Most SEO courses are recorded once and left to age. I teach live — six-week cohorts at SEO University, plus specialist tracks and one-on-one coaching — because search keeps moving and so should the lesson. You learn the full craft the way I use it on real client sites: keyword research, on-page, technical, links, and the newer work in AI search, in an order that builds.
I'm the lead instructor at SEO University, where cohorts are small and the work is real — you optimize actual pages, not hypotheticals. The goal isn't to pass a quiz. It's to leave able to look at a website and know what's holding it back, what to fix first, and why. That's the difference between knowing SEO and being able to do it.
I've spent fourteen years on the practitioner side — auditing the technical guts of sites, untangling local search, and lately, working out how structured data and AI search change the game. I teach from that, not from a script. When I explain why an issue matters, it's because I've watched it cost a real business real traffic, and watched the fix bring it back. If you're just getting started, here's the exact path I'd take to learn SEO from zero.
You don't need any experience to start. The beginner track assumes you're starting from zero and builds from there. If you already know your way around SEO, the schema-markup and AI-search tracks go deeper on the parts most courses skip — that's where you'll get the most. And if you run a business, training your whole team together usually beats sending one person to a course and hoping it spreads.
See SEO University →SEO isn't one skill — it's a handful that have to work together. We take them in sequence, each building on the last, so by the end you can run a complete process instead of a bag of disconnected tactics.
Different people need different doors. A structured six-week cohort if you want the full path with a group and live sessions; a focused specialty track if you already know SEO and want my edge on schema or AI search; private coaching if you'd rather fix your own real site as you learn. There's no single right answer — tell me where you're starting and I'll point you to the door that fits.
Wondering how the formats compare? Here's the case for a live cohort over a recorded course, and how online and in-person stack up.
The trouble with a lot of SEO training is that it's taught by people who stopped doing SEO. The screenshots are old, the tactics are a cycle behind, and there's no one in the room who can answer the awkward follow-up question. Because I still run client work through Salterra, what I teach is what's working this quarter — and I'll tell you plainly when something you've read is a waste of time.
That honesty matters more than it sounds. A good chunk of learning SEO is learning what to ignore: the myths, the over-engineered tactics, the metrics that look impressive and change nothing. I'd rather you spend your energy on the few things that move results. If you're vetting instructors or courses, here's what actually separates a good one from a slick one, and an honest take on whether an SEO certification is worth it.
SEO University cohorts run online so anyone can join, and I offer in-person training and team workshops across the Phoenix metro. If you run a business, a training day for your team often beats sending one person to a course.
Join a cohort at SEO University, or book a one-on-one if you'd rather learn on your own site. Tell me where you're starting and I'll point you to the right door.