Q: I remember hearing you on Buying Online Business podcast and really like what you had to say about website audits.
Does this course go into audits?
Also, not to seem rude but according to Ahrefs, VUDU Marketing only ranks on page one for the brand name and My SEO Courses best ranking is on page 4. What's up with the low rankings on your own assets? Am I missing something?
You have testimonials from a company called Door to Door but they don't rank on page one for anything and their website redirects into some funky verification thing. Another one is B2Linked where they rank on page one for their brand name and their founders name but nothing else. I'm assuming you consulted with them but they didn't implement? Or am I missing something?
I do see you have testimonials from Neil Patel and Nomadic Matt which are awesome but I'm seeing inconsistencies.
Like I said, I heard you on a podcast and was considering your course but now that I'm digging further I have more concerns than I had before.
I do audits and strategies, but implementation and results are up to the individual businesses. I don’t do link building or ongoing fulfillment work.
As for my own biz, I found early on that in the SEO space it’s better to build a solid reputation and many sources of leads/referrals, as opposed to trying to rank for everything. Some spaces are like that, and SEOs mostly fall in the “cobbler’s children have no shoes” bucket :)
The course covers audits in part, but I don’t walk through my full audit process in it (that could probably be a full course in its own right). But Neil Patel did a huge write up on my audit process here: https://www.quicksprout.com/seo-audit/
Totally agree with this, we work in the SEO service space providing both SAAS and fulfilment services. The huge amount of work to rank for core keywords in the SEO niche does add up for the business, ranking locally might ( and only might) if your location is big enough.
IMHO - if you restrict your SEO supplier selection only to those that rank nationally for core keywords be prepared to pay high prices for a service that is not necessarily the best value.
If you read the reviews in which he replies rudely, you will see that the entire thing looks like some affiliate sales tactic for semrush. I'm probably gonna buy it and then refund after i rip everything off
Q: Thank you
I have bought many good SEO course on Udemy
What makes special your course when comparing with any ...
I've only gone through a couple on Udemy, and I wasn't impressed. But I'm sure your mileage may vary.
But I've worked with hundreds of major companies on the SEO front, including many of the Fortune 100 (Amazon, Microsoft, etc.), and I'm the wizard behind the curtain that even experts like Neil Patel go to for SEO help. And this course distills my knowledge and experience into material anyone can understand.
If you decide to go for it, let me know what you think :)
I can't understand the negativity towards this, I get that SEO can be a challenge and has a patchy reputation due to an influx of charlatans but it's a very valid and valuable marketing technique, the key is to do it properly and also to not just do parts of it. Sam's credibility is high, On recommendation fro m Neil Patel!! It doesn't get much better than that. Try the course and implement, if it doesn't work for you after having give it a fair go, then get help in the s Discord group and feedback here and get your Appsumo refund simple. I have studied and performed SEO for over 6 years now and during that time consumed a vast amount of content and spent several thousands in doing so. I have ranked lawyers in major cities, Ecommerce sites, even gambling websites and more, it is work but less work than you think with the right guide. SEO Tools are essential they save you time and make the task possible, otherwise you are blind, many big names in SEO like SEMrush but it's undeniably expensive for smaller businesses, or if you feel that the chance of making a return is small. Other great tools are available however like LocalAdworks 97 bucks a year, even free tools if you have the time, to succeed you do need to follow a valid plan and implement it properly, knowledge without action will not get results. I'd happily pay Sam for an advanced SEO course and for access to his expertise because I know if the information is good and I implemen t it well I will make a return. GLWS.
Q: I’m a lifelong SEO learner and try to take every course I can – both the upvote ratio of the only review, the ...
questions/comments and the aggressive way you’re responding to folks is really putting me off though. Can’t take things personally man!
Prove people wrong - do you have any other courses, resources or case studies that might entice sumolings to reconsider this one?
Yeah, that’s fair. The almost instant negativity from people who I can see in the system completed 0% of the course feels shady to me, and pissed me off. I’ve had a ton of folks already go through the course, and ALL the feedback from actual students who have genuinely completed ANY of the course has been 100% positive.
As for me, I’ve spent 20 years in my industry building a reputation of excellence. It’s why I get to work with the sort of clients I do, and why my business is built on referrals. I’ve built trust.
And frankly, with a 60 day refund window, what does anyone have to lose? Try it, and if it’s not for you, get your money back...but if that’s the case, consider providing constructive feedback, and not just rudely bashing it.
Q: What's up fellow Sumolings?
My name is Sam McRoberts, and I’m the creator of SEO Simplified. I love traveling (currently locked down in Croatia due to the virus craziness), solving puzzles, and of course who doesn’t love tacos ;)
Aside from puzzle solving (of which SEO is just one type), I really love teaching. I’m told I have a knack for taking complex things and explaining them simply. I’ve been doing SEO in some way, shape or form for over 20 years now, and like most folks in the SEO industry, I’m largely self-taught. Now the student becomes the teacher.
But enough about me!
After going through a few different SEO courses to see what the playing field looked like, I felt like nobody had done a good enough job teaching SEO from first principles.
There were great tactical courses. Great advanced courses. And many not-so-great beginner courses. But I couldn’t find any courses built to take learners logically through SEO from start to finish, building each new piece of knowledge on top of a strong foundation.
Why does that matter?
Because if you don’t understand, fundamentally, what SEO is and how search engines operate, you’ll end up falling into the trap of Tactics (many of which don’t work, don’t work well, or are risky). Tactics are tools, not a road map or strategy. And if you don’t really understand the tools you’re using, your business is at risk.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know what tactics are out there (and I cover a lot of those in this course), but what I really wanted to focus on was helping folks to really see the overarching picture of SEO, and how you use that as part of a holistic online strategy.
Strategy >Tactics.
This course is NOT for SEO experts. Hell, it’s probably not even a great fit for intermediate practitioners (though I still think you’d learn a few things).
I built this course to take someone from beginner to an intermediate level.
I also took a different approach to this course: - I treat you like an adult who actually wants to learn. No quizzes, no enforced lecture order, no hand-holding. Alas, we still can’t learn things like Neo in The Matrix ;) - No talking heads in the training videos; I want you focused on the course material, not my ugly mug. - The videos are SHORT (almost all <10 minutes each). Why? Because human attention span falls off right around the 10-minute mark, and I wanted these to be easily consumable. - Aside from the videos, a huge part of this course is the careful curation of outside resources (blog posts, YouTube videos, etc.) to take you deeper into each piece. I teach the first principles, and then point you to the right (free) resources to go in-depth.
And yes, THERE IS a private Discord group for all course students, so you can connect, ask questions, find SEO jobs, etc. I am available by email as well if there’s something you need help with. YOU’RE NOT ALONE!
And lastly, if you’re still unsure, remember you have 60 days to decide on a refund. Win-win!
I haven't gone through Moz's course, so I couldn't speak to that. All SEO courses will have some topical overlap, but in my experience they differ across a few points. Some are more tactical, others more strategic. Some go deep but narrow, others shallow and broad. And some tow the party line, while others poke at the edges.
I designed this course for people who need to understand SEO from first principles. It covers all the most important tactics, but focuses heavily on strategy. It also delves into things like black hat SEO (which I'd bet Moz isn't going to touch with a 10 foot pole), and things like how to hire a great SEO, how to find an SEO agency that doesn't suck, etc. It's worth it, promise :)
Curious how you can make that statement? Seeing as it would take 8+ hours to actually go through the course, and you haven’t had time to do so (and Teachable shows progress stats, FYI), seems like a rather rude and sweeping generalization.
I really wish I could, but I’m the sole breadwinner and have a wife and kid to support. Like many service business owners, lead volume is down due to Covid, so this is part of how I’m helping to pay the bills :/ But this is the biggest discount I’ve offered, and I’ll never make the price lower than this, so it really is a good deal!
Q: Hi,
1) Is this course helpful to intermediate to advanced SEO people?
2) I am more interesting in automation of SEO tasks and data reporting. Do you provide helpful templates for that? In fact, how many templates, xls are included on this course?
1. If you feel you’re intermediate bordering on advanced, this course probably isn’t right for you. This is designed to take someone from total noob to an intermediate level.
2. There are half a dozen templates and spreadsheets sprinkled throughout the course, and a ton of links out to additional resources (blogs, gdocs, sheets, tools, etc.)
Sorry, forgot your last Q. Nothing in here on automating tasks, other than like using Screaming Frog with APIs, and automated monitoring with tools like LittleWarden and ContentKing.
Q: As English is not my main language, are your videos supported with English transcript/subtitle ?
Q: I remember hearing you on Buying Online Business podcast and really like what you had to say about website audits.
Does this course go into audits?
Also, not to seem rude but according to Ahrefs, VUDU Marketing only ranks on page one for the brand name and My SEO Courses best ranking is on page 4. What's up with the low rankings on your own assets? Am I missing something?
You have testimonials from a company called Door to Door but they don't rank on page one for anything and their website redirects into some funky verification thing. Another one is B2Linked where they rank on page one for their brand name and their founders name but nothing else. I'm assuming you consulted with them but they didn't implement? Or am I missing something?
I do see you have testimonials from Neil Patel and Nomadic Matt which are awesome but I'm seeing inconsistencies.
Like I said, I heard you on a podcast and was considering your course but now that I'm digging further I have more concerns than I had before.
I look forward to your answers.
Cheers
Share SEO Simplified
I do audits and strategies, but implementation and results are up to the individual businesses. I don’t do link building or ongoing fulfillment work.
As for my own biz, I found early on that in the SEO space it’s better to build a solid reputation and many sources of leads/referrals, as opposed to trying to rank for everything. Some spaces are like that, and SEOs mostly fall in the “cobbler’s children have no shoes” bucket :)
The course covers audits in part, but I don’t walk through my full audit process in it (that could probably be a full course in its own right). But Neil Patel did a huge write up on my audit process here: https://www.quicksprout.com/seo-audit/
Totally agree with this, we work in the SEO service space providing both SAAS and fulfilment services. The huge amount of work to rank for core keywords in the SEO niche does add up for the business, ranking locally might ( and only might) if your location is big enough.
IMHO - if you restrict your SEO supplier selection only to those that rank nationally for core keywords be prepared to pay high prices for a service that is not necessarily the best value.
Omg.. Typo I should have typed "the huge amount of work to rank for core keywords in the SEO niche does NOT add up for businesses"!!!
Leave it I'm using a small tablet,first thing in the morning before even a drop of coffee!
Q: Hey Sam, is this a full course or is it only a part of something bigger?
Will there be any upsells?
Share SEO Simplified
Hi Ejdrien, it's a full course, no upsells at all. I have other courses, but they are all shorter and composed of pieces of this main course.
If you read the reviews in which he replies rudely, you will see that the entire thing looks like some affiliate sales tactic for semrush. I'm probably gonna buy it and then refund after i rip everything off
Q: Thank you I have bought many good SEO course on Udemy What makes special your course when comparing with any ...
good course on Udemy available at 10$?
Share SEO Simplified
I've only gone through a couple on Udemy, and I wasn't impressed. But I'm sure your mileage may vary.
But I've worked with hundreds of major companies on the SEO front, including many of the Fortune 100 (Amazon, Microsoft, etc.), and I'm the wizard behind the curtain that even experts like Neil Patel go to for SEO help. And this course distills my knowledge and experience into material anyone can understand.
If you decide to go for it, let me know what you think :)
I can't understand the negativity towards this, I get that SEO can be a challenge and has a patchy reputation due to an influx of charlatans but it's a very valid and valuable marketing technique, the key is to do it properly and also to not just do parts of it.
Sam's credibility is high, On recommendation fro m Neil Patel!! It doesn't get much better than that.
Try the course and implement, if it doesn't work for you after having give it a fair go, then get help in the s
Discord group and feedback here and get your Appsumo refund simple.
I have studied and performed SEO for over 6 years now and during that time consumed a vast amount of content and spent several thousands in doing so. I have ranked lawyers in major cities, Ecommerce sites, even gambling websites and more, it is work but less work than you think with the right guide.
SEO Tools are essential they save you time and make the task possible, otherwise you are blind, many big names in SEO like SEMrush but it's undeniably expensive for smaller businesses, or if you feel that the chance of making a return is small. Other great tools are available however like LocalAdworks 97 bucks a year, even free tools if you have the time, to succeed you do need to follow a valid plan and implement it properly, knowledge without action will not get results.
I'd happily pay Sam for an advanced SEO course and for access to his expertise because I know if the information is good and I implemen t it well I will make a return.
GLWS.
Q: I’m a lifelong SEO learner and try to take every course I can – both the upvote ratio of the only review, the ...
questions/comments and the aggressive way you’re responding to folks is really putting me off though. Can’t take things personally man!
Prove people wrong - do you have any other courses, resources or case studies that might entice sumolings to reconsider this one?
Share SEO Simplified
Yeah, that’s fair. The almost instant negativity from people who I can see in the system completed 0% of the course feels shady to me, and pissed me off. I’ve had a ton of folks already go through the course, and ALL the feedback from actual students who have genuinely completed ANY of the course has been 100% positive.
As for me, I’ve spent 20 years in my industry building a reputation of excellence. It’s why I get to work with the sort of clients I do, and why my business is built on referrals. I’ve built trust.
And frankly, with a 60 day refund window, what does anyone have to lose? Try it, and if it’s not for you, get your money back...but if that’s the case, consider providing constructive feedback, and not just rudely bashing it.
Q: What's up fellow Sumolings?
My name is Sam McRoberts, and I’m the creator of SEO Simplified. I love traveling (currently locked down in Croatia due to the virus craziness), solving puzzles, and of course who doesn’t love tacos ;)
Aside from puzzle solving (of which SEO is just one type), I really love teaching. I’m told I have a knack for taking complex things and explaining them simply. I’ve been doing SEO in some way, shape or form for over 20 years now, and like most folks in the SEO industry, I’m largely self-taught. Now the student becomes the teacher.
But enough about me!
After going through a few different SEO courses to see what the playing field looked like, I felt like nobody had done a good enough job teaching SEO from first principles.
There were great tactical courses. Great advanced courses. And many not-so-great beginner courses. But I couldn’t find any courses built to take learners logically through SEO from start to finish, building each new piece of knowledge on top of a strong foundation.
Why does that matter?
Because if you don’t understand, fundamentally, what SEO is and how search engines operate, you’ll end up falling into the trap of Tactics (many of which don’t work, don’t work well, or are risky). Tactics are tools, not a road map or strategy. And if you don’t really understand the tools you’re using, your business is at risk.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know what tactics are out there (and I cover a lot of those in this course), but what I really wanted to focus on was helping folks to really see the overarching picture of SEO, and how you use that as part of a holistic online strategy.
Strategy >Tactics.
This course is NOT for SEO experts. Hell, it’s probably not even a great fit for intermediate practitioners (though I still think you’d learn a few things).
I built this course to take someone from beginner to an intermediate level.
I also took a different approach to this course:
- I treat you like an adult who actually wants to learn. No quizzes, no enforced lecture order, no hand-holding. Alas, we still can’t learn things like Neo in The Matrix ;)
- No talking heads in the training videos; I want you focused on the course material, not my ugly mug.
- The videos are SHORT (almost all <10 minutes each). Why? Because human attention span falls off right around the 10-minute mark, and I wanted these to be easily consumable.
- Aside from the videos, a huge part of this course is the careful curation of outside resources (blog posts, YouTube videos, etc.) to take you deeper into each piece. I teach the first principles, and then point you to the right (free) resources to go in-depth.
And yes, THERE IS a private Discord group for all course students, so you can connect, ask questions, find SEO jobs, etc. I am available by email as well if there’s something you need help with. YOU’RE NOT ALONE!
And lastly, if you’re still unsure, remember you have 60 days to decide on a refund. Win-win!
Share SEO Simplified
Q: Hey, What's the differences with all the courses of MoZ Academy (which is free during the Covid crisis) ?
Share SEO Simplified
I haven't gone through Moz's course, so I couldn't speak to that. All SEO courses will have some topical overlap, but in my experience they differ across a few points. Some are more tactical, others more strategic. Some go deep but narrow, others shallow and broad. And some tow the party line, while others poke at the edges.
I designed this course for people who need to understand SEO from first principles. It covers all the most important tactics, but focuses heavily on strategy. It also delves into things like black hat SEO (which I'd bet Moz isn't going to touch with a 10 foot pole), and things like how to hire a great SEO, how to find an SEO agency that doesn't suck, etc. It's worth it, promise :)
MOZ courses are far better than this one.
Curious how you can make that statement? Seeing as it would take 8+ hours to actually go through the course, and you haven’t had time to do so (and Teachable shows progress stats, FYI), seems like a rather rude and sweeping generalization.
moz's course is basic
Q: Can't offer this for free for COVID-19?
:0
Share SEO Simplified
I really wish I could, but I’m the sole breadwinner and have a wife and kid to support. Like many service business owners, lead volume is down due to Covid, so this is part of how I’m helping to pay the bills :/ But this is the biggest discount I’ve offered, and I’ll never make the price lower than this, so it really is a good deal!
Q: Hi, 1) Is this course helpful to intermediate to advanced SEO people?
2) I am more interesting in automation of SEO tasks and data reporting.
Do you provide helpful templates for that? In fact, how many templates, xls are included on this course?
Best
Share SEO Simplified
1. If you feel you’re intermediate bordering on advanced, this course probably isn’t right for you. This is designed to take someone from total noob to an intermediate level.
2. There are half a dozen templates and spreadsheets sprinkled throughout the course, and a ton of links out to additional resources (blogs, gdocs, sheets, tools, etc.)
Sorry, forgot your last Q. Nothing in here on automating tasks, other than like using Screaming Frog with APIs, and automated monitoring with tools like LittleWarden and ContentKing.
Q: As English is not my main language, are your videos supported with English transcript/subtitle ?
Share SEO Simplified
Not yet, no. I have transcriptions and subtitles on my to-do list, but will take a while to get to.
Q: Do you plan on keeping the course updated, so as things change, since they do, on a regular basis, it keeps up with what is working?
or is this just something for the hear and now?
Share SEO Simplified
Absolutely! I make regular updates as things change, as they always do in the world of SEO :)