The rise of the web continues unabated, creating opportunities for anyone who is ambitious enough to seize them.

If you want to start a profitable SEO business soon, keeping the following tips in mind will only help your cause…

1) Study online resources

Your journey towards becoming an SEO professional begins with studying a number of critical online resources on the subject.

The first place you should go is to Google, where you will find the Google SEO Starter Guide. Read it from front to back, and internalize the key points found within, as the information that you will read makes up the construct within which all SEO activities take place.

Another must read document is the SEOmoz Beginner’s Guide to SEO, as it contains all the basic tactics that any SEO worth their salt will do for a client.

Be sure to always bookmark and regularly follow all the top SEO blogs on the internet as well, as these sites report on all of the up-to-the-minute information that you will need to shift your tactics as Google changes its algorithm.

2) Get real world experience

The other half of learning SEO involves rolling up your digital sleeves and actually getting a site to rank. Before you strike out into the marketplace and make any promises to potential clients, start by creating a website on your own and getting it to rank for a specific key term.

Once you are able to accomplish this with regularity, we strongly recommend that you offer your services pro bono to a non-profit organization that could use your help.

Because you are offering your services for free, its resources will not be wasted if you are not successful on your first try, plus you’ll get a chance to help out a charity that could really use your assistance.

It also offers a way to build up your portfolio before you attempt to court your first for-profit client, which is important considering how much competition is out there presently.

3) Attend conferences

Just like any other profession, the better connected you are, the easier it will be to succeed in the long run. The best way to meet people when you are just starting out in SEO is to attend conferences.

While it cost you a decent amount of money to attend, think of it as a long-term investment in your success.

Meeting people at conferences won’t just give you friends to commiserate with on the state of the industry, but it will also give you a chance to pick up tactics and tricks that you may not have been aware of before.

Additionally, they might have leads for contracts that could boost your income to the next level, so print up those business cards, save up money for your admission and hotel, and get out to the next SEO conference on the calendar.