SMEs can build a stronger SEO strategy with these courses

The future of businesses lies in their ability to adopt digital strategies to survive amid still competition. With more than 4.5 billion people estimated to use the internet every day in 2020, it is becoming crucial for small business owners to deploy a strong SEO strategy to funnel traffic to their websites.

A good SEO strategy, alongside other digital marketing strategies that leverage technologies such as artificial intelligence and data-driven marketing which can help small businesses increase their online presence.

Devising a good SEO strategy can start by learning some of the basics. This free course designed by SEMrush Academy and led by Greg Gifford focuses on the fundamentals of SEO that will allow small business leaders to upskill themselves and their employees at no additional cost to the business.

Business leaders can expect to develop an understanding of what adjustments they can make to their websites to get it to rank higher. Additionally, the course will cover topics including search engine basics, technical SEO, link signals, on-page signals, SEO for mobile as well as International and Local SEO.

Additionally, small business leaders can also deepen their knowledge of keyword analytics which can show you how to use a keyword that will generate website traffic.

The eMarketing Institute also runs a free SEO course for beginners. This course aims to simplify some of the complex areas of this field by covering both technical and non-technical factors such as, leverage branding, site design and development, and link building.

Additionally, this course focuses on white hat strategies that steer clear away from unethical hacks that can be detrimental in the long run.

The course is taught through an ebook and covers topics such as understanding search engines, search engine friendly site design and development, google rankings, link building, search engine tools, SEO recommendations, and a search engine optimisation glossary.

HubSpot Academy also carries out free online SEO and content marketing training through its short courses.

Its Building Sustainable Traffic for Business Growth course will help businesses evaluate and improve their website’s SEO and will divulge tips, such as building backlinks to improve a website’s visibility.

HubSpot also provides a free lesson on content marketing. Its Creating Topic Clusters and Pillar Pages course will show business leaders how to create content that is ideal for their audience despite evolving search engines.

The Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Specialisation offered by UCDavis University of Carolina and hosted on Coursera is designed for beginners and will cover topics such as how to complete a competitive analysis on a webpage and how to optimise website content for the best possible search engine ranking.

Most of the course content is available for free for learners viewing the course through audit mode.

This course is ideal in helping small business owners to establish influencer relationships and collaborations and will explore how data can be analysed to develop an understanding of the type of content that gets better engagement.