Free SEO help is abundant online. The trick isnt finding help, but winnowing out the good help from all the mediocre or outright dangerous help out there. Here is a brief guide from a veteran webmaster.
The search engines themselves are the first place you should look for information about search engine optimization. All the larger search engines have blogs whose contributors are members of the search engines programming team and whose goal is to help webmasters optimize sites for that particular search engine. Staff writers often spend time on webmasters forums, so they are in touch with the concerns of real webmasters and write practical advice based on the challenges of the moment, not theoretical articles. To find a search engines blog, just search for the name of the search engine and "blog" or "official blog."
Forums are a good, but tricky, source of free SEO help. On one hand, forum members discussions of their experiences and observations are indispensable. Experienced webmasters can sense when changes are likely, analyze changes after they happen, and explain the ramifications of legal language and trends with a freedom that official corporate bloggers rarely have... and, of course, without corporate bloggers need to protect the search engines interests. Search engines sometimes refuse to discuss or flat out deny certain patterns in their algorithms behavior, so the only way to get adequate information about certain aspects of a search engine may be through discussion with other webmasters. On the other hand, forum members also toss out reams of unfounded speculation, bad advice, and outright blather. How to you work out which forums and which forum members are worth reading? It comes down to reading a wide selection of forums and noting patterns over time. Focusing on forums frequented by official speakers for search engines is also a good idea. While an official speaker isnt a stamp of trustworthiness, his or her presence does mean that the forum is influential enough for the search engine to take note. Two must have forums are WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint. To find more, search for "SEO forum."
Free SEO help articles are equally hard to sift through: There are reams of good articles, and a vast ocean of mediocre, wrong, or actively harmful articles. Keep away from free article directories and authors whose main claim to expertise is the ability to pump out a small flood of SEO articles every month. Look for industry magazines and real experts, webmasters with well known networks of sites. Also look for smaller, private article collections and blogs written by experts, like the blog at HubShout. Avoid any articles that sound dull, rewritten, or stuffed with keywords.
As you can see, getting the best from the available free SEO help takes judgment and a touch of experience on your part as well as the ability to use a search engine. Go slow, verify facts before you put any piece of advice into use, and build a sound base of knowledge, and soon you will be able to tell the good free SEO help from the bad.