A workshop and a course serve different purposes. A course builds a complete framework over weeks. A workshop targets specific skills in a compressed timeframe with hands-on application built in. I run SEO workshops for teams and small groups when the goal is to solve a specific problem or build a specific capability, not to start from scratch on the fundamentals.

When a Workshop Makes Sense

Workshops work well in a few specific situations:

  • A team that has basic SEO knowledge but gaps in a specific area — schema markup, technical auditing, keyword research methodology, or GA4 setup
  • A group that needs to align on approach before launching a project — getting everyone on the same page about strategy before execution starts
  • An individual who wants intensive, applied learning with direct feedback rather than self-paced video content
  • An organization running a planning cycle that wants to build an SEO roadmap with expert facilitation

If you’re starting from scratch on SEO fundamentals, the six-week cohort at SEO University is a better fit than a workshop. Workshops assume some baseline and go deep fast.

Workshop Formats I Run

I structure workshops differently depending on the need:

Technical SEO Audit Workshop

Half-day or full-day format. We work through your actual site together using Screaming Frog, Search Console, and structured data testing tools. Participants leave with a prioritized audit report and a clear understanding of how to read and act on the data. This format is valuable for development and marketing teams that want to understand what they’re looking at, not just hand off an audit to an agency. Audits regularly surface mobile SEO issues that are easy to overlook in a desktop-first workflow.

Schema Markup Implementation Workshop

My specialty area. This workshop goes deep on structured data — how to identify which schema types apply to your site, how to write valid JSON-LD markup, how to validate it, and how to implement at scale across page templates. Schema is where most sites have the most untapped opportunity, and it’s also where the most mistakes compound quietly. I run this through Salterra Digital Services for clients who want to get it right.

Keyword Research and Content Strategy Workshop

Full-day format for content and marketing teams. We start with understanding search intent and keyword research methodology, then move into content architecture — how to map keywords to pages, how to build topical clusters, how to prioritize content creation against search opportunity. Teams leave with a content roadmap built around real data. For sector-specific applications like SEO for restaurants, the same content-intent mapping approach applies with local search nuances layered in.

SEO for Developers Workshop

Targeted at engineering and product teams who want to understand how their technical decisions affect search visibility. Covers rendering, crawlability, structured data, Core Web Vitals, and how to evaluate SEO implications of architectural decisions. Framed in terms developers respond to — not ‘this is bad for SEO’ but ‘here is why this affects how Google processes your pages.’

What Makes a Workshop Effective

The most useful workshops work on real problems, not manufactured exercises. I ask participants to bring their actual site data, their actual search console screenshots, their actual technical questions. Working from real data is also the fastest way to surface the common SEO mistakes that are easy to miss when reviewing theory alone. The difference between a productive workshop and a training session that doesn’t land is almost always whether the material stayed abstract or got applied to something real.

Preparation matters too. I send a pre-workshop questionnaire to understand where the group is starting from, what they’re trying to solve, and what they’ve already tried. That information shapes the day’s agenda so time isn’t spent covering ground participants already know.

Workshop Length and Follow-Up

Most workshops run half a day (3–4 hours) or a full day (6–7 hours with breaks). The full-day format allows for implementation time built in — participants don’t just learn a concept, they apply it to their own work during the session and get feedback in real time.

I include a follow-up session one to two weeks after the workshop for groups that want it. By that point, participants have tried to apply what they learned and hit real obstacles. The follow-up addresses those obstacles directly, which is often where the most useful learning happens.

Connecting Workshops to Longer-Term Development

A workshop is a fast injection of targeted capability. For ongoing development, the full SEO training curriculum through my SEO instructor program or a dedicated team training engagement builds more comprehensive skills. Many people do both — a workshop to address an immediate need, then a longer program to build the full foundation. The weekend SEO course format sits between the two: more comprehensive than a single workshop, more compressed than a six-week cohort.