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Online SEO Courses: On Demand SEO Classes from the Internet Marketing Clinic
Every recorded SEO and digital marketing class Beth Guide has taught since 2022, in one place. Pick a topic, watch the session and use the written recap to make the change on your own website.
Galleria 713-703-3030 | Kingwood 281-852-8253
HOW THIS LIBRARY WORKS
SEO training on demand for Houston business owners
Since March 2020 every Internet Marketing Clinic class has been recorded. This page collects them by year so you can learn SEO on your own schedule instead of waiting for the next live session. Each class links to a page with the full video and a written summary of what was covered.
The live clinic is run by Beth Guide, who has taught SEO since 2003 for the SBA, the University of Houston SBDC, Lone Star College and HCC. The classes are built for business owners, not programmers, and the recordings keep the live questions from the room, which are often the most useful part.
Older classes stay up on purpose. The basics of titles, headings, keywords and site structure have not changed much in 20 years, and seeing how Beth’s advice on AI shifted between 2023 and 2026 is a useful lesson in itself about separating lasting rules from passing tactics.
Prefer to be in the room? See the Houston SEO class schedule for upcoming live and Zoom sessions, or listen on the Internet Marketing Clinic podcast.
THE CLASS LIBRARY
Recorded SEO and digital marketing classes by year
2026 classes
2025 classes
- October 2025: AI That Helps, Not Hurts: ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini for SEO
- June 2025: Google Hacks for 2025
- May 2025: Leveraging AI for Digital Marketing, Small Business Owners Edition
- April 2025: Leveraging AI for Web Development and SEO
- March 2025: Google Analytics (GA4) How To Guide for Beginners
- Looking Ahead to SEO in 2025
- SEO BootCamp: Getting Back to Basics
- February 2025: All About Keywords
2024 classes
2023 classes
- October 2023: Effective Strategies for Holiday Marketing
- September 2023: Auditing Website Basics
- July 2023: The Right Tools for the Job, WordPress for Business Websites
- June 2023: Building a Better Blog
- May 2023: SEO Secrets
- March 2023: ChatGPT and Your Website
- February 2023: Marketing in an AI World
- January 2023: Upping Your Content Game
WHERE TO START
Which on demand SEO class should you watch first?
If you are new to SEO, start with the basics. Back to Basics and the SEO BootCamp explain how Google reads a page, then All About Keywords shows how to choose the words your customers actually type. The SEO glossary episode is a good companion when a term in class is unfamiliar.
If your site already exists, watch Auditing Website Basics and How to Read an SEO Report. Together they show you how to find what is broken and how to judge any report a vendor sends you, including ours.
If you care about AI search, go straight to the 2025 and 2026 classes. Beth’s position, repeated in nearly every one of them, is that technical SEO and clean site structure matter more in the AI era, not less, because AI engines can only cite what they can read and understand. The deeper version of that lesson is on our AI SEO services page.
Whichever you pick, keep your website open in another tab. The classes work best when you pause and fix your own title tag, heading or Google Business Profile category as Beth explains it.
THE CASE FOR VERTICAL WEB ON SEO TRAINING
Classes taught by the team that does the work
WHEN TO GET HELP
Learn it yourself or hire it out?
Plenty of owners take these classes and handle their own Google Business Profile, blog and basic page updates for years. That is a good outcome, and we are glad when it happens.
The point to bring in help is usually time or risk: a site migration where rankings are on the line, a technical problem that blocks indexing, or a competitive market where you need more content and links each month than you can produce. When that happens, our Houston SEO team does the same work you saw in class, and our SEO pricing plans are published so you can see the cost before you call.
Want the reading version? The Vertical Web blog carries class recaps, monthly schedules and articles on the same topics.
What you will learn
What you will learn in these free online SEO courses
Taken together, the recorded classes work like a complete SEO course for a business owner. Each one runs about as long as a live clinic session, so plan an hour or two per class with your website open in another tab.
Keyword research. How to find the words your customers type into a search engine, judge the volume and competition, and decide which page each keyword belongs on.
On page SEO. Title tags, headings, meta descriptions, internal links and content that answers the search. This is where most beginners see their first results.
Technical SEO. Crawling, indexing, speed and site structure, with free tools and Google Search Console shown on screen. Beth also compares WordPress SEO plugins in our class on Rank Math vs Yoast.
Local SEO. Google Business Profile categories, reviews, citations and the map pack, the part of search engine optimization that brings in calls for most local businesses.
Link building and content. How to earn links from real sites, why bought links hurt, and how to write articles that bring in traffic. Paid tools such as Semrush and Ahrefs come up in class, but every lesson can be done with free tools first.
New to the vocabulary? Keep the SEO glossary episode open while you watch.
Picking the right course
How to choose an SEO course: free classes, paid courses and certificates
There are three kinds of online SEO courses. Free classes like ours teach you to do the work on your own site. Paid courses on the big learning platforms often include a certificate of completion and a structured specialization. Tool vendor academies teach SEO through their own software.
If you need a certificate for a job application or a resume, a paid course is the better fit. If you own or run a business and need more calls from Google, a certificate does nothing for you. What matters is whether the instructor has real experience ranking sites, whether the course shows real examples, and whether the information is current.
That last point matters more every year. SEO changes, especially around AI search. Check the date on any course before you spend hours on it. Our library shows the date of every class, and when an older class and a newer one disagree, follow the newer one.
Ask one more question of any SEO course: who teaches it, and do they still do the work? Beth Guide has taught SEO since 2003 and runs an agency that does it for clients every day. The lessons in class are the same ones our team uses on paying projects.
Beginners and careers
Can I learn SEO online, and is it difficult to study SEO?
Yes, you can learn SEO online, and no, it is not as hard as it looks. The basics take a few classes to understand and a few months of practice to get comfortable with. Most of the skill is knowing what to check and having the patience to check it every month.
The fastest way to build knowledge is a real project. Use your own business website, or a site for a friend or a nonprofit. Change a title tag, watch Search Console, and see what happens. That kind of hands-on experience teaches more than any certificate.
If you want to start a career in SEO, the same advice applies. Build a small portfolio of sites you have improved, learn the main tools and practice explaining your work in plain English. Employers and clients care about results you can show. The small business SEO survival guide is a good reading companion to the videos.
Online or in person
Online SEO courses or live SEO classes in Houston: which fits you?
Recorded classes are best when you want to learn on your own schedule or replay a step until you get it. Live SEO classes in Houston are best when you want to ask about your own website. The two work well together: watch the recording first, then bring your questions to the next session on the Internet Marketing Clinic schedule.
Do you need a separate course for AI search? No. The AI classes from 2025 and 2026 build on the same foundation as everything else here: clear content, clean structure and a site that search engines and AI engines can read. Learn the basics first and the AI material will make far more sense.
And if you would rather have SEO support on demand than do it yourself, our in-house team handles the work. You can see our SEO pricing plans before you call.
QUESTIONS
On demand SEO class questions
Yes. Every recorded Internet Marketing Clinic session in this library is free to watch. Each class page has the video, a written summary and links to the tools Beth Guide shows on screen.
Live classes run through partners including the Houston West Chamber of Commerce, HCC with SCORE, the University of Houston SBDC and Lone Star College, and most are also offered on Zoom. The Internet Marketing Clinic page lists the next sessions.
Start with Back to Basics and the SEO BootCamp, then All About Keywords, Auditing Website Basics and the GA4 guide. After that, the AI search classes from 2025 and 2026 make far more sense.
The fundamentals hold up: titles, headings, keywords, content and site structure. Tactics change faster, especially around AI. When an older class and a newer one disagree, follow the newer one, and the topic list shows the date of each session.
Yes. Bring them to the next live clinic, where questions drive the session, or email info@verticalweb.com and our team will point you in the right direction.
Yes. The Internet Marketing Clinic podcast carries the audio of the sessions, so you can listen in the car and come back to the video when you need to see the screen.
Yes. Every recorded Internet Marketing Clinic class on this page is free. Together they cover keyword research, on page SEO, technical SEO, local SEO, link building, content and AI search.
Pick a course taught by someone who still ranks sites, check that the material is current, and decide whether you need a certificate or just the skills. Business owners usually need the skills.
The library is a set of free recorded classes for business owners, built for practical results rather than a credential. If you need a certificate, a paid course platform is the better choice.
Not for most people. The fundamentals are straightforward. The hard part is doing the work consistently and reading your own data, which is why the classes show every step on real websites.
Ready to put a class into practice?
Request a free website audit and we will show you which lessons matter most for your site right now.
Galleria 713-703-3030 | Kingwood 281-852-8253 | info@verticalweb.com