All You Need to Know About SEO to Sell Online Courses

If you think you are going to get online traffic without paying any attention to SEO, we have news for you.

90.63% of all web pages do not receive any organic traffic from Google, according to Ahrefs.

So how do you get into that 9.37% elite?

The good news is that in this article we will walk you through the steps of creating an SEO-friendly website for your business and online course.

So keep reading below to learn how to master the art of SEO!

What is SEO and Why is it Important?

SEO means Search Engine Optimization and includes all those activities that will improve the quality and quantity of organic (unpaid) traffic to your website from a search engine.

The goal of optimizing your site for SEO is to increase Google ranking, create a steady flow of organic traffic, and - in the case of most businesses - target keywords that convert.

There are many different activities you can do to improve your website and make it SEO-friendly: starting from content creation, to more technical aspects such as fixing errors in the back end of your site. 

For more in-depth analysis and information about your whole website structure, you can always find a trustful friend in one of the best web design companies in Chicago. They can help you in many different ways so your business can shine in the brightest light!

Here are the main benefits of having an SEO-optimized website:

• Higher Search Engine Rankings: SEO practices will help you rank higher in search engine results over time. Being on the top-10 results in Google searches is a huge advantage: researches show that the first five organic results for a certain search, account for 67.60% of all the clicks.

• Higher Traffic to Your Website: by creating content related to certain keywords, your site may appear in search results, increasing the number of visitors and traffic. Studies show that SEO alone drives 1000%+ more traffic to websites than organic social media marketing.

• Higher Trust From Potential Customers: SEO can help you generate more leads for your online business and increase the level of trust towards your brand. 70% of online marketers agree that SEO is more effective than PPC (pay per click) for generating new sales!

Overall SEO is a fantastic way to promote your online business, the only downside is that it takes time before witnessing the first results.

Depending on how much effort you put into optimizing your website, it usually takes from 6 months to one year to see an increase in ranking and traffic. Don’t give up after making only a few posts and make the same mistake that so many other creators do when starting a blog.

So start practicing SEO right now, and in the meantime, do not forget to promote your online course with other marketing strategies. Learn all about it in this article from our blog: A Complete Guide on How to Promote Your Online Course and Boost Sales

How to Make your Online Course Website SEO-Friendly

Before getting into details about what you can do to have an SEO-friendly website for your online course business, it is important to make sure that you are using the right tools to track your performance.

There are many great SEO tools out there you can use to analyze your website’s performance, ranking, and traffic and improve your visibility by correcting mistakes and finding new keywords to target.

We believe that one of the best SEO tools is Ubersuggest. We often recommend this tool to online course creators for its easy-to-use interface and navigation, its detailed analysis and capabilities, and generous pricing.

Let’s see now what you can do right now to improve the SEO of your online course website:

#1. Target the Right Keywords

When you start a search on Google, the search engine will show you a list of results that best match your query.

By targeting the right keywords in your site, you are letting Google know what your content is about. This way, the search engine can show your website to people who search for your keywords.

How exactly can you target the right keywords?

1. Conduct Keyword Research: use a tool like Ubersuggest to find out which keywords are “hot” in your industry. When you are just getting started, it is best to target keywords that are very specific to your niche and have low competition, but make sure they are keywords that have some search volume so you know your audience is actively searching for those terms! Look for both short-tail and long-tail keywords that best apply to your topic and make sure that your “ideal customers” are searching for those keywords.

1. Use the Right Keywords Throughout Your Content: once you found a list of keywords to target, go ahead and insert them in your website, blog, and overall content. Pay particular attention to titles and subtitles (H1, H2, and H3) as Google places higher importance on them.

You may be tempted to stuff your content with relevant keywords, however, this is actually counterproductive, as Google penalizes sites that overuse keywords and considers them spammy.

As a general rule, try to prioritize quality over quantity when it comes to generating content: if the keywords make sense in the context, go ahead and use them!

#2. Master On-Page SEO

On-Page SEO includes optimizing the content on your page that is visible to readers and search engines. Basically, a good on-page SEO should clearly communicate what your content is about to anyone (person or bot) who is visiting your site.

How do you do this?

Other than targeting the right keywords, pay close attention to titles, H1, H2 tags, image alt text, meta description, URL naming, and internal/external links.

#3. Improve Technical SEO

Technical SEO includes all the “behind-the-scenes” activities to improve your site performance: from your site architecture to its speed and accessibility on different devices.

There are many aspects you need to consider when it comes to improving your technical SEO. Some are easy and straightforward, while others are more complex and might require the aid of a dedicated platform or developer.

To get an overview of the status of your technical SEO, head over to Ubersuggest and run a Site Audit. The tool will show you detailed analytics of your performance and everything that needs fixing on the back-end of your site.

#4. Start a Blog

Creating new content is a fantastic way to improve your SEO and rank higher on search engines for specific keywords.

Every time you write a new article or update an old blog post you are creating a new indexed page for your site, you are adding new content and keywords that will drive traffic to your website.

In this article from our blog, we explain all the benefits of starting a blog to promote your online course and how to do it correctly: Why You Should Start a Blog to Promote Your Online Course Business

Overall blogging is a great way to achieve an SEO-friendly website. So when you are choosing the best platform to host your online course, make sure that they offer a blogging feature.

Heights Platform allows you to post public blog articles in addition to your private online course content, to improve your SEO, establish your credibility as an expert, and to offer even more resources to your students. Learn more about how blogging works in Heights Platform

#5. Produce Content in Various Formats

Other than blogging, producing content is always a good idea when it comes to SEO. Whenever possible, see if you can translate your existing content into different formats.

So try to repurpose your blog content into YouTube videos, social media posts, podcast episodes, and so on.

Repurposing content will have a huge impact on your SEO, and it is definitely less time-consuming and easier than researching a brand new topic and writing a blog post from scratch.

Not to mention that creating content in different formats will increase your online presence, establish your credibility as an expert and improve the level of trust from potential customers.

#6. Build Backlinks to Your Site

When someone mentions your website on their blog, site, social media, or other places on the internet, you will get a backlink. Having a high number of backlinks means better SEO: if a lot of people refer to your site, search engines will attribute higher importance to your content.

But how do you get more backlinks?

There are different ways you can implement to increase the number of backlinks: keep in mind that it will not happen overnight and might only show results in the long term.

Focus on creating valuable content that others might want to share and put in effort in writing informative blog posts.

Look out for other bloggers who posted content relevant to your audience and niche, and try contacting them for a backlink. There are many other ways you can leverage to increase the number of backlinks to your site: partnerships, guest posting, being interviewed on a podcast or blog, commenting on other blog posts, participating in forums, etc…

Other than this, creating social media accounts can help you to accumulate backlinks, as other users may share your posts and content.

In general, if you manage to create an online presence for your business and share valuable information, it should not be hard for you to accumulate backlinks, even though it might take some time.

#7. Make Sure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly

More than half of online traffic comes from mobile devices and through mobile apps. Even if you are sure that your target audience only visits your site from a desktop, in 2021 is it mandatory to implement a mobile-friendly website.

Making sure your content is accessible to mobile users is not the only reason why you should look into this: Google considers mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor.

So overall having a mobile-friendly website is a must and it will help you:

• Increase your search engine rankings
• Avoid losing visitors from mobile phones
• Make your website more accessible
• Increase your credibility and image

But how exactly can you make sure that your website is mobile-friendly?

Another useful tool to ensure your website is accessible on mobile devices is Ubersuggest. The platform uses a feature called Position Tracking where you can see your website rankings for mobile and desktop. Ubersuggest also runs a site audit highlighting all the technical SEO issues to be fixed, which can increase the performance of your website on desktop and mobile.

Conclusion

SEO is the rulebook of the internet. As a course creator or anyone who has an online business, you need to know how to practice SEO to improve your website performance and visibility.

Other than practicing our recommendations for better search engine optimization, make sure you are using the right tools:

Ubersuggest is our recommended SEO platform for course creators (or anyone who has a website). The reason why we recommend this is because the tool is extremely visual and easy to navigate while offering all the insights you need at a reasonable price.

You can use this tool to do keyword research, find out what potential customers are searching for, analyze your website technical SEO and run site audits, and even find out what keywords and phrases your main competitors are targeting.

Check out this video to learn everything you need to know about using Ubersuggest for your website SEO.

By now you should have a better understanding of SEO and how it can impact your traffic and website ranking. If you are using the tools we have mentioned in the article, you are ready to bring your online course business to the next level!