SEO School

The Introduction to SEO explained how search engine optimization (SEO) can increase traffic to your website. But how does one implement SEO? How do you know which keywords to use, and what do you need to do with those keywords to increase your rank on search engine results pages (SERPs) and draw more traffic to your site?

And if you’re thinking about hiring an SEO consultant, how do you begin to understand what you’re paying them to do?

In short, how do you learn SEO?

If you want to learn about search engine optimization, you can spend weeks or even months perusing the Internet, gathering free information. Eventually, you’ll pick up enough knowledge to launch your own SEO campaign.

Or, you could just buy a copy of SEO School, spend a couple of hours reading, and then launch your SEO campaign. With the information in this ebook, you can optimize your website and see real results – in both your keyword ranking and your overall traffic.

In less than a month, I was able to apply the information I learned in SEO School and test it on one of my websites. And what I found out was that it works. Plus, I was able to learn SEO quickly and easily!

Learn SEO

Over the last few years, I studied SEO at a distance. I paid attention to articles and blog posts that covered SEO, and I had a basic understanding of how SEO worked. From everything I gathered, it was a complex, convoluted field – one in which there were no guarantees and in which the rules were constantly changing.

Last summer when Naomi Dunford of Itty Biz launched her ebook SEO School, I was intrigued enough to buy it right away. The price was right (about half the cost of most other SEO books), and I knew Naomi’s writing style was witty and obscenely engaging, so it was sure to be an informative and entertaining read.

After breezing through the entire ebook in just a couple of hours, I knew one thing for certain: I was going to learn SEO and then optimize my websites.

The thing about SEO is that it’s not that difficult. It’s just extremely time consuming – though even the amount of time you spend depends on the number of keywords you’re optimizing for and how competitive the keyword field is.

SEO School: Enroll Today

SEO School is a perfect introduction for people who want to learn SEO basics and who want the nitty gritty details on how to actually optimize a site. It’s ideal for website managers who want to start optimizing, and it’s a fantastic resource for small business owners who are thinking about hiring an SEO professional but want to understand what’s involved in the process of search engine optimization before they shell out the cash.

The book kicks off with a basic introduction to SEO, and explains how search engines work and what their motives and goals are (remember, search engines are businesses too!). Next, there is a discussion about selecting keywords based on a variety of factors, such as search frequency, competition, and how well a given keyword relates to your site.

About halfway into the book, you’ll start learning exactly how to tweak your site’s code and content to gain higher search engine rankings. You’ll also learn about off-site optimization. There’s even a section just for bloggers.

Naomi’s style matches her blog, so if you’re an Itty Biz reader, this book will delight you. And if you’re not an Itty Biz reader, then head over there and subscribe right now to get some of the best online marketing tips around. However, if you are a puritan, beware – Naomi is liberal with language and her blog posts as well as her ebook are peppered with words that could get a child’s mouth washed out with soap, which is part of what makes it such a blast to read.

Case Study

I launched my own SEO campaign after reading SEO School, and the results were impressive. For the purpose of this case study, I will share my results for two keywords. Keep in mind that I was in the early, testing phase. My approach was to optimize a few pages and see what would happen. Once I could assess the test results, then I would be prepared to launch a full-scale campaign.

The main thing I wanted to know was: does SEO work? If I learn SEO and then optimize, will I actually see an increase in my rankings and my traffic? The answer was yes, and my full-scale campaign is now underway.

The case study below outlines the steps I took to determine whether SEO School would pay off.

Case Study

The site I was working with was over a year old and had almost 200 pages of content when I started. I decided to optimize the archives rather than create fresh content.

Keyword #1

I found that a keyword that generated almost 30,000 searches per month had sent 23 visitors to my site in 2008. I couldn’t even find my site in the first 200 search results on Google, so it was no wonder that I was getting such a small fraction of the search engine traffic.

After optimizing one page in December, my site leaped to position #130, and almost immediately, I noticed a spike in traffic. Over the next few weeks, I optimized four more pages on the site for the same keyword. Each time I optimized, I noted the current rank and followed up a few days later.

DATE	RANK	ACTION
01/04/09	130	optimize another page
01/22/09	53	optimize another page
01/24/09	36	optimize another page
01/30/09	34	optimize another page

In less than a month, I had optimized five short pages and increased my rank from practically off the chart to page four. At the time this case study was written, my site was at position 32, so it’s still climbing – and I’m not done optimizing. I probably spent 15-20 minutes proofreading, editing, and optimizing each page.

Keyword #2

As it turns out, the second keyword occurred organically. In SEO, there is something called a long-tail keyword. There are plenty of different definitions of long tail keywords. For the purpose of this study, the keyword that started generating traffic wasn’t one I optimized for at all. In fact, it was a combination of two other keywords I had optimized for.

For example, let’s say you optimized for the keywords “red” and “shirt,” and then found you were gaining traffic for the keyword phrase “red shirt.” Well, that’s what happened with my site.

The long-tail keyword that started drawing traffic gets between 3000 and 5000 searches per month. That’s not a lot, but if you ranked for several such keywords, you would see a nice spike in traffic. Also, keywords with lower search frequency are good for cutting your SEO teeth and learning the ropes.

In 2008, I received a grand total of 23 hits for this keyword phrase – that’s over the course of a whole year. After optimizing about five pages for portions of the keyword phrase, I received 182 hits from the keyword phrase in January alone. In a single month, I had increased my traffic for just one keyword phrase over 700% of what it had been during the course of an entire year.

I can’t wait to see what my stats show in February.

Summary

If you want to learn SEO on your own, Scribizzy recommends SEO School by Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz. This SEO book is a quick and easy read, and it will give you all the basics of SEO plus the actual steps you need to take to optimize your site.

Buyer beware: SEO School may contain language that is not suitable for children. But it’s really fun to read.

Want to optimize your website? Check out Scribizzy’s SEO services, including SEO copywriting, or just go ahead and get a quote online.