5 Internet Marketing Courses for Aspiring SEOs

Search engine optimization — SEO — can be a daunting term for entrepreneurs or young professionals looking to improve their online presence. SEO is a key factor in digital marketing strategies today, so learning the ins and outs of this topic is extremely important to determining your brand’s success. 

The good news is there are any number of online courses and books to help you become a certified SEO pro.

Who Offers Courses?

You don’t have to go back to college to understand SEO. In fact, you can choose to learn from ebooks, videos, tutorials and quizzes right from the comfort of your couch. Try one or two or these free course before diving into an expensive one to save yourself time and money. Most of the information in these courses overlaps anyway.

1. Moz

Learn SEO tips and tricks in this free training course from SEO powerhouse, Moz. This online course includes more that 5 lectures and 51 minutes of content. Topics range from link-building to site audit and structure to SEO strategy development. 

You might also take MOZ cofounder Rand Fishkin’s 90-minute video course, which shares actionable insights and tactics for optimizing your content and growing your brand’s organic online presence. This class is perfect for small business owners, entrepreneurs and junior marketers.

At the end of the course, Fishkin invites students to complete a project to put their newfound knowledge into action. This practice project helps students share their own SEO strategy by optimizing a piece or content based on keyword research. 

2. Google

This free, one-week course is not focused on SEO but, rather, how to optimize website performance. Of course, this will help you better understand SEO by learning how it works in cooperation with Google’s page renderings.

In this short course, you can expect to learn about the Critical Rendering Path, how to add powerful attributes to HTML tags and measure performance via the Timeline view in Chrome Developer Tools. 

3. WordStream 

Learn SEO basics with WordStream’s complete beginner’s guide to search engine optimization. This free guide isn’t technically a course, but there’s still a plethora of valuable information to be found here. This article provides an introduction and overview of SEO and why it’s important.

4. eMarketing Institute

Get SEO certified through this free course, which features a 156-page e-book and a 60 minute certification exam. This course is beginner-friendly and will help you understand the essence of SEO and how implementing it can improve your digital business. Topics range from algorithm updates to site design and development. 

5. HubSpot

While HubSpot offers numerous internet marketing courses, the content marketing certification course teaches learners how to produce effective content consistently. You’ll go through 12 lessons, 52 videos and 11 quizzes designed to give you a leg up in any field. When you’re done, you’ll know how to create content for readers.

In addition, this course is perfect for those who are new to the specialty. After taking the course, marketing novices will know important skills for communicating messages across various industries.

Surpass the Competition

While you may not be able to go to college and earn a degree in SEO, you can take classes that will help you excel at optimization. So, if you’re still in college, consider adding some of these credits to your schedule. And, if college is a distant memory, don’t worry! You can still find most of these courses online through different universities to help grow your skill set. 

If you’re aiming for a BA in Business, consider taking a planning, organizing or staffing class — or a a class that touches on these skills — to give you a leg up on your competitors. An optimizer must be able to create a plan and organize projects to reach long-term goals. And, if you ever want to reach a higher level in your career field, you’ll want to know how to create and fill job positions to adequately staff a team. 

If you are studying to earn a BA in Information Technology, add web development and algorithm design to your schedule. Knowing how to develop a stunning website is an invaluable skill for any professional SEO specialist as it will help any campaign succeed. Creating future-proof strategies is also an important skill to have as the world of SEO is constantly changing. Having a background in algorithm design will keep you updated on patents being placed by search engines and help you plan for eventualities. 

Other courses that may come in handy include media marketing, website coding, copywriting and web analytics. For example, copywriting boosts your company’s SEO raking by naturally incorporating keywords into original, useful content. And a course in media marketing teaches you how to reach target audiences with your information or brand. 

Given the importance of these different skills in SEO and digital marketing, your expertise in these various areas will definitely help you land a job. So, keep learning and growing, just as the world of SEO continues to change and grow as well.