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This is the complete guide to SEO certifications in 2021. In this in-depth review, youll learn what an SEO certification is, which are the best SEO certifications to pursue this year, how much they cost, and other useful tips to help you choose the most suitable SEO training program for your needs.

So, if you are wondering whether is worth becoming SEO certified, this guide is for you.

Lets get started.

An SEO certification is awarded to individuals who successfully complete an SEO Course. It shows that you have the necessary training and skills to work with search engine optimization.

There are many ways to get SEO certification. You can follow an online SEO course or attend a classroom-based course. As youll see below, the cost and requirements for becoming SEO certified vary per course provider.

Google does not offer an SEO certification program. If you want to become a Google SEO expert, you can follow an SEO course from a third-party provider and get certified.

There is a digital marketing certificate offered by Google Digital Garage that includes some lessons related to SEO but that wont make you a Google SEO certified expert.

Any kind of certification that can prove that you have undergone training in a subject is good for your CV.

So, getting an SEO certification from a reliable SEO training provider will definitely help your SEO career but certification alone does not make you an SEO expert.

To become a true SEO expert, you need:

Working experience with SEO SEO is not a theoretical concept but its highly practical. To become an expert, you need to know how to apply what you have learned in the course in practice and optimize a website for search engines.

SEO successes SEO is successful when the rankings and organic traffic of a website are improved. Knowing the theory and doing the necessary work is not enough. A good SEO specialist can deliver results, with or without a certification.

These are the top SEO certifications you can pursue in 2021 and get SEO certified.

We are proud of our SEO course and could not be missing from this list. Our SEO course bundle includes 4 courses (SEO Course, Ecommerce SEO Course, Keyword Research Course, Google Analytics Course) and teaches you everything you ever need to know about SEO.

So far more than 4200 students have enrolled and it is highly rated. Upon course completion, you can receive an SEO certification and it comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee.

When doing our market research to set the price for the course we found out that good SEO courses were too expensive for the average person so we are offering our course at a discounted price of $89 which makes it affordable for everyone.

This is the best SEO certification course for beginners. It starts from the beginning explaining what SEO is and how it works. It includes many examples and step-by-step instructions to help students apply SEO in practice.

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Yoast is the company behind the most popular WordPress SEO plugin. Their All-Around SEO training is part of Yoast SEO Premium which includes the Yoast SEO Premium Plugin and access to all their SEO courses.

Yoast is a highly reputable company in the SEO industry not only because of its plugins but also because of its contributions to WordPress and the SEO community in general.

The course includes 3 hours of instructional videos and upon completion, you get an SEO certification and badge.

This is the best SEO certification for non-technical users. In the course, youll learn how to optimize the technical SEO of your website without having technical knowledge.

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The ClickMinded SEO course is a comprehensive course that covers all aspects of Search Engine Optimization. Lessons are taught by reputable SEO professionals with years of working experience in the industry.

I always reference this course in my SEO training guides because its a good course but the only downside is the high price tag which makes it more suitable for companies or organizations that have big budgets for SEO training.

This is the best SEO certification for businesses. Its one of the most expensive courses on this list and most suitable for companies with a big training budget.

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Moz is another company that is important in the SEO industry. They have been around for years and their contribution to the SEO community is highly respected.

The SEO certification course includes 6 hours of instructor-led time and exams and upon competition of the exam, you become SEO certified.

While Moz has its own SEO tools, the course is not dependent on their tools. You can follow this course without having a Moz Pro subscription.

This is the best SEO certification for non SEO professionals. Its only 6 hours long and covers both basic and advanced SEO concepts.

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Those that follow my SEO blog know what SEMRUSH is my favorite SEO tool. Besides having a great tool, SEMRUSH now offers a series of online courses that are free and come with a certification.

Their SEO course is delivered by Greg Gillford, an experienced SEO consultant with more than 16 years of working experience in the industry.

The course has 8 modules that cover the basics, technical SEO, on-page SEO, mobile SEO, link building, international and local SEO.

Its a good course and its free which is great for beginners to SEO.

This is the best free SEO certification. SEMRush SEO Courses although they are free, they are all taught by experts and they provide useful information and advice.

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This is one of the most expensive online SEO courses on our list. The $770 price tag for 180 days access is certainly a negative factor for solo bloggers or even small business owners.

But, that does not in any way mean that the course is not worth it. Its a complete course that covers in detail all aspects of Search engine optimization. Lessons are taught by experienced SEOs and you also have the option to attend in an online classroom.

If you run a business and need a good course to get your employees certified in SEO, then this is definitely a course to consider.

This is the best advanced SEO certification. It is a good option for marketing professionals who want to learn how advanced SEO concepts can work together in real-life scenarios.

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Bruce Clay has more than 23 years of experience in the SEO industry is one of the most respected SEO experts.

The course was available as a classroom live training course but recently it has been released as an on-demand SEO course.

With your registration, you get access to the course for one year and an invitation to join monthly live Q&A sessions with Bruce.

You also get the SEOToolSet, a set of SEO tools to help you implement and monitor your website strategy.

Of course, upon completion of the course, you get an SEO certification.

This is the best SEO classroom training program. If you want to experience SEO training like in a live classroom environment, this is definitely one of the options to consider.

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This course is delivered by Coursera and offered by UCDavis (University of California). Coursera is an online training platform that provides access to a number of university-level courses.

While the course enrollment is free, they dont specify the actual cost on their website.

Their SEO specialization bundle includes 6 courses that cover both basic and advanced SEO concepts. Among the instructors is Eric Enge, an SEO expert that is highly respected in the SEO community.

This is the best SEO certification for agencies. Course instructors are actively working in the SEO industry and in the course, youll learn how to approach SEO as a service provider.

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Udemy is another popular online learning platform. They have a number of SEO courses and one of their best sellers is the Complete SEO Training for 2021. The course has a star rating of 4.4/5 based on the ratings of 6,400+ students.

Prices of Udemy courses change all the time. At the time of visiting this course was offered for $199 but you can get it for less if you register to their website and wait for special offers.

This is the best SEO certification for developers. It covers a lot of topics that an SEO-aware developer is expected to know like page speed optimization.

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SimpliLearn is one of the big players in online training. They offer a number of certifications that you can either take online (self-paced Learning), combined with a virtual online classroom, or custom corporate training.

Their Search Engine Optimization training course includes 30+ hours of videos and besides SEO it also covers topics like content marketing, keyword research, and web analytics.

The course has 4/5 stars from 294 ratings and it awards an advanced SEO certification when completing 85% of the course and passes a test with more than 75%.

This is the best SEO Bootcamp. Besides getting access to the self-paced material, you can also attend scheduled live classes (at an additional cost) and interact with the SEO trainer and other students.

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Watch this video for a visual walkthrough of the best SEO certifications.

The cost to get an SEO certification in 2021 is between $89 and $2750. There are many vendors offering different types of courses and each of them sets its own pricing.

The table below compares the cost of the most popular SEO certifications.

The price gap between the lowest and highest-paying certifications is huge because of the nature of online training.

This is normal in the online world because there is no formal way of controlling prices. Its the same situation in other industries as well where prices for online courses tend to have a huge cap.

Do you get less value paying for a cheaper course? Not necessarily, it depends on the course. The price tag does not necessarily reflect the value you get from a course but is more how companies approach their pricing model.

The answer is yes and the reasons are the following:

An SEO course can save you time A good course will teach you everything you need to know about SEO without spending time searching for answers on Google.

Use it for reference There are hundreds of SEO rules to configure and for sure you wont be able to understand and execute everything at once. Having a good resource to use as a reference can prove very helpful.

Follow a checklist Most courses have checklists that you can follow to make sure that all-important SEO factors are considered while optimizing your website.

Get inspired Some courses include real SEO success stories that can motivate and keep you going. SEO takes time to work and many times youll feel disappointed. Reading how others managed to make SEO work for them, will help you stay concentrated on your goals.

Learn from the Pros Many SEO courses are written by experts with years of experience in the industry and following their steps will get you results faster than wandering around and following advice from unsolicited sources.

Its a small investment with great ROI SEO can make you money through higher rankings and more traffic. Investing in SEO training is not a cost but its actually an investment with a positive return on investment.

How we created the SEO course list? We used the following criteria for adding a course to the list.

Certification Only courses that offer a certification were added to the list. There are a number of SEO Courses that are great but dont offer certification, so these are not part of the list. You can view them in our SEO training guide.

SEO Courses only There are providers that offer SEO training as part of digital marketing training. Upon completion, you get a digital marketing certificate. In the list, we only included SEO dedicated courses. View our digital marketing courses guide if you want to get certified in Digital Marketing and not just SEO.

Vendor Reputation We only added courses from trusted SEO training vendors.

Always available Some vendors offer SEO courses that are only available for enrollment on specific timeframes (usually once or twice per year). These courses were not included in our list. We only have in the list courses which you can enroll in today and start learning SEO.

Becoming SEO certified is a good decision for many reasons. For starters, you add another valuable item to your CV and this increases your chances of getting hired in the Digital Marketing industry.

If you already have a job as an SEO, its a great way to prove to your employer and clients that you know what SEO is all about.

Certification alone does not make you an expert. You need to practice and learn how the SEO theory can be applied to practice. The best way to prove to yourself and others that you are a true SEO expert is to optimize a website and increase its rankings and traffic.

There are many SEO certifications to choose from. Each certification has its own requirements, targets a specific audience, and comes with a different price tag.

As you have read above, prices range from $89 to more than $2000. Study each course syllabus carefully, read the reviews of existing students, and follow the course that bests suit your needs.

Is any SEO Certification missing from the list? I have explained in detail how we crafted this list. If you feel that a certification is not included in the list, let me know in the comments.

See more here:
SEO Certifications: The Complete Guide (Courses and Cost)