Learning SEO and Coding

[IOSC]

Hi

I have read a number of ppl suggest that the best way to learn SEO is to build a low stakes site and experiment and measure how the effects of those experiments.  Agree? Disagree? Anybody have success doing this? Anybody find it a waste of time? Finally, I know Code Academy, what are some other good resources?

Thanks

[TakeshiYoung]

Doing SEO and trying things out is definitely the best way to learn-- it's the way I learned and continue to learn. You can read about different SEO tactics all you like, but unless you've actually implemented them you'll have no idea if they'll work for you.

Definitely, if you are experimenting with risky tactics or trying out new things, it can be helpful to have a throwaway site or two so you don't risk your main business by getting penalized.

Unless you are planning on becoming a developer, the best coding to know for SEO is HTML & CSS. These are the languages of the web, and being comfortable with them will allow you to dive into your site's code to make any on-page enhancements.  This is the site I've used and reference on a regular basis:

http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp

[udenchimedia]

Of course when it comes to learning, what better that own research and implemented things and your own observation comes handy.

The better way of doing is self study and deriving results by implementing those codes. At large HTML and CSS are enough to start with. As you graduate you can learn more languages and dynamic scripts.

I suggest: www.w3.org, www.w3schools.com

[EGOL]

I have read a number of ppl suggest that the best way to learn SEO is to build a low stakes site and experiment and measure how the effects of those experiments.  Agree? Disagree?

I think that you should build a really good site... Work on it at least 20 hours per week for a long time.   Then you have more skin in the game.

[ThompsonPaul]

Having your own sandbox to screw around in is a great place to start, Jeff. It will let you begin to get a feel for some of the things that need to be taken into account as you build an SEO strategy for your site.

But the difficulty is your new site will have very little traffic so it will be very hard to tell how much impact your changes and optimizations or actually having.

Once you get to the point where you feel reasonably comfortable with the basics, and are pretty sure you can operate without creating major risk for the site you're working on, a great next step is to adopt a favorite local charity which has a website in need of assistance and optimization.

Total win-win, as the website gets some help that is more experienced than what they can themselves provide, and you get the opportunity to work on a site that has enough traffic that you can start to see the actual effect of what you're doing.

Obviously you are not getting paid for any of the work, so you can make it clear that their expectations should be in line with the fact that you are learning your way along in the process. But they are much more likely to allow you the opportunity than a commercial website that is depending on their site for their income and would be unwilling to trust a newbie with the keys.

This approach helps address the standard conundrum in SEO: you shouldn't take on commercial clients until you have enough experience, but you can't get enough experience until you actually can take on some bigger websites.

Paul