SEO Courses and resources for WordPress designers & developers

Here is a list of SEO Courses and resources that can help you increase your understanding of Search Engine Optimization. These courses and resources are compiled for WordPress professionals.

There’s a lady who’s sure
All that glitters is gold
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven – Stairway to Heaven

Songwriters: Jimmy Page / Robert Plant

Stairway to Heaven lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc

When it comes to SEO, you can definitely invest but you can’t buy a stairway to heaven and all that glitters is not gold. There are a lot of shiny objects, but it takes work and time to build a long-term sustainable Search Engine Optimization strategy.

It takes time to build SEO success, just like the song Stairway to Heaven has a slow gradual build to the final explosive finally.

Search Engine Optimization is something that has been around as long as there have been websites. In the early years, it became about gaming the search engines. And there were a lot of search engines. Lycos anyone?

Google basically won out the search engine race along with Bing, and we are left with two major players. As such, these two basically set the rules, especially Google.

When you are trying to utilize SEO, you are playing Google’s game, only, these days, the algorithms are incredibly smart and Google has changed how everything works.

SEO changes every year. It is tough to keep up. The best thing to do, I believe, is learning the basics of SEO, build good content, and make a genuine relationship with your customers.

So, as such, I thought I would present some SEO courses that WordPress designers & developers can use to improve their skills.

My intent is to highlight courses in which the creator has a good reputation, a long history with SEO, and can help professionals learn the basics while moving towards advance techniques.

SEO Courses

DIY SEO Courses, Rebecca Gill

Who: Rebecca Gill of Web Savvy Marketing

Why: Rebecca has been working with SEO for over 15 years as well as in the WordPress industry with her company Web Savvy Marketing. She has spoken at dozens of WordPress events, taught courses, and trained many WordPress professionals and clients in Search Engine Optimization.

Specifics: Rebecca offers SEO training via online courses, a bootcamp, a podcast and a free beginners’ guide to SEO. Her SEO training is a great option for WordPress designers and developers.

Additionally, Rebecca has a Facebook group which is called SEO Launchpad.

The bootcamp is a three-day intensive workshop. The online courses are a do it yourself option.

Online SEO training by Yoast

Who: Provided by the team behind the popular Yoast SEO plugin

Why: These guys have one of the most popular WordPress SEO plugins and have spent a great time over several years helping educate and train how to use the plugin as well as improve SEO efforts.

Specifics: Yoast offers training in courses and books. Some time back, I bought some of the books.

Yoast has been around for over a decade and has maintained its “SEO for everyone” mission,

To understand why we pursue this mission, we’ll have to go back in history. Let’s start in 2006: Joost de Valk was building SEO plugins because he strongly believed that everyone could benefit from the SEO knowledge he had collected in his work for large agencies. As a WordPress fanboy, he could quickly translate his technical SEO skills into a useful plugin for WordPress.

Moz SEO Courses

Who: Moz is the popular site, SEO consultants (at one time) and SEO software helping scores of site owners and developers be better at SEO. Co-Founded by Rand Fishkin back in 2004, he is still the CEO

Why: If you believe in the expertise of Moz, then you may want to look into their courses.

Specifics: They use trainers in a classroom setting and videos to deliver the Moz SEO courses. They include bootcamps and webinars and you can even customize your own training. Additionally, Moz offers self-paced learning through its extensive content and community membership. Moz also has a number tools.

Bruce Clay

Who: Bruce Clay is a long time digital marketing optimization company dating back to 1996. Clay predates Google. How is that for longevity?

Did you know the company history of Bruce Clay, Inc. begins even before Google became a search engine? The career path of founder Bruce Clay parallels the growth of SEO itself, and many people credit him with being the first to use the term “search engine optimization.”

Why: Bruce Clay’s course deserves a look because of the great ratings it receives. His course has received 288 reviews with an impressive 4.7 star rating.

Specifics: Training is offered in courses on-site at the Bruce Clay headquarters, workshops delivered at the Search Engine Marketing Expo, and customized learning for larger clients.

Other resources

In addition to the courses above, here are some resources that others have found helpful in their journey learning about search engine optimization.

SEO for Growth

SEO for Growth started with a book from Kansas City designer and developer Phil Singleton with Duct Tape Marketing’s John Jantsch. The two combined to create the book which now has a certified training program. The reviews are from a “who’s who” of internet marketers including Larry Kim, Jay Baer, Sujan Patel, and Chris Brogan.

The Complete SEO Course

Someone mentioned this course in a Facebook group, and when I check it out, it was one of the most comprehensive listing of modules I have ever seen.The digital marketing company has been around since 2002.

Reliablesoft.net launched in 2002 when search engines were at their early stages; Google was a small but very promising company and you could still hear words like Lycos, Excite, and AOL. Browsers were primitive (think Internet Explorer and Netscape) and search engine optimization (SEO) had a completely different meaning. Since then many things have changed and Internet marketing became a necessity for any company that wants to survive in the competitive online World.

Recipe for Success

Australian Copywriter, Kate Toon runs, this course and it had a couple recommendations when I was inquiring. It looks like the course is easy to do and participate in a community. Toon also has a podcast about SEO. Certainly, this is a great resource from a holistic SEO perspective (updated).

Backlinko

Backlinko by Brian Dean is a blog I’ve read for several years now. He came up with the popular idea “skyscraper technique” for creating 10X blog posts. He gives new meaning to creating “great content.” His articles are very actionable, full of lessons learned, and comes with lots of content upgrades.

Robbie Richards

I am a fan of Robbie Richards content. Robbie is working on a course right now which will launch later this month. He has a few ebooks right now along with reviews of SEMRush and Thrive Leads. Robbie is also known for monster, actionable, SEO posts.

Kim Herrington

Kim Herrington is a digital marketer, SEM expert, and WordPress developer. She has created an SEO course to help people understand the basics more. Kim is a frequent contributor to the GoDaddy Garage blog.

Wrapping it up

Choosing your particular resource for learning will depend on a lot of variables. Who do you trust? How much can you afford? Do you like a particular instructor or way of learning? What have your friends used and what social proof do you believe?

You have to choose a resource that works for you. Every resource mentioned in this article has something to offer.

What SEO resources have you used to learn? Have you taken any of the courses mentioned above or used one of the resources? Drop a comment below and let us know!