Let's face it - there's no point reinventing the wheel.
Instead of writing about the various SEO do's and don'ts, I created a list of my favourite places for SEO tools, advice, opinion, and other general resources.
The list is by no means all inclusive but it's a really good starting point.
There is some jargon for the uninitiated; however a quick search in Wikipedia for the unfamiliar terms should clear any confusion.
Also searching for any of the headings below should return the correct website as the top result.
For anyone interested in learning SEO it's important to point out that most if the information about SEO is just opinion.
Some opinions are weightier that others and many opinions are based on previous results of what appears to have worked.
There are numerous factors that go into how Google ranks and indexes web pages and I've read that only the top dogs in Google know all the factors - the reason is to minimise any manipulation of the search results.
While Google did publish a document titled Search Engine Optimisation Starter Guide, they frequently update their search algorithm without updating their SEO starter guide.
SEOMOZ SEOMOZ is a professional SEO blog.
While the site in itself is a great place to start with SEO, I especially like Danny Dover's article titled The Beginners Checklist for Small Business SEO.
Not only does it link to his previous article The Beginners Checklist for Learning SEO, but it contains links to various other resources.
This is a great starting point for learning SEO.
The Matt Cutts blog The Matt Cutts blog.
Matt is a Google employee and he maintains an active blog where he discusses (among other things) SEO.
This is probably about as close to the source as you can get.
I really like Matt's blog and his style, and it's great that he publishes videos of helpful material.
I find that Matt can be a little cagey sometimes, so don't expect him to just roll over for you on everything Google does.
One of my favourite posts is a recording of a presentation he did at Wordcamp which is a seminar for Wordpress users (Wordpress is the best CMS).
It's really good information for users and developers of Wordpress.
Webconfs Webconfs is a great website for finding free SEO tools.
I use the Keyword Density checker from time to time.
The backlink tools are great as well for understanding where your competition is getting links from.
(A note about keyword density.
There are conflicting opinions about the level of keyword density.
I've read that about 4% of the text should be your chosen keyword that you'd like to highlight.
Instead of focusing of specific numbers (which can easily change) it's a good idea to use the keyword density checker to make sure the terms that you want to highlight are in fact standing out, but also that they are not mentioned too much as this is considered spamming.
Again it's difficult to put numbers on what is too much, however if you read through what you have written and make sure that it actually reads naturally you should be ok.
Always write for humans and include your keywords and key-phrases naturally.
) Google's keyword tool Google's keyword tool is a great place for getting keyword ideas.
If you input a few words or phrases that relate to your business and search, you'll be given a long list of similar words and phrases and actual numbers for how often the terms was searched for.
This should be your first port of call when thinking about writing the content of your web pages.
It gives up to date information about your potential visitors (and potential customers!), so refer to it often and check back if you'd like to check other ideas.
The extremely popular terms can be difficult to compete for just because there's usually a lot of people wanting their website to show up for that phrase.
There's some great advice about the longtail approach that's worth looking into.
The shorttail description of the longtail approach is that you should optimise your pages for the less competitive phrases.
Websitegrader.
com Websitegrader.
com gives a free report on the effectiveness of your website.
It's really detailed and a quick look through the report gives you loads of ideas about how to improve the effectiveness of your website.
Google webmasters forum The Google webmasters forum is a good place to ask questions if you have problems.
More often than not some kind person will answer your question, but I've encountered a few big eogs as well.
Even if you don't ask a question, you can search the archives for past questions, and you'll occasionally find something that's close to your situation.
Top rank blog Top rank blog is a fantastic SEO blog containing loads of information and interviews with industry experts.
Again, a lot of information in SEO is opinion, so keeping up to date with the experts is essential because they have a unique view of SEO in terms of trends and upcoming changes.
As someone who spends a lot of his free time reading about and researching SEO, I really liked the blog post containing the best blogs of the year.
Google Analytics An essential part of any SEO campaign is knowing and tracking your results.
Google Analytics is free software that lets you track your site's visitors.
It tells you what they searched for to find your site, where they are located in the world, how they arrived at your site if not through search, and what pages they looked at.
SEO Company SEO Company is a similar service to the webconfs website already mentioned in this list, but there's a lot more tools.
There's links to other essential tools that might not necessarily come under SEO (such as HTML validation), however they are useful none the less.
Enquiro Enquiro are an SEO firm in California.
The reason I like this company so much and why they deserve a place on my top 10 list is that they have some helpful and interesting webinars.
One webinar discussed optimised press releases and how they can be used to gain a lot of exposure in a very short time period.
I find the webinars especially helpful because with slides and voiceover there's an extra layer of stimulation that is missing from standard blog posts (however interesting and well written).
Thanks for reading my list.
If you have some more resources that I haven't covered I'd like to hear about them.