Last updated on July 19th, 2024.
In a previous article, I was sharing how I learned SEO.
The answer: It took me 2.5 weeks (94 hours) to get a hang on basic SEO.
How do I know so exactly? I’m a productivity nerd and track my time investment with Toggl.
But it didn’t stop at those 144 hours. And ever since I spend roughly 4 hours per week to keep up to date with recent changes. I read articles, chat with peers and catch up on SEO and Content Slack channels.
But let’s get back to those 144 hours. What did I actually do? Here’s how much time I spent at each step:
| Step | What actions did I take? | Hours spent initially | Hours spent per week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Step 1: SEO for beginners guides | Read two beginners’ guides. MOZ guide: 7 hours Google starter guide: 5 hours | 12 hours | |
| Step 2: Understand Content Marketing | Take the Hubspot Content class and prepare for the exam | 40 hours | |
| Step 3: Understand the basics of website analytics | Took the free Google Analytics for Beginners class and created trial reports | 8 hours | |
| Step 4: Technical SEO | – Took the HTML and CSS class at Cibernarium. Each 2 hours of class and 3 hours of self-training per course – Blue Array technical SEO course | 50 hours | |
| Step 5: Get your hands dirty – do a basic SEO audit | Conducted an SEO audit for a friend. It took me 3 working days. | 24 hours | |
| Step 6: Keep up to date | Listen to SEO Podcast: ~ 1.5 hours per week Read Newsletters and blogs: 2 hours per week Attend Meet-ups: 0.5 hours (1 meetup per month of circa 2 hours) | – | 4 hours |
| Step 7: The advanced stuff | I haven’t done that yet! I plan to attend the Intro to data science with Python on Datacamp and to grab a copy of the book Javascript for Kids. | ? | |
| Total hours spent | 144 hours initially | 4 hours weekly |
This is my personal journey. There is no right or wrong. Every path is individual with detours.
I’m also grateful for Aleyda’s learningseo.io. You can deep dive into each section of SEO. There is so much knowledge out there – and most of it is free. Take advantage of that.
I wish you joy in embracing the learning curve.
How did you start out? Share your story in the comments.
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