Free SEO Course for Beginners: 12 Lessons (2026)

How the course works

Each lesson links to a full guide in the Related guides list at the end of this page. Read the guide, do the practice task on a real website (your own, a friend's, or a free test site), and answer the self-check before you move on. The course is free, needs no sign-up, and does not issue a certificate; your proof is the improved website.

You need a website you can edit and, from lesson 3, a Google Search Console property for it. The time per lesson is our estimate for a beginner and includes the practice task.

Module 1: How search works (lessons 1 to 3)

Lesson 1, What is SEO (30 minutes): learn what SEO can and cannot do. Practice: write one sentence describing who your site is for and what they search. Self-check: can you explain the difference between SEO and ads?
Lesson 2, How search engines work (40 minutes): crawling, indexing, and ranking. Practice: search site:yourdomain.com to see which pages Google has indexed. Self-check: what stops a page being indexed?
Lesson 3, How to get your website on Google (60 minutes): verify your site in Search Console and submit a sitemap. Practice: request indexing for your homepage. Self-check: where do you see whether a URL is indexed?

Module 2: Choosing what to write (lessons 4 to 6)

Lesson 4, Search intent (40 minutes): what the searcher actually wants. Practice: search three of your target phrases and note whether the results are guides, products, or local listings. Self-check: does your page match the type of result Google shows?
Lesson 5, Keyword research (60 minutes): find real questions with free tools such as Google autocomplete, People also ask, and Google Trends. Practice: list 20 questions your audience asks, grouped by topic. Self-check: which three would you write first, and why?
Lesson 6, SEO content strategy (45 minutes): turn the list into a plan of main pages and supporting pages. Practice: map each question to one page. Self-check: does any question map to two pages that would compete?

Module 3: Improving your pages (lessons 7 to 9)

Lesson 7, On-page SEO (60 minutes): titles, headings, descriptions, images, and answering the question early. Practice: rewrite the title and first paragraph of your most important page. Self-check: is the title unique and under about 60 characters?
Lesson 8, Internal linking (40 minutes): connect related pages with descriptive links. Practice: add three links from older pages to your newest page. Self-check: can every important page be reached in a few clicks from the homepage?
Lesson 9, Technical SEO (60 minutes): mobile layout, speed, HTTPS, canonical URLs, and robots rules. Practice: test one page in PageSpeed Insights and fix the top issue you can. Self-check: does every page have exactly one canonical URL?

Module 4: Growing and measuring (lessons 10 to 12)

Lesson 10, Google Search Console (45 minutes): read the Performance and Pages reports. Practice: find the query with the most impressions and the lowest click rate. Self-check: what would you change to earn more clicks for it?
Lesson 11, Increase website traffic (45 minutes): combine search with email, social, and partnerships, and earn links honestly. Practice: list five sites that might link to a useful page of yours. Self-check: are any of your ideas paid or manipulative links?
Lesson 12, Local SEO (45 minutes, for businesses that serve an area): Google Business Profile, reviews, and consistent contact details. Practice: check that your name, address, and phone match everywhere. Self-check: what does a customer see when they search your business name?

Bonus lesson: SEO for AI search

Once the basics are in place, read our guide to SEO for AI search. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode use the same ranking systems and that pages must be indexed and eligible for a snippet, so the twelve lessons above are also the foundation for showing up in AI answers.

Final project and checklist

Finish the course by improving one real page from start to end and recording the before and after in Search Console over the following four to eight weeks. Rankings take time to change, so judge the work by whether the page is indexed, its impressions, and its click rate, not by a single day's position.

The page answers one clear question and matches the search intent.
It has a unique title, one H1, descriptive headings, and an honest description.
Its main content is text, with images that have useful alt text.
At least three related pages link to it, and it links to them.
It is mobile-friendly, loads quickly, and is indexed in Search Console.
Facts are sourced and dated, and the page says who wrote it.

Sources and further reading

Tools mentioned

Google Search Console, Google Search, Google Trends, PageSpeed Insights. Features and availability can change; check each provider's official information before choosing a tool.

Frequently asked questions

Can I learn SEO for free?

Yes. The core knowledge is free in Google Search Central's documentation, and the main tools, Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights, are free. This 12-lesson course links them together in order.

How long does it take to learn SEO?

The basics in this course take two to four weeks at 30 to 60 minutes a day. Getting good takes months of practice on real sites, because results take weeks to show.

Do I need a website to learn SEO?

It helps a lot. Use your own site, a free website builder, or help a friend's or a local organisation's site, so you can practise every lesson on real pages.

Does this free SEO course give a certificate?

No. If you want a certificate, providers such as HubSpot Academy and Google Skillshop offer free ones for related marketing skills. For SEO work, a portfolio of improved pages is stronger proof.

Is SEO still worth learning with AI search?

Yes. Google says its AI features are built on its core ranking systems and that SEO best practices remain relevant, so the same skills help pages appear in AI answers.

Continue

Lesson 1: What is SEO?