8 SEO Courses That Actually Teach You SEO (Free + Paid)

Most SEO courses suck.

They’re outdated, too basic, or packed with theory that falls apart in the real world.

And in 2025, when search is evolving faster than ever, wasting time on the wrong course isn’t just frustrating — it can seriously stall your growth.

Whether you’re learning SEO to grow a business, land a job, or get better at your current one, you need training that’s current, actionable, and taught by people who actually do SEO.

That’s why we spent 50+ hours testing and evaluating 20+ SEO courses (free and paid) to find the ones that are actually worth your time.

Our top pick for 2025? Semrush Academy, which offers up-to-date, expert-led SEO training at no cost.

You get both foundational skills and advanced strategies — plus a certificate for every course you complete.

Not to mention their AI SEO course is coming soon, and the Backlinko team has contributed to it. Visit the Academy to check out the other courses right now and be notified for when it launches.

In our searching for great SEO courses, we found 7 other programs — some free, some paid — that deliver, too. Each one teaches practical skills you can apply immediately, so it all comes down to what course is the best fit for your particular needs.

But first, let’s clear up a common question:

Does SEO certification actually matter?

Kind of. But not for the reason you think.

An SEO certification is official recognition of your search engine optimization knowledge, earned by completing a course and passing an assessment. It’s basically proof you’ve completed a course and passed a test that says, “I understand how SEO works.”

And for some people, that is valuable — especially if you’re just starting out or applying for entry-level roles.

• A certificate won’t get you hired on its own
• A real campaign that drives 50% traffic and revenue growth speaks way louder than any badge
• Certifications are best for beginners building foundational skills — or pros who want to formalize what they already know
• They do show you’ve invested time in modern SEO, which can help in interviews or pitching clients

Bottom line: the certification itself isn’t the goal. The structure, guidance, and real-world skills you build along the way—that’s what actually matters.

Benefits & Limitations of SEO Course Certifications

Should You Pay for an SEO Certification?

Free or paid doesn’t matter — employers care about your SEO skills, not how much you spent on training.

Look for courses with hands-on projects and experienced instructors who have proven SEO results. Student reviews and community access are valuable bonuses.

Remember: A certification just shows you’ve invested time in learning SEO. Your ability to drive results is what matters.

Now, let’s explore the best SEO courses available in 2025.

The 7 Best SEO Courses & Certifications

We’ve narrowed down our top SEO courses and certification list to the following:

1. Semrush Academy

Semrush Academy is a great place to start.

It’s home to some of the most value-packed digital marketing courses on the internet.

The Semrush Academy team closely collaborates with industry leaders (both external and in-house) to produce informative, engaging, and insightful courses.

Semrush Academy offers a wide range of courses, catering to digital marketers at every level of expertise, from beginners to advanced training, ensuring they grasp core concepts and gain a deeper understanding of cutting-edge industry practices.

For example, Semrush partnered with Kevin Indig, an SEO genius who helped G2 scale their organic traffic from 3M to 5M and led a team of 25 SEOs at Shopify to produce a highly informative and actionable course on SEO strategy.

Kevin’s training is just an appetizer.

As of 2025, the Semrush Academy has more than 15 value-packed SEO courses.

Check these out:

• Semrush SEO Crash Course with Brian Dean (1 hr)
• GA4 for SEO – How data helps businesses grow with Jeff Sauer (1 hr)
• Crafting a Winning SEO Strategy: A Guide for In-House Marketers with Kevin Indig (1 hr)
• How to Outrank Your Competition in Local Search with Wes McDowell (1 hr)
• Content-Led SEO with Brian Dean (7 hrs)
• SEO Principles: An Essential Guide for Beginners with Kyle Byers (1 hr)
• Local SEO Course with Greg Gifford (1 hr)
• Technical SEO course with Bastian Grimm (3 hrs)

Upon completing these courses, you can participate in their respective assessments. If you pass, you’ll receive a personalized and downloadable certificate.

Like this:

Here’s a review of Semrush Academy on LinkedIn:

2. Google SEO Fundamentals (UC Davis) by the University of California, Davis

Google SEO Fundamentals is a great course for SEO beginners.

This course has been created by the University of California, Davis, and is available on Coursera.

The training comprises 28 videos divided into the following four modules:

• Getting started and introduction to on-page SEO
• Introduction to off-page SEO
• Introduction to technical SEO
• Keyword research and theory

The course takes 11 hours to complete. Meaning it requires a reasonable time investment.

However, it’s worth it. And if you’re a beginner looking to master SEO basics, you should definitely give it a try.

This course has four assessments. After passing them, you’ll receive a personalized and downloadable career certificate.

Like this:

Here’s a review on Coursera:

3. SEO Certification Course by HubSpot

HubSpot’s SEO Certification Course is ideal for you if you want to learn and understand the fundamentals.

This course comprises 26 videos divided into six modules and takes about four hours to complete.

You’ll learn:

• SEO basics
• Technical and on-page SEO
• Keyword research
• Link building
• Optimizing your website for rich results
• SEO reporting

The course also includes five quizzes to test your knowledge.

After completing the course, you’ll earn a personalized and downloadable certification like this:

A genuine customer review couldn’t be found for this course.

4. SEO Training Masterclass 2025 by Alex Genadinik

Alex Genadinik’s SEO Training Masterclass is one of the most popular and comprehensive paid SEO courses on Udemy, with more than 10,000 ratings and 100,000 students.

It’s a massive 18+ hour course with over 280 video lectures divided into 44 sections.

These lectures cover everything from keyword research to how to use SEO tools to URL structure for SEO, backlink strategies, local SEO and more.

Despite its comprehensive scope, Alex has skillfully structured the course.

So that you can effortlessly navigate through it or watch it without feeling lost or overwhelmed.

After completing the training, you’ll also earn a certificate of completion that you can display on professional platforms.

Like this:

The course also has dedicated sections to help you become a freelance SEO specialist, get a full-time job, or build an SEO agency.

The SEO Training Masterclass 2025 by Alex Genadinik is way better than many other courses on this list. It dives deep into the nitty-gritty of SEO and provides a practical approach.

Here’s a review of the SEO Training Masterclass on Udemy.

5. Moz SEO Essentials Certificate

SEO Essentials Certificate course is a six-part course offered by Moz.

If you aren’t familiar with Moz, it’s a popular all-in-one SEO platform.

It’s ideal for beginners as it covers:

• Fundamental SEO concepts: to learn the basics of SEO
• Keyword research: theories and framework for researching keywords
• Page optimization: important page optimization strategies and how to implement them
• Link-building essentials: what backlinks are, why they’re important, and how to get high-quality backlinks
• Reporting on SEO: how to set up and clean your data in Google Analytics

Each course section has quizzes to test your knowledge along the way.

The final part of this course includes an assessment that you need to pass to earn your Moz SEO Essentials Certification.

Like this:

Moz SEO Essentials teaches you how to apply your newly learned skills using Moz’s paid SEO tool called Moz Pro. So if you’re looking to use any other tools, this course may not be the right fit for you.

Also, its $595 price tag may be just too much, especially if you have a tight budget. Many free courses on this list offer similar educational value. So that’s something to consider as well.

For this course, a genuine customer review was not available.

6. Advanced SEO Certification Training by Matt Bailey

Matt Bailey’s Advanced SEO Certification Training is a high-value SEO course that dives deep into the fundamentals, search engine algorithms, different SEO strategies, and content marketing. It’s available on MarketMotive, a respected online marketing training and certification company.

This course offers 30+ hours of video content and 15+ hours of live instructor-led online classes.

You can get your certification by:

• Completing 85% of the course.
• Completing three projects and one simulation test with a minimum score of 60%.

Here is a course review from their site:

7. Backlinko

Backlinko isn’t technically structured as a course, but we’ve designed the content to essentially be a course replacement, providing the fundamental and up-to-date SEO knowledge you need to be an effective practitioner.

 

We’re striving to be on the cutting edge of AI Search, with new guides, playbooks, and helpful templates published every month.

With 9 guides about SEO fundamentals alone, as well as more than 400 resources on topics spanning from LLM seeding to content strategy development, we publish a wide breadth of content about every subtype of SEO you can imagine.

Perhaps even more useful is our templates library, where you can take what you’ve learned and get started executing ASAP. Here are some example templates we offer:

• Keyword Research Template
• On-Page SEO Template
• SEO Strategy Template
• SEO Marketing Plan Template
• SEO Proposal Template
• SEO Report Template: Show Results, Save Time, Get Buy-In
• SEO Audit Template

Here’s a review of Backlinko on G2:

8. LearningSEO.io

Similar to Backlinko, LearningSEO.io isn’t technically a course, but it easily could be, as it’s jam-packed with resources.

It bills itself as a comprehensive SEO roadmap, offering a structured pathway for learning SEO from the fundamentals and onward.

The site was created by Aleyda Solis, a respected international SEO consultant who has spoken at countless conferences and shared endless numbers of free resources with the greater industry. In creating LearningSEO.io, she essentially compiled resources from across the industry’s brightest minds to create an organized hub.

Take a look to see if there are any knowledge gaps you need to fill.

For this site, a genuine customer review was not available.

How to Select the Best SEO Course for You

When evaluating SEO courses, focus on what your goal is.

If you want to dominate your local rankings, Semrush Academy’s “How to Outrank Your Competition in Local Search” is a must-watch.

Alex Genadinik’s SEO Training Masterclass is a great choice if you want to learn SEO from scratch without feeling overwhelmed.

If you’re not sure where to start, try a fundamentals course and then layer on specific subsets of SEO training.

And whatever you choose, good luck, and happy learning!