155: The 4 Simple Steps for Succeeding with SEO for Your Online Course (featuring Matthew Woodward)

What’s an acronym that strikes fear in the heart of just about anyone with an online presence? If you guessed SEO, you were right - and I definitely count myself among the many who are intimidated by the topic of search engine optimization! But today’s guest is Matthew Woodward, and he’s here to demystify SEO and share how online course creators can make smart SEO choices: no matter what stage of the online course business journey they are on. I learned a lot during our conversation, and I think you will, too! “If you build something that humans love, Google will usually love it as well.” - Matthew Woodward In This Episode, We Talked About: (0:42) Thoughts on busyness and what I’ve been working on (6:43) An update from David and why I don’t currently teach kids (8:30) Getting lighting audits (11:22) Where I’m at with platform decisions (12:25) David’s latest suggestion for my Facebook ads (16:44) The deeper meaning of Next Level Courses (20:32) Why I was interested in today’s guest pitch (22:03) Introducing Matthew and our topic of the day (24:15) How a new course creator should approach SEO (27:36) Different ways to handle the pros and cons of LearnDash (31:05) Should I use multiple subdomains? (33:46) Why WordPress is still the gold standard (35:34) Matthew’s recommended funnel resources for new course creators (38:52) How he handles his launches and similarities with my own funnel (41:21) Building good SEO - how complicated is it really? (43:47) What’s behind the smoke and mirrors of SEO strategy (45:08) Why load-time matters (48:12) Ranking for specific keywords (52:54) Tailoring content for SEO (54:59) What about other search engines besides Google? (58:04) The importance of link-building (1:02:00) A risk of incautious link-building (1:04:25) What do SEO agencies do? (1:07:27) Is Matthew against running ads? (1:08:43) How SEO evolves over time (1:12:31) Matthew’s course and who it’s for (1:15:00) His calls-to-action and scarcity (1:16:26) Thoughts on the power of observation (1:18:13) How get in touch with Matthew personally (1:19:19) David and I discuss takeaways from today’s interview (1:20:27) Is SEO addictive? (1:22:19) Developing quality content for SEO (1:24:47) Affiliates, Reddit, and top-ranking results for Piano In 21 Days (1:30:31) Will I ever do SEO fully in-house? (1:33:11) Our ever-evolving catchphrase (1:34:04) A shoutout for one of my youngest Next Level Courses members (1:36:14) Wrapping up That’s all for now, folks! See you on the next episode of The Online Course Show.   Links Offers and Tools: Bonjoro Free Trial ClickFunnels Free Trial Win of the Week Guest Links: Matthew’s website 90-Day SEO 6x Ways to Increase Website Speed How to Write Killer Website Content That Attracts People Podcast-Jacking for Links, Traffic, and Authority Link-Building Services: What You REALLY Need to Know Books and Resources: Make Time The Miracle Morning BuddyBoss LearnDash Master Fingerstyle Guitar Perfmatters Product Launch Formula Thrive Architect ULKU Logistics Jacques’ Courses: The Online Course Accelerator Next Level Courses Piano in 21 Days David’s Courses: Wellness Program Expert