Since most of my past experience revolved around the creative side of marketing, I was able to further develop my left-brain skills including data analytics... which was crucial to the success of my career path change.
Fiona Mascarenhas
Digital Marketing Manager in Acquisition Marketing at Scotiabank Digital Factory
Learn Search Engine Marketing
The majority of online activity begins with a search, where search engines can capture intent from potential customers and direct them to your business. In BrainStation’s SEO course, you will build Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) skills that will help you drive website traffic, reach target audiences, build brand awareness, and optimize your digital presence.
Learn SEO and SEM
Online classroom. Live and expert-led.
Build SEM and SEO skills
Ideal for learners looking to upskill.
Prepare for SEM and SEO jobs
Build an interview-ready SEO portfolio project.
SEM and SEO Certification
Earn a BrainStation Search Engine Marketing Certificate.
SEO Courses
Ready to get started learning SEO and SEM? Take BrainStation’s Search Engine Marketing courses online or in-person at any of our campuses. See below for our list of upcoming SEO courses.
Launch into the first unit of BrainStation’s Search Engine Marketing course by gaining a strong understanding of search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). Gain an overview of how search engines work, and learn how different approaches toward advertising on search engines —paid search vs organic search — can be combined to deliver results. You'll also become familiar with key SEO tools and important concepts that will prepare you for the advanced work ahead.
Google Ads & Keyword Planner
Screaming Frog
ChatGPT
Key Skills:
Keyword Research
Basic SEO Audits
Content Optimization
Search Engine Marketing
Gain a well-rounded understanding of search by exploring how search engines work, comparing organic and paid search marketing approaches, and learning about keyword research, SEO marketing, and other essential digital marketing concepts.
Learn SEO Tools
Dive deep into search engine optimization by getting familiar with Google Ads and Screaming Frog. Explore the interface, and gain exposure to key features to prepare yourself for more advanced course work.
Perform an SEO Audit
Apply your new skills and knowledge to conduct a basic SEO audit on real websites. Uncover key issues and explore areas of improvement.
Unit 2
Organic Search
Search engine optimization and organic search efforts are crucial to boosting a website’s position in search engine results pages. While it takes time for the benefits of an SEO campaign to be realized, boosting your website SEO will pay dividends well into the future, providing consistent and valuable online traffic. In the second unit of our SEO course, dive deep into organic search, and learn the SEO techniques needed to build an organic presence and improve your search engine ranking.
Key Skills:
SEO Content Strategy
Structured Data
Backlink Strategy
Backlink Audits
Local SEO
SEO Content Strategy
Content is at the heart of any website. Learn the right approach to SEO content writing, including blog posts, landing pages, and more.
Backlinks
SEO backlinks are critical to boost your visibility to users and credibility with search engines. Learn how to get backlinks and how to use backlik checker tools.
Explore Local SEO
Local SEO is a powerful tool and differentiator for businesses, leveraging their local presence to improve search results. Learn about local SEO solution and local SEO strategy, and practice your analysis through a site audit.
Uncover Hidden Issues
Learn to navigate Google Search Console, an SEO tool used to uncover issues with websites and help optimize their presence on Google's search results. Explore important features used to keep your site healthy and manage issues.
Unit 3
Paid Search
Paid search and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing are the other half of the equation for building a strong search presence. Paid search allows brands to understand what customers are looking for, reach them with precision, and deliver compelling messaging. In this unit of our SEO class, you'll learn how advertising in search engines works, and apply the skills needed to create impactful targeted ads that resonate with your target audience.
Google Ads & Keyword Planner
Key Skills:
Search Advertising
Display Advertising
Ad Copywriting
Remarketing Fundamentals
Paid Advertising
Set yourself up for success by learning important technical concepts, including how search advertising works and what factors support a high-quality, high-ranking ad.
Keyword Research
Choosing the right keywords is an integral component of any successful advertisement. Match customer intent, reach the right audience, and advertise competitively by learning to find keyword opportunities.
Marketing Campaign Planning
Learn how search campaigns are structured and practice creating ads, writing ad copy, and planning a paid search approach that will advance your marketing objectives.
Display Ads
Learn about display advertising as part of Google Ads, and leverage advanced search marketing concepts to improve your ad targeting and results.
Unit 4
Search Analytics
Build a well-rounded search engine marketing skill set by exploring analytics and measurement. By collecting the right data and analyzing the results, you'll be able to identify areas of optimization and drive greater returns on the time, money, and effort invested. In the final unit of BrainStation’s SEO training course, you'll explore how to use Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, industry-standard tools to support your SEO campaigns.
Google Analytics
Google Tag Manager
Key Skills:
Search Analytics
Tag Measurement & Tracking
Learn Google Analytics
Data-driven decision making is an important part of successful search engine marketing. Learn how to operate Google Analytics to view key metrics and uncover insights around your search engine optimization efforts.
Explore Google Tag Manager
Expand your analytics and measurement capabilities by using Google Tag Manager to set custom parameters. Explore this powerful search engine marketing tool and learn how to use this to keep track of what matters most for you.
SEO Course Instructors
Instructors in BrainStation’s Search Engine Marketing and SEO courses are experienced marketing professionals who work at the world's most innovative companies. You’ll learn from experts in their field with years of experience, ensuring that you're learning the most up-to-date and practical skills companies around the world are looking for.
Lauren Powell
Social Listening & Analytics Lead at PepsiCo
Seun Shobande
Consumer Marketing Lead at Instagram
Sandra Hoefler
Director of Performance Marketing at Ticketmaster
Michael Palombo
US Content Partnerships at X (Twitter)
Kayla Cabilin
Marketing Strategist at Snap Inc.
Lauren Powell
Social Listening & Analytics Lead at PepsiCo
Seun Shobande
Consumer Marketing Lead at Instagram
Sandra Hoefler
Director of Performance Marketing at Ticketmaster
Michael Palombo
US Content Partnerships at X (Twitter)
Kayla Cabilin
Marketing Strategist at Snap Inc.
Industry-Led SEO Training
BrainStation partners with industry experts when building all of our courses, ensuring every course covers the latest industry-relevant topics and tools businesses need. We continue to work with our network of experts to update our courses so they're always up to date.
Build a Search Engine Marketing Plan
Showcase everything you've learned with a real-world search marketing portfolio project by creating and presenting your own search engine marketing plan. By the end of the course, you'll have completed an SEO audit accompanied with recommendations, developed a PPC advertising or paid search advertising strategy, and created a digital marketing analytics plan as part of your final project.
View Tuition, Financing Options, and More in the Course Package
View the Course Package to access:
Tuition details
Financing options
Employer sponsorship
Earn a Search Engine Marketing Certificate
Upon completing BrainStation's Search Engine Marketing Course, you'll receive an industry-recognized professional SEM certificate to share with your network and showcase all that you've learned. BrainStation certificates are formatted for sharing on LinkedIn.
Learn in our Next-Gen Online Classroom
Instructor-Led, Live Online Courses, From the Comfort of Your Home
In all our online courses, learn from BrainStation's industry-expert instructors through real-time, interactive classes in an engaging classroom environment.
Interactive, Project-Based Learning
Join breakout room sessions in smaller teams as part of the hands-on projects in our online courses, where you will collaborate and learn together.
Community Beyond the Classroom
During your online course, engage with your classmates and instructors in BrainStation’s Slack community, where you’ll receive updates and support. Stay connected and in the loop throughout your online course.
What Our Graduates Are Saying
Dylan Hebb
Senior Consultant at Content Bloom
When you take a BrainStation course, you're learning with some of the very best in the industry. You collaborate with product managers, digital strategists, UX designers, and all kinds of other backgrounds.
Our instructor... was clear, detail oriented, and made the learning environment safe and collaborative. We got a lot of real world examples from him, and all the little details he shared made this entire course special, and more than simply reading a textbook.
Overall, I'm a big advocate for Brainstation's courses - they've proved to be extremely valuable in my career.
Fiona Mascarenhas
Digital Marketing Manager in Acquisition Marketing at Scotiabank Digital Factory
Since most of my past experience revolved around the creative side of marketing, I was able to further develop my left-brain skills including data analytics and strategy, which was crucial to the success of my career path change. Due to the nature of the course structure, I felt like I got an inside track to a Digital Marketing role where I could observe and learn the basics about the job before getting thrown into the real world.
I cannot say enough good things about BrainStation and all of their courses! I have most recently taken the Search Engine Marketing Course through their online platform and finished with 100x more marketing knowledge and resources than before. The instructor was excellent. He is an SEM/SEO expert and provided many relevant industry examples for everything we learned. He also gave us a TON of helpful websites and resources for our own work.
Join our growing community of 30,000+ alumni.
SEO Certification FAQs
How advanced is the SEM course?
In the online Search Engine Marketing (SEM) course, you'll use keyword research, search engine optimization fundamentals, link-building, and pay-per-click (PPC) research to develop a comprehensive SEM and SEO plan.
The course provides an in-depth overview of search engine and content marketing, but can be considered beginner-friendly.
Will I earn an SEM Certificate from this course?
Yes, when you complete the SEM and SEO course, you will earn your certificate, which can boost your LinkedIn profile and resume, helping you stand out in the job market when applying for digital marketing positions.
What payment options do you offer?
BrainStation offers some of the most competitive payment options for SEM and SEO training online, with a range of flexible payment plans.
These include:
Monthly payment installments
Allowing you to split your tuition into smaller monthly payments.
Employer sponsorship
Get your tuition reimbursed by your employer.
Are there any prerequisites for this SEO course?
BrainStation's SEM course was created for those who have some experience with digital marketing, but are looking to build out their knowledge of areas including content marketing, link-building strategies, search engine algorithms, and generally have a better handle on search engines and SEM. There are no prerequisites for this course.
What SEO tools do we learn?
Throughout BrainStation's SEM and SEO course, you will learn to work with SEO tools that help you become a more efficient and effective digital marketer.
You'll get hands-on experience with Google Ads, Google Analytics, Screaming Frog, and Moz to help you build cohesive search engine optimization campaigns.
SEO 101
What Can I Learn in an SEO Course?
BrainStation’s SEO course begins by establishing your foundations in search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), and digital marketing more generally. In BrainStation's search engine optimization course, you'll learn how to leverage different SEO tools, marketing techniques, search engines, and paid search advertising to grow and engage your audiences online.
Our search marketing course helps learn how to perform keyword research, conduct a competitive analysis, and ultimately create a strong content marketing strategy that can boost the ranking of website content and affect organic search results on major search engines.
In addition, the third unit of our SEO certification course covers paid search strategies, including PPC (Pay-Per-Click) marketing, search advertising, and display ads. Finally, you will dig into search and digital marketing analytics, teaching you how to leverage those powerful statistical tools to improve your marketing ROI and boost the efficiency of your SEO efforts.
What Are the Most In-Demand SEO Jobs?
Some of the most in-demand SEO jobs or job roles relating to search marketing include SEO Specialist, SEO Expert, SEO Manager, and SEO Strategist. Meanwhile, many other digital marketing jobs would require or be helped by search engine marketing and SEO skills, including Digital Marketing Specialist, Digital Marketing Manager, Content Marketing Specialist, or Marketing Manager.
Given that many major customer decisions begin with a search on Google, SEO is becoming an increasingly crucial pillar for companies, marketing teams, and digital marketing agencies, and that means more and more jobs for SEO professionals with advanced SEO training. But SEM and SEO skills are also becoming more valuable to a number of other fields and disciplines, including user experience (UX) design, communications, web design, web development, and even journalism.
How Can I Get Into SEO?
To get into SEO, you should explore free SEO resources to first get a solid handle on the fundamentals of search marketing, consider completing digital marketing or SEO training courses, and finally look for freelance work, internships, or entry-level search engine marketing or digital marketing jobs.
If you're wondering how to get into SEO, your first step should be learning SEO basics. If you have your own site, you could try out popular SEO tools to optimize your own content and experiment with trying to boost its ranking in SERPs.
But if you're ultimately interested in a dedicated SEO job, you will likely want to pursue more formal training through a dedicated search engine marketing or SEO course. The best SEO courses will give you the most up-to-date possible training in advanced search engine optimization subject areas like content strategy, mobile SEO best practices, and technical SEO, while also allowing you to build a portfolio of real-world projects that you can leverage to seek out marketing internships and entry-level SEO jobs.
What Is the Best Way to Stay on Top of SEO Trends?
The best way to stay on top of SEO trends is to follow top SEO blogs and email newsletters, join communities of SEO experts online, and to proactively network with other SEO Specialists and Digital Marketers, as well as professionals outside your industry.
Keeping up with trends is particularly important in the fast-changing world of search engine optimization, where search engine algorithms change constantly and industry best practices are always subject to innovation and review. Worthwhile resources for modern SEO news and trends include Search Engine Journal, as well as the blogs and email newsletters issued by Moz and Yoast SEO, two top tools for search engine optimization.
Networking with colleagues is another essential part of keeping up with SEO trends. BrainStation regularly holds panel discussions with top digital marketing industry experts, thought leadership events, and other networking gatherings to give students opportunities to build their professional networks while also discussing the most current trends and issues in their fields.
How Do You Build an SEO Strategy?
To build a strong SEO strategy, you must conduct market research and analyze the competition, consider conducting a site audit to assess the quality of your content and any site navigation issues, determine key performance indicators and measurement metrics, and actively analyze the success of your SEO campaign, making changes if necessary.
Given the amount of competition Digital Marketers face to capture their audience's attention and the budget required for a paid ad campaign, creating a successful search marketing campaign requires careful planning and constant analysis. Marketing analytics are crucial to determining the success or failure of your efforts, and you should be carefully monitoring every aspect of any SEO campaign, whether paid or free.
Because there is some degree of mystery around how popular search engines organize their results pages, even the best-planned SEO campaign might not go exactly as planned. Part of creating a successful SEO strategy is understanding when it's time to pivot and make changes. And since few SEO strategies can be executed in a vacuum, Digital Marketing Managers will typically need to co-ordinate their plans with other teams devoted to web development, user experience design, and data analytics to ensure a smooth rollout.
Why Is This the Best SEO Course for Me?
BrainStation's SEO course is the best social engine marketing program because our hands-on, project-based learning experience gives students real-world marketing experience. The course’s innovative curriculum covers the most current-possible search marketing strategies and tools, and our live online courses are led by experienced professionals with a thorough understanding of what it takes to succeed as SEO experts.
BrainStation's SEO certificate course is ideal for learners looking to boost their skills, whether you're already a Digital Marketer looking to develop an SEO specialization or if you simply want to gain valuable skills that would be valuable to any number of fields, including communications, UX and UI design, and web development. With an innovative curriculum that teaches students every component of how to build a successful content marketing campaign, BrainStation's Search Engine Marketing course is designed to help students develop an end-to-end understanding of effective SEO strategy and how to plan a successful SEO campaign.
To then help students leverage their new search marketing training to meet their professional goals, BrainStation offers networking opportunities, thought leadership events, and panel discussions featuring experts from our global hiring partner network of top companies.
Who Teaches BrainStation's SEO courses?
In BrainStation's SEO courses, you can expect to learn from Instructors who are experts in the digital marketing field, with years of experience working at some of the world's best and most innovative companies.
The cutting-edge curriculum and course material in BrainStation's search engine optimization course is developed and maintained by top marketing experts who understand what real-world companies are looking for. In our hands-on, project-based SEO course, Instructors give students valuable immediate feedback that can inform their marketing portfolios and give them an up-to-date understanding of current SEO best practices.
Related to SEO Courses:
Digital Marketing
In this hands-on course, learn cutting-edge skills in a broad range of essential digital marketing topics, including marketing strategy, SEO, SEM, social media, and email marketing. The Digital Marketing course touches on a number of topics that complement the detailed SEM topics in our Search Engine Marketing course.
Learn to build a social media strategy tailored to your customers, and engage with them effectively to drive your marketing objectives. Alongside Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing is one of the most powerful tools for building and engaging with your audience in order to achieve your marketing objectives.
The Digital Marketing Bootcamp is BrainStation's flagship Digital Marketing program to prepare you for a new Digital Marketing career. In 400+ hours of learning, go deep on digital marketing strategy, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, content development and management, social media, and more.
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