Let me start this off with a quick rant. Man, has the internet changed or what? Yahoo use to be THE search engine. Then came Google. Then Google became a verb. Now Google is a – free for all, I need to rank on the first page – marketing battle.

But it is what it is and let’s face it. You do indeed need to rank on the first page. However, this doesn’t mean you need to spend a ridiculous amount of cash. Let me invite you to school yourself first. At least give it a shot. If that doesn’t work, then you can spend ridiculous amounts of cash.

So, either you’re a business and you need to rank up there to gain some attention from the searchers or you’re a marketing professional who needs to know SEO in order to help a client rank or at least recommend a plan of action. What I’m saying here is regarding organic searches. Pay per clicks and paid search campaigns are a whole ‘nother ballgame. Ya dig?

There are a few places I would start. The first one is seobook.com. This place has it all. I personally love the SEO tool bar provided here. It features a rank checker, an x-ray button to check meta tags, and lots, I mean lots more.

Next, you need to familiarize yourself with Google’s keyword tool. This allows you to type in a keyword and receive data on that keyword as well as many others. The data tells you how many times those keywords were searched in a month. You can also enter a website url and it will recommend keywords according to that website. It’s very useful for keyword research.

Of course, I can tell you the basics. First research and decide on appropriate keywords. Include those keywords in your meta title, meta description, and website copy. Get to blogging. Comment and leave your url on appropriate sites. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m no expert so I can’t go too far in depth.

Did you think I’d leave you hanging there? I can’t give you an in-depth schooling but these people can. Follow them on twitter and read their blogs.

@aaronwall from SEObook
@stomperchris from Stompernet
@stoneyD from Pole Position Marketing
@jenniferlaycock from Search Engine Guide

So, there you have it. That’s how to school yourself in SEO. As far as I know, there isn’t an SEO degree or a Bachelors in Search Engine Optimization so if you want to learn it, you’ll have to do it online. Feel free to approach the experts and ask them for a consultation. @stomperchris schooled me on SEO via webinar and it was very helpful. See if you can get someone to do the same.

Just remember – don’t get too hyped up on keywords, links, meta tags, and whatever else. Content is key!

How did you learn the ropes in SEO?