The 10 Best Free SEO Courses Available Online (Updated)
One of the best ways to learn SEO is to enroll in an SEO course. We did our research and found the best free SEO courses available online.
In this post, you’ll learn which are the top courses to teach yourself SEO for free. The list includes courses from reputable organizations that will definitely help you build your SEO skills.
The majority of courses are more suited for beginners to SEO, but some courses go deeper and cover advanced SEO topics.
How we created this list?
The list contains online courses, most of which are in video format. If you are looking for offline downloadable education resources like eBooks, check out our Free SEO eBooks.
All the courses below are 100% free. To access some of the courses, you have to create an account with the learning platform, but they are all available for free either for a limited time (one month) or for a lifetime.
If you are looking for the best-paid courses that offer an SEO certification, check out our SEO Certifications Guide.
Top 10 Free Online SEO Courses
These are the best online courses to learn SEO for free.
1. Free SEO Course (Reliablesoft)
If you’re looking for an SEO course to learn the basics of SEO, then this is the course to enroll in first. The material is easy to follow and the language is suitable for non-technical users.
It starts by explaining how the SEO process can influence the decision of search engine algorithms and then introduces the three major SEO sub-processes: Technical SEO, On-Page SEO, and Off-Page SEO.
Why enroll in this course?
It’s a great course for beginners. It will teach you the basics of SEO and set the foundation so that you can learn more advanced topics.
In addition to the course, with your registration, you can also download the Complete SEO Checklist which explains in detail all checks you need to perform to ensure that your website is SEO Friendly.
Learn more about this course
2. Free SEO training: SEO for beginners (Yoast)
It’s an SEO crash course for beginners to SEO. It is more suitable for students that have no prior SEO knowledge. It starts by explaining the SEO fundamentals, including how search engines work.
The course is split into three main sections: Introduction to SEO, Content SEO, and technical SEO.
Why enroll in this course?
You should enroll in the Yoast free SEO course if you know nothing about SEO, and you want to get a general understanding of how all components work together.
What is nice is that they try to explain the technical aspect of SEO by using easy-to-understand language and avoiding technical jargon as much as possible.
Learn more about this course
3. SEO Training Course by Moz (Udemy)
This is one of the most popular SEO courses on Udemy. So far, more than 200K students have enrolled, and the course has an overall rating of 4.3/5 stars.
The Moz Team created the course and it is presented by Rand Fiskin (one of the MOZ founders).
The course format is video, and the duration is 3.5 hours.
While this is a good course covering all aspects of SEO, it hasn’t been updated since its initial release, and this is an issue. Most of the information is still valid but some videos (like the one talking about featured snippets), are not entirely accurate and out of date.
Why enroll in this course?
Rank Fishkin is a great presenter. He knows what he is talking about, and he does it in a way that is enjoyable and fun.
So, if you are just getting started with SEO, spend a couple of hours watching the videos to get a general idea of what is SEO and how it works.
Learn more about this course
4. Free SEO Course (ClickMinded)
SEO veteran Tommy Griffith is the instructor of this course. Before starting ClickMinded, Tommy was managing SEO for companies like Paypal and Airbnb.
In this course, Tommy explains the SEO framework used at Paypal and Airbnb and gives general advice on how to approach the whole SEO process.
Why enroll in this course?
If you are curious about how big companies approach SEO, then this is a free course you should enroll in.
Once you enroll in the course, you will also get access to several SEO resources that are worth reading.
Learn more about this course
5. SEO Training Course: Building Sustainable Traffic for Business Growth (Hubspot)
This is a free SEO course by HubSpot that is worth considering. The course includes four lessons covering the following topics:
- Developing an SEO strategy
- Scaling your link-building campaigns
- How they do SEO at HubSpot blog
- How to create and execute a guest blogging campaign
It’s not a beginner’s course. To understand the different concepts explained in the videos, you need to have a basic understanding of SEO.
Why enroll in this course?
What I like about this course is lesson 3, where Matthew Howells-Barby explains how HubSpot is using SEO and blogs to increase their organic traffic. He talks about the importance of building topical relevance and gives examples of how this process works.
Learn more about this course
6. On-Page and Technical SEO Course (SEMRUSH)
On-Page SEO and Technical SEO are two SEO processes you can control 100%. Unlike off-page SEO which has to do with website promotion methods, on-page and technical SEO is something you can improve by following some simple SEO rules.
This is what this SEO course is all about. It includes 2 modules that cover the following topics:
- SEO Auditing your website
- Troubleshooting HTTPS Issues
- Identifying and Fixing Crawlability Issues
- Performing a Log File Analysis
- Tips on how to create SEO-friendly Content
- Tips on how to improve your on-page SEO
Why enroll in this course?
Registration for this course is free and easy. While working with the course you also get a chance to get to know how to use SEMRUSH, one of the best SEO tools in the market, and upon completing this course, you can take an exam and achieve a SEMRush SEO Certification.
Learn more about this course
7. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialization (Coursera)
Coursera is a popular online training platform offering a range of digital marketing courses.
Their SEO specialization path includes six individual courses:
- Introduction to Search Engine Optimization
- Search Engine Optimization Fundamentals
- Optimizing a website for Search
- Advanced Content and Social Tactics to Optimize SEO
- Advanced Search Engine Optimization Strategies
- Website Optimization
The courses are taught by experienced SEO instructors. You can take all the courses in the SEO specialization or individual courses. The approx. time to complete all courses and lessons is four months.
Why enroll in this course?
It’s a comprehensive course covering all aspects of SEO. It starts with the very basics and covers advanced strategies and techniques.
You can enroll in this course and get a 7-Day free trial.
Learn more about this course
8. Free SEO 6-Part Video Series (Moz)
This is another SEO course by Moz, similar to the SEO course offered by Udemy (number 1 above).
The course is made up of 6 videos (1 hour each) covering the following topics:
- SEO Strategy
- Keyword Research
- Searcher Satisfaction
- On-page Optimization
- Technical SEO
- Link Building
The course instructor is Rand Fishkin, which is very good in making explaining complicated topics in a simple way.
Why enroll in this course?
From all the courses in this guide, this is the easiest to access. Users don’t have to register, just click the link below, and you will be redirected to the course page and start watching the videos.
If you don’t want to watch all the videos, I suggest you spend some time watching the third video where Rand talks about ‘searcher satisfaction,’ a concept that is very important for modern SEO.
Learn more about this course
9. SEO Training and Tutorials (LinkedIn Learning)
LinkedIn Learning is the new name of what was previously known as Lynda. All courses offered by Lynda are now under LinkedIn Learning.
When it comes to SEO training, LinkedIn learning has a lot of courses, but one that is worth considering is “SEO Foundations.”
The course starts with explaining what search engine optimization is and how it works but also covers topics like:
- Content marketing planning
- Understanding your website’s audience
- Internal linking best practices
- Measuring SEO effectiveness
- Local SEO
Why enroll in this course?
Enroll in this course if you want to get a more comprehensive understanding of how content marketing and SEO can work together.
One thing to know about LinkedIn Learning is that it offers courses for free for one month only. After that, there is a monthly charge for accessing the course material.
Learn more about this course
10. SEO Today: Strategies to Earn Trust, Rank High, and Stand Out (SkillShare)
Skillshare is another online learning platform that offers courses on various subjects. Some courses are available for Free while to access premium courses, you have to register for a paid plan (the first month is free).
One of the popular SEO courses that you can access without paying is SEO Today by Rand Fishkin. This is the third course by Rand which makes him the most popular SEO instructor on our list ?
This video course includes 11 lessons, and it takes about 1 hour to complete. It covers the following topics:
- Link building strategies to get higher rankings for your content
- On-Page SEO Best Practices
- Optimizing your content for rich snippets using structured data markup
- Tips for optimizing your website for mobile SEO
Why enroll in this course?
You don’t have to enroll in this course to watch the videos. You can click the button below and start viewing. This class is not for beginners, but it’s an intermediate level.
Learn more about this course
Bonus: SEO Toolkit Course (SEMRUSH)
Another free SEO course from SEMRUSH is the ‘SEO Toolkit Course.’ The course has three modules: Learn, build, and measure, and covers the following topics:
- Keyword Research and analysis
- Backlinks profile analysis
- Organic traffic analysis
- On-Page SEO Checker
- Site Auditing
- Content SEO analysis
- SEO Reporting
Why enroll in this course?
What is nice about this course is that it takes you through the different stages of SEO and shows you how to use SEMRUSH tools at each stage.
In the past, you could do SEO without the use of tools, but that’s not the case today. There is so much data to analyze, which makes it impossible to do without professional tools, and SEMRUSH is one of the best tools in the market.
So, by taking this course, you learn SEO, and at the same time, you learn how to use SEMRUSH.
Learn more about this course
Do Free SEO Courses worth it?
The above courses are all free, so there is no question if they are worth the money, but do they worth the time investment?
Free courses are a good starting point for beginners to SEO. They can teach you the basics, but they are not enough if you want to become an SEO expert.
Good SEO courses take a lot of time, money, and effort to create, and for this reason, they are not offered for free.
A good online course is updated regularly to take into account new trends, and it is continuously enriched with new content based on user feedback. This is not the case with a free course.
Take, for example, our SEO full course. Since the initial release, it has been updated hundreds of times to include new SEO trends, and the content is regularly updated to help students in their learning process.
So, free courses are a good starting point. Still, if you want to learn the ins and outs of SEO, you should consider making a small investment to enroll in a professional SEO course that will teach you everything you need to know about SEO without having to wander around and look for pieces of information in free resources.
If you want to expand your skills beyond SEO, view our list of the best courses about online marketing.
If you know of a good SEO course that is free, available online, and missing from the list, let me know in the comments.