I know there are a lot of resources on SEO, but most of them are junk. I have been doing SEO for over 9 years now and I learned most of it from reading and practicing it. If you want to learn SEO, and actually get good at it, read and use the following resources:
Blogs
The world of SEO is constantly changing because search engines constantly change their algorithms. These sites offer news, information, and tips about SEO.
- Search Engine Land – The most well respected search engine and SEO news website. [tweet]
- Search Engine Guide – They focus on SEO for small businesses. [tweet]
- Search Engine Watch – One of the oldest blogs out there. [tweet]
- SEOmoz – Not only will you find blog posts from the SEOmoz staff, but you will also find blog posts from other SEOs through YOUmoz. [tweet]
- Online Marketing Blog – They have a great mix of SEO, PR, and social media articles. [tweet]
- Search Engine Roundtable – This is one of the more unique blogs out there. They literally try to cover everything in the search space. [tweet]
- SEO Book – A blog by one of the best SEOs out there. [tweet]
- Matt Cutts – This is a blog by the head of Google’s Web Spam team. When he talks, you better listen. [tweet]
- Search Engine Journal – One of the oldest SEO news blogs. [tweet]
- Marketing Pilgrim – A blog started by Andy Beal, a guy who knows how to create and grow a SEO company. [tweet]
- John Battelle’s Search Blog – John loves to analyze the search space and the growth of different search engines. [tweet]
- Google Blog -This is Google’s main blog and they discuss everything related to Google. [tweet]
- Traffick – Another good SEO blog… they also have a strong knowledge of PPC. [tweet]
- SEO by the Sea – Very detailed resourceful blog posts. [tweet]
- Google Blogoscoped – This blog is also all about Google. But the difference is, this one is written by an outside party instead of by someone at Google. [tweet]
- SEO Black Hat – If you want to learn about the dark side of SEO, this blog should do the trick. [tweet]
- Wolf Howl – A blog by an SEO who isn’t afraid to speak his mind. [tweet]
Information
Although blogs are going to be your main source of information, they don’t cover everything.
- Search Engine Comparison Chart – Not all search engines have their own algorithm. You’ll be surprised on how many search engines get their results from other search providers. [tweet]
- Marketing Terms – This dictionary will help you understand all of the marketing terms you run into. [tweet]
- Google’s SEO Guidelines – Google’s take on SEO as well as a starter guide. [tweet]
- SEO Beginners Guide – SEOmoz has very detailed guide on SEO for beginners. It is a long read, but you can easily split it up over a few days. [tweet]
- SEO Chat – Find weekly SEO videos here. [tweet]
- Search Engine Colossus – There are a lot more search engines than you may know of. This is a place where you can find them all.
- Web Pro News – Find video interviews of SEO experts on this site. [tweet]
- Simplifying SEO – Eric Enge simplifies SEO. [tweet]
- SEO Cheat Sheet – If you are having someone else help you with your SEO, make sure they follow everything on this sheet. [tweet]
- SEO FAQ – When you first get started you are going to have questions. This should answer the majority of them. [tweet]
- SEO Pyramid – Make sure you start off with a strong base and build your way up. [tweet]
Tools
SEO is a very time consuming process. These tools will not only make your life easier, but they’ll help you understand what you need to do and how to rank well on search engines.
- SEO ToolSet – Here are the tools that one of the first SEOs created. [tweet]
- SpyFu – If you are interested in learning what search terms your competition is ranked for or is adverting on, then this will be a great tool for you. [tweet]
- SEOmoz’s Tools – Although these tools cost money, they are worth it. [tweet]
- Wordtracker – You don’t have to wonder how popular keywords and phrases are. [tweet]
- Meta Tag Analyzer – Find out your website’s keyword density. [tweet]
- Google Toolbar – This toolbar will show you what your Google PageRank number is. The closer you are to 10, the higher you will usually rank. [tweet]
- Anchor Text Analyzer – Find out what anchor text people are linking to you with and your competition with. [tweet]
- Google Webmaster Tools – Get an inside view of how Google looks at your website, and submit an XML sitemap to them. [tweet]
- Digital Point SEO Tools – A collection of 17 tools. [tweet]
- SEO Chat Tools – They have a lot of good tools such as a spider simulator. [tweet]
- SEO for Firefox – If you want to be an SEO, this plugin will make you want to use Firefox. [tweet]
- AdWords Estimator – Although you aren’t looking to pay for traffic, this estimator will give you a good idea of how many clicks you can get from Google. [tweet]
- DIYSEO – Keep track of your SEO progress [tweet]
- Backlink Checker – See how many people link to your website VS your competition. [tweet]
- Google Datacenter Search – Your website’s rankings will vary on different datacenters. [tweet]
Forums
Sometimes you are going to be unsure of what to do. The best thing to do when this happens is to ask someone for advice. Through forums you can communicate with other SEOs.
- High Rankings Forum – A good community with a lot of friendly SEOs. [tweet]
- Webmaster World – One of the oldest and most popular SEO forums out there. [tweet]
- SEO Chat Forum – Another popular forum that discusses SEO and other webmaster related topics. [tweet]
- Digital Point Forum – The most active forum in the SEO world. [tweet]
- Search Engine Watch Forum – Almost 60,000 SEOs discuss search related stuff here. [tweet]
- SEO Black Hat Forum – There is a lot of good information here, but you have to pay for it. [tweet]
Conferences
A good way to learn SEO is in person. Going to conferences won’t just keep you up-to-date on the SEO world, but it will allow you to learn from some of the most successful SEOs.
- Search Engine Strategies – They hold conferences every couple months all over the world. They also have workshops before the conference starts. [tweet]
- PubCon – This conference started from the Webmaster World forum. Not only will you learn about SEO, but it is one of the funnest events because it is in Vegas. [tweet]
- Blueglass – A new up and coming conference that ties in the web 2.0 world with the SEO world. [tweet]
- SMX – They have some of the best panels and speakers that you’ll ever here at a search conference. [tweet]
Do you know of any other good SEO resources? If so, leave a comment.
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This is Great everything at one place,all the great seo resource is here, i will suggest everyone to bookmark
Definitely a good idea!
Wow. Wonderful post Neil. I think it required some time to gather all these sites. This is a lot of info for people that want to learn more about SEO. Excellent post.
I think people are always interested in learning more SEO. I think focus should also be on finding a good niche.
One of the best link composition. But never thought Neil would link “blackhat” forums.
Kudos.
Why not ? You need to know how everything works if you want to do your job better. That doesn’t mean you have to use BlackHat techniques, though.
Yep, some of it’s even gray area
There’s always good info available.
You have the Seobook blog listed, but I’d add the forum too… (for paying members only)
Yeah, I would expect most people to understand that, or browse around after they hit those sites.
why only for paying members.. any reason. may be to protect your forum from spammer?
The site’s gotta make money 1 way or another right….
The site has to make some money but in order to convince people to pay you have to offer something that interests them, like quality content, to interact with them, to show them that they need you not the other way around.
Quality content is what it takes… stuff that actually helps people make money.
its have the Seobook blog listed, but I’d add the forum too… (for paying members only)
Yes, and definitely worth it
Nice work, Neil. I have a couple of more suggestions for you –
- Conversation Marketing – Ian Lurie – http://www.conversationmarketing.com – Great blog on SEO, social, and internet marketing strategy
- http://www.ericward.com/articles/ – Eric Ward, also known as ‘Link Moses,’ is one of those OG SEOs who’s been in the game forever. I think he did Amazon’s first link building campaign – he has a testimonial from Jeff Bezos on his site. His link-building articles are great.
Very true, I’ll look into adding those guys in the next update.
Great list! SEOMoz was the most helpful to me when I was starting out.
I agree, it’s a great website with some good stuff
This the amazing list.. try out some more site.. they’ll be helpful for you
I think the best way to learn something is going to different places and getting different perspectives and practicing them. Then get advice and fine tune your skills and do it over again.
Yeah, it’s going after a couple resources and using what sticks in your mind.
Wow ! A really helpful and comprehensive list. I’ll have to take a look and them all. I always move to find more resources that could ease my work
There’s a lot of stuff, so come back to it ever so often.
This is a very great collection of SEO tools. Thanks for this post and for sharing this wonderful piece with us here.
Awesome to hear, glad it was useful for you.
55 ways to tweet it! And it’s working! Nice list, Neil, but better job with its sharability. Tweeted!
I wanted to make sure you didn’t miss it
Yeah! its good and very helpful when you share your personal knowledge or managed work.
we are so nice of Neil.
It’s my pleasure, hopefully it works out for you.
Certainly a very good list here Neil. And I think I’m subscribed to at least 80% of the blogs in the list.
Cheers!
You’re a smart person to do so!
Was wondering if you could expand a little on how the Google Data Centers work. I’ve been a little bit disturbed to see one of my websites on the 2nd page of Google, yet silently wondered how it would get hits. So, I check out the data center link that you provided and find my site on the first page in a few different situations depending on the IP. How does all of this work?
It’s a long and complicated thing to understand, so I suggest you focus on the basics first. Email me neil @neilpatel.com later on and then I’ll be happy to explain it to you.
Wow, this is a great list. Most of these sites I never heard of. I looked at the first one, search engine land, and was blown away by everything on there. My focus is links! I need links! Have any suggestions Neil?
Start looking at the sites one by one and you’ll learn about them slowly but surely… There are many important factors.
This is a really excellent read for me. Must admit that you are one of the best blogger I ever saw. Thanks for posting this useful article.
Thanks, that means a lot to me
I use the tools from the seobook site; they are fantastic.
Yea they definitely are. If you get a chance, share of some of what you learned.
Once again superb post Neil. This is a very great collection of SEO tools. Thanks for this post and for sharing this wonderful piece with us here. Keep on like that..
Absolutely, let me know how it works out for you.
Speechless information posted by you, you have posted your nine years of experience. Thanks for your excellent information.
you can also check new add on provided by firefox http://www.seoquake.com and very helpful to seo.
Awesome, thanks for sharing that.
Very Good resource given. But do anyone get time to read all?Wondering…I am able to read quite few of them.
It will take you a while, so I suggest you start at the top
I’m surprised you didn’t list cre8asiteforums for the SEO forums. I’m a member there (not a mod or anything) and think its a great forum
Hmm, I’ll have to look into that for the next update.
Pretty good list. SEOMoz for me is one of the top resources. SEO Book by Aaron Wall was also a big help when I got started.
Yes it is, thanks for sharing that.
There’s also the MarketSTL conference in Saint Louis, MO
http://www.MarketSTL.com
Interesting, are you going?
Thanks for the mention Neil. We compiled a list of 100+ SEM resources here, http://tprk.us/mDNNl but not all are for beginners.
Great list, thanks for the share.
yeah.. this list is amazing.. but its not fully for newbie but they can learn a lot.
There are some sites specifically made a newbie…
Just wanted to thank you for the great resources and emails, I feel like I have a friend that is always helping me in business. As all business owners know its tough spending long hours hammering out the business each day brings us. Its great to have experts in this field to keep us linked in to the latest information.
I’m glad I’m there to help! Let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help.
Ola Neil,
Thanks for sharing the info but I have to say that more than half of those tools are worthless these days accept GWT and Google tools.
Wordtracker is a fantastic tool if you need to find out keyphrase/s for US based searches they are still in the process of adding UK data, so this might not be as useful in UK as yet.
Well it all depends on what you need and what your goals are. Different tools apply to different people.
Neil,
Any input you have regarding SEO is worthwhile. Thanks for putting this together.
Glad it helped Joseph!
Hi Neil, awesome collection of SEO links indeed. I PDF’d it infact (just for myself)
Thanks!
Smart move, but just be sure to start visiting the links
Impressive list. I know a few people I will be forwarding this too. I like how you included the black hat sites as well!
They have some good info too
Black hat isn’t always the best route to take but it doesn’t hurt as a short time back up. If you don’t get caught that is.
True, there are some interesting techniques you can learn, but it’s very short lived.
Good list Neil, I too have always been a fan of many of the sites you’ve listed.
I’ve always found the SEO Book tools useful as well. Its great for quick snapshot looks at ranking/links/competitiveness etc.
They have some powerful tools you can use indeed.
Great resources, Neil- you may consider adding Vanessa Fox’s blog as well @ http://www.ninebyblue.com/blog … Basically the opposite of the black hat reference
Thanks for sharing that lol
I love your recommendation of Digitalpoint as a forum. I just wish more of my competitors will go there to get their SEO information
lol
Great list! Your list containing almost all the top blogs.
I like the SeoMoz most from all. Awesome blog really and help me a lot.
Yeah these resources are pretty much the cream of the crop… let me know how it works out for you.
Please don’t forget about Raven Tools – hands down the one resource I could not do my job without.
Very true, thanks for remind me…. they have good stuff.
Wow, this page has all the great SEO resources in one place! Really nice and without a doubt I am going to check out all of them one by one. I think it will take me a long while to do that…
yeah it should hopefully be a great resource for you to get some good info from.
Hi Neil,
I would like to thank you for sharing interesting and informative posts about SEO. I was searching to read something new about SEO and you fulfill my requirement. Thanks a lot for that. I will read your blog regularly to keep my knwoledge updated.
Thanks, it’s my pleasure to inform you of stuff like this
great list . i seomoz for rank tracking and term target analysis … I didnt know about all these tools existed ..
thanks
There are a lot aren’t they. All of them have good stuff
gr8 and large resource for all users, including beginners too
, hats off mate 
, this post rocks
Nice article…. You can see its success by how many tweets you get man. Good job!
Seems like your audience loves SEO articles from you.
How ’bout an opml file to plug these into a feed reader? Thanks!
I have never tried it. I’ll have to dig into it a bit more.
A great and comprehensive list indeed! Very useful and I totally agree with everything that’s listed. They are all a great resource. Thanks for sifting through all the crap and presenting us with the real and truthful thing.
It’s really my pleasure Andrew, I’m just glad you found it useful.
Thats a very useful list but I would suggest to stick to a few of these and get active on that site. That ways you build some relations and can also get clarifications if needed. BTW.. I think SEO is getting more and more obsolete now and its more about brand building and PR etc., would you agree Neil?
Link building is where it’s really at.
Checkout http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/ for a good SEO forum. The site is hosted by Stack Overflow and has in my opinion the best technical question forum engine out there.
Very nice site, thanks for sharing.
I would like to thank you for providing this informative information about SEO. I have been searching for information about SEO to determine if I am doing it right. Thanks a lot. I was wondering if you have developed a post like this on backlinking?
It’s my pleasure, I hope these techniques work for you.
I admire your writing really. Only a great blogger can do this.
I love all your blog posts and they provide up to date knowledge..
Thanks ladder, always great to have a loyal reader like you.
Neil… Why some users do comment on same name and can give his URL and get credited to Top Commentators. you should choose top commentator by email address. thanks
They try to rank for keywords.
This happened a few times to me also. You can’t do nothing really about it. They don’t know how to respect others.
Hi Neil. Awaiting for your next post. I love to read each and every post on your site. It help to increase my knowledge and make me confident…
Thanks ladder, should be coming soon
I’m working on trying to improve my sites SEO as we speak, and frankly have lost my way amongst all of the sites out there.
This list is a great one-stop shop for all things SEO.
Thanks for posting.
Yes, that’s exactly what I was trying to do, so glad it worked out for you.
Hi Neil.
I’ve been tasked, after my proposal, to create 3 niche sites for our company and I’ve began using Market Samurai to start selection of the niche topics. What do you think of that tool?
Thanks.
It’s a great tool that’ll help you streamline some of the process. Be sure to let us know how it goes though.
Neil, it was great finally meeting you at the Winning Strategies event in Long Beach earlier this week.
Do you have any tips or resources on how to create the BEST SEO PROPOSALS?
I don’t. Just make sure they are detailed and cover every aspect of what you are going to give a client. Also if you want to increase your chances of getting them signed, try to add a case study at the end of each proposal.
Kayan,
Something I’d also recommend in addition to what Neil recommended with the case study is to even before hand offer a competitive analysis so the person who receives your proposal knows that you have honestly and actually taken the time to understand their business and reverse engineered the competition.
Best wishes!
Thank you both for chiming in. As an SEO company bidding for retainer projects, proposals are often a big part of getting the deal or not. Adding case study is a great idea!
Mark, your recommendation is well taken for those bigger projects where the pay off is worth the hours for the research.
Great stuff!
Yep very true Kayan!
Yes very true, with the case study, it allows people to feel more comfortable.
I started learning SEO only two months back. A Important factor I noticed is that we have to update our knowledge in SEO in order to sustain in this Industry. Very Good resource for people like me.
It’s a process so keep learning because it’s always changing.
Couldn’t agree more with Neil.
Always learning is key to success in anything, but particularly in the Internet marketing industry as it is always changing on a day to day basis. What worked yesterday might not work today.
Be forward thinking.
Hi Neil,
Great compilation. However too much information for someone new to start. Can you recommend 3 such destinations where I should start to learn SEO.
Different sites work for different people… just click a few links and go from there.
Neil,
Thanks for taking the time to compile this list of excellent SEO resources.
Thank you so much for putting this together I have just hired someone completely green. I can pass this along to her so she can get a general idea of where she can get help or answers for the many I know will be coming around.
Definitely a smart move! Let me know how it works out.
Neil great job on this list. After mastering investing on Wall street,Iam now tackling SEO to help teach others how to beat the stock market. Neil or anyone else, Is there any of these suggestions you would do FIRST if you only had limited time
Bill,
What I would do first is do everything you can all websites you own, manage, maintain to SEO optimize to the best of your ability. Before you do that even make sure you have great analytics installed and running to get a baseline. I recommend Google Analytics, KISSmetrics, and Clicky.
What I would do second is subscribe to these two blogs:
SEOmoz Blog
SEO Boy
Check out the SEOmoz Tools and consider signing up for their Pro account.
Best wishes.
Great ideas, especially teh KISSmetrics part
. I agree with those blogs, they are great sources.
@Mark, thanks for answering this question. I read through all the posts waiting for some one to answer a question similar to “What to do first?”
I have been doing a lot to build links, but the site keeps getting bumped around on the first page. I see that a lot of people like SEOmoz. I’ve been to their site, but wasn’t sure if subscribing would be worth it.
@Neil, thanks for having a blog that will email responses back to people. I never remember to go back to a blog to see if some one answered the question I asked.
Great to use for you own blog huh?
Thanks Bill, looking forward to more of your comments. If you need any help with SEO, let me know.
Some really powerful SEO tools out there. Not only for the first time SEOs becuase I am sure, professionals could also learn something new from the mentioned resources.
I agree, there are really great things for marketers of all kind.
Wow what an extensive list. Talk about one he11 of a resource! It can be a bit overwhelming but if you go through I am anyone can find what they need.
Yea all I can say is that Neil has hooked us up. Def good place to learn new things and test them out yourself to see what really works.
Thanks, I’m happy to hear you think that way
Hopefully… it’s your one stop shop.
i’m impressed now completely ……………………Neil you rock.
but if i want to learn most advance level of SEO where to get guide plz help.
I think if you take a look at any of these websites you’ll get some really good info.
Wow!! I mean … wow!! “When you wish upon a star …”
But there’s just one more thing I wish I could wish for: a simple down-and-dirty cheat sheet. No, not “do these five things and rocket to the top of Google!” But seriously, I could spend the next three months reading through all of this and trying most of the tools and suggestions – but that’s not what I went into business to do.
And right now I’m really the only game in town. Yes, competition is coming, and probably sooner than I anticipate, and I will need the tools to outgun ‘em and stay on top. But I’ve also got to have a good product for my customeers. And if I’m spending all my time learning to be a webmater and SEO ninja, who’s minding my store?
So what’s for the little one-horse-show? It seems getting into business and putting up a web site is something no one should do without a degree in all-things-web or at least the money to hire a guru. But that can’t be totally true.
I’m willing to learn. But is there a place that serves up bite-size chunks for the CEO/stock boy/janitor that just wants to improve his web presence whilst juggling everything else?
Ed
Of course there… the web has room for everyone
Ohh wow, what an extensive list. I guess just about any question you would have you could find it at one of these sites. Thanks for putting it all together.
I’m glad you found it useful. Let me know how it works for you.
Thanks Neil for putting such an extensive work for all of us, One thing i am always thinking of and could not understand is that most of SEO experts always recommend for Quality content (i too agree to the same) however i have seen sites or blogs with very good rating but having a low grade stuff. How can you explain that? (sorry for being that detailed in comments section)
It maybe because those industries are too small with not enough sites that deliver good quality content.
Hi There,
Just stumbled upon this site lookks like a really good set of resources and defnitely wish it was around when I had started looking for blogs early on!
I’m not sure how often you update this but you left off a few that I think are great for Search Engine News and Updates (much like SEwatch, SEJ and SEL):
Econsultancy (econsultancy.com) and State of Search (stateofsearch.com) are both great for this!
Thanks for the list though!
Thanks, those are all amazing references too.
I know few important things about seo you can also use Google seo guide which are also useful for SEO beginner, And your all tips are also appreciable , Even i get bookmark this page
Thanks, that’s good to know that our thoughts are aligned.
Before few month, I started learning SEO. I noticed important factor that is we have to update our knowledge in SEO in order to sustain in this Industry.
SEO is ever changing so you must constantly stay on top of new information and algorithms.
These are Excellent Resources Neil. I always started learning seo from many years. I can get good results, but main thing, i worry about, is whether i can do sales or not.
It’s something you need to learn sooner or later as it’s what helps businesses grow.
Wonderful post Neil..We have recently launched an SEO Tool which improve your SEO keyword rankings to reach to the top positions in search engines using our SEO software.
That’s pretty interesting, how’s it working out for you guys.
Hi Neil
Another wealth of information. Something I also need to build upon. I currently have a SEO company working for my Blog, trying to rank me on the first page of google. Will, thats what they said they would do at no cost to me. Haven’t paid them a cent yet.
Will see how things develop.
That’s awesome that they aren’t charging you until results occur. Good luck!
Excellent post Neil, All SEO related websites in one place, its All in one SEO. Bookmarking this page is really a great idea
Thanks, Glad you found the post useful.
This has been really useful to my step dad its funny how the conversations now go to seo instead of well not much at all.
hahaha, I see it has become you..Good stuff!
Thanks for this usefull article. I bookmarked this one.
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks!
That is the best list ever…
*bowing
Glad you enjoyed it
I know there are a lot of resources on SEO, but most of them are junk. I have been doing SEO for over 9 years now and I learned most of it from reading and practicing it. If you want to learn SEO, and actually get good at it, read and use the following resources:
Blogs
The world of SEO is constantly changing because search engines constantly change their algorithms. These sites offer news, information, and tips about SEO.
Thanks for the insight. I appreciate your advice, It definitely seems like you have picked up a lot over the years. I do believe that the best way to get good at anything is to study all you can read, that’s what I do.
Thanks, I have picked up quite a bit over the years.
I agree, I’m a big believer in learning as much as you can.
Great article, which has saved me a lot of time trying to find good information on search engine optimisation.
Thank you, I hope the ones here are helpful to you.
Very useful page to bookmark. Thanks.
No problem, glad you found it useful.
Neil, I started reading your blog days ago and I’m getting glued already. This is a great list that is very resourceful. what I admire most is your style of writing and sincerity. Keep it up
Awesome! Thanks for becoming a Quick Sprout reader.
I won’t mind taking my time into these different sites you shared Neil. Will find out what’s in there. Thank you, you’re great Neil.
Most of them are the tools that we are using in our task. Thanks for posting it..