Learning · Skill
SEO
Helping search engines understand and show a website: content, structure, technical checks and reading search performance.
Common in marketing, content and community roles.
Is this actually your gap?
If you already improve a website's search performance at work, you probably don’t need a beginner course. The skill may just be missing from your CV or Profile, and that is a proof gap, not a skill gap.
Missing a keyword on your CV doesn’t mean you need a course. This page can’t tell which one you have. Only you know what you’ve done.
Step 1
Practise
Start by doing. Practice shows you what you can already do, and what’s actually missing. Practice is not work experience.
Google
Practice project
Search Console (audit a site you own)
You finish with something you can show.
- Type
- Tool
- Access
- Free
- Certificate
- No certificate involved
- Account
- You’ll need an account on support.google.com
- Checked
You need a website you own or manage. Write up what you found and what you would fix.
Open on support.google.com (opens the provider’s site in a new tab)Ahrefs
Practice project
Ahrefs Free (formerly Ahrefs Webmaster Tools)
You finish with something you can show.
- Type
- Tool
- Access
- Free
- Certificate
- No certificate involved
- Account
- You’ll need an account on ahrefs.com
- Checked
Free for websites whose ownership you verify.
Open on ahrefs.com (opens the provider’s site in a new tab)
Step 2
Learn
Use a course for the parts practice showed you’re missing. Finishing a course shows what you studied. It doesn’t show that you’ve used the skill at work.
Google Search Central
SEO Starter Guide
- Type
- Guide
- Access
- Free
- Certificate
- No certificate involved
- Checked
Step 3 · Optional
Credential
Optional. It expires after one year, so treat it as a refresher rather than proof of experience.
Semrush Academy
Semrush Academy certifications
- Type
- Course with certification
- Access
- Free
- Certificate
- Free certificate — Valid for one year from completion.
- Account
- You’ll need an account on semrush.com
- Checked
When you’ve practised
Practice and courses aren’t work experience. When you’ve used the skill for a real organisation, that work can become experience.