has anyone gone on a SEO (search engine optimisation) course?

[moodlumthehoodlum]

I'm going to set up as a freelance copywriter, and having done some research, I'd like to do a course in this.

Anyone done this? Exciting as it sounds?

TIA

hehe no I haven't but DP is heavily into this atm.
I don't think he has done a course but I am sure he'd be happy to recommend some books/websites if you're interested in teaching yourself?

Ooh yes please. My dh thinks he knows what he is doing, and to be fair, he has done his whole website around what google wants, but I think I need to be a bit more academic about it. So, books & websites advice would be gratefully received, as its an area I simply couldn't know less about!!

Thank you so much!

I was going on a talk about it yesterday till my childcare fell through. It was by a guy from our local Businesslink (London).

I'd be interested in finding out more too.

Save your money. From Google:

In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages. For more information about improving your site's visibility in the Google search results, we recommend reviewing our webmaster guidelines. They outline core concepts for maintaining a Google-friendly website.

MSN, Yahoo etc. are similar.

If anyone starts talking about meta-tags, they are 5 years out of date.

this is his first suggestion buy this book! (if you click on the link on the site it will take you straight to amazon)

Yes I did, it was free and part of the enterprising women (google it and it'll bring it up) organisation and was very very good. It didn't really outline much more than was in the google webmaster directory, but it was easier to digest!

this is great info everyone - thank you so much.

I'm off to google enterprising women and check out the amazon link.

thanks all

Can I steer you towards a free resource - GrokDotCom - Marketing Optimization Blog
The authors of the site also have some books available:
Call To Action
Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?

These resources are not about SEO, but instead are about Copywriting for the Web. As a great freelance copywriter, I expect you already know that Copy Is King. It is the content that is important. Search engines love content... if your content is clear, concise, as unique as possible, then search engines will index your pages happily. In my view Google wants to list websites which provide users with easy to read and absorb content.

Good copy sells products. When writing copy for the web you need to guide a reader towards clicking the Buy Now button.
I'd suggest concentrating on creating good copy that sells, rather than SEO - as good copy will naturally attract good rankings in Google and other search engines.

thanks nannynick that's really helpful. I'll look at this today.

i have a free guide to SEO if you want a copy then just drop me an email on charlie at virtualsecretarysolutions dot co dot uk

if you use a good combination of good copy, strong seo techniques and dont have a website thats written in old skool tables then you will be off to a good start. that coupled with the art of social bookmarking and networking will work nicely with your website.