Ready to tackle the search engine optimization of your site, begin an AdWords campaign for one of your products or services, or clean up your search engine result pages (serps)? There are a variety of SEO and PPC agencies, freelancers, and services in Michigan that can be available to help you manage your campaigns, but what if you want to learn or take on the SEO efforts on your own?
Even if you want to outsource your SEO or PPC efforts to a reputable agency or freelancer, I would always advise that you take the time to understand the basics yourself. If you understand the basics, it can help you to find and interview the best agencies to ensure that they know what they’re doing (and be careful of the bait and switch — if you’re hiring an agency, interview the people that will be *working* on your campaign. Make sure you have an opt out in case that person leaves the agency and an agency shuffle leaves you with a newbie as well.)
I learned what I know about SEO, Pay Per Click/search engine marketing, and Online Reputation Management through working at agencies and trying everything out that I read on blogs and forums.
If you’re really interested in learning from experts, conferences are a great way to go, but that can get expensive. Some conferences that I have attended and would recommend include:
If reading and guides are more of your thing, I would start with sites like:
- SEOmoz
- Search Engine Land
- Sphinn
- SEOBook
- AffBuzz
- Webmaster World
- Keyword Academy
These sites publish posts on a daily basis and are made up of professionals who are regularly working on sites and are the first to know when changes are happening. Some of the sites are blogs, others are news/rss feeds, and others are forums and membership sites.
Of those sites, if you need more hands on help than just reading a post, SEOBook has a forum ($300+/month) that is really credible and you can ask any questions you want — it’s the industry leader for learning SEO. SEOMoz has some free and paid guides, and The Keyword Academy is great for learning how to choose keywords that will bring in traffic but that aren’t overly competitive and teaches you how to rank for those keywords (without the technical info).
Same thing with affiliate marketing — if you’re interested in learning, start reading sites like AffBuzz and attending conferences like Affiliate Summit. Professionals that make an income from affiliate marketing regularly share their tests and findings through various blog posts and via conference sessions.