"Choosing an SEO course: what you need to learn and how much it costs"

You’re looking for an SEO course and come across a range of options, from free video series and one-day training sessions to multi-day courses and in-company programmes. Prices range from nothing to hundreds of euros per person, and virtually every provider promises the same thing: that you’ll rank higher on Google afterwards. So the question isn’t which course is objectively the best, but which course suits your starting point, your goal and the time you can commit to it. Below, you’ll find out what a course should cover in terms of content, what types are available and how much they cost, and when outsourcing is the wiser choice.

Why the choice is harder than it seems

SEO used to be fairly predictable. You’d choose keywords, place them in the right spots in your text, build some links and climb the rankings. Those days are over – not because SEO is dead, but because the field has matured. The problem with many courses is that they’re still selling precisely that old predictability.

In 2025, Google rolled out several major core updates, including those in March and June, which led to widespread ranking shifts across virtually all sectors. Thin content, outdated tricks and manipulative link building fared poorly; sites with in-depth and well-researched content, on the other hand, performed better. On top of that, Google’s AI Overviews are now also available to Dutch users, meaning that some search queries are already answered within the search results themselves. A course that doesn’t cover any of this is teaching you the trade as it was a few years ago.

If you’d like to find out the basics of SEO before choosing a course, read our A comprehensive guide to search engine optimisation. This allows you to see straight away whether a course programme is comprehensive or has major gaps.

What a good SEO course covers

A good course doesn’t treat SEO as a checklist, but as an interplay of disciplines. These seven components should definitely be included. If any one of them is missing, you’ll know where you’ll run into problems later on.

Search intent and semantic SEO

The searcher’s intent is key. Google places the best answer at the top, not the page with the most keyword repetitions. So you learn to think about the type of content that suits a particular search query: an informative article, a comparison, a step-by-step guide or a product page each have their own logic.

Furthermore, the semantic structure of a page carries more weight than it used to. Search engines look at context, relevance and coherence, not just isolated keywords. Forced use of keywords is counterproductive, whereas a logically structured article works well.

Technical SEO

Core Web Vitals, page load speed, mobile-first indexing, crawlability and structured data aren’t exactly exciting topics, but they do form the foundation. A slow mobile site will cost you rankings. A messy internal linking structure means Google can’t find your most valuable pages properly. Missing structured data costs you rich results in the search results. A course that rushes through all this in twenty minutes isn’t up to scratch.

Content and E-E-A-T

Google’s quality guidelines revolve around E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. The first of these in particular – demonstrable practical experience – has become increasingly important in recent years. Content produced entirely by an AI model without any human input lacks precisely that element.

A good course teaches you how to create content that works for both readers and search engines: in-depth, with sources, featuring a recognisable author and offering concrete insights. That’s quite different from simply cramming a page full of words.

Keyword research

Keyword research may seem basic, but this is where the difference between amateur and professional work lies. Broad, popular search terms face so much competition that ranking for them without a strong domain is almost impossible. Longer, more specific search terms face less competition and are more likely to lead to an enquiry or an order. So make sure that a course goes beyond search volume alone and also covers long-tail search terms, topic clusters and competition per search term.

AI and GEO

This is the area that most courses either do not cover at all or cover only very briefly. Generative Engine Optimisation is about visibility in AI-driven search systems such as AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity. Whereas traditional SEO focuses on ranking entire pages, these systems compile an answer from individual fragments of information, whilst citing their sources.

What a course participant should learn in this regard can be summarised succinctly as follows: write clear, directly quotable answers to specific questions, keep your structured data organised, and build a recognisable source that a model can rely on. You can find more in-depth information in our article on GEO and visibility in AI responses.

Don’t be misled by buzzwords on this topic. A course that claims you need an llms.txt file to appear in AI-generated results is out of date with the latest documentation: Google has confirmed in its own guidance on optimising for AI features that Google Search does not use llms.txt and that a separate Markdown layer for AI is not required. We therefore do not recommend using this file.

Link building

Links from authoritative, relevant domains remain an important ranking factor. At the same time, Google has become increasingly adept at identifying bought and exchanged links. Buying links on a massive scale is more likely to cause problems than to improve your rankings. A course that explores this in more detail and teaches you how to earn links through content, partnerships and digital PR is well worth taking. A course that recommends a link package, however, is not.

Measuring and analysing

SEO without measurement is like working in the dark. Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4 form the basis, but setting them up is the easy part. It’s all about interpretation: which pages generate enquiries, where do visitors drop off, which search terms bring high-quality traffic and which are just noise. So make sure to ask explicitly whether the course uses real data. If you’d like to explore this area further yourself, our A comprehensive guide to Google Analytics 4.

What types of courses are available and how much they cost

The range of courses on offer in the Netherlands can be divided into a few distinct categories. They differ in terms of depth, the level of support provided and, significantly, price, so it’s worth weighing up the type of course and your budget at the same time.

Free self-study course. Platforms such as Soofos offer free SEO courses that teach you the basics: keyword research, on-page optimisation and the principles of link building. Internationally, the Semrush Academy and HubSpot Academy are well-known free options, whilst Semrush’s material is updated regularly. Cost: nothing, apart from your time. The downside is that you need to be self-disciplined, there is no guidance, and without prior knowledge it is difficult to judge whether the material is still up to date.

Paid online courses. Paid online courses start at around €99 and go up to around €400 for comprehensive programmes. Aggregator platforms such as Springest list a large proportion of these courses, along with reviews from previous participants. In return, you generally get a more structured course, practical assignments and, in some cases, a certificate.

In a classroom or live online. If you want a trainer who answers your questions straight away, opt for a live session, either on-site or via video call. These training sessions usually last from half a day to a full day and cost between €300 and €600 per person. Their interactive nature makes them ideal if you want to adapt quickly and receive feedback on your own website.

A multi-day training course run by an institute. Providers such as NTI and NHA offer broader, modular programmes that run for several months and lead to a certificate. Fees vary considerably between providers. This is suitable for those aiming for a role as an SEO specialist, although it should be noted that broad curricula can sometimes lag behind the latest developments.

In-house and bespoke coaching. For teams, in-house training is often the most effective option: the material is tailored to the sector, the level of content and the tools the team already uses. Expect to pay €400 per person and upwards, depending on group size and the extent of customisation. Providers such as NCOI and specialist agencies offer this service. The major advantage is that you learn on your own website, which eliminates the need to adapt what you’ve learnt to real-world practice.

For each type of course, also consider the content covered. A course that costs €400 but says nothing about AI Overviews, structured data or E-E-A-T is missing a crucial part of current practice. That’s a more costly mistake than a free course that overlooks the same topics.

What is an SEO certificate worth?

Honest answer: as a piece of paper, not much; as a signal, sometimes a little. SEO certificates do not have officially recognised status in the Netherlands, as there is no body that accredits the profession. They do, however, serve as a conversation starter with clients or employers and demonstrate that you have invested in your own professional development. The certificates from the Semrush Academy and Google are the best known in the sector and are therefore the most readily recognised.

So don’t choose a course just for the certificate. Choose it for what you’ll learn, and treat the certificate as a bonus.

Who would benefit from this course?

Entrepreneurs who want to take control of their online visibility, marketers looking to brush up on their knowledge, copywriters who want to learn to write with search intent in mind, and developers who want to better understand the technical side will all benefit from it. It’s also useful if you’re a client of an agency: you’ll write better briefings, read reports with greater insight and ask more incisive questions.

To be fair, in a competitive market, a course is rarely enough on its own to achieve significant results. This requires consistent implementation, up-to-date tools and a strategy that adapts to changes in algorithms.

Take a course or outsource it?

This is the question most entrepreneurs end up asking, and the answer depends mainly on how much time you have. Doing your own SEO takes an average of 8 to 15 hours a week on research, content, technical work and analysis. On top of that, there’s a learning curve where results only become visible after several months, as the first few months are spent learning what you don’t yet know. If you calculate those hours at your own rate, the comparison with an external budget quickly becomes clear.

Outsourcing buys you speed, consistency and experience, but it doesn’t absolve you of your responsibility. Google assesses the domain that appears in the search results, not the agency behind it. If your site takes a hit following a dubious link-building campaign, that’s your problem, not your supplier’s. That’s precisely why a basic understanding is still useful even if you outsource the work entirely: you need to be able to assess what’s happening on your behalf, and why. In Outsourcing SEO and choosing the right agency You’ll find out what questions to ask a provider and which answers are a reason to walk away.

In practice, many companies opt for a hybrid model: gaining an understanding of the strategy themselves through a course or coaching, whilst leaving the implementation to specialists. That is also the approach we recommend, and the reason why, alongside full outsourcing, SEO guidance an offer where you learn on your own website.

What to look out for

Not every course is worth the money. These are signs that you should look elsewhere:

• A guarantee of the number 1 spot on Google. There’s no such thing; nobody has access to the algorithm.
• An emphasis on outdated techniques such as keyword stuffing, exact-match anchor text or mass link building.
• Not a word about AI in the search results and how that affects traffic.
• Material that is several years old and has not been updated. Ask explicitly when the material was last revised.
• It’s all theory. Without practising on a real website, you won’t retain much.

If you want to check for yourself whether a teacher is up to date, compare their statements with the Google Search Central documentation. That is the only authoritative source that explains how Google assesses content quality.

Five questions to ask yourself before you book

1. What is my starting point? An advanced course is pointless if you haven’t grasped the basics, and a basic course is a waste of money if you already know how Search Console works.
2. What do I want to achieve? Optimising your own website, making a career change or bringing your team up to speed requires three different courses, varying in depth and duration.
3. When was the material updated? Ask the question directly and don’t accept a vague answer. Content that says nothing about AI in search results is out of date.
4. Is there space to practise? You learn SEO by doing it, preferably on a real website with real data.
5. Is this approach suitable for my sector? SEO for an online shop works differently from that for a local service provider or a B2B organisation with a long sales cycle.

If those five answers are clear, the decision is usually made within ten minutes. A course that’s honest about what no longer works, that takes current trends into account and that you can put into practice on your own website tomorrow will pay for itself. A course that you tick off just for the sake of it won’t.