071: SEO for Online Courses with Caleb Ulku

Continuing with the theme of peeking behind the scenes of my online course, today I’m sharing my recent chat with Caleb Ulku of Ulku Logistics, someone who’s been really helpful to my business on the SEO side of things. This episode went a bit long, simply because we covered so many relevant points when it comes to this important topic! "If your domain is less than 3-6 months old, it’s extremely hard to rank [high in Google search results]. As soon as you have a brand name, buy a domain and throw a website up. Get that clock ticking." -Caleb Ulku Caleb had some awesome tips for people starting out with SEO and provided a lot of insight into how SEO can really bolster your business. I hope you enjoy what you learn today! In This Episode, We Talked About: (4:18) What Caleb does for PI21D and how his service has impacted my course (6:12) Why SEO can be so tricky (7:27) The main ways you can earn the favor of Google’s search algorithm (9:00) Google’s end-goal for SEO (9:53) How Caleb has improved my site’s search rankings in spite of evolving Google algorithms (14:28) Distinguishing between SEO strategy and sites that seem to rank high with no apparent strategy (17:27) A fascinating phenomenon that happens when you start ranking on the first page of search results (18:09) An example of how SEO strategy sometimes needs a lot of tweaking (20:54) My early SEO mistakes and why Caleb’s pitch to my business really stood out (22:06) How he first got started in SEO (25:07) Split-testing as a tool for identifying SEO strategies (26:00) Caleb’s company and the types of services they offer (27:38) Where my business is at currently in terms of SEO these days (29:50) What terms like “white hat,” “gray hat, and “black hat” actually mean (31:30) Caleb’s take on link-building practices (33:49) How his company stays up-to-date with Google’s search algorithms and his thoughts on why updates are so challenging to navigate (36:57) Alternative search engines and whether it makes sense to try to rank for their algorithms (42:24) Caleb’s extensive advice for new course creators on a budget We covered a lot of ground today, so I hope you’ll drop me a line and let me know the most surprising thing you learned about SEO! Links Bonjoro Free Trial Ulku Logistics Moz Majestic Piano in 21 Days The Online Course Guy