Before you can even think of starting an SEO campaign, you need to learn how the system works. This article is not a five-step tutorial on how to rank for the most competitive keywords overnight, but rather a general framework on how to start learning.

First, read all you can on the topic. Try to understand the entire concept on paper – how a search engine works, how it crawls and ranks pages – before building a single link. Read and understand about key concepts such as metadata, keyword densities, link authority and on-page and off-page optimization. Once you have a fairly good grasp of the core concepts, move on.

Build a simple site around a niche with low competition. Try something like your last name (Of course if your last name is Smith or something very common, go for your full name). It’s alright to use a free service,  like a wordpress.com blog. As a side note, I would personally advise against using Blogspot as it’s a bit difficult to work with (It doesn’t offer some of the basic blogging features like trackbacks or comment moderation, not to mention you don’t get to use any of the great Wordpress plugins out there).

Set up some trackers to measure metrics. Use Google Analytics for visitor stats and SEO Spyglass (the free version will do for starters) to track incoming links and search engine rankings. Set up simple conversion goals (try, for example, to get people to click to your Bio page) and measure them with Google Analytics.

Next, apply what you have learned in the first steps. Build a few incoming links and let them mature for a week or two, then record the results. You will want to document each step at this stage, as it will help you understand why you get the results and, most important, see what worked well and what didn’t.

Once you feel confident in your skills, it’s time to move to the “real world”. Find a niche you like, something you would enjoy researching and writing about every day. Unless you plan on outsourcing your writing, it’s very important that you enjoy what you are doing. I have seen a plethora of SEO startups who bailed out after a couple of weeks because they didn’t see any results. SEO is an ongoing process, and depending on the pace you are working at, it might take anything from weeks to years to see actual results.  If you are starting a blog for your company, be sure your blog is topically related to your business.

Get a domain and a good hosting platform, preferably from Lifeline design! If you're creating a blog for your business, you can set it up on your existing domain under a directory called "blog" or something similar.

Read more on what to do with your new hosting account in Part II.