Career Planning Skills Development Best SEO Courses Learn how to drive more traffic to your website By Eric Rosenberg Eric Rosenberg Facebook Twitter Website Eric Rosenberg is a financial writer with more than a decade of experience working in banking and corporate accounting. He specializes in writing about cryptocurrencies, investing and banking among other personal finance topics. Eric has an MBA in finance from the University of Denver. learn about our editorial policies Updated on October 24, 2022 Fact checked by Michael Rosenston Fact checked by Michael Rosenston Michael Rosenston is a fact-checker and researcher with expertise in business, finance, and insurance. Prior to this role, he interned at two Fortune 500 insurance companies and worked in data science in the advertising industry. learn about our editorial policies We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Learn more. SEO (search engine optimization) courses help you learn the ins and outs of ranking on the first page of Google and other search engines. The best SEO courses teach you what you need to know to boost website ranking. When choosing a course it’s important to find one that offers timely information, as best practices for search change frequently. Here are the best SEO courses online, many of which could be perfect for launching or upgrading your digital marketing career. Best SEO Courses of 2023 Best Overall: Search Engine Optimization Specialization Best Free Option: Semrush Academy Best for Beginners: The Beginner’s Guide to SEO Best for Advanced Training: The Blueprint Training Best for Digital Marketers: SEO Training Course Best for Developers: SEO Starter Guide Best for Bloggers: Yoast SEO Academy Best SEO Courses View All Best SEO Courses Our Top Picks Search Engine Optimization Specialization Semrush Academy The Beginner’s Guide to SEO The Blueprint Training SEO Training Course SEO Starter Guide Yoast SEO Academy See More (4) Final Verdict Compare Providers FAQ Methodology Best Overall : Search Engine Optimization Specialization Business and Financial Modeling Specialization from Coursera Sign Up Now Pros & Cons Pros In-depth SEO education through a university-affiliated course series A skill-oriented course that commonly leads to new careers and pay increases Audit the course for free with full access to the course materials Cons Takes five months to complete at six hours per week Fee or subscription required for a certificate We picked Coursera’s Search Engine Optimization Specialization from UC Davis because it is a highly rated course that takes you from beginner to expert with an in-depth course that you can audit for free. It's is a five-part course taught by an instructor from the University of California, Davis. The complete experience requires component courses titled Introduction to Google SEO, Google SEO Fundamentals, Optimizing a Website for Google Search, Advanced Content and Social Tactics to Optimize SEO, and Google SEO Capstone Project. The course is self-paced, though Coursera suggests you put aside six hours per week for five months to finish it. The course doesn’t require a background in SEO but it is best if you have some business experience. You can audit each individual course for free or subscribe to Coursera Plus for $59 per month to get your certificate of completion. It’s tough to beat a university education, and you can get this one online from the comfort of your home or office. If you’re willing to put in the time to complete the entire specialization, you should emerge ready for the next step in an SEO career. Best Free Option : Semrush Academy Semrush Academy Sign Up Now Pros & Cons Pros Free SEO and other digital marketing courses Multi-lesson courses with progress tracking Run by a highly respected SEO company Cons Account required to take courses Course promotes Semrush software Why We Chose It We like Semrush Academy because it offers many free courses on various SEO topics and is run by one of the top names in the SEO industry. If you work in SEO, you likely use Semrush or a competitor to track search positions for the keywords that matter most to your websites. You can learn how Semrush works and a whole lot more in the free Semrush Academy. There are over 20 total marketing courses in the academy and a big portion of them are on SEO. For example, Content Marketing and SEO Fundamentals with Eric Enge is made up of eight lessons. Some courses are longer and shorter and cover various SEO skills with different instructors. While Semrush Academy is somewhat promotional of the paid Semrush platform, you can take the courses for free after signing up for an account. You never have any obligation to buy anything from Semrush. Best for Beginners : The Beginner’s Guide to SEO The Beginner’s Guide to SEO Sign Up Now Pros & Cons Pros Free online course made just for beginners Compact enough to complete in a single sitting Provided by a major name in SEO education Cons Heavily promotes Moz Pro subscription Course content is nearly all text Why We Chose It We like the Beginner’s Guide to SEO from Moz because it is a free, easy-to-follow course that teaches you SEO basics and comes from one of the most recognized brands in SEO. Moz is a well-known name in the SEO industry thanks to its SEO rank tracking platform and a plethora of search engine optimization resources, including a blog, videos, and other educational content. The Beginner’s Guide to SEO is a free course from Moz that stands out as a good choice for SEO newbies. The course is made up of text and images that can quickly get you up to speed on basic SEO strategies and terminology. You won’t be an expert after finishing, but you’ll know enough to have an informed conversation about generating search traffic to your website. Moz’s course is easy to understand and you may be able to complete the entire thing in just one or two sittings. If you like what you learned, there’s plenty of additional free SEO content to build your skills in the resources section of the Moz site, all of which are linked to from the course. Best for Advanced Training : The Blueprint Training The Blueprint Training Sign Up Now Pros & Cons Pros Hands-on course with videos, templates, and tools Free sections let you try before you buy Access a network of staff and other students Cons Expensive price tag Focused on building an SEO business Why We Chose It We picked The Blueprint Training because it gives you in-depth knowledge on building your own SEO agency or content marketing business. For those who are willing to make a major financial investment, The Blueprint Training is an SEO course that gives you the skills to do SEO for yourself and for others as a business. Whether you want to impress your employer, take on new clients, or start an SEO agency of your own, this course could be a good choice. The Blueprint Training’s main SEO course called SEO Sprints costs $9,999. It has 13 modules and a traffic project tool included. The course teaches both SEO skills and SEO agency business building. Templates and tools are frequently included in modules. The course also is very strong at developing analysis skills. There is also the Blueprint Platinum plan that costs $19,999, which a 12-week program designed for agencies, consultants, and freelancers looking to scale beyond $1 million. Best for Digital Marketers : SEO Training Course SEO Training Course Sign Up Now Pros & Cons Pros A free course from digital marketing company HubSpot Real-world examples on ranking high on Google Concise course takes about an hour or less to complete Cons Course may contain beginner-level content for experienced digital marketers Login required to access free content Why We Chose It We chose the SEO Training Course from HubSpot Academy because it’s a free course based on actual experiences building a blog that ranks #1 on Google. The SEO Training Course on HubSpot Academy is a good choice for digital marketers looking for a quick and concise course on SEO. This course is made up of eight videos that total 38 minutes. Digital marketers will find value learning tactics for link building and creating top-ranked blog posts and pages, both of which are important to any content marketing strategy. HubSpot’s course does a very good job, considering it’s less than one hour long. That may not be enough for some professional marketers, but it’s a good primer for those new to SEO for business. If you already use HubSpot or have an account on HubSpot Academy, it’s easy to sign up and take other free courses that cover many related topics. Within the search engine optimization category, HubSpot Academy features more than 20 courses, many of which take under an hour to complete. This can help you cherry-pick specific SEO skills to learn without a massive time commitment. Once you’ve finished this course, you’ll have a good grasp on creating an SEO strategy, building backlinks, and creating top-ranking content. Best for Developers : SEO Starter Guide SEO Starter Guide Sign Up Now Pros & Cons Pros A free course from Google Part of the Google Developers section Includes example code snippets and best practices Cons Text and image-heavy course with no videos May be too advanced for beginners Why We Chose It We like this course from Google Developers because it teaches SEO basics to those who are familiar with development and coding. Most SEO courses are focused on helping you reach the top ranking on Google. Who better to teach you about Google’s systems than Google itself? The Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide isn’t a traditional video course, but it contains a ton of useful information and insights geared toward developers. You can read the entire guide for free and get an inside look at how Google wants websites and data structured to show up best in search. This is particularly helpful when trying to trigger Google snippets and info boxes that contain rich details about your website or page. The course content is dense, but if you can make it through the entire guide, you’ll have a plethora of SEO knowledge that is easily translated into well-performing website code. Best for Bloggers : Yoast SEO Academy Yoast SEO Academy Sign Up Now Pros & Cons Pros From the maker of the Yoast SEO WordPress plugin Learn SEO best practices with insights tailored to bloggers Premium version includes a premium subscription to the Yoast plugin Cons Subscription required for premium access Account required to access course content Why We Chose It We like this course because it is free, filled with useful details for blogs and other websites, and comes from the developer of one of the most popular SEO tools on the web. If you use WordPress to run your blog or website, you likely know the Yoast SEO plugin, one of the platform’s most popular SEO plugins. That makes Yoast a good place to learn about SEO for blogs and other WordPress sites. Yoast SEO Academy is free to access most course materials. If you upgrade to the $99 per year Yoast Premium subscription, you get access to all courses and premium features of the Yoast SEO plugin. The course is appropriate for beginner to advanced students looking to improve their SEO skills, notably for blogging and WordPress. The course includes templates and references to the Yoast SEO plugin. You don’t have to use Yoast SEO to put the knowledge to good use, but it’s definitely optimized around its own SEO products, something common for providers of free courses. Once you’re signed up with an account, you’ll have access to everything you need to get search traffic to a blog. Final Verdict There is no exact formula to rank number one on Google, but an SEO course can teach you the skills and strategies used to succeed in building traffic from online search results. There are plenty of free courses to round out your knowledge, but some pros may want to invest more in resources and templates. If you’re serious about learning SEO, we recommend Coursera’s Search Engine Optimization Specialization because it will take you from beginner to expert in a series of courses that can each be audited for free. Compare Providers Best SEO Courses Course Provider Cost Course Length Notable Features Search Engine Optimization Specialization Best Overall $59 per month (free to audit) Five weeks (estimated) Free-to-audit course from U.C. Davis Semrush Academy Best Free Option Free, must create account Varies by course Free course from a top provider of SEO software The Beginner’s Guide to SEO Best for Beginners Free Self-paced Free text-based course from Moz The Blueprint Training Best for Advanced Training $9,999 Self-paced Advanced course for digital marketing agencies SEO Training Course Best for Digital Marketers Free Self-paced Free course from HubSpot SEO Starter Guide Best for Developers Free Self-paced Free guide created by Google Yoast SEO Academy Best for Bloggers Free or $99 Varies by course Taught by the team behind a top SEO plug-in for blogs Frequently Asked Questions What Do You Learn in an SEO Course? SEO courses teach students how to rank well on Google and other search engines. Major topics covered typically include a combination of on-page and off-page strategies to generate traffic to your website; typical on-page SEO strategies, including picking and using the right keywords, hyperlinks, images, and HTML tags; off-page strategies, including building backlinks and marketing your content. Who Should Take an SEO Course? SEO courses are best for business owners, managers, and marketing professionals who want to grow traffic to any website. Whether you’re an entrepreneur with your own project or a digital marketer looking to improve your career skills, an SEO course could be a good choice. Can an SEO Course Help Me Find a Job? While some SEO courses are focused primarily on skills and knowledge, others may include certifications that you can take to employers or add to your LinkedIn profile or resume as a way to improve your career. While some courses and certifications are more respected than others, an SEO course may help you land a job as an SEO specialist in the future. How Much Does an SEO Course Training Cost? Many SEO training courses are completely free while others can cost five figures. Among the courses we reviewed, the prices ranged from free to $9,999. The free courses we reviewed tend to offer general SEO advice that applies to a wide range of industries. For a higher fee, you’ll get additional resources, more specific instruction, and the potential to work with mentors or instructors in a group or one-on-one setting. Methodology To pick the best SEO courses, we scoured the web for classes and guides from SEO software providers, course platforms, universities, and major online brands. We focused on course content, cost, and meeting specific learning outcomes when choosing winners for each category. 10'000 Hours / Getty Images Article Sources Semrush. "Semrush Academy Courses." HubSpot Academy. 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