I would humbly submit http://inbound.org. It's a Hacker News for inbound marketing (including SEO, blogging, conversion rate optimization etc.)

Great community of folks and some of the best content on SEO out there.

The community was founded by @randfish (of Moz fame) and myself (@dharmesh of HubSpot)

I would recommend two websites for SEO (the ones mentioned above are good as well):

http://backlinko.com/ http://source-wave.com/

Everything on these sites isn't "white hat" per say, but it gives you a different perspective on SEO that isn't the typical "white hat" stuff like on Moz (for the most part it is all pretty white hat) for example. I am not talking about hacking sites and placing links for SEO, but private blog networks and that kind of thing on these two sites. Hope that helps. If you have any questions shoot me an email at caleb.lane4(at)gmail.com.

This has always been excellent: http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo

It even has pictures. After that, I would suggest that you search for specific issues that crop up as you work on projects.

reddit.com/r/bigseo is one of the better free communities that I know of. Most open-entry communities related to SEO become toxic cesspools almost immediately, especially at scale.

Thanks. This is great.

QuickSprout is also a good resource, but their advice like Moz is mostly anecdotal (we tried this and it appears to work) mixed with what Google says. http://www.quicksprout.com/university/

But the best resource is Google and Matt Cutts in particular: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com.au/

http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en/...

I was thinking more from the perspective of how to train hires who are unaware of SEO to a serviceable level as quickly and efficiently as possible. Throwing the beginner's guide at them is efficient. Same goes with clients.

Cutts speaks directly to professionals who have marinated in SEO, often for years. Newbs will not understand most of it, and they have to get the basics first before they can make use of the issues that he helps to trouble shoot.

+1 for http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo, I also liked https://thecoderfactory.com/posts/200-must-know-facts-on-seo and of course you should know your google tools: Google Webmaster Tools: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/‎

Google Adwords Keyword Planner: https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

The beginner's guide to SEO by SEOMoz is also a good one. http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo

thevault.bz :-P

If only I could get access :(

I'd look up SEO forums and read recent threads. SEO changes all the time because Google changes their algorithms.