{"slug": "how-to-learn-seo-in-2026", "title": "How to Learn SEO in 2026?", "summary": "Sara Taher, an SEO specialist, outlines a 2026 roadmap for learning SEO, emphasizing that fundamentals remain essential while AI and platforms like YouTube and Reddit expand the field. She recommends building a test website using Claude Code, studying Google's SEO Starter Guide, and leveraging AI tools like ChatGPT for questions. Taher notes that YouTube is cited in 25% of AI answers, highlighting the need to optimize beyond traditional search.", "body_md": "**Hello Riddlers!**\n\n📌 If you find value in my newsletter and want to support the work that goes into it consider —> [☕[Buy Me a Coffee](https://buymeacoffee.com/sarataher)☕]💡 Want more from me? [[SEO Strategy Course](https://sarataher.podia.com/how-to-create-an-seo-strategy)] | [[Build Your Own SEO Tools (with Python & Agentic AI)](https://sarataher.podia.com/introduction-of-python-for-marketers)] | [[Premium SEO Mastermind](https://sarataher.podia.com/in-house-seo-enterprise-meetup)]\n\nAlternatively you can become a paid subscriber\n\n**Intro**\n\nI run monthly live SEO townhalls to chat about anything and everything SEO, you can also bring your own questions or tips that you’d like to share. You can watch recording of previous sessions [here](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3yWpCKUpylQqQl_1Hy4FjO1NxNrjtC6W), or [signup and join us for the next one](https://luma.com/axmm6o6g)!\n\nThese sessions always inspire me, and last time someone asked, “How do you learn SEO in 2026?” That really got me thinking...\n\nWe’ve come a long way. SEO has evolved into a vast ocean that requires continuous learning if you want to keep sailing (*such a dramatic analogy, right? That's totally me, not the AI helping me write this post* 😂).\n\nAI is also a big part of this evolution, so I thought it was a great question to answer in this newsletter. So, hold tight!\n\n**What is SEO today?**\n\nFirst, I want to set the stage to what learning SEO includes today and the areas of knowledge you should pick up. I, by no means intend to overwhelm you, we are all still learning. But it’s important to begin with the end in mind.\n\nSEO imo covers a lot more area than we used to. Auditing reddit and finding brand interaction opportunities for your social team, or auditing your YouTube Channel and optimizing the content and descriptions, not just to rank on YouTube but also to rank those videos better in search, and get your brand cited in AI answers using those videos (Y[ouTube gets cited 25% of the time in AI answers](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sara-seo-specialist_im-very-happy-to-finally-read-something-share-7415705705745182720-WRN8/)).\n\nYou may be wondering at this point… OMG do I need to learn all of this? not right away… you’ll build your knowledge overtime, with every audit and every client and every new SEO article you read… but you gotta cover the basis.\n\n**1# Cover the basis**\n\nPeople in this industry would eat me alive if I said anything before saying this: the fundamentals are still the fundamentals. If you want to learn SEO in 2026, you still need to master many of the same concepts you had to learn years ago.\n\nNow that I’ve got that out of the way, here’s what I recommend:\n\nIf you can build your own test website, please do. It costs little more than a domain name and about $4/month for GitHub, and you can build your own website from scratch using Claude Code. This is the best learning environment—better than any course I can recommend.\n\nIf you don't want to build a website, find a small website you'd like to audit instead.\n\nNext I recommend you go through Google’s [SEO Starter Guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide). As you read and learn, keep going back to your website and apply what you've learned.\n\nFor example, the documentation talks about the `site:`\n\nsearch operator (e.g., `site:wikipedia.org`\n\n). Go try it in Google Search and see what happens.\n\nDon’t understand something? The good news in 2026 is that you can ask ChatGPT, or join one of the many SEO communities and ask your questions there. I also run an SEO community, apply to join [here](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/13esJRFWce4aXCJlyxO_IwSpYMMIJhMqOP5PVvJ1K5Kk/edit).\n\nIn my opinion, Google's documentation is the best place to start. If you're looking for something more comprehensive that will set you up well, I'd also recommend the [SEO specialization certificate on Coursera](https://www.coursera.org/specializations/seo/paidmedia?utm_medium=sem&utm_source=gg&utm_campaign=b2c_namer_multi_multi_ftcof_multi_px_dr_bau_gg_sem_gc-bd_us-ca_en_m_hyb_26-03_digital-marketing-general&campaignid=23688384691&adgroupid=193331289023&device=c&keyword=seo%20course&matchtype=b&network=g&devicemodel=&creativeid=801661978707&assetgroupid=&targetid=aud-2424107060799:kwd-266421537&extensionid=&placement=&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23688384691&gbraid=0AAAAADdKX6aZ7y8ozZKTItf5MCzNaG3ZU&gclid=Cj0KCQjwm8bTBhDWARIsAC9Hi8nXwzw6ez-L0VCXoeHzoZEK2br7mz4jwKiwKV-hLzkshUj9I0hYLD4aAiGYEALw_wcB). By the end of it, you'll have the knowledge expected of a junior SEO.\n\n**2# Quality content**\n\nGoogle recommends creating “helpful content”... but what exactly is helpful content?\n\nOne of the best places to start is Google’s own “[Search Quality Rater Guidelines: An Overview](https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/hsw-sqrg.pdf)”\n\nI highly recommend reading it and creating your own content audit checklist as you go. It’s a great way to turn what you’re learning into something practical that you can reuse.\n\nYou can also upload the document to [NotebookLM](https://notebook.google.com/). It can generate a podcast based on the file, and you can ask questions about the document and get answers grounded in its content.\n\n**3# Uncle Tom**\n\nWhat about doing SEO for platforms like ChatGPT and Claude?\n\nWell, some people call this GEO...\n\nAnd if you haven’t heard, using the term GEO is very inflammatory for some people in the SEO industry. Is SEO the same as GEO? Is that even the right question? The debate goes on and on...\n\nI don’t really get into that debate anymore. Call it whatever you want—you can call it Uncle Tom for all I care. 😂\n\nI highly recommend you devour this resources to get on top of this field:\n\nThat’s it. That’s my advice!\n\n**4# Signup for the right resources**\n\nLinkedIn is great, but newsletters are even better. Here are a few newsletters I recommend. I’m not affiliated with any of them (except, of course, my own 😉).\n\nSEORiddler.com: a newsletter by yours truly, it’s not really a beginner level newsletter, but it opens your eyes to new ideas, and shared actionable tips as well.\n\n**seroundtable.com:** that’s where I go for news, you’ll find every single thing that ever happened any day in SEO there, that’s a given.[Mike King’s iPullRank newsletter](https://pages.ipullrank.com/iprnewslettersignup): big topics, in-depth AI/SEO research, and so many gems in there.[Tech SEO Tips Newsletter](https://www.nikkihalliwell.com/tech-seo-tips-newsletter/): this one is by Nikki Halliwell, I had her on my podcast one time and she’s awesome and her newsletter is no less if you want to build a good technical SEO foundation.[SEO Notebook by Steve Toth](https://seonotebook.com/): short actionable tips on SEO and GEO, definitely worth a spot in your inbox.\n\n**5# Wash, rinse, repeat**\n\nIf you feel the resources I recommended above are not enough, you’re right—you need practice. That’s where you truly grow and learn.\n\nAudit more websites. Audit big websites too: Amazon, Wikipedia, CNN, and others.\n\nLearn to find patterns. Every time you use Google, ask yourself: **Why is this URL here?**\n\n**And That’s a Wrap (Almost 😄)**\n\nI hope I didn’t overwhelm you—please don’t be! We’re all learning, and anyone who says otherwise is simply not being honest.\n\nTake baby steps, learn as you go, and try to find a mentor who can guide you if you can.\n\nGood luck!\n\n**That’s that for today folks and see you in the next newsletter!**\n\n**Support the Riddler!**\n\nSign up for my newsletter if you’re not already. (Pssst, you can also become a paid subscriber)\n\nShare the newsletter and invite your friends to signup. Help me reach 2k signups by end of 2025 please 🙂\n\nProvide feedback on how I can make this newsletter better!!!\n\nIf you’re an SEO tool or an SEO service provider, consider sponsoring my newsletter. I’m also open to other partnership ideas as well.\n\n*Disclaimer: LLMs were used to assist in wording and phrasing this blog.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-to-learn-seo-in-2026", "canonical_source": "https://www.seoriddler.com/p/how-to-learn-seo-in-2026", "published_at": "2026-08-04 13:23:03+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-01 14:23:39.326462+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-tools"], "entities": ["Sara Taher", "Google", "Claude Code", "ChatGPT", "YouTube", "Reddit", "Coursera"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-to-learn-seo-in-2026", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-to-learn-seo-in-2026.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-to-learn-seo-in-2026.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-to-learn-seo-in-2026.jsonld"}}