John Mueller of Google answered a question in a Reddit thread about advice on how an SEO noob, a person who is inexperienced in SEO, learn and get good at SEO. John said you should gain experience with the help of webmaster help forums and communities.
John wrote:
There is nothing like experience and often when you are new to something, hearing from those who have gone through things many times that you are for the first time experiencing is helpful. So many help forums can be, um, helpful. Of course, some people on forums can be pretty rough but still, sharing and learning online is a beautiful thing.
The thread is pretty nice to read so check it out.
Forum discussion at Reddit.