SEO Training Videos

looking for good SEO training

[hankddog]

I am very skeptical about SEO and it actually working. But I want to learn exactly what it is and how it works. So I wonder if anyone here has some online starter training video's they would recommend?

I have over 10 years experience as a web developer. I also run a site the generates some income each year.

I've talked to company's about doing SEO work for some of my sites but they charged a ridiculous amount of money in my opinion. Instead of paying them I would rather teach myself. I want to see what it is all about.

I heard a lot of people talk about SEO, via shows online, but never go into real detail about it.

Thanks for your help!

[edited by: caveman at 7:28 pm (utc) on Jan. 21, 2009]
[edit reason] Removed site mentions and specifics, per TOS. [/edit]

[caveman]

Hey hankdog welcome to WebmasterWorld (in case nobody said that yet)!

We don't generally allow commercial recommendations, site mentions, etc. (except for very large sites like Google), preferring instead to keep conversation focused on issues, discussion, current experiences, etc.

What I can offer is that this site is filled with information about SEO.

"SEO 101" kinds of questions get asked frequently here. Check out this thread [webmasterworld.com] for example.

The other thing I'll offer is this: If two sites were to exist, comparable in time on the Web, size, and quality, with the sole difference that one was developed and marketed with SEO knowledge and the other not, 9 out of 10 times the SEO-savvy site would be receiving more organic search traffic, perhaps far more, than the other site.

And that is particularly true for small to mid-sized sites. ;-)

[phranque]

do you think "they charged a ridiculous amount of money" simply because they viewed that video you are looking for?
=8)

[hankddog]

Thanks for the info caveman.

phranque - I'm sure they have done more than that :)

My issue is I've gotten proposals between $500 and $1000 a month for SEO work. I don't see that being a good ROI. Maybe it's cheap. I don't know.

But what I want to learn is what they are actually doing for that price tag. As I developer, I get paid hourly to write code. What do SEO workers do? Suggest some keywords and show me Google Analytics? Big deal, what's so special about that?

Just trying to get my learn on!

[Essex_boy]

It may be a lot of money but if it works thats a good deal

[phranque]

you could look at it this way - how much seo will you get from a $6-12,000/year employee?
an expert consultant in almost any field can go for $1000 a day.

[hankddog]

Thanks caveman. I read through the thread. It definitely gave some things to change on my site. Aside from reading the forum. Are there other things I should do?

[Death of the Man]

Hank,

I'm basically a novice, but here's what I've gathered about SEO so far:

Links pointing at your site from other high-quality sites in your field are very good, especially if the links are embedded in relevant content on that site rather than a sidebar or link page, etc.

Meta tag title is very important, the content on the page is very important, and I think the meta tag description is important. Meta tag keywords not so important anymore, if at all.

Just think about it: Google is not a conscious, feeling entity; i.e. nobody's at home. So how are humans going to program it to recognize relevant answers (search results) to searchers' queries?

Other than links, Google doesn't have that much to go on in terms of knowing if people actually give a thumbs up to a page. Maybe I'm wrong about this?

Google will only get better and better at weeding out BS indicators; I think this is always worth remembering.

And unless your site/s are huge that price tag strikes me as way too high. Maybe the Return on Investment would warrant it? I don't know, having no familiarity with your business/es.