SEO, which stands for “Search Engine Optimization”, is an essential skill for those working in digital marketing or web design to get to grips with. So, if you’re looking to become a marketing wiz, then we have spent the time researching the best SEO courses that are available online. We’ve included both free and paid courses, that are suitable for all levels to ensure you find a course best suited to you.
But first, let’s answer an important question – what is SEO?
SEO is the process of improving a website to increase its visibility when people search for products or services related to a business. Essentially, it allows your website, and therefore your services and products, to be visible on Google for people to see and buy.
If you are working in a marketing or web design role, or are someone who would one-day like to work in one of these roles, you can learn about SEO through online learning. Suitable for all levels, I have spent the time researching the best online SEO tutorials out there. So, if you’re looking to progress your SEO skills, there will be an online course out there for you!
1. SEO Training Masterclass 2022: Beginner SEO To Advanced SEO (Udemy)
- Level: All levels
- Completion time: 17h 27m
- Cost: $79.99
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: 73,876
- Course rating: 4.6/5 (out of 3,807 ratings)
In over 17 hours, you will become superior at SEO and inbound marketing. In the first part of the course, you will learn about SEO keyword research, including how to blog and the foundational parts of SEO. The second part of the course covers Google search topics, such as how to dominate the top-10 search results on Google and long-tail versus short-tail keywords.
Part 3 and 4 of the course covers off-page SEO and link building and then advanced SEO topics like voice SEO, Mobile SEO, site speed and more. Bonus parts of the course also include downloadable worksheets, an invitation to a Facebook community and a list of business-success skills to complete the course.
Once you’ve completed this course, you will be able to do SEO better than your competitors or any freelancers. You can use your skills to get SEO traffic and encourage the growth of any business.
2. Introduction to SEO: Tactics and Strategy for Entrepreneurs (Skillshare)
- Level: Beginner
- Completion time: 1h 30m
- Cost: 14 day free trial
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: 69,672
- Course rating: N/A
Suitable for entrepreneurs, small business owners, startups, freelancers, junior marketers, web designers and copywriters, this course will get you up to speed with SEO, no matter what your previous experience is.
In only 90 minutes you will become a marketing genius and will be able to create an SEO strategy that “move the needle”. You will cover an SEO strategy, ranking factors, external linking, content tips and tricks, and much more. To finish, you will put your SEO knowledge into action and optimize one piece of content for your personal blog or company materials. The fundamentals of this course can be applied universally, so that you can use your new found SEO strategy skills.
3. SEO 2022: Complete SEO Training + SEO for WordPress Websites (Udemy)
- Level: Beginner
- Completion time: 12h 6m
- Cost: $79.99
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: 82,924
- Course rating: 4.5/5 (out of 15,279 ratings)
In this complete SEO training course you will learn how to rank in the top spot of search engines such as Google and Bing. You will learn everything you need to know about SEO, from getting traffic to your site, to your user experience and how to improve the relevancy of your sites content.
To really make you stand out and as the best marketing professional out there, you will learn how and why a particular factor affects your search ranking, how to conduce trend analysis, and how/when you should use various SEO factors. As a complete beginners course, everything is explained simply and comprehensively.
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialization (Coursera)
- Level: Beginner to Intermediate
- Completion time: Approx. 5 months at 6 h/week
- Cost: Enroll for Free
- Certification: Yes
- Number of people who have completed the course: 113,512
- Course rating: 4.7/5 (out of 9,288 ratings)
This Coursera course will teach you how to optimize website content for the best possible search engine ranking. You’ll learn the theory behind Google search and other search engine algorithms, so that you can apply this knowledge to your business operations.
You’ll build practical real-world skills that you can apply to a career in digital marketing or online content development, including on-page and off-page optimization. You will cover how to do a competitive analysis on a webpage, create relationships, analyze data and how to create a final report of your findings and recommendations for SEO. Once you’ve gone over this, you will finish with a hands-on project in which you will apply your skills to comprehensive SEO consulting tasks!
5. SEO Certification Course (Hubspot)
- Level: Intermediate to Advanced
- Completion time: 2h 24m
- Cost: Free
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: N/A
- Course rating: N/A
Available completely for free, this course is suitable for marketers, content creators and anyone else who is looking to skill up on SEO. Through 6 lessons, taught by different industry experts, 26 videos and 5 quizzes you’ll leave the course confident in your ability to optimize your website.
You will evaluate and improve your current website’s SEO, making this course incredibly practical. On top of this, you will cover how to build backlinks to your website and increase your website’s visibility on search engine results pages and you will learn how to use insights from keyword research and reporting to improve your search performance.
6. The Ultimate SEO Training 2022 + SEO For WordPress Websites (Udemy)
- Level: Beginner
- Completion time: 14h 4m
- Cost: $139.99
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: 18,418
- Course rating: 4.7/5 (out of 3,903 ratings)
This course is offered by Joshua George, who is the founder of an award winning SEO agency called ClickSlice. As a result, Joshua is one of the best teachers out there to help you understand how SEO works.
Suitable for anyone, from complete beginners to SEO experts looking to expand their knowledge, this course will show you proven techniques to becoming an SEO genius. You will cover how SEO works, how to find the best target words for your website, the role of content in SEO, how to find content ideas and how to build powerful backlinks that will crush the competition. What is more, at the end you will also be shown some real-time results that Joshua has managed to achieve, just so that you know it really works!
7. SEO Today: Strategies to Earn Trust, Rank High, and Stand Out (Skillshare)
- Level: Intermediate
- Completion time: 1h 9m
- Cost: 14 day free trial
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: 11,544
- Course rating: N/A
In a little over an hour you can learn all about what drives real impact for your site. Through 9 engaging lessons you will learn all the tips, tools and inspirations that modern-day marketers use to create website content that pops.
You will cover topics such as link earning strategies to help your content rank higher, on-page SEO optimizations, the latest in search engine results pages (SERP) and the best practices for mobile SEO to maximize your visibility on both a mobile and a desktop. To make this course really stand out from the rest, you will also need to complete a class project where you will try out all the tools and class resources in your own content. So, if you have a little bit of knowledge of SEO but want to further your skills, this course is one that you don’t want to miss!
8. Introduction to Google SEO (Coursera)
- Level: Beginner
- Completion time: Approx. 14h
- Cost: Enroll for Free
- Certification: Yes
- Number of people who have completed the course: 227,262
- Course rating: 4.6/5 (out of 8,831)
In this 14 hour course you will learn about the technical side of search engine optimization. You will cover how to critique the role of advertisement and corporate funding in the development of search and how to compare and contrast the functionality of search engine algorithm updates.
On top of learning about the technical side of SEO, you will gain hands on and practical experience. You will learn how to write your own content for a website so that you can improve search results. To really gather practical experience you will develop an optimization strategy that follows best practices to implement help in increasing their ranking.
9. SEO training to 10x your traffic from Google (ClickMinded)
- Level: Beginner
- Completion time: N/A
- Cost: Free (or upgrade for $997)
- Certification: Yes
- Number of people who have completed the course: N/A
- Course rating: N/A
Instructor Tommy Griffith doesn’t believe SEO is at all complicated, and in this course you will learn just how simple SEO is. Tommy will teach you about one simple rule in SEO: are you helping searching engines answer their user’s questions? He will teach you how to crack SEO by helping you to understand that search engines become more valuable by getting more users, and that the only way to get more users is to provide the best possible answers to their questions.
So, if you want to learn about SEO in a simple, straight-forward manner (and have the budget to do so), this course could be a great match for you!
10. SEO Basics for Non-SEOs (Skillshare)
- Level: Beginner
- Completion time: N/A
- Cost: 14 day free trial
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: 7,123
- Course rating: N/A
Learn all the SEO knowledge you’ll need for a small or medium website through this Skillshare course. With expert instruction you will cover how to help Google read your site, use the right words on web content, create the content people want, build links, and much more.
Once you’ve covered all this content, and finished a helpful class project, you will be able to build SEO into your day to day website maintenance and growth. The only thing you need to do to support your learning on this course is to practice what you’ve learnt on your own website!
11. The Complete SEO Course Bundle (Reliablesoft)
- Level: Beginner
- Completion time: N/A
- Cost: From $89
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: 4,200
- Course rating: 5/5
On the Reliablesoft website you can get your hands on all the information you need to know about SEO training. Through all the courses they have to offer, you can increase your SEO knowledge so much that you will increase your rankings and traffic in 60 days or less!
The complete SEO course, for example, will provide you with everything you need to know about SEO, including on-page and off-page SEO. Other courses also include a keyword research course, where you can learn how keywords can help you rank higher, and an E-commerce SEO course, where you will learn to optimize your e-commerce website like a Pro. Essentially, there is something for everyone in this course!
12. Advanced Search Engine Optimization Strategies (Coursera)
- Level: Beginner
- Completion time: Approx. 25h
- Cost: Enroll for Free
- Certification: Yes
- Number of people who have completed the course: 42,221
- Course rating: 4.5/5 (out of 483 ratings)
Focused on the technical, mobile and social strategies for increasing site traffic, this course is more technical and is suited for those who want to learn the nitty-gritty of SEO. You will learn how to build SEO for international audiences through content localization, global team alignment and optimizing for local search engines.
On top of this, you will also learn how to identify key SEO metrics and how to collect, interpret, validate and report success to your clients and stakeholders.
Conclusion
So, there you have it… the 12 best SEO courses that are available online. These classes are suited to anyone who is wanting to develop their skills and land a role in the marketing or web design industry.
Having excellent SEO skills will aid you in landing hundreds of exciting careers careers. Specific careers where SEO skills are particularly helpful include:
To gather the SEO skills that will make you progress in lots of careers, there are lots of online courses available for you. There are free courses that take only a few hours to complete. And, there are more expensive courses that take over 10 hours to complete! Some courses are suitable for those with no previous experience in SEO. Whereas other courses are better suited for those with lots of experience in marketing, but are looking to increase their knowledge and understanding.
The online classes in this list are the best of the best. Each is taught by an experienced and dedicated teacher, and they all have lots of satisfied and happy customers.
So, which course you decide take depends on your experience, funds and spare time. Are you someone who has lots of SEO experience? Or, are you completely new to marketing? Do you have a huge amount of money to spend on your skill development? Do you have a lot of spare time, or are you just looking for a quick, but effective, skill top up?