COURSE OVERVIEW
Did you know that over 100 billion searches are performed on Google every single month, and that of those searches, around 80% of people only look at the top three results? Did you know that about 60% of South Africans search online before they contact a company or purchase a product?
With more and more people gaining access to the web, and the increase in mobile users, it’s quite clear why it’s so important to ensure that your business is visible in the search results. How do you make sure that your business appears in the search results? The answer can be summed up in three words: Search Engine Optimisation. A purely theoretical approach to Search Engine Optimisation is often insufficient. A practical understanding
however is what gets your website that desired visibility. With this in mind, we’ve crafted a course that will teach you the theory, but also help you to understand the practical side, which is what makes our course different to any other course out there.
In this course, we will teach you everything from how search engines work, to how to set things up in a search-friendly manner and how to monitor and manage people coming to your website. We also cover mobile
optimisation, local search and a myriad of other vital factors that make Search Engine Optimisation so important. Our course is jam packed with, 21 lessons - each containing roughly 20 to 30 minutes of learning, further reading, multiple choice quizzes, practical activities, and additional resources. Practical assignments are submitted to a course co-ordinator, who marks them and provides feedback.
All course co-ordinators are experienced Search Engine Optimisation Experts who work on campaigns on a daily basis. They are on the cutting edge of the latest trends and requirements in the world of search.
The course aims to equip you with practical knowledge that enables you to confidently implement various SEO tactics on your website or the website you are assigned to work on.
COURSE TOPICS
LESSON 1:
INTRODUCTION
In our first lesson, we’ll give you an introduction to who we are, what SEO is, what you need to avoid, how to achieve success, and how the course is run.
LESSON 2:
PURPOSE OF SEO & HOW SEARCH ENGINES WORK
In this lesson, we will explain the purpose of SEO, and how it can help improve your business. We will also be explaining to you how search engines work, helping you gain a better understanding of what needs to be done to improve your website’s
performance.
LESSON 3:
INDEXATION & ACCESSIBILITY
This lesson helps you better understand indexation and accessibility. Both of these form part of the fundamental aspects of SEO. In order to understand these aspects better, we will be diving into some fairly hands-on and technical aspects. Read through this chapter slowly and carefully to ensure that you fully comprehend these basics.
LESSON 4:
GOOGLE ANALYTICS & SEARCH CONSOLE
In this lesson, we will help you understand how to set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console on your website. Google Analytics is one of the most important pieces of software for all SEOs, as it helps you learn important information about the visitors who arrive on your website.
LESSON 5:
GOALS & CONVERSIONS
Goals are possibly the most important metric in Google Analytics as they allow you to measure how well your site fulfils your target objectives. In this lesson, we will explain the four different types of goals you can create, and give you a brief understanding of how to set up a goal in your Google Analytics account.
PRACTICAL 1
Practical assignments are designed to test your knowledge on previous chapters. They will not only help you to gain a better understanding of the course, but will also help us make sure that you understand course content. This practical tests your understanding of indexation and accessibility as well as your understanding of Google Analytics.
LESSON 6:
THINGS YOU NEED TO AVOID
Unfortunately, there are tons of out-dated tactics on the internet that no longer work and can cause problems for your site. In this lesson, we explain to you what some of these Black Hat SEO tactics are so that you can make sure to avoid them when
implementing SEO on your site.
LESSON 7:
SEO CONTENT BASICS
Long gone are the days of simply stuffing in your keyword as many times as possible. These days, there is an art to creating content that is both user-friendly as well as optimised to further enhance your content in the eyes of the search engines.
PRACTICAL 2
This practical should take you just over an hour. It will allow you to test your practical abilities further by giving you the opportunity to write unique Meta data for various pages on a fictional website. The practical will also test your understanding of the various things that you need to avoid when performing SEO, as well as your understanding of writing content for SEO.
LESSON 8:
HEADERS
Crafting quality content goes beyond the words on the page, but also relies heavily on how your page is formatted. While users love easy to digest content, as we will have learnt in the previous lesson, search engines also need some help to determine which aspects are more important than others and header tags are the perfect way to do this.
LESSON 9:
META DATA
The first interaction that your website has with a potential visitor is the search result that is shown when they type in their search term. Your meta data is what makes up this search result so if it is not relevant or enticing enough for the user to want to know more then say goodbye to any potential sales! In this lesson, we show you how to craft beautiful meta data that leaves the user no choice but to click through!
LESSON 10:
DUPLICATE CONTENT
Duplicate content is one of the biggest downfalls when it comes to having a highly optimised site. This is one of the most important lessons within the course, and shows you how to find duplicate content as well as how to resolve it so that your site does not get held back.
LESSON 11:
KEYWORD RANKINGS
Tracking your keywords is one of a number of ways to determine how your website is performing. Is your website starting to rank for the correct keywords, with the proper pages being mapped to their relevant terms? Without setting up some form of keyword tracking, you will never truly know, and in this lesson, we show you exactly how to do that.
LESSON 12:
REDIRECTION & 404s
This is another great actionable lesson that aims to explain and help you fix the different types of redirections that can occur on your website. Furthermore it will help you to get a better understanding of what a 301 redirect is and will inform you when to use it. Another topic we will touch on here is 404 errors and how to solve them.
LESSON 13:
SITEMAPS
Every website needs to have an XML sitemap if all its pages are to be crawled by Google. Sitemaps provide a great way to introduce a new website or new content on a website. In this lesson, we will explain how XML sitemaps can benefit your site. We will also provide you with various resources you can use to help you create an XML sitemap.
PRACTICAL 3
In this practical, we will allow you to get hands-on and technical by testing your ability and understanding of the previous chapters. You will be required to create a document that shows us how you would go about fixing 404 errors and duplicate content issues. This practical should take you roughly 90 minutes to complete. After completing this practical, you will be more confident in your abilities. You should have the
knowledge and understanding necessary to be able to fix the 404 errors by using redirects on your site.
LESSON 14:
SITE SPEED
Having a lightning fast website is actually a really important aspect from both a ranking factor and a user experience perspective. In this lesson we show you how to identify speed issues with your site, and how to make it as fast as possible. Zoom!
LESSON 15:
IMAGE OPTIMISATIONVisual communication is an essential aspect of human interaction, but it also plays a vital part when you are optimising your site for the search engines. Search engines struggle to identify what an image is about, and image optimisation helps them understand the visual side to your website.
LESSON 16:
MOBILE SEO
With the number of mobile searches now surpassing the number of desktop searches, it is imperative that your website is mobile-friendly. In this lesson, we go through what it means for your site to be mobile-friendly and how this can benefit your SEO efforts.
LESSON 17:
LOCAL LISTINGS & LOCAL SEO
Each search you perform is personalised, and this is why local SEO is so important. Potential customers want results that are relevant to them and their location, so it is imperative that your website is easily
discoverable by locals. How do we go about this? Dive into the lesson to find out!
LESSON 18:
LINKS
Links – some would say the Holy Grail of SEO, while others despise them. Either way, links pointing back to your website is what the initial Google algorithm, BackRub was based upon. In this lesson, we learn how to analyse your website’s link profile and it all means.
PRACTICAL 4
At this stage, you may be feeling a little overwhelmed by all the information you have processed. That is why we feel this practical will be key in helping you to move forward. It will test your knowledge of the four previous lessons and will allow you, as well as us, to make sure you are on track with the necessary abilities to take the final exam. This 60 minute practical will ask you to analyse the link profile of a site as well as many other in-depth tasks.
LESSON 19:
GOOGLE UPDATES & PENALTIES
Oh no! Did your website get caught out by a penalty? Don’t have a clue what is going on and why your website is no longer getting any traffic? In this lesson, we explore the Google penalties, what they mean, and how to stay clear of the naughty corner.
LESSON 20:
RESOURCES
While we worked hard to make this course as practical and hands on as possible, we have only scratched the surface of SEO. Bookmark this page and regularly go through our SEO resources listed in this lesson to dig deeper and keep your SEO skills razor sharp!
FINAL EXAM
You have made it this far, now all you need to do is show that you were paying attention! Simple, right? Go on, prove yourself and get that certificate! You have earned it! May the force be with you, young SEO padawan.
COURSE DELIVERY
The course will be delivered online through our website and is available to participants around the globe. Each lesson can be completed at your own pace from their home, office or even local coffee shop. Learners are given the freedom to complete this course within their own timeframe and therefore there will be no deadlines for various assignments, however we highly recommend you aim to complete this course within 10 weeks.
In order to get going with the course you will need an internet connection and either a laptop, PC, tablet or a smartphone.
COURSE ASSESSMENT & CERTIFICATE
Each lesson will require you to submit 10 multiple choice questions worth 1 mark each, totalling 10 marks. MCQ’s are marked systematically and learners are expected to achieve at least 80% for the quiz in order to be able to move onto the next lesson. Once the quiz has been passed learners will be provided with answer feedback that explains and mistakes made.
The course also consists of 4 practical lessons, whereby a user will be required to answer in-depth more technical questions regarding Search Engine Optimization. This will allow you to test your practical knowledge and it will allow us to make sure that you are understanding the main concepts behind SEO. Practical lessons will total 50 marks each. They will be marked by one of our course co-ordinators and will be returned back to you as soon as possible. Please note this can take up to 48 working hours.
The final exam which will take users roughly 3 hours to complete, will be completely practical in nature and will require learners to use all the previous knowledge learnt. Once this exam has been completed users will be awarded a certificate of completion to say that they have completed and passed the course.
ABOUT IMOD DIGITAL & IMOD EDUCATION
iMod Education is an initiative launched by iMod Digital - a Google Accredited digital marketing
agency based in Cape Town that specialises in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). With over a decade of experience, and a long list of satisfied clients, we’ve managed to establish a strong footprint within the industry as experts. Over the years, we've worked with some major JSE listed companies as well as smaller companies, in highly competitive markets with great success.
Our list of clients includes well-known South African brands such as @Home, Hi Online, The Foschini Group, Purity, Bidvest, Joburg.co.za, Cellucity, The Pepperclub Hotel and The Gary Kirsten Cricket Academy and many more.
Through our many years of experience, we have realised that there are no practical SEO courses available for people wanting to learn how to get their hands dirty and actually optimise a website. That is why we decided to create iMod Education.
We have taken all our practical knowledge from our years of working with companies around the world, and compiled it into a useful course that not only covers the theory behind SEO, but also outlines how we do things, and how we approach SEO and achieve excellent results for our clients.
COURSE ADD-ONS
Not sold yet? You will be, after this! Included when you purchase this course is lifetime access to
Serperture.com and a free account with Alert Alfred, where you can monitor downtime for up to 10 of
your sites, all for free!
Serperture.com is a website analysis tool that allows you to run a comprehensive SEO audit on your site at the push of a button. When signing up for the course, you will be provided with a coupon that gives you access to a Personal package on Serperture.com valued at $49 per month.
PAYMENT DETAILS
Currently, we are only accepting EFT payments.
A once-off payment of R5700 incl. VAT to be paid via EFT.
Please make sure to use “IE” & your name and surname as a reference such as “IEChristieMcpherson”. Banking Details
Account Name: iMod Digital Bank: FNB
Branch Code: 201509 Account Number: 62337810205 Refunds will not be given once you have started the course. iMod Digital reserves the right to cancel the SEO course without notice.
CONTACT DETAILS
Email: christie@imodeducation.com
