I wish people asked me this in the real world. My answer would be “Do you have 1,200,000 minutes to listen to me talk?”
There is a lot to learn when it comes to SEO. Don’t let that get in the way of learning a valuable skill that can make a world of difference for your business.
SEO is an analytical, data-driven skill that can turn a crumbling business into an empire if done properly.
So How Do You Learn SEO?
The fastest way to learn SEO is to put a website together and start publishing content. Along the way, you’ll learn about connecting tools like Google Search Console for keyword tracking and Google Analytics for measuring traffic.
Here is a quick list of what I recommend to do when starting to learn SEO:
- Spend $100-$150 on website hosting. I use SiteGround grow big plan for unlimited websites.
- Spend $20 on a domain name. SiteGround provides these. Buy it with them.
- Use the simple WordPress setup in SiteGround to install all your website files.
- Enable SSL and set to enforce. This gives your website that “secure connection” badge. Non-negotiable. Do this.
- Login to WordPress and fill out your information in settings.
- Create about me, contact, privacy policy, and terms pages.
- Set your homepage to show recent posts.
- Set up Google Search Console.
- Install RankMath plugin.
- Submit your sitemap to search console.
- Start writing posts. Write at least 10 posts.
- Submit each post’s URL to search console’s URL inspection tool for faster indexing.
Start Ranking for Keywords
As soon as you begin ranking for keywords, you can get the ball rolling with your self-education. Right away, you will be able to see which keywords are being picked up. You can take a close look at the content you’ve published and reference it to the keywords you’re ranking for. This is will give you a clear idea of which keywords get picked up and why. The time it takes for SEO to start working varies greatly depending on the niche and the online presence of your website.
Once you’ve figured out which keywords you’re ranking for you, you can begin optimizing your content for those keywords. As you progress, you will learn how to use keywords properly. The best practice for this stage of learning is to optimize for keywords that are positioned low in search results. This lets you get a grasp of how keywords move up and down in the search rankings.
Make a few on-page optimizations and wait for Google to recognize your efforts. If done correctly, your keywords will move higher in the search results.