I had someone reading my previous entries in my Learning SEO series ask about using SEO forums to learn SEO. So I promised that I would write a post about the value of SEO forums for learning.
In 1998, I became a moderator of a couple of forums on small business and website promotion on Yahoo Groups. Those lead to me becoming a moderator at Cre8asiteforums, joining forum owner Kim Krause Berg along with several other moderators such as Ammon Johns and Jill Whalen.
Cre8asiteforums was (and still is) a tremendous place to talk about and learn SEO and web design and usability and accessibility. One of my favorite individual forums on the site was “The Website Hospital,” where people would bring their site’s URL and concerns about it and ask questions. That was where I learned a lot about auditing sites and seeing what worked well on them and what might need some help. This thread is a good introduction to it: Getting Started in the Website Hospital.
There have been other SEO forums that I’ve gotten a lot of value from over the years; one of those is Webmasterworld. Most of the members of that forum are practicing SEOs or site owners who enjoy sharing their experiences. It reminds me of a weather vane, in that people are often open with information about changes that they experience to rankings and traffic to their sites. You can see changes taking place on the Web from what they write. It is a pretty good place to use to learn SEO.
Another place that can be informed about how search works is the Google Webmaster Help Forum. If you experience problems with a site, it is often a good place to search to see if anyone else has experienced something similar – it is possible that someone has, and the answers they received may help you.
There are other forums on the Web that focus upon SEO and Search. I’ve included the ones that I am most familiar with. There were some others that I participated in that aren’t very active anymore. It doesn’t hurt to start as a lurker and learn about the customs and culture before you start participating in it. You may find some that you enjoy participating in very much.
When I started going to conferences and events after being involved in SEO forums for a few years, I finally had a chance to meet in real life many people whom I had only met in discussions at those forums. So it was nice getting a chance to do so.
You can learn a lot through SEO forums.