In an age where creators jumble fluff [plagiarized thin content], call it a “masterclass,” and expect you to pay up to $1K, you can’t jump at every link building course. Otherwise, you’d waste your precious time and well-earned money.
But what can you do, especially if you must learn link building for your business or job?
- Start with the quintessential question: do you need a link building course?
- Are there FREE alternatives?
- If you must pay for a link building course, which ones should you get [and where]?
Find answers to these questions in this article. Let’s dive in…
Do You Need a Link Building Course?
Short answer: not necessarily!
However, while you might not necessarily need to enroll in a link building course, knowing how to build backlinks is crucial. It is even more so if you plan to move your shop [business] online.
Now, there is a new question: who needs a link building course?
Who Needs a Link Building Course?
- Business owners
- Content writers/managers/marketers
- Virtual assistants
- Website designers
- Digital marketers
Business Owners
All business owners, big or small, must be interested in learning link building. Why?
The knowledge will help you [as a business owner] gain links from relevant high-authority websites and, in turn, increase traffic and visibility to your site.
However, I understand that not all business owners have time for this, especially when you can hire someone to do the job.
So, why do you need a link building course if you can outsource the task?
Why not? How else will you ascertain that the outsourced task was done correctly?
No one can handle your business like you would. Moreover, there are right and wrong ways to build backlinks. So, if you genuinely care about your business, enrolling in a link building course is a no-brainer.
Content Writers/Managers/Marketers
Quality content is vital to improving SEO. However, to truly boost your website’s authority, you must put effort into link building.
Therefore, when you take a link building course, you will:
- Know how to use effective link building strategies like guest posts and outreach to gain quality backlinks.
- Write content that reflects the knowledge you have gained.
- Gain extra leverage to get hired by content agencies or SEOs who don’t know about it, which will result in more money for you.
For instance, Payscale says a content marketer earns an average base salary of $57,743/year.
At the same time, a link builder gets $63,223/year, according to Glassdoor.
Now, combine the two jobs. Then, you can charge more for your services and make about $80,000/year.
Virtual Assistants
Just like content marketers, virtual assistants who work in digital marketing or SEO must be able to develop relevant link building strategies for their brand’s website. With your knowledge of link building, you will be able to assist your organization with link Prospecting and vetting.
Ultimately, you can improve your brand’s visibility and ranking in search engine result pages.
So what if you don’t work in digital marketing or SEO?
It would help if you still had it because knowledge and experience are an added advantage to expand your career. You can also make more money since many businesses outsource their link building to virtual assistants.
Website Designers
As a website designer, the knowledge and experience you gain from a link building course will give you ideas about what you need in your design. How?
- You will know why you must build well-structured websites with SEO-friendly responsive designs.
- Additionally, you can write codes to develop a stand-alone web page [or any linkable asset].
Finally, you need a link-building course to learn the importance of helping your client build a good website.
Digital Marketers
Businesses come to digital marketers for varied problems, from content and SEO to website design. For each of the issues, link building is crucial. In essence, learning link building will make you versatile, and this will help your client increase their website traffic and brand awareness. This way, you’ll increase the scope of your business.
Bottom line:
Understanding link building will help you create a better and more effective marketing strategy [link building strategy] to achieve your client’s goal.
Whether you’re a business owner or digital marketer, you don’t have to splash the cash yet on a link building course. Why not test the waters first?
Learn surface link building with FREE alternatives to paid courses.
Can You Learn Link Building for Free?
Yes!
Luckily, there are two ways to go about the “free” learning.
- Link building blogs
- Free link building courses
The trick is finding resourceful and reputable link building blogs and courses. Check the content/course outline to gauge if the resource will be worth your time.
Don’t have the time for vetting?
Run with the suggestions below…
5 Link Building Blogs to Follow
- SERPReach Blog
- Backlinko
- Outreach Monks
- Ahrefs
- Semrush
SERPReach Blog
If you want to improve your link building knowledge, SERPReach Blog is the perfect place. Our blog covers recent and trending topics related to backlink guides, SEO, niche-specific backlinks, and other link building topics.
The tone of our posts is predominantly beginner-friendly, making them suitable for readers at all levels of expertise.
Additionally, our blog is well-structured and seamless to use. Thanks to the navigation panel, you can easily access various topics and sections of each post.
Notably, we include pictured steps in our posts. This makes the content very practical and easy to follow.
Backlinko
Backlinko is an SEO blog focusing on actionable tips and strategies, including link building. Brian Dean (founder of Backlinko) created it to share his personal lessons over the years.
So, you can be sure of practical link building strategies that have been proven to produce results.
The content style is straightforward yet engaging with pictured steps. As a result, readers at all levels of expertise can enjoy this wealth of knowledge.
Furthermore, Backlinko’s link building blog is structured with a user-friendly navigation bar. This allows easy access to various topics.
Overall, the Backlinko blog covers trending topics on link building and provides the latest how-to guides that can inform your decision on the best link building course.
Outreach Monks
The blog is well-designed and organized. Also, you can easily navigate to various topics or sections of the content.
Like Backlinko and SERPReach, Outreach Monks cover popular and latest topics on SEO and link building suitable for all levels of readers. In addition, the tone of their article is usually beginner-friendly, with practical tips to help readers implement link building strategies.
Note: you may not get picture steps here, but the content is still easy to understand and implement.
Ahrefs
Another link building blog to look out for is Ahrefs. Ahrefs’ link building blog is known for its comprehensive and in-depth insights on SEO guides and link building strategies.
These points summarize what sets Ahrefs apart:
- They leverage their vast database to provide actionable and proven recommendations for effective link building.
- Ahrefs’ blog often includes practical, step-by-step guides and pictured steps to help users implement strategies effectively.
- The tone of their articles is friendly and engaging. The blog is well structured, with captivating topics and easy navigation for all levels of readers.
The bottom line is that with relevant information from Ahrefs’ blog, you can make informed decisions about your desired link building course.
Semrush
Semrush provides resources for learning how to build high-quality links from the best link-building experts. The blog is designed with a user-friendly structure and navigation bar to allow users to easily access their content.
Although straight to the point, the blog is not limited to link building topics. You’ll find diverse content — albeit similar topics around marketing. Either way, Semrush posts are suitable for all levels of expertise.
Furthermore, like the blogs mentioned above, Semrush’s blog includes picture steps and practical guides to their content. This makes it simple for readers at all levels to implement their link building techniques effectively.
3 Free Link Building Courses
- Scaling your backlink strategy with HubSpot
- Backlink management with Greg Gifford
- Advanced Link Building by Ahrefs
Scaling Your Backlink Strategy With HubSpot
While the name might seem advanced, this course is 100% beginner-friendly. I recommend you start with it as a link building newbie. Why?
For starters, the course is designed and compiled by Matthew Howells-Barby. He is HubSpot’s in-house SEO expert and a regular columnist on Search Engine Journal.
So, rest assured that the course content is the real deal — backed with hands-on experience.
Furthermore, the curriculum covers the basics. Specifically, you’ll learn:
- The importance of link building to SEO
- The importance of building meaningful relationships to scaling content marketing
- How to scale link building with press request alerts
- How to calculate the number of links needed to rank your content
Lastly, you’ll receive worksheets to help with your after-learning experience.
📌 My take:
While HubSpot’s “Scaling your Backlink Strategy” is beginner-friendly, it centers on PR link building. Nonetheless, it’s a good take.
The best part: you only need 27 minutes to complete the course.
Backlink Management With Greg Gifford
Greg Gifford’s Backlink Management is another beginner-friendly link building course. Unlike the former [Scaling your Backlink Strategy], it is robust.
Despite being robust, this course is relatively short. The whole curriculum will only take you 49 minutes.
Now, let’s talk about trust. Why should you consider this course?
- For starters, Backlink Management is hosted on Semrush
- Most importantly, the course creator, [Greg Gifford], is backed by 17+ years of SEO.
In a nutshell, you’re in good hands.
Moving on to the curriculum, it [the course] is split into seven parts:
- Backlink management basics
- Types of links
- Link research
- Competitive analysis [how to analyze the links pointing to a site]
- Penalty recovery
- Link building strategies
- Link building campaign
📌 My take:
Greg Gifford’s Backlink Management is a one-stop course for link building beginners. It will teach you everything — from what links to build, how to research them, and competitor analysis to formulating and implementing backlink strategies.
Advanced Link Building by Ahrefs
The clue is already in the name; this course is for advanced link building. Even at that, don’t be put off. Enroll for the course even as a beginner. Here is why:
Like all things [blogs, tutorials, guides, videos, etc.] from Ahrefs, this course is explained in plain terms. So, it doesn’t matter if you’re a newbie or an expert link builder; you’ll understand the course content regardless.
Besides, the course didn’t skip the basics of link building and only discussed the technical part. Instead, it explained the basics in detail — using an entire module.
About modules, Ahrefs’ Advanced Link Building has 5:
- Fundamentals of advanced link building
- Link prospecting
- Vetting link prospects
- Outreach
- Team building, system, and workflow
📌 My take:
Ahrefs’ Advanced link building isn’t just for experts. It is for everyone as you’ll learn all there is to know about backlinks — from how to find link prospects, vet them, and build a team.
In the end, FREE courses are limited. You might need more, especially if you plan to be a thorough link builder. In that case, you should enroll in a paid course.
But what courses can you trust? Where can you find them? What should you look out for?
Let’s start with the last question…
What Should You Look Out for in a Link Building Course?
Before splurging your hard-earned money on a link building course, ensure it contains the following [at least]:
- The relationship between backlinks and search engines
- The different types of backlinks
- How to build high-quality backlinks
- How to find link building prospects
- Vetting link prospects
- Outreach strategies
- Setting link building goals
- Tracking and analyzing links
- Link building tools
- How to correct/remove spammy links
The Relationship Between Backlinks and Search Engines
Any paid link building course, whether for beginners or advanced levels, must include the basics of backlinks. What are backlinks? Why should you build links?
More importantly, what is the relationship between links and search engines?
These questions [and more] must be answered in a link building course. Otherwise, don’t waste your time.
Besides, the basics are the introductory parts and the overview of the link building. You can’t skip all that when designing a truly comprehensive course.
Pro tip:
Look for in-depth introductions that establish how search engines use links to crawl, index, and rank content and web pages.
The Different Types of Backlinks
While the end goal of all backlinks is the same [to boost search engine rankings and sales], there are different ways [backlinks types] to get there. In other words, links are diverse in nature [like SEO]. Hence, the different types.
So, to achieve wholesome success as a link builder, the knowledge of the different types of backlinks is quintessential. And a worthwhile link building course should help you achieve that.
Furthermore, the course should explain which link type best suits different use cases. More importantly, it should include tips on combining different link types to boost your link building efforts.
Pro tip:
Don’t settle for just a list of link types. Prioritize a course that lists and explains in detail.
How to Build High-Quality Backlinks
Not all backlinks carry the same ranking power. While some are high-quality [with the most ranking power], others are spammy [low-quality links that are ignored]. A worthwhile link building course should help you understand the difference between the two.
The course should clearly list tips to identify spammy links [and link building strategies]. More importantly, it should include practical steps for building the proper [high-quality] backlinks.
Pro tip:
Look out specifically for courses that teach natural, white-hat, link building methods. And while at it, check and use the included templates.
How to Find Link Building Prospects
A crucial aspect of building quality backlinks is knowing who to partner with. These partners are called link building prospects. And they are divided into different groups.
Your desired link building course should include details about the said groups and, more importantly, discuss finding them, from sourcing to finding contact details.
Lastly, the course should teach you how to classify prospects in order of importance. This way, you’ll know which ones to approach first.
Vetting Link Prospects
There is more to link prospecting than just finding and classifying prospects in order of importance. You yet need to vet these potential partners. Are they indeed authentic websites? Is partnering with these prospects safe for your business?
Ideally, a link building course should guide you in answering the questions. Otherwise, don’t splurge the cash.
Pro tip: if you plan to own a link building agency, ensure your link building team participates in the prospects’ vetting training.
Outreach Strategies
In my experience [spanning over a decade], outreach is the most challenging part of link building. Why?
Outreach is the relationship part of the link building process that involves people. And unlike systems, metrics, and tools, humans are unpredictable. Hence, you can’t settle for any course that only brushes the surface of outreach.
Find a link building course that discusses all there is to know about outreach — from learning & mastering different approaches/strategies to combining them.
Pro tip:
Using outreach templates is brilliant, but don’t be limited to them. Learn why template A works, and B doesn’t. Then, reproduce the best practices.
Setting Link Building Goals
Ideally, link building knowledge will help you achieve SEO success. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. To prevent the latter, you must also learn goal setting.
With SMART link building goals, you will know what links to build, the number required, and the timeliness of it all. A worthwhile course will include all the lessons you need to know.
The course will help you set informed and calculated goals, starting with competitor analysis, industry survey, cost, and implementation. Ultimately, you’ll hit your target in record time and increase your business’s visibility.
Tracking and Analyzing Links
This part goes with link building goals and further reinforces why goal setting is crucial to SEO. Without it, you won’t know what to track.
And if you don’t know what to track, how will you know if your link building campaigns are successful? How will you know what to build on, remove, or add for your subsequent campaigns?
In a nutshell, these crucial details must be in your desired course. The course will guide you on the metrics to track [and how & when to track them]. Lastly, it should include instructions on how to set monitoring systems.
Link Building Tools
A link building course doesn’t necessarily need to contain tool guides. Here is why:
SEO tools like Ahrefs and Semrush have dedicated blogs, product-led content, and case studies that discuss how to use their tools. You’ll find all the necessary tips — in all forms, including texts and videos.
Nevertheless, the course should at least walk you through the tools the creator used to achieve what they are teaching. This way, you can start with their SOP. Afterward, you can branch out to other tools as you grow.
How to Correct Spammy Links
As a newbie, you will likely make some mistakes when building links. For example, you might confuse spammy links for authoritative backlinks. It happens.
But don’t fret; you can fix the issue.
In link building, there is a tool called the disavow tool [from Google Search Console]. It is Google’s own tool, and it is free to use. However, the tool is tricky. Even Google advises using it only as a last resort.
This crucial detail should ideally be included in your link building course. Also, the course should explain how to remove spammy backlinks altogether.
That said, let’s discuss where you can find courses that meet all the criteria.
Where to Find Top-Notch Link Building Courses?
- Udemy
- Ahrefs Academy
- Semrush Academy
- Moz Academy
- Hubspot Academy
Udemy
With 75k+ instructors in 75 languages, Udemy offers several courses — ranging from marketing to SEO. Whether you are a beginner or a professional, there is always a course on Udemy for you.
In essence, Udemy is the perfect place to achieve your link building learning goals.
This is why you should learn on Udemy:
- Experts teach courses.
- You have access to video courses.
- You have lifetime access to your course to learn at your own pace.
- You can access your course both on mobile and desktop.
Still not sure about a particular course?
Well, you can always do a trial since all link building courses have a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Ahrefs Academy
You can also enroll in an advanced link building course at Ahrefs Academy. This platform is unique because it offers video tutorials for all its courses.
Also, Ahrefs’ courses are for everyone—from beginners to intermediate and advanced link builders, SEO managers, and team leads.
Here’s the good part: the courses are free!
Still not convinced?
See why you should learn link building at Ahrefs Academy:
- You’ll learn how to get links on a large scale with unique link building strategies.
- You’ll learn how to identify unique link building possibilities and efficiently implement processes at scale.
Semrush Academy
Trusted by world-leading brands, this is another platform to learn link building courses from experts.
On this platform, you’ll learn everything you need to know about effective link building. The courses are suitable for all learning levels and, like Ahrefs Academy, are free.
This is why you should enroll in Semrush Academy:
- You get to be awarded with industry-recognized certifications to move your career forward.
- You’ll learn all about backlink management and link building.
- You have access to strategies you can start implementing right away.
Moz Academy
Moz Academy offers basic and advanced link building courses that can help you improve your understanding of backlinks and how to earn them. Their courses are perfect for webmasters, business owners, SEOs, and agencies, regardless of their experience level.
This is why you should learn on Moz Academy:
- You will learn why links are essential for SEO and how to evaluate links’ value.
- You get free access to the necessary tools for applications.
- You will also find tips on easy wins and link opportunities to pursue.
Overall, Moz courses are easy to access but not free.
Hubspot Academy
From quick practicals to certification courses, learn effective link building skills with Hubspot Academy. Their courses suit individuals, SEO analysts, and business owners interested in expanding their expertise.
Additionally, you get a free certification that is recognized worldwide.
Why should you learn at Hubspot Academy?
- You’ll get unlimited access to different link building courses for free.
- You can access content and video courses taught by SEO experts.
- You’ll also learn step-by-step how to implement vital link-building tactics.
Trusted Link Building Courses You Should Buy
Since I already listed the criteria to look out for, I’ll save you the long talk and just list the courses. Check and pick any of the 7 below.
- Moz Academy
- Backlink basics — $149
- SEO Essentials Certification — $595
- Local SEO Tactics — $149
- Link building by Irina Nica [on CXL] — $289 monthly subscription
- Udemy
- Complete Link Building Course by Joshua George — $94.99
- 2024 SEO Link Building by Alex Genadinik — $69.99
- The Blueprint Agency Coaching — $999
Building Links Is Only One Part of SEO
While links are vital, and you should learn how to build them, they are only a part of SEO. In other words, after completing your link building course, get ready to learn technical and on-page SEO. That is how to achieve sustainable SEO success.
