New SEO/Marketing Intern - need help deciding what I should prioritize teaching myself

I would avoid forums like the plague. Trying to learn SEO on a forum is just a bad idea. Places like this are full of terrible information and far too many members willing to continue posting that crappy info over and over again.

For example, you are probably analyzing the site speed because you read on some forum or blog that site speed is important for rankings. It's not. It won't impact rankings unless the pages load ungodly slow.

That being said, I don't recommend many books. I read a lot of them, and most of them are pure junk. This one is pretty good though. https://www.amazon.com/Search-Engine...ts+danny+dover

Even though it is 5 or 6 years old now, it gives a pretty good overview of onsite SEO. I usually make people I hire read that, or at least the first half of it.

I would also do some research on silo structures. That is how websites should be organized for taking advantage of their authority and internal links. Bruce Clay is kind of the godfather of silos and has put out some great information for free about them. You can find plenty of other sources too.

Lastly, I would learn how to buy, barter, and beg for links. Links are the #1 ranking factor. If anyone tells you otherwise, stop listening to anything else they have to say. They clearly do not know what they are talking about.

I agree with Mike. Learning SEO on a forum is a bad idea.

For me, I learned SEO by following some blogs focus on SEO such as Backlinko.com, Blog.Moz.com, neilpatel.com, blog.ahrefs.com,... They are very useful and easy to apply to my website.

Besides, you should learn SEO in order of Keyword research -> On page SEO -> Offpage SEO. This way can help you improve your SEO skills and apply to your website immediately.




--------
Alvin
O2O Online to Offline | Top Omnichannel Retailers | What is Omnichannel CX? | POS Data | Omnichannel Retailing

What kind of company are you related with is it selling some physical stuffs or digital stuffs.
You need to understand that first. Working on content and optimization is good after that you need to focus if you can get links by contacting others or you should directly opt for paid advertising for getting sales.
Every company end goal is to sell things doesnot matters if its from Paid or organic search.

Hi Marina,

My advice would be to follow anyone on the net who is providing SEO advice based on data/results.
Sites like Moz, backlink, Neil Patel, Matthew Woodward all run tests/report on tests and can give good guidance on what works.

Too many people say 'you should do x' or 'Google likes X' without having ever tested it. There is so much misinformation on the web you wouldn't believe and too many SEO's make a living out of peddling myths and false promises.

I disagree with some of the comments above about Forums being a bad idea. I first learnt about SEO and things that worked 13 years ago on forums/chats that involved people like Rand Fishkin from Moz, Earl Grey, Fathom and many more.

It's true, there is alot of bullshit peddled on the forums with silly spammers giving the same jargon every post but then you have the heavyweights here who will call them out and it's important for you to see that so that you understand what to avoid and how the industry operates.
You should be looking for nuggets of information and then researching if and when it was used and the results. I am still re-learning and discovering things all the time and the guys on here are very helpful.

best of luck.

Hi Mike

I would agree that neil is a good markerter. In fact I just checked his site on Ahrefs and can see his estimates visits is at 319,000 for last week compared to my 600. His site has grown a great deal so while Im not suggesting his SEO practices are A1, there is a lot I think you can learn from someone that enthustiastic

Moz - there is a lot of crap there but I believe there is crap everywhere and again, Im suggesting that the focus needs to be on test results and not just opinions. Same goes for Neil's or any other site.