For over 10 years I've been performing search engine optimization for organizations ranging from small family run businesses to some of Australia's largest publishers.
I think I know a lot about SEO, websites, how the web works and have some well respected SEO friends who would confirm this. But I'm happy to admit that I need to keep learning if I'm to continue to be good at what I do.
SEO changes and we need to keep learning about those changes. The web is certainly not standing still. It's an amazing living thing that continues to grow, augment and develop.
So how does an SEO consultant train?
The amazing thing about SEO is that there is an abundance of free information available on the internet to help you learn about SEO and subsequently stay abreast of the latest changes.
But Beware! The web is also full of misinformation about the topic. This wrong information often comes from people blogging and commenting on topics that they know little about. They quote other people without verifying the information or without testing these ideas on sites they control.
You won't know all things SEO by just reading what others say. You need to test ideas to prove or disprove them. With this in mind, here's my top 5 ways of learning SEO and continuing your development.
1 - Practice what you preach
The first thing I would advise any person who wants to learn SEO is that they must set up, build and manage their own website. Having access to a number of sites is even better. This will allow you to test ideas interacting with a range of variables.
2 - Subscribe to newsletters and forums
The web is full of great newsletters and forums. You need to work out who are your trusted sources and who you enjoy reading. Make sure you use more than one but not so many that messages are weakened. Most importantly always verify information across sources and then test it yourself.
Personally my two favorite news sources are Search Engine Land & Search Engine Watch, Mark Jackson being my favorite author from the latter.
3 - Share knowledge
Several years ago I worked at one of Australia's largest publishers employed to perform in house SEO on one of its major website properties. Each business unit had a similar person.
If each of these people had to know SEO in isolation it would have been a dead end job and a risky SEO exercise for the company. But they had two things in place that made this work well.
First of all I had a budget to employ and interact with an external SEO agency or consultant.
Secondly the SEO specialist from each business group attended a monthly SEO knowledge sharing group that allowed us to discuss our projects, the challenges and solutions employed.
This allowed us to pool our resources and to create the ultimate learning and testing environment for SEO.
In-house SEO's please take note, this is an excellent strategy for your personal development and it benefits your organization as well as you. Ensure your company has a budget for external SEO advice. As the song goes "We all need somebody to lean on".
Whether you're an in-house SEO consultant, work for a leading agency or for yourself, you need an SEO support group. These are other people who do what you do and are willing to talk about it.
Your support group could be colleagues (past or present), people you meet at conferences and training events as well as online acquaintances.
4 - Undertake an SEO training course
A number of agencies and organizations provide SEO training courses, though in Australia, you have a limited number of quality options.
You will also find a number of online self paced courses available. Look around and choose the course that fits the level you're at and the support you require.
Personally I feel these courses are excellent for beginners through to mid level, but I am yet to see a course that targets the more experienced SEO consultant. I would consider conferences like SMX Advanced more appropriate for those people.
5 - Attend conferences
Whatever your job title and function, you need to stay involved with the industry, meet people, discuss findings and swap ideas. The best place for doing this is by attending industry conferences.
The two organisations I listed for newsletters above also run a series of very good conferences, though you should work out your specific SEO goals and choose the conference(s) that best fit those goals. Australia also has several home grown conferences like Search Engine Boot Camp & Search Engine Room, though these are targeted at the beginner level.
I have been to many of the Australian events and have felt the level is not what I'm looking for. This year I will attended SMX Advanced in Seattle in June. This conference is recognized as the best option for optimizers at the highest level of SEO who want to interact with other top level SEO brains and be involved in advanced sessions and discussions. I would recommend this level of conference for those already at a high level of experience.
For over 10 years Gavin has been managing search engine optimization projects for organizations ranging from small family run businesses to some of Australia's largest publishers. Gavin now works for a leading online marketing agency in Sydney Australia as the SEO Manager and is an experienced all rounder in that he is also well respected as a PPC Search Specialist managing campaigns for many leading brands in both Australia & New Zealand.
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