Like most of you, I stumbled into SEO. I was working for a marketplace that was selling website templates and the CEO asked me to look into that “SEO stuff”.  It’s been a long, yet exciting learning experience since then; sometimes I struggled understanding certain terms and practices but it was all part of the learning process.

If you’re like me, all you want to do is to write awesome content and get readers to your site, correct? But just when you think you’re up to date with everything SEO, there’s another update, another algorithm. The truth is that keeping tabs on the latest SEO and the best practices when optimising your content takes time and research. Plus, you can’t believe everything you read which is why I’ve assembled a list with the six best resources I’ve found over the years to be deep wells of actionable knowledge and tips.

The six resources below are, I feel, the best places to learn about SEO.

#1 – Moz

Moz (formerly known as SEOmoz) is the most useful and highly respected site when it comes to providing actionable SEO analysis and tips. It’s actually one of the first sites I frequented when I first started learning SEO.

The community is fantastic and open to sharing practical tips and expertise to anyone. While you need to upgrade to a PRO membership if you want access to exclusive information, the blog and the free SEM guides are packed with loads of free and useful information, including “how-to” content.

#2 – Search Engine Land

Search Engine Land covers SEO and online marketing and it has quickly become one of the favourite resources for SEOs. It was founded by Danny Sullivan, probably one of the most recognised name in SEO.

The posts are extremely informative and detailed, from how-to tutorials to white papers written by recognised names in the industry. It’s basically a must-read for anyone who wishes to stay ahead of the curve on SEO topics so bookmarking it is a no-brainer.

#3 – Search Engine Journal

SEJ delivers great content to help with your SEO but the cherry on the cake are the forums. They’re just a terrific resource of SEO tips and advice from people willing to share their knowledge.

Aside from covering up-to-date industry news as well as opinion pieces, they also often do some useful roundups of tools and resources that you could use in your analysis and competitive research.

#4 – Search Engine Roundtable

SER is a very good source for when you want to stay up-to-date with everything SEO. Barry Schwartz, the editor of Search Engine Roundtable, writes about search engines and search engine marketing and he often covers industry news and does recaps, roundups and highlights from search-related forums and discussions across the web.

#5 – SEO By the Sea

Bill Slawski is unique in its approach which made his blog the #1 place to learn about search engine patents. Kudos to him for being patient enough to read through every patent and keep readers updated with patent applications, algorithmic search technology and other useful topics.

#6 – Google Webmaster Central

This last resource is a must-bookmark, no doubt about it. If you’ve found some new information online but aren’t sure if it’s accurate, go straight to the source. Google Webmaster Central is the official SEO blog for Google and the best source for information on updates and how to optimise your content correctly for Google’s search engine.

Bonus. Your experience

As you probably already know, the best way to learn anything, including SEO, is to get your feet wet. There’s loads of resources with killer tips and advice but the best education you can get actually comes from hands-on experimentation.

How much do you know about SEO? Take our SEO quiz to find out.