If you’re someone interested in doing your own Search Engine Optimization (SEO) it’s important to have the SEO resources to make your project successful. There are many posts on the ins and outs of SEO tools that range from your keyword research tool (we use SEMRush and Ahrefs) to AI, but the data itself isn’t enough to do all the work.
SEO requires understanding the flow of data from your website to the Internet. And, it requires understanding how your customers find and engage with your content when it’s out in the world.
The truth is that with AI tools, it will become harder for small business owners to rank highly for some terms. Anything that is a basic who/what/where/when/why and how keywords are likely to be served up by bigger companies with larger budgets that your own.
So what can you do? Focus on keywords that are middle to lower parts of the funnel. This will do a handful of critical tasks for your business and connect you more easily with clients in the buying cycle.
That means when it comes to SEO resources, you need tools that do more than just tell you the data. You need to understand how your clients search for you. And once you know that, you need to understand how to give them articles and content (video, images etc) that match with what they want to know in order to take the next step with your business.
Here are 5 SEO Resources to Up Your SEO Game
If you’re like us, you know that the SEO landscape changes all the time. But, it’s the mindset of an SEO professional that keeps them grounded in the “ever-changing landscape.”
Google’s SEO Starter Guide
Google’s SEO Starter Guide is invaluable but admittedly, it’s a monster of a document. That said, it’s the place to start and/or get the comprehensive answers from Google on their SEO decisions.
As you watch SEO experts or read other SEO resources, often people reference this guide as the final answer to questions that can be nuanced and confusing. I don’t read this on the daily, but I do reference it often when questions arise.
Fat Joe’s Headline Generator
If you’re like most of our clients, headline writing isn’t your area of expertise. This is where a tool like Fat Joe’s Headline Generator comes in. Headline tools like this one are great to use (like most AI) as a brainstorming opportunity. Type in your main keyword and the angle for your article, and you’ll get a handful of easy titles to start from.
Then, edit your headline so it fits with your audience. Just remember to not go too salesy or pitchy in your headline if that’s not how your blog offers content now. The ideal headline is short, SEO focused, and authentic.
Screaming Frog & Sitebulb
If you are really interested in doing SEO, you need an SEO resource to help investigate the architecture of your site. In other words, what’s going on with your HTML, links, redirects, sitemaps, metadata and more.
On this front, there are two tools we use: The Screaming Frog SEO Spider tool and Sitebulb. Both tools will give you a detailed look under the hood of your website. This is critical for understanding traffic issues, why Google isn’t indexing your pages, speed and more.
SEO Influencers on YouTube
Youtube is the place to find detailed video discussions on all the SEO topics you care about.
Here are a few we follow on a regular basis:
https://www.youtube.com/@MattDiggity
https://www.youtube.com/@searchenginejournal
https://www.youtube.com/@GoogleSearchCentral
SEO Influencers on Twitter
Twitter is a particularly good place to find SEO professionals chatting about the “SEO change of the day” and sharing their expertise to navigate it. Be warned, you can definitely fall down the rabbit hole on advice and insight, and as you get better at SEO, you’ll start to see what’s really a “new trick” vs something you already do every day.
Here are a few SEO professionals we follow:
Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc)
Lily Ray is both outspoken and accurate in her SEO advice. She shares from both the micro-perspective (try this, not that) and from the global SEO perspective (this SEO space is going in “this” direction today). I have particularly enjoyed how easy it is to see where she’s coming from and love her no-nonsense attitude. It’s easy to see why she’s on the SEO speaker’s circuit and highly sought after as a professional. And if you have a big budget for your SEO project, ask her to DJ your next corporate event.
John Muller (@JohnMu)
John Muller is one of the granddaddies of the business and his Twitter (and YouTube) are kinda “must follow” for more of the official Google position on things. Sometimes his advice is clear as mud when it comes to specific Google rules to follow (or not follow), but he is speaking on Google’s behalf.
Following @johnmu is helpful for getting the starting point on the SEO discussion and then you can use other advice to look into nuance or specific angles for a topic. Think about big questions like duplicate content or how Google is going to respond to AI generated content.
Women in Tech @techseowomen
I started following WIT because I was looking for other ladies doing this work, but also, I wanted to attend some events that were more than a webinar. @techseowomen offer an affordable virtual all day conference that’s well worth attending/watching the replays on. Last November’s event was hugely helpful around suggestions for automating content creation and the neuroscience of search (a topic I love).
Nick LeRoy @NickLeRoy
Nick offers a great weekly newsletter called #SEOForLunch that includes a weekly roundup of what’s going on newsworthy in the world of SEO. As an SEO resource, this newsletter has been helpful on a number of occasions to alert us to changes (that week) plus to remind our team to keep a big picture view on SEO. Because changes happen so frequently, finding a few newsletters like Nicks will help you stay on top of what’s happening without losing hours each week reading about everything going on.
Dr. Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes)
Marie is a prolific SEO content creator on the topic of SEO. She has a podcast, blog, SEO resources… She tweets, does video and more. I have paid particular attention to her roundup emails (she’s another newsletter to follow) and she gives tons of insight on what’s going on with Google for lots of niche SEO experiences: commence, local and niche sites.
The coolest thing about Twitter is that the SEO folks you follow are still accessible, unlike what you find on other social platforms. Twitter has proven to be a great place for discussion, crowdsourcing opinions and even sharing data. Of all the social sites, in my opinion it’s the best one for staying up to date on the latest with SEO.
But, that can of course change tomorrow!
So, there you have it, 5 SEO resources that are critical for not only learning how to do SEO, but for staying current on trends, changes and updates.
SEO is an incredibly fast moving world and AI has only increased the speed at which things are changing.
Websites and SEO are not going away even with all the promises of AI. They are only going to get stronger as we learn how to leverage AI tools and the changing landscape of search engines.
If you need help with your SEO content or SEO strategy, please reach out for a complimentary call.
