Hey everyone, I want to leave academia and start my own online tutoring business while traveling and working remotely. I’m new to marketing, advertising, and search engine optimization (SEO). There are tons of free resources, but which one is the best for a beginner like me? Any tips would be appreciated!
A lot of the big SEO platforms have their own resources to help you get started. You can check out Moz, Ahrefs, SEMrush (their learning center is solid), and even Wix has jumped into SEO now.
Once you get the basics down, Twitter (or X) can be really helpful for keeping up with SEO trends, algorithm changes, and AI stuff. There’s always someone with good insights, and some people specialize in different areas like local SEO or technical SEO. Here are a few names I follow:
- Daniel Foley Carter
- Greg Gifford (local SEO)
- Lily Ray
- Aleyda Solis
- Glenn Gabe
- Marie Haynes
- Barry Schwartz (runs SEO Roundtable)
But who you like can be personal, so explore and see what sticks. Good luck!
@LINDA
Thanks for the info! SEMrush looks good, but I found way too many links. Could you point me to one good starting place? I have a lot to learn before checking Twitter.
Check out Nathan Gotch.
Try Hubspot’s free SEO course. It’s a great starting point, and then you can move to more advanced stuff like the other suggestions in this thread.
Ahrefs, Backlinko, SEMrush—all those top blogs are a good place to get started. Look them up on YouTube as well.
At the core, SEO is all about good backlinks and solid on-page SEO. If you hire someone, they’ll handle all the details anyway. Just don’t waste money on bad backlinks!
I got started with Nathan Gotch’s beginner course on SEMrush’s YouTube channel. It’s fantastic. Once you’ve finished that, try out LearningSEO.io.
Google’s SEO Starter Guide and Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO are both easy and comprehensive. Also, check out Yoast Academy for free, practical SEO tutorials. These are trusted by a lot of pros in the industry.
ciggarfin said:
Gerald said:
Start with Moz.
Is it free?
Yes, they offer tons of free content.
Great, thanks for letting me know!
YouTube and ChatGPT can help, but remember, anyone can upload videos to YouTube, so be careful what you trust. Same goes for ChatGPT—it sometimes gets things wrong.
Eventually, you might want to hire a tutor, like me. I used to teach and now do SEO and sales psychology. It’s all about explaining things in a way that people actually remember.
@Alex
Got it. Can you recommend a reliable YouTube link to start with? And how do I use ChatGPT for SEO?
The best advice I can give: stop trying to learn everything perfectly, and just get started.
SEO changes all the time, so what you learn now might not be relevant later. But the most important thing is to start doing SEO and learn along the way.
If you need a first step, just Google ‘how to do SEO’ and start reading. That’s SEO—learn by doing.
@Benjy
Good advice! I’ve been told to check out Ahrefs, Backlinko, SEMrush, Hubspot, Nathan Gotch, etc. Not sure which to start with.
martin said:
@Benjy
Good advice! I’ve been told to check out Ahrefs, Backlinko, SEMrush, Hubspot, Nathan Gotch, etc. Not sure which to start with.
Pick any of them. A lot of the info is similar. SEMrush is very practical—start with their basics course and build from there.