Test – Another ranking factor and a must for any site. Simply enter your URL to see if your site is mobile friendly.
Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper – Use this free tool to generate your own code.
SEO for business: Tools I use – I put together a blog post sharing some of the SEO tools I use when I first start an SEO project and another one here sharing 8 free SEO tools that you could use.
Bookmark these resources for later
I’ve also put together a 27-point small business SEO checklist that should help get you started (or at least point you in the right direction).