Getting started in SEO without the sales pitch

So you want to get into SEO?

Maybe you have heard it is just changing a few words and waiting for Google. Maybe someone on LinkedIn said it is dead but they can offer you ‘growth hacks’ for AI that nobody else has, as long as you comment on their post a bizarre word that tricks you into signing up to their mail list. You might have even seen a YouTube guru promising you ten grand a month from your laptop using their shopify ‘growth’ template.

None of that is helpful, and almost all of it is nonsense.

SEO is a real skill, and much to the dismay of scammers, it’s not going anywhere. It is not magic, it is not instant, and it is definitely not just stuffing keywords into a page and hoping for the best. The good news is you do not need to be a developer, a data scientist, or a mind reader to get started. You just need to learn the fundamentals in the right order, and like with learning anything, be patient, take your time and learn from your mistakes.

This guide covers what to learn first, the common mistakes beginners make early, the do’s and do nots, and a few courses that are actually worth your time.

First things first: how SEO actually works

Before you touch a tool or “optimise” anything, you need to understand this.

Google has three jobs.

1. Find pages (crawling)
2. Store pages (indexing)
3. Rank pages (based on relevance, quality and trust)

If Google cannot crawl your page, it will not rank. If Google crawls but does not index your page, it still will not rank. If your page is indexed but does not match what the user wants, it will rank but users will leave the site without interacting, or putting cash in your (or your clients) pocket which is what we call a ‘bounce’.
This sounds obvious and it is, but most beginners will jump straight to rankings and ignore crawling and indexing.

What tools should you learn

Learn Google Search Console before anything else. If you are new to SEO, Google Search Console is your best friend and you will end up spending a lot of time using this tool. So what does this tool do?

GSC tells you:

• What your site already ranks for
• How much traffic you are getting to your site
• If there are any issues with any pages
• Which pages get impressions but no clicks
• Which pages Google cannot or will not index
• When Google is actively unhappy with you
• And much more

It does this for free, straight from Google!

A common beginner mistake is sticking to the main overview tab, and only using GSC to see how many clicks you are getting and for which terms. GSC offers much more than this, so we suggest you dive into every corner and explore. Here’s a free hint: Go to settings, crawl stats, select the correct site and then click on the host status. Here you can see if Google has any issues reaching your site which can sometimes signal if your site is partially or entirely down. Just a hint which definitely hasn’t come from my own early career experience.

SEO fundamentals beginners should focus on

Search intent (this breaks more sites than any algorithm update)

Every search has a reason behind it, so understanding them is key:

• Informational: how does X work
• Commercial: best X for Y
• Transactional: buy X
• Navigational: brand or site name

If someone wants a guide and you give them a product page, neither Google nor will the user be impressed. If someone wants to buy a product and you give them a 2,000 word blog post, same result. Put yourself in the users shoes, what would you expect from the page based on the reason you’ve searched that keyword? Don’t be afraid to mix and match either as long as it’s done properly. At the end of the day, you’re a marketer, so even though the focus is on commercial intent users, don’t be afraid to use a few informational terms to draw in users to that product page, and allow the content to inform them and even convince them to buy the product.

We’ve all been guilty of searching for help on something, only to end up buying something whilst on the site.

On-page basics

You need to get comfortable with:

• Page titles that humans actually want to click
• Meta descriptions that sell the click, not just repeat keywords
• Headings that structure content properly
• Internal links that make sense

Internal linking deserves special attention because beginners either do not do it at all, or they try to squeeze them in every second word.

Good internal linking consists of:

• Comes from relevant pages
• Uses natural anchor text

If Google struggles to find a page through links, it will struggle to rank it too. Internal linking opens up another doorway to that page, and the more ways to access a page, the easier it is for Google and users to find the page.

Technical SEO

Most SEO’s in their early career limit themselves to Content SEO, and while it’s good to specialise in an area, never limit yourself even if it means just learning the fundamentals. The good news is you do not need to become a developer to do SEO, even though tech SEO’s are often seen as cyborgs already.

Here’s a few fundamentals that you do need to understand:

• The difference between indexed and not indexed
• What a canonical is and why duplicates cause problems
• What a redirect is and why chains are bad
• Why http vs https consistency still matters (yes, it is still a thing)
• What core web vitals is, and why it is important
• Understanding robots.txts and their impacts

Content and Technical SEO go hand-in-hand. You can’t have one without the other, so whilst it’s great to specialise into one, we’d recommend that you get familiar with the fundamentals of both.

Common beginner pitfalls (hands-up who’s done at least one of these?)

Chasing rankings instead of outcomes

Ranking number one for a keyword that never converts is not a win. Traffic that does not lead to enquiries, sales or sign ups is just noise. Due to recent AI developments, ranking number one is also no longer the golden child of SEO as people no longer have to click to get the information they need. The name of the game here is ensuring you’re relevant, and that you’re matching the exact intent of the person you’re targeting. Clicks are great, but bringing in users that will convert is the real goal.

Making too many changes at once

If you update 30 pages, change navigation, rewrite content and tweak technical settings at the same time, you will have no idea what worked and what didn’t. SEO is a marathon, not a sprint, so it rewards patience and controlled experiments, not chaos. If you learn this early, you’ll save yourself a lot of stress wondering why you’re not seeing results, and more importantly, will be able to push back on clients with unrealistic expectations of increasing traffic by 300% in the first three days.

Believing tools over reality

SEO tools are helpful and help shape the way you approach each strategy. You always need to remind yourself however that SEO tools collect their own data, not Google’s, so everything is always an estimate at best. If a tool says something is “critical” but the page is ranking and converting, take a breath before panicking. Investigate, cross reference with actual Google data (GSC and GA4) and see if other SEO’s are reporting similar issues across LinkedIn, Reddit and Slack/Discord communities.

Over-using AI

AI is great for structure, editing and research support. It is not great for experience, accuracy without checking, or unique insight. If your content looks like it was written by a robot, Google will treat it accordingly. Likewise, AI is great to use as a base template, especially when you’re going through the good ol’ writers block, but a template is all it should be. Allowing it to write for you limits your own learning, and most people can spot AI generated content from a mile away due to how common it has become.

So what should I do and what should I not do?

We are all humans (for now) and no matter whether it’s your first day in SEO or tenth year, making mistakes is an inevitability which is how we grow and learn. Most people, myself included, learn more from mistakes and actions that didn’t go as planned than any success. With that being said, we’ve compiled some do’s and do not’s below to help you understand where to start and some common mistakes new SEO’s make

Do

• Start learning tools slow, start with Google Search Console and then Google Analytics 4.
• Explore additional tools and start building your toolkit (Schema Validator, GTMetrix, browser extensions)
• Sign up to communities and favourite key news sites (E.g. https://searchengineland.com/)
• Track what you changed and when
• Optimise pages that already have impressions
• Fix indexing issues before anything else
• Focus on clarity and usefulness

Do not

• Keyword stuff (General approach is if you can’t find a way to naturally include it then don’t force it)
• Buy cheap (or irrelevant) backlinks
• Create thin pages just to “target a keyword”
• Make massive site changes without a baseline
• Believe anyone promising fast results, especially ‘paid’ advice
• Rely 100% on third party tool data, especially around AI

Courses and blogs worth recommending

There is a lot of rubbish out there, and even more that’s just theory which can be mistaken as gospel. It will take time to learn how to decide which theories and statements are worth following and which aren’t, however these courses and blogs below are great areas to build your foundational SEO knowledge that are industry recognised. You even get a flashy certificate for some of them!

• Blue Array Academy (great fundamentals, UK-focused, low on hype)
• Google Skillshop (essential for GA4 basics)
• Ahrefs Academy (excellent for content and link fundamentals)
• Semrush Academy (structured learning paths for beginners)

Don’t stress!

SEO is not a quick win skill. It is a career skill.

If you can diagnose why something is not ranking, explain the fix in plain English, and prove impact over time, you will be more valuable than someone who just “knows tools”.

Start simple. Learn GSC and GA4. Respect intent. Fix what is broken before adding more. SEO isn’t dead, it just evolves like most industries.