Free SEO Help: Blogs, Forums, and Articles

Free SEO help is plentiful on the Internet. The trick isn't finding help, but winnowing out the good help from all the mediocre or outright dangerous help out there. Here is a brief guide from a veteran webmaster.

The first place to look for help with search engine optimization is from the search engines themselves. All the larger search engines have blogs whose contributors are members of the search engine's programming team and whose goal is to help webmasters optimize sites for that particular search engine. Staff writers often spend time on webmasters' forums, so they are in touch with the concerns of real webmasters and write practical advice based on the challenges of the moment, not theoretical articles. The quickest way to locate search engines' blogs is to search for "blog" or "official blog" and the name of the search engine.

Forums are a good source of free SEO help, but a tricky one. On one hand, webmasters' accounts of their experiences and the ensuing debates are indispensable. Experienced webmasters can sense when changes are likely, analyze changes after they happen, and explain the ramifications of legal language and trends with a freedom that official corporate bloggers rarely have... and, of course, without corporate bloggers' need to protect the search engines' interests. Search engines sometimes refuse to discuss or flat out deny certain patterns in their algorithms' behavior, so the only way to get adequate information about certain aspects of a search engine may be through discussion with other webmasters. On the other hand, forum members can also be... How to say this politely? Flaming morons. How do you tell which forums to go to and which members to listen to? It comes down to reading a wide selection of forums and noting patterns over time. Focusing on forums frequented by official speakers for search engines is also a good idea. Official speakers are not stamps of quality, but they do mean the forum is significant enough that the search engine is willing to spend resources on it. The two forums you should definitely put on your watch list are WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint. To find more, search for "SEO forum."

Free SEO help articles are similarly tricky: There are a lot of good ones out there, and an exponentially larger number of bad, dangerous, or merely tired and rehashed ones. Keep away from free article directories and authors whose main claim to expertise is the ability to pump out a small flood of SEO articles every month. Look for industry magazines and real experts, webmasters with well known networks of sites. Also look for smaller, private article collections and blogs written by experts, like the blog at HubShout. Avoid any articles that sound dull, rewritten, or stuffed with keywords.

As you can see, choosing from the free SEO help available online takes not only the ability to Google, but a touch of judgment on your part. Go slowly and develop your knowledge base, and soon you will be able to sift out the worthwhile free SEO help.