Listen To The Blog Post:
Last year I wrote a blog post about the best SEO books of that year. Since then, I’ve received some emails asking me what the best SEO courses are of 2024. I figured this would make a good blog post, so here we are.
Before I dive into the list, I want to quickly lay some ground rules.
Ground Rules
This list is going to be compiled in several different ways. I’m going to include courses on here that people are talking about online in groups. It’s one thing to take one person’s opinion into account, but it’s another to look at what a consensus is saying.
Besides looking at group opinion, I’ll also be taking a look at third party website reviews. What I mean by this is reviews on the sales page of the actual course don’t count in my book, and I want to see what people are saying on platforms where their feedback is published regardless of how the course creator feels about it.
In terms of how I’m labeling this list, each course has its own section. Feel free to skip down in the table of contents if you are looking for my feedback on a particular course. Before I forget, some of the course names were all over the place.
It seemed like some of the course creators SEO’d the hell out of the courses and rebranded them specifically to rank. So some courses will be 100% copywriting lingo or SEO keywords, as you’ll see.
Also, I’m trying not to be biased as I have several SEO courses I sell myself. I’m not going to include those in the top 10 list as that is biased, but I will have a section at the bottom where you can learn more about those if you are interested.
And finally, this article will NOT have affiliate links. I have zero incentive to send anyone to these courses. The way I see it, if people want to support me and what we do here at Local Rank Ninja you can pick up one of my products on my courses page.
Now with that being said, here are the top 10 SEO courses of 2024.
SEO Training Certification Course (Hubspot)
Most marketers have heard of Hubspot before. If you haven’t, they are a software company that offers tools and education for digital marketers worldwide. Their SEO course was the most mentioned one I found between Reddit, Google search results, and Facebook groups.
Advantages
The biggest advantage of this course compared to some of the others on this list is the price is free. All you need to do is sign up for an account (no credit card required), and you can immediately go through it. They have several different teachers inside the course, so the information is presented through different teaching styles.
Disadvantages
It goes without saying, but “you get what you pay for.” When the price tag is free, usually it’s a push to opt-in to an email list or purchase a paid product. A for profit company is only going to put so much time and resources into a course they aren’t directly profiting from.
Besides this, I used The Wayback Machine and discovered that this course has been published since 2019. I noticed it did have different videos in 2019 but only a few. The in between dates would not load so I could not see video thumbnails. I wouldn’t expect to discover any new information in this course that you aren’t going to find in other ones on this list.
Course Contents
The course has 26 videos divided across 6 lessons. There are also interactive quizzes that you can go through. There’s approximately 3 hours and 51 minutes of content to absorb.
Here’s what is covered in the course:
- SEO Basics
- Why Is SEO Important?
- How Do Search Engines Rank Your Content?
- How to Create a SEO Strategy
- How to Measure Your Website’s Authority
- On Page & Technical SEO
- How To Optimize Content For SEO
- Allowing Google to Index Your Pages
- Writing and Editing Meta Descriptions
- Writing Descriptive Text
- Internal Linking
- URL Structure
- Technical SEO Basics
- Resizing & Compressing Images
- Keyword Research For SEO
- Why Keyword Research Is Important
- Why Are Topic Clusters Important?
- How to Do Keyword Research
- Link Building For SEO
- Why Is Link Building Important for SEO?
- How Many Links Does Your Content Need to Rank on Page One?
- Why Relationships Are the Key to Link Building at Scale
- How to Scale Link Building Using Press Request Alerts
- Optimizing Your Website For Rich Snippets
- What Are Rich Results?
- What Is Structured Data?
- Optimizing Featured Snippets
- SEO Reporting
- How to Report on Your SEO Efforts
- Create Your SEO Reports
- How to Add Your Website to Google Search Console
My Rating
Going off of everything, I would give this one a solid 6.5/10. The course covers some of what I consider to be the most important core foundations of solid SEO. Things like site structure, optimizing on-page content, a solid strategy on link building, etc.
However, there are also some big flaws with this one. The biggest issue with this course is threefold. One, it’s been published since 2019. SEO is a field related to technology, and we all know how fast tech moves.
But more importantly, however, they don’t have a course section dedicated to writing content. Content is the bread and butter of SEO. Optimizing content is obviously important, but you have to write content before you have something to optimize. Blog posts and publishing articles is 80% of proper SEO.
Beginners need to be taught this before anything else in my opinion. How to structure your content with an outline, doing research for your piece, and making sure it gives lots of value to the searcher is extremely important.
Besides content, the other big issue I have with this course is they don’t cover local SEO. If you aren’t familiar, trying to rank a local or small business (where location and proximity matters) and an online one are two very different beasts. Local SEO is its own thing and should have a category dedicated to how to do it inside the course.
While what’s in the course will absolutely work for say a blog, ecommerce store, or other online-only entity, this leaves small business owners with a very big gap of practical knowledge on how to get their business seen in Google.
Search Engine Optimization Fundamentals
Ah yes, Google’s official SEO course. Or is it…? I was initially confused because I ran into this course on the With Google website, which is apparently a program where Google partners up with other individuals to teach skills.
However, as it turns out this course is NOT taught by Google, it’s hosted on Coursera and taught by someone called Rebekah May. Right away, I feel misled and I haven’t even taken this course. Unfortunately Reddit doesn’t have great things to say about Coursera.
I searched for “Coursera Reddit” to see what people were saying, and oh boy…
It’s safe to say people aren’t happy. Apparently the certificates you get through Coursera courses are worthless in job interviews.
Anyways, with that out of the way let’s dive into my analysis of this course.
Advantages
The biggest advantage I could find is that you can earn a career certificate that you can add to your LinkedIn or resume. That’s it. In my opinion there’s no real advantages to this one and I’d recommend not wasting your time and resources on it.
Disadvantages
Besides the misleading nature of this course being taught by Google, it also turns out that the course isn’t free. It appears free, but in actuality it’s signing up for a 7 day trial for Coursera which requires you to enter your credit card. Most people won’t finish the contents of this course in that timeframe.
Additionally, it turns out that the videos in the course are the same information that’s covered in the other courses on this list. And that’s quite literally.
Again, this course doesn’t spend enough time focusing on content creation. Content is everything in the world of SEO, and not knowing how to write good content is a HUGE disadvantage. These courses aren’t setting you up for success if they aren’t covering that.
Course Contents
This course has 13 hours of content split across 4 different modules. Lessons are in each module section of the course. The 4 module sections of this course are:
- Introduction to On-Page SEO
- Introduction to Off-Page SEO
- Introduction to Technical SEO
- Keyword Theory & Research
My Rating
Due to the negative view on Coursera, the misleading nature of the way this course is presented, and the subpar rehashed information in the course…this one gets a 5/10 from me.
Update
Apparently during the week it took me to write this blog post, this course is now no longer live at the link in this blog post. You may have noticed I didn’t include a list of the modules in the course, only the sections of it. That’s because the course was taken offline literally as I was doing research for this article.
It looks like they were must likely shut down for the reasons I mentioned above. That honestly isn’t a big surprise to me. Google probably wasn’t too keen on them parading themselves as a “Google official SEO training” whey they were not. Anyways, moving on.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialization
Uh oh…another Coursera one. This one I found because it ranked very high in Google, and people on an SEO forum were discussing it. The real question is: is it better than the previous entry on the list…? Well, let’s take a look.
The plot thickens as it turns out it’s also taught by Rebekah May, the same instructor of the previous course we talked about. But that obviously begs the question: “what’s the difference between these 2 courses?” Well, it turns out this course is also co-taught by Eric Enge – so this course has 2 instructors.
Advantages
The quantity of content is way bigger compared to the other Coursera course. Also, having 2 instructors is nice because you get taught by people with different teaching styles. But the biggest advantage of this course is that they actually cover content. And not just that, but they also include building relationships with influencers to generate traffic that way, too.
Disadvantages
Just like the other Coursera course, it appears to be free to enroll but in actuality you have to sign up for a trial with your credit card. And odds are, you aren’t going to be able to finish the course before you get billed. I still think this practice is deceptive. I’d rather be billed upfront and understand that I’m buying a course than get an unexpected bill because I forgot to cancel a trial.
Course Contents
Interestingly, this course is advertised as “5 courses in 1”, with each section of the course being labeled its own course. The 5 sections of the course are:
- Introduction To Google SEO
- Search Engine Ads & Corporate Funding
- Search Engine Algorithm Updates
- Writing Content For Websites (Improve Your Ranking)
- Developing An Optimization Strategy
- Google SEO Fundamentals
- Doing A Competitive Analysis
- Social Media & Brand Recognition
- Creating Sitemaps & Robots.txt
- Understanding SEO Tools
- Optimizing A Website For Google Search
- Keyword Research 101
- Content Creation Strategies
- High Quality Local SEO
- Advanced Content & Social Tactics To Optimize SEO
- Campaigns For Content Marketing
- Building Relationships With Influencers
- Collaborating With Influencers
- Analyzing The Data – What Does It Mean?
- Google SEO Capstone Project
- Creating An SEO Pitch
- Performing A Competitive Analysis
- Creating A Keyword Map
- Publishing A Final Report
My Rating
While this is better than the previous Coursera option, there are still many disadvantages with this course. I’m going to confidently give this a 7.5/10. It’s better for sure, yes. (It got lots of points for including content marketing, which is a really crucial part of SEO.) But some of the options on this list are just better.
Free SEO Training Course By Moz
Most likely if you’ve been in the SEO space for a while you’ve heard of Moz. They’re one of the most reputable authority websites when it comes to this stuff. So their course should obviously be solid…right? Well let’s dive in and find out.
Advantages
This course is actually free! And when I say free, I mean 100% free. No trials or entering your credit card number. All you need is your email address.
Right away, that separates this course from a bunch on this list. Also, this course has had over 328,122 students on Udemy with approximately 18,723 reviews.
At first, I was excited. (But spoiler alert: keep reading to find out how things go downhill fast…)
Disadvantages
Right away things get sketchy. The author’s name on Udemy is “Moz Moz”. I did some digging and on the course “About” page on Udemy it says “One quick note: the certificates given by Udemy are just for fun; they’re in no way meant to imply an official certification or affiliation with Moz.” In other words, this isn’t actually Moz!
Well, who’s teaching the course then?
I watched every video inside the course, and not once does the instructor introduce himself or say what his name is. This is a HUGE red flag! If the guy wants to be nameless and hide behind a different company name, something is wrong.
However, with a ton of research I was able to dig through Google and figure out who the guy is, and I breathed a sigh of relief. He IS the co-founder of Moz, however he’s no longer a part of the company. It would seem that he stepped down as CEO of Moz because he was no longer enjoying his job.
The issue here is that people don’t know this if they don’t do obsessive research…which most people who are looking for an SEO course won’t do on a tiny detail like this. I was left with many questions and that’s never a good thing. However, I can see why he had to say that he wasn’t affiliated with Moz (even though he used to be.)
Besides that, if you read carefully you’ll notice you only get the videos with the free version. If you pay, you get a certificate of completion, a Q&A with the instructor, and the ability to directly message the instructor and ask them a question. Indeed, you “get what you pay for.”
And finally, it seems like this course hasn’t been updated since 2016 – 2017. Uh oh! In a field that moves as fast paced as SEO, this is really outdated as a course.
Course Contents
The free training course has 3 hours and 26 minutes of content, according to Moz’s website. Here’s what’s inside the course:
- SEO Strategy Development
- What Does An SEO Do In Their Day-To-Day Work?
- How To Craft A Remarkable SEO Strategy For 2017
- SEO Strategy Audit In 5 Steps
- How To Create Demand For Sites With Little Or No Search Volume
- Creating A Customer Journey Map
- Site Audits & Structure
- Kickstart An SEO Site Audit For Your Startup
- Controlling Indexing For Better Search Engine Ranks
- Subfolders VS Subdomains
- Keyword Research Basics
- Step By Step Process For Discovering, Prioritizing Keywords
- How To Build A Killer Content To Keyword Map
- On-Page SEO Fundamentals
- Principles Of A Great On-Page SEO Strategy
- How To Optimize For Competitors’ Branded Keywords
- Link Building & Off-Page SEO
- The Rules of Link Building
- Targeted Link Building In 2016
- 20 Attributes That Influence A Link’s Value
- SERP Features (Featured Snippets)
- How To Appear In Google’s Answer Boxes
- Reporting On SEO
- How To Convert Client Goals Into Reportable Metrics
- How To Prove The ROI of Content Campaigns
My Rating
I went into this one expecting to be giving this course an 8 or 9 out of 10. However, after seeing the bigger picture I can’t confidently give this anything past a 5 or at most 6/10. If there weren’t so many issues with this course, I’d say go for it.
But with what I’ve found I would dodge this like the plague.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course
Next up on our list is the SEO training course by Simplilearn. Unfortunately, some of the other courses on this list have set the bar low. Let’s hope this one is better.
Advantages
Right away, a few things are highlighted on this page. One of them is a 100% money back guarantee. That’s a big green flag.
Essentially Simplilearn is saying they are confident in what they are offering here. If you don’t like it, or it’s not a good fit for you then you can simply get your money back. That’s always a good sign to look out for when trying to decide what course to buy.
But most importantly, the sheer amount of content in this course is a huge win. They dive into almost every part of the SEO iceberg and cover everything from how search engines work to best practices, and even showcase common mistakes SEOs make. They cover a lot of stuff that none of the other courses on this list even scratch the surface on.
One of the things I really like is that they have “knowledge check” quizzes after each section of this course. This is really nice for students as it allows you to check if you absorbed the information before moving on. So that also gets a point from me, too.
Disadvantages
It seems like anyone can apply to be an instructor at Simplilearn.
Besides that, this course is ridiculously expensive. The price of admission is $1,499 according to the “Training Options” section of the page. That makes this far and above the most expensive course we’ve looked at so far. Not everyone has that kind of money to spend.
For reference, I charge $97 for Local SEO Shuriken here at Local Rank Ninja and that course has over 70 video training lessons. I like to calculate numbers here to see how much you are paying.
If you bought my course, you’d be paying approximately $1.38 per video. (We take $97 and divide it by 70 to get the total cost per video.)
Spoiler for the Course Contents section, but the course has 141 videos. Now at first this sounds impressive, until you realize each section of this course has a “Key Takeaways” video that’s around 30 seconds on average. There are approximately 12 of these videos that are less than a minute in the course, so right away our number is invalid in the sense that some of these aren’t really full fledged training videos.
But with that being said, the average amount they are charging per video is $10.70.
That is VERY expensive. Now this course does do some things right, but these disadvantages need to be taken into account as well.
Course Contents
Here are the training videos inside this course:
- Lesson 1 – SEO Introduction
- SEO Introduction
- Importance of SEO
- What Is SEO?
- Search Ecosystem Components
- Search Ecosystem Components: Incentives
- What Drives Search Ecosystems?
- SEO and Social Media
- SEO: Pros and Cons
- Avoid Outdated Techniques
- SEO Career in Organizations
- Enterprise SEO
- Small-Medium Business SEO
- SEOs in Agencies
- Individual SEO
- Opportunities and Skill
- Key Takeaways
- Lesson 2 – How Search Engines Work
- How Search Engines Work
- Major Search Engines
- Minor Search Engines: Search
- International Search Engines: Yandex
- International Search Engines: Baidu
- International Search Engines: Naver
- International Search Engines: Qwant
- Search Engine Mechanism
- Search Engine Crawling
- Search Engine Crawling: Robots.txt
- Sitemaps
- Storing
- Processing and Indexing
- Ranking
- Key Takeaways
- Lesson 3 – Types of SEO
- Types of SEO
- SEO Hats
- White Hat SEO
- Black Hat SEO
- Gray Hat SEO
- SEO Mistakes
- SEO Best Practices: No Hidden Content
- SEO Best Practices: Optimized Snippet
- SEO Best Practices: Prominent Heading
- SEO Best Practices: Organized Hierarchy
- SEO Best Practices: Practical Links
- What is SEO Spam?
- Falsifying Content
- Falsifying Links
- Falsifying Website Content
- SEO Spam
- The Periodic Table of SEO Success Factor
- Key Takeaways
- Lesson 4 – Keyword Research and Competitive Intelligence
- Importance of Keyword Research
- User Intent
- Not Provided
- Performing Keyword Research
- Demo: Keyword Research Tool (Wordtracker)
- Keyword Research and Competitive Intelligence
- Types of Queries
- Short Tail Query: Pros and Cons
- Long Tail Query: Advantages
- Competitive Analysis Overview
- Factors in Competitive Analysis
- B2B vs. B2C
- Key Takeaways
- Lesson 5 – On-Page Optimization
- On-Page Optimization
- Defining On-Page Optimization
- On-Page Factors
- Title Tags
- Meta Description
- Header Tags
- URLs and URL Structure
- Image Alt Text
- Internal Links
- Keyword Usage
- Sitemaps
- On-Page Don’ts
- Keyword Stuffing
- Hidden Text
- Repetitive Anchor Text
- Cloaking
- Perfectly Optimized Page
- SEO Factors
- Top Ranking Factors
- Key Takeaways
- Lesson 6 – Off-Page Optimization
- Off-Page Optimization
- What Is Off-Page Optimization
- Signals of Popularity
- Why Links?
- Create Link-Worthy Content
- Off-Site Engagement
- Utilize Offline Relationships
- Types of Links
- Rel = “nofollow” and Social Media
- Link Building Don’ts
- Key Takeaways
- Lesson 7 – Duplicate Content
- Duplicate Content
- What Is Duplicate Content?
- Common Instances
- Fixing Duplicate Content
- Key Takeaways
- Lesson 8 – Design and Architecture
- Design and Architecture
- Importance of Design
- Design: Best Practices
- Designing for Search Engines
- Key Takeaways
- Lesson 9 – Local SEO
- Local SEO
- Local Searches
- NAP
- Directories
- Top Local Search Signals – A
- Top Local Search Signals – B
- Key Takeaways
- Lesson 10 – Algorithm Updates and SEO Changes
- Algorithm Updates and SEO Changes
- Biggest SEO Misconception
- What to Measure?
- Constant Changes
- Google Panda Update
- Google Penguin Update
- Google Hummingbird Update
- RankBrain
- Not Provided
- SEO Is Still Powerful
- Key Takeaways
- Lesson 11 – Integrating SEO with Other Disciplines
- Integrating SEO with Other Disciplines
- Integrating Marketing Channels
- User Experience Across Channels
- SEO and Content Marketing
- SEO and Analytics
- SEO and Mobile
- SEO for WordPress
- Key Takeaways
- Lesson 12 – SEO Tools
- SEO Tools
- What Are SEO Tools?
- SEO Tool Categories
- DEMO: Raven SEO
- Key Takeaways
- Lesson 13 – How to Build a Successful Career in SEO
- How to Build a Successful Career in SEO
- Top Dos and Don’ts
- Career Paths
- Certifications
- Key Takeaways
My Rating
I’m not going to lie, this is hands down the best one on the list so far. Yes, it’s expensive but they cover EVERYTHING you need to know. Besides the “Key Takeaways” videos, there are still 129 training videos in this course. They even dive into the career path of an SEO and talk about things like finding a job in this space and what certificates an employer cares about. This immediately makes this course far more valuable for any aspiring digital marketers who want to learn this trade.
Overall, besides the fact this one is expensive I’m rating this a solid 8/10. I understand how this won’t be an option for many people due to the price tag, however.
Complete SEO Training Course: Learn SEO Free
Right away you can tell SEO was the primary goal with their course titled specifically catered to keywords. This is Ahrefs course, and you’ve most likely heard of them before. They make one of the big SEO tools most digital marketers use.
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know how I feel about SEO tools. That being said, I’ll try to stay unbiased and give my honest thoughts on this course. So…how do I feel?
Advantages
This course is actually free! You don’t have to even enter your email address. That is a breath of fresh air and gives the Ahref course some bonus points for sure.
Besides this, the course is super easy to navigate through and I was able to get in way faster than any of the other courses we’ve looked into so far.
Disadvantages
I’m just going to be blunt: there’s barely any worthwhile content in this course. They only scratch the surface of SEO and teach rehashed stuff every other course on this list covers. I was extremely disappointed with what was taught.
If you want to learn something unique or at “next level”, this course isn’t it.
Course Contents
The course is split into 4 different modules, with individual video lessons under each.
- Introduction
- SEO Basics: What Is SEO & Why Is It Important?
- Module 1: Keyword Research
- What Are Keywords & How To Choose Them
- Keyword Research Part 1: How To Analyze Search Intent
- Keyword Research Part 2: How To Find Keywords For Your Website
- Keyword Research Part 3: Understanding Ranking Difficulty
- Module 2: On-Page SEO
- What Is On-Page SEO?
- On-Page SEO Part 2: How To Optimize A Page For A Keyword
- Module 3: Link Building
- What Is Link Building & Why Is It Important?
- 3 Link Building Strategies To Get Backlinks
- What Makes A Backlink “Good”?
- Link Building Techniques For Beginners
- How To Do Blogger Outreach For Backlinks
- Module 4: The Basics of Technical SEO
- What Is Technical SEO & Why Is It Important?
- Technical SEO Best Practices For Beginners
My Rating
I want to like this one and recommend it, but they teach the bare minimum. Yes, it is free and you get what you pay for. And yes, it is easy to access and you don’t even have to opt-in with your email.
But here’s the thing.
If you’re going to spend time going through a course, some of the other options on this list just give you so much more value and real world, practical information that this one doesn’t.
Because of this, I’m going to give it a 6/10.
The ClickMinded SEO Training Course
I’m seeing this one being mentioned all over Reddit and Facebook lately. Apparently this is the “new ultimate SEO course” and most aspiring SEOs are going through it. Let’s see what the deal is.
Advantages
You do get a digital certificate upon completion of this course, which integrates with LinkedIn. ClickMinded advertises this course as a way to “get your dream career in marketing.”
Besides this, the slides and lectures in the course are downloadable.
You also get 5 mini SEO courses as a bonus when you purchase their main course. These include a local SEO course, Shopify SEO course, Pinterest SEO course, YouTube SEO course, and Amazon SEO course.
Disadvantages
This course is uber expensive. Pricing starts at $1,000 but can go up to $2,000, depending on if you want the “complete course library” or not. If you do get that, then you get free course updates for life.
They also have a “complete course library for teams” product, but the pricing of it is advertised misleadingly. On the sales page, it says it is $899 and includes lifetime updates, onboarding for your entire team, and reusable licenses. However, when you click to add to cart all of a sudden the price magically changes to $2,598.
Apparently as our team members go up, the cost per license price goes down so that’s “technically” why they can advertise it as cheaper. Still, this is confusing and dishonest in my opinion.
Now, let’s talk about negative reviews. I was able to find some.
According to some reviews on Trustpilot, they’re not including all the content you need to succeed. Some content is locked behind upsells, which is not good considering the price point of this course is already so high. If this course were a few hundred bucks, I could see this being understandable. But not for $1,000+!
In my course, Local SEO Shuriken, I include everything people need to know for local SEO and there’s over 75 video training lessons for only $97. I can understand a business needing to be profitable, but when you’re charging high ticket pricing customers should get high ticket value from the course.
Besides that, apparently their support is rude and isn’t very helpful for customers.
I found a few complaints on Trustpilot from people who claim the course contents aren’t working and they aren’t ranking well.
Course Contents
- Setting You Up For Success
- Discover The 22 Tools For An Ideal SEO Environment
- The Preparatory Step For SEO Strategy Implementation
- Strategic Use Of SEO To Boost Your Sales Funnel
- Understanding Organic Search Basics
- Understanding Organic Search
- Fundamentals Of SEO And What It Is Not
- Implementing The Clickminded Search Framework
- Mastering Query Refinement And Ideal Search Engine Positioning
- Aligning Keywords With Sales Funnel And User Intent
- Creating A Data-Driven SEO Strategy
- Creating A Data-Driven Strategy
- Step-By-Step Keyword Research Process
- Utilizing Third-Party Tools For Keyword Research
- Data-Driven Approach For Digital Marketing Strategy
- The Power Of Keyword Research And Content Planning
- Reverse-Engineering Competitors For Ranking Opportunities
- Creating Content That Ranks In Search Engines:
- Enhancing “Document Relevance” For Higher Rankings
- Common Misconceptions In Content Optimization
- On-page Elements Optimization For SEO
- Leveraging Latent Semantic Indexing For Better Rankings
- Leveraging “Link Neighborhoods” And Quick Traffic Wins
- Influencing Google’s Top Ranking Signal
- Mastering Link Building
- The Evolution Of Link Building And Google’s Algorithm
- Tools And Tactics For Finding Link Prospects At Scale
- Personalized Email Outreach For Quality Backlinks
- Four Favorite Tactics For White-Hat Link Building
- Technical SEO For Non-Technical People
- Introduction To Google Search Console And Maximizing Data
- Mobile-First Index Preparation And Optimization
- Overcoming “Keyword Cannibalization” For Ecommerce
- The Importance Of Structured Data For SEO
- Optimizing Sites For Multiple Languages And Countries
- Creating An SEO-Friendly Site From Scratch (+Our Favorite Tools)
- Bulletproof Strategy For Launching A New Site
- Bonus: Lifetime Access To All SEO Mini-courses
- SEO Is Not Just About Google
- Applying The Search Framework To Different Platforms
- Local SEO Mini-Course (Free)
- Shopify SEO Mini-Course (Free)
- Pinterest SEO Mini-Course (Free)
- YouTube SEO Mini-Course (Free)
- Amazon SEO Mini-Course (Free)
My Rating
This course looks very solid, but that’s just what I can see from the outside. I looked up reviews on external sites (not ClickMinded’s website, even though they have reviews on it) and it seems like half of the people that have been through it have positive things to say, while the other half isn’t happy.
I’m comfortable giving this one a 7.4/10 off of the course contents, but this may not be a good option for someone who doesn’t want to spend $1,000s on a course.
SEO Training That Gets Results (In 2024)
This course has a very bold name. Taught by Brian Dean of Backlinko, this course claims to be “training for more traffic and sales.”
Interestingly enough, they only open enrollment for this course once per year. In other words, you can’t just buy this course if you’re interested in it. That separates this course from the others on the list.
I want to note that the name of the course is the name Brian Dean set as his meta title. This course also goes by “SEO That Works” and has had several different revisions and released versions in the past. The latest version is SEO That Works 4.0.
But is it any good…?
Advantages
One of the biggest advantages of this course is that the instructor, Brian Dean, is widely regarded as a legitimate SEO expert. He’s been in the industry for quite a while, and has built up a positive reputation for being one of the largest experts on backlinks.
That’s his specialty, so if you’re trying to learn how to build links in a way that Google approves, this course will definitely cover that.
Disadvantages
I couldn’t find the pricing information anywhere on the Backlinko website, so I had to research to find it. When I saw how much this course costs, my jaw dropped to the floor. The SEO That Works course costs $497 a month, or $6,000 a year. That is absolutely ridiculous!
The only people who could afford this course would be large corporations. This obviously isn’t geared towards the average aspiring digital marketer. For the same price, you could grab every other course on the list and still have some leftover money. Because of that, I’m going to have to deduct serious points here.
Course Contents
Brian Dean’s course is split into “modules”, which are basically the sections of the course. Inside each module is multiple video lessons and content. There are also quizzes and copies of the slides you can go through.
- Module 1 – Finding Your Linkreators
- Lesson 1 – Start Here
- Lesson 2 – Who Are The Linkreators?
- Lesson 3 – Find Your Linkreators
- Lesson 4 – Find A Proven Topic
- Lesson 5 – Choose A Medium Tail Keyword
- Module 2 – Your Power Page
- Lesson 1 – Share Triggers
- Lesson 2 – The Trademark Technique
- Lesson 3 – The Go To Guidebook
- Lesson 4 – Expanded List Post
- Lesson 5 – AwardsBait
- Lesson 6 – The Industry Study
- Lesson 7 – Crowdsourced Manual
- Lesson 8 – The Detailed Checklist
- Module 3 – Content Promotion & Link Building
- Lesson 1 – Advanced Content Promotion Strategies
- Lesson 2 – Content Curator Link Building
- Lesson 3 – Renovation Link Building
- Lesson 4 – Roundup Link Building
- Module 4 – User Experience Signals
- Lesson 1 – CTR Magnet Method
- Lesson 2 – Boost Dwell Time
- Lesson 3 – Advanced Search Intent Optimization
- Module 5 – Scaling Up Your SEO
- Lesson 1 – How To Scale Up Content Production
- Lesson 2 – How To Scale Link Building
- Lesson 3 – Your Successful Website
- Bonuses
- Small Business PR Secrets
- Getting Traffic From Social Media
- Local SEO Domination
- Conversion Rate Optimization
- Advanced Outsourcing Strategies
- Untapped Traffic Strategies
- Online Sales Masterclass
- Copywriting Bootcamp 1
- Copywriting Bootcamp 2
- Copywriting Bootcamp 3
My Rating
Overall, there’s a ton of content in this course. But as I mentioned in the “disadvantages” section, I just can’t justify it. There becomes a point where the quantity of content still isn’t enough…especially when you have to spend $6,000.
If you already follow Brian Dean, specifically need to learn from someone who specializes in link building, and have $500 a month or $6,000 a year to spend on SEO education for yourself, then go for it. However, for the average person this isn’t the right option for them.
I’m giving this one a 4/10.
Bruce Clay SEO Training
This is the first course on this list that only has subscription pricing. On the main page Bruce says it is a “complete SEO training experience” and that you get everything you need in one place. Apparently you are supposed to take this course for a year.
So, is it any good…? Well…
Advantages
One of the biggest advantages the course does include lifetime updates. That means you’ll always have up to date information, strategies, and knowledge when it comes to SEO. This space can change fast, so that’s very enticing for a course.
One of the unique advantages this course also has is live Q&A sessions once per month. You can get your questions answered or learn from the ones other course members are asking. This is really valuable as sometimes, even as a course instructor, I don’t realize there are more basic or more advanced things people want to know.
Another interesting benefit being a member has is that you get access to SEO tools included in the price of the course. You get access to their “SEOToolSet”, which includes Single Page Analyzer, a keyword analysis tool, site analysis tools, diagnostic tools, a ranking monitor, and more. They also have their own WordPress SEO plugin.
Disadvantages
Access to the course costs $150 a month, or $1,500 a year. That’s still expensive overall. Yes, you get access to SEO tools and once a month Q&A sessions. But again, when we deal with higher pricing like this you could have bought almost every other course on this list by the end of the year. Keep that in mind.
Also, the way this course is set up with the membership sounds great. But in reality it’s a double edged sword. If you buy this, you’re locked in. If you can’t afford this any more in the future, you lose the content, SEO tools, and other perks that are included with this.
Course Contents
Each part of the course is separated into modules. Within each module are individual video lessons.
- Module 1 – The Importance of SEO
- What Is SEO?
- SEO & Hard & Other Search Facts
- Module 2 – SEO Concepts
- Search Engine Ranking
- YMYL, EAT, Quality Indicators
- Least Imperfect & Ranking Curves
- Keyword Research
- Query Intent
- Module 3 – Meet The Search Engines
- How Search Engines Work
- Spiders & Crawling
- Page Rank
- Module 4 – Website Anatomy
- On-Page Tags
- Images, Links, Body Text
- Module 5 – Search Now & In The Future
- Personas, Reading Level, Engagement Objects
- Video Optimization & Voice Search
- Social Media, Schema, Featured Snippets
- Module 6 – Content For SEO
- Writing Content & Keyword Selection
- Content Gap Analysis
- Quality Guidelines & Writing Efficiently
- Copywriting Tips
- Module 7 – Mobile SEO
- Mobile Search
- Mobile Design Considerations
- Page Experience & Core Web Vitals
- Module 8 – Local Search
- About Local Search
- Ranking In Local Search
- Module 9 – Linking Strategies
- Understanding Links & Link Schemes
- What Links Look Like & Outbound Links
- Inbound Linking Considerations (Link Attraction, Link Cleanup, Reputation Management)
- Module 10 – Siloing Concepts
- What Is Siloing?
- Creating A Hierarchy
- Limiting PageRank Transfer & Siloing Steps
- Module 11 – Technical SEO
- Advanced Search & Robots Controls
- Crawl Budget, Redirects, Naming Conventions
- Technical SEO Guidelines
- Module 12 – Best Practices
- Code of Ethics & Code of Conduct
- Spam Types & Penalties
My Rating
If the course was cheaper, I’d be advocating that it’s definitely at the very least in the top 3 on this list. However, the pricing makes it unjustifiable. Yes, you get SEO tools and a course in one. But if you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know how I feel about them.
The amount of value you can get elsewhere for the same amount of money pushes this course down to the bottom of the list. Yes, it absolutely has some unique advantages. And if the price was cheaper, I’d say go for it.
Overall, I’m going to rate this one at 6/10.
Free SEO Training: SEO For Beginners (Yoast)
Yoast is a big name in the SEO sphere. Most widely known for their Yoast SEO plugin, they’ve become a household name. Because of that, my expectations are high going into this one. Yes, the course is free and you get what you pay for. But is it the quality I’d expect from Yoast…?
Advantages
Free is always nice, as there’s little to no risk for you. You can check out and go through the course, without having to worry about losing money if it isn’t any good. Because of that, they immediately get points from me.
Additionally, the course has both videos, text lessons, and quizzes. I like that they switch up the formatting. Different media formats work for different people, as some are more visual learners but I also know others (myself included) who would rather read a book than go through a video course.
Disadvantages
Unfortunately, you do have to give Yoast your email address in order to get access to the course. Usually I wouldn’t put something like this in the disadvantages section, but there is a free course on this list that doesn’t require you to enter your email address. It goes without saying Yoast will be sending you offers, promotions, and sales emails. If you sign up for this training, you are absolutely a lead to them.
Their free course has limited information in it. If you want more, you can pay for their Yoast SEO Academy and the paid version of the Yoast SEO plugin, since both are included at $99/year. This pricing is way more reasonable compared to some of the other options we’ve looked into on this list, but you’re still locked into a subscription.
My biggest gripe with this course, besides these two things, however, is that they frame their plugin as “necessary” to be good at SEO. This is absolutely false. Some of the best SEOs have ranked countless websites without even using SEO plugins, and you certainly don’t need to buy a premium plugin to rank.
The only tools that you actually need for SEO is a solid website platform (WordPress), and a tool to write content (Google Docs.) Everything else is extra fluff. Yes, an SEO plugin makes it easy to set a keyword you want to rank for, but you can do this in HTML code very easily. And even if you don’t, Google is very good at crawling and indexing the web. Their algorithm can tell what your content and website is about.
I also dislike that after every section in the course there is a call to action pushing to their premium plugin, over and over again.
Course Contents
The course is split into 3 different sections.
- What Is SEO?
- Search Engines
- Holistic SEO
- The Yoast SEO Plugin
- Content SEO
- Keyword Research
- Copywriting
- Site Structure
- Technical SEO
- Crawlability
- Practical Website Speed Tips
- Rich Results & Structured Data
My Rating
This one was really tough to rate. On one hand, there’s a lot of advantages and the fact that the course is free makes me want to give multiple points. However, there’s also a lot I dislike about this one. I’m trying to be fair because you can only have so many expectations when the pricetag is free, but I’m left feeling unsatisfied at the same time.
I’m going to sit in the goldilocks zone in the middle and give this one a reasonable 7.2/10.
Bonus: Local SEO Shuriken
At the beginning of this blog post I mentioned that I have my own course. I didn’t want to include it on the list because that would be unfair/biased, but I am going to mention it here at the end. My course, Local SEO Shuriken, has over 75 video training modules, and comes with lifetime updates and a certificate upon course completion. It’s priced at $97 and has the most videos per dollar out of any of the courses on the list.
If you want to support this blog and what we do, consider picking up a copy of the course. It would benefit us both and I’ve filled it with real world, practical SEO stuff only. (And in the order you need to do things to rank.)
The TLDR
When I was first creating this list, I didn’t expect some of the sleazy and sketchy practices that I’ve seen. Some of the courses on this list are alright, but some are promoted, marketed, and sold in a very misleading way. Now I’m really glad I wrote this blog post!
I hope that this can steer you in the right direction and help you find an SEO course that gives you real world, practical information. Out of the courses we looked at, here are the only ones I can comfortably recommend:
- Search Engine Optimization Training Course (Moz)
- Search Engine Optimization Specialization (Coursera)
- The ClickMinded SEO Training Course
And here are the scores of each course in order from the best scores to the worst:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course (Moz) – 8
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialization (Coursera) – 7.5
- The ClickMinded SEO Training Course – 7.4
- Free SEO Training: SEO For Beginners (Yoast) – 7.2
- SEO Training Certification Course (Hubspot) – 6.5
- Free SEO Training Course By Moz – 6
- Complete SEO Training Course: Learn SEO Free – 6
- Bruce Clay SEO Training – 6
- Search Engine Optimization Fundamentals – 5
- SEO Training That Gets Results (In 2024) – 4
Want To Be A SEO Ninja…?
If you want to learn proven, practical, real-world SEO techniques that get results – then check out Local SEO Shuriken. It’s my video SEO course that contains over 75 high quality, HD training videos on SEO step by step. Discover the perfected SEO blueprint and get results with search marketing.
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