How Should I Start Learning SEO from Scratch?

Hi everyone,
I’m interested in learning SEO (Search Engine Optimization), but I’m not sure where to begin. I’ve heard SEO is important for online visibility, but there seems to be so much to it—keywords, on-page, off-page, link building, and more.

I have a few specific questions:

What are the best resources or courses to learn SEO for a beginner?

Should I focus more on on-page or off-page SEO at first?

Are there any practical tools or software I should familiarize myself with early on?

How long does it usually take to get the hang of SEO?

Can anyone recommend a step-by-step roadmap for learning SEO?

Best Places to Learn SEO:

• Google SEO Starter Guide
• Ahrefs Beginner Course (free)
• Moz Beginner’s Guide to SEO
• Yoast SEO Blog

You can also check out courses on Udemy or Coursera.

Better to get an online course from Coursera or Udemy. This will be easier for you to learning as a beginner.

And before diving into SEO, you had to be at least familiar with Google tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Google Trends.

Prioritize on page SEO to establish an optimized website. After that, learn to implement off page SEO tactics

Go read @splishsplash guides posted on his site.

Start with free resources like Moz Beginner’s Guide, Google’s SEO Starter Guide, and HubSpot Academy. Focus on on-page SEO first to understand the basics, then move to off-page and link building. Learn tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, and Yoast SEO. With consistent practice, you’ll grasp the fundamentals in 2–3 months. Follow a roadmap like Backlinko’s SEO Learning Hub for a step-by-step guide.

Forget SEO till you actually have a website up and running for a few months and you get organic traffic. Otherwise you'll never start lol

Take some time to decide what type of site you want to build, then just go out and build it. You'll soon understand what SEO is when you link your site to free ahrefs webmaster, and check the hints you get through there.

1.Google SEO Starter Guide and HubSpot SEO Certification

2.Focus on On-Page SEO to begin with

3.Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz , Google Search Console (there are a lot)

4.The time it takes to learn SEO depends on your dedication, no matter at what level you are in.!!

The best way to learn SEO is by doing it. Start a small website in any niche you enjoy, and try to rank it. Learn the basics of how Google works, crawling, indexing, ranking but do not get stuck in theory. Google Search Console will become your teacher, it will show you what is wrong with your site, and solving those issues will teach you more than any course. You will understand algorithms, rankings, and user intent by watching your pages move in SERPs. That is real SEO learning.

If you want to learn about SEO, just read BHW threads, this forum is a library on this subject, each thread is a book to learn valuable information, just search in the right sections.

DIVE IN.

I'm not saying don't consume information and learning in the early days to get the hang of the fundamentals by reading, watching, and consuming. But don't fall into the trap of inaction by spending weeks only consuming things you find online.

If you don't have much direction now; get hold of 2-3 domains and put methodology into practice. See them as case studies, learning. You can do this with a very limited budget and you'll begin to understand what works and what doesn't, and crucially you'll be able to make educated guesses on the reasons why.

Don't get hung up on your initial failiures, or successes, in equal measure. Focus on varied stategies across 2 or 3 domains and then in a few months time try and correlate any noticable impact (positive OR negative) and the likely reasons for it.

The reason I suggest at least 2 or 3 domains as a total beginner, is because you can then vary your strategies and compare effectiveness. This is great for initial learning phase (if we assume you're starting from complete beginner). Why? Because 1 domain with 1 combined strategy will not give you any actionable data on things that have appeared to work, may appear to be working, or haven't worked.

This is completely different to launching 3 online businesses at the time same btw. The above suggestion is for you to learn & split test strategies. Once you feel more confident. See it as time paid for learning. Don't get disheartened.

Finally, KEEP GOING. New sites, almost always show very little to no progress for the first few months, often 6+. Perserverance is CRUCIAL. So many people give up and move on after 30-60-90 days because the needle hasnt moved. They have wasted all that time. They haven't learnt a single damn thing either by abandoning a new website sub 90 days, as it typically takes until month 4,5,6 to get any meaningful data. They may have actually been well on their way to organic traffic, but now they'll never know.

You can start reading from free resources about basics like MOZ, Backlinko, Ahrefs, (Website and Youtube channel), Semrush, Authority Hacker, Gotch SEO. Also, websites like Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Watch can give you the latest updates about what is happening in online industry.

You will get lots and lots of free information online and you will feel overwhelmed on what to consume. Consuming the information from right source and not following outdated advice is also important. And then practicing on own domains is key to learn SEO. Focus on on-page SEO first. Learn Google Webmasters tool. Understand Link building, how it works etc.

Paid Courses:-
1 Go with any Udemy Course from a good instructor. Make sure to read reviews before purchasing. I like Mark Williams Cook's course (Very Affordable).
2 Purchase Daniel Foley Carter's Webinars, if you could. (SEO Executive webinars- 100 dollars I guess).
3 Make sure to watch Basic Technical SEO Course from Blue Array (free for 3 months I guess) .

Test your experiments with domains. it is not easy to rank now. It takes months to understand things. Have patience. Share your learnings and doubts on this forum. Read other people's doubts and learn from replies on their problems too.

You can test few things from free tools or tools with limitations for free plans like SERanking, Serpstat (not sure about their free basic model), SEO Powersuite (they have free plans but you cannot save the project, if you purchase this, this is one of most affordable tool), Search Console (free and essential tool to understand what is going on your website). Semrush and Ahrefs are paid and expensive.

P.S: Join internship at any agency in your area.

I hope that helps.

MaskedWolf said:

Hi everyone,
I’m interested in learning SEO (Search Engine Optimization), but I’m not sure where to begin. I’ve heard SEO is important for online visibility, but there seems to be so much to it—keywords, on-page, off-page, link building, and more.

I have a few specific questions:

What are the best resources or courses to learn SEO for a beginner?

Should I focus more on on-page or off-page SEO at first?

Are there any practical tools or software I should familiarize myself with early on?

How long does it usually take to get the hang of SEO?

Can anyone recommend a step-by-step roadmap for learning SEO?

Click to expand...

In my opinion the best way is a research SEO forums, also copywriting will be a good skill. In books about seo you can read just basic but search engines are fast changing always. So reading forum one of the best education. And practice after.

Start with Moz’s Beginner’s Guide for SEO basics. Focus first on on-page SEO like keywords and content. Learn tools like Google Search Console and Analytics. It takes a few months to get comfortable. Practice regularly and build up to link-building. Want a simple weekly plan?