Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as a marketing tactic will continue to grow in importance for any company who’s growing their online presence. If immediately you say “oooh but Jeph, we live in Regina, Saskatchewan, SEO doesn’t work here! I’ma git me another bus bench ad!” I truly feel sorry for you, you may leave now.

As for those of you who want to learn more about SEO and need a place to start, you’ve come to the right place.

Here are 17 of the most helpful articles, video and inforgraphics on search engine optimization, please add your favorite in the comments below.

Overview

1. A good start will be with definitions, learn the new words that you’re going to hear in boardroom SEO conversations, now you’ll actually know what people are talking about when they reference your internal link structure and you can answer like the shmarty pants you are.

30 (New) SEO Terms You Have to Know from SEOptimize

2. A good overview of the SEO process from SEOMoz, most content coming from SEOMoz is well researched and to the point. I use SEOMoz a lot.

The New SEO Process (Quit Being Kanye)

3. This is probably the most exhaustive article on local search factors, worth a read before you start focusing the wrong attributes establishing your local search engine optimization campaign:

Local Search Ranking Factors by Davidmihm.com

4. On Page Search Engine Optimization, keywords, the page’s user experience, page authority, domain authority and multi vs single page optimization:

4 Graphics to Help Illustrate On-Page SEO from SEOMoz

5. An article written based on information provided by Google, things to focus on when building a website that you want to rank for specific search terms:

Direct From Google: How To Build A Quality Website In 2012

Measurement

6. This is a great article for beginners looking at how to evaluate how a single page on a site.

How to Conduct an On-Page SEO Site Audit

7. There’s a lot to this report but it covers almost everything from an SEO audit report

How to Perform the World’s Greatest SEO Audit

8. In this article, Avinash Kaushik shares the most effective metrics to use to measure the effectiveness of your website.

Best Web Metrics / KPIs for a Small, Medium or Large Sized Business

Tips

9. SEO yet again provides us with a juicy post on making the highly sought after link bait posts. A lot of people misunderstand this as a tactic, definitely worth a read:

4 Tips for Creating Link Bait from SEOMoz

10. A great 20 point overview of what to do and not to do to rank in the top 10 on Google

SEO Tips to Shorten Time to The Top 10 from SEO Design Solutions

11. A lot of great tips in here if you’re a designer or interested in a best practices article on web design for a high traffic site.

List of Best and Worst practices for designing a high traffic website

Strategy

12. A great read on different SEO tactics and their effectiveness. Link bait, infographics, how to’s, there are a lot of options out there, this post simplifies how and why you’d create different types of content on your site.

Ecommerce website content for SEO – what is it and are you wasting your time?

13. Many different ideas and tactics to help in building links to your site.

62 steps to the definitive link building campaign

14. This is a great read on the your overall digital strategy, you must read it.

11 Digital Marketing “Crimes Against Humanity”

15. 6 Changes Every SEO Should Make BEFORE the Over-Optimization Penalty Hits – Whiteboard Friday

16.