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Understanding search engine optimization (SEO) best practices is vital for small business owners, self-employed people and marketing professionals. If you’re new to the SEO game and don’t want to invest in expensive courses or dubious certifications, check out these free resources. Once you understand the basics, it’ll be easier to dive deeper into SEO and take your skills to the next level with tools like Google Analytics and AdWords.
Google: It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Google offers lots of free resources that make learning the SEO ropes accessible, even for beginners. This guide is a great starting point for professionals wanting to understand SEO specifically in the context of Google search engine searches.
LinkedIn Learning: While it’s true that LinkedIn Learning costs money ($24.99 a month), you can opt for a free one-month trial, which is enough time to blast through quite a few SEO tutorials. Just remember to cancel your subscription when the month is up if you don’t want to get charged. LinkedIn also owns the next resource on our list, Lynda.com, which is more comprehensive and less expensive, so if you’re going to subscribe to one of the two beyond the trial period, choose the latter.
Lynda.com: Lynda.com is a paid service ($19.99 per month) that offers new users a one-month free trial, but odds are once you get started, you’ll want to continue the service, because it’s the single best repository for quality video tutorials on the internet. On Lynda.com, you can learn everything from SEO basics to advanced Java, and beyond.
Moz: Moz offers a comprehensive beginner’s guides to SEO, complete with 10 accessible chapters intended to take you from the basics of how search engines work to understanding analytics and measuring success. The guide is completely free, but Moz also offers a subscription level with more features, called Moz Pro that gives users access to additional SEO and SEM resources.
Quick Sprout: Quick Sprout is a tech marketing company that offers services to help business people assess the current SEO status of their websites and revise them so they can improve their ranking. In addition to these paid services, Quick Sprout University (the learning section of the company website) offers tons of free video resources and lessons that are ideal for SEO beginners.
Search Engine Land: If you want a combination of basic SEO guidance and marketing prowess, check out The Periodic Table of SEO from Search Engine Land. This online publication has an active blog about specific platforms (including Google, Bing, and social media sites) as well as its own general SEO guide.
Udemy: Udemy is an excellent educational website for all types of online courses, including free SEO tutorials. There are paid as well as free classes on Udemy, but many of the free classes, including SEO Tutorial for Beginners are highly rated.