There are common challenges when learning SEO that would be important to be aware of to avoid. Here are top ones shared by experienced SEO specialists:
“Misinformation or out of date information. It’s strange how many people have read things on the internet, from ranking studies to black hat forums where someone has said something and it has been treated as factual.” – Gerry White, SEO Director and co-organizer of TakeItOffiline.
“Feeling overwhelmed because I’m learning something new. I think that’s very common, especially with Tech SEO, to feel extremely overwhelmed by what you’re learning. It’s important to take your time, ask for help and to believe that you’ll eventually ‘get’ it.” – Areej AbuAli, SEO Consultant & Founder of Women in Tech SEO.
“The idea that *Teach me/my team everything about SEO in <6hr* works – is a recipe for failure. You need to learn principles, you view them 1st with a lens to your own needs & then you apply them to gain experience. This takes time, everyone needs realistic expectations here.” – Chris Green, Senior SEO Consultant at Torque Partnership.
“I’d say learning without practicing. Courses and guides from the right sources are good ways to learn SEO, but they are just one side of it. If you don’t try out what you’re learning, you’ll never know what works and what doesn’t. If possible, build a website or ask family & close friends for access to theirs and practice what you learn (cautiously). This way, you not only learn but can get results, no matter how small, that’ll come in handy in landing your first SEO job. It worked for me.” – Katherine Nwanorue, Technical SEO Specialist
“Mistake: Believing every piece of information published online. Solution: Do read what others have to say or present but don’t believe it blindly. Test and analyse it, then make your decisions. Always test on a small sample of pages first before making sitewide changes.” – Praveen Sharma, SEO Consultant & Strategist
“For me it was to learn that content, technical SEO and other digital channels have to work together to be successful” – Veronika Hoeller, Senior SEO Manager
“In SEO the biggest pain point in learning it as a beginner is misinformation. Beginners will inevitably feel overwhelmed and would not know how to discern fact from disinformation (esp. SERP searches). Ideally the best way to go would be to join a forum or slack channel, like the one for tech seo women, where you can get legitimate feedback in a healthy manner. It’s free and the feedback is from professionals.” – Iman, SEO Specialist