Free SEO Course: 23 Practical SEO Lessons | GSA Growth

Look for evidence you can verify. Ask which Search Console property and date range they used, which page and query they reviewed, what the observed signal was, and what single action they recommend first. A useful recommendation can be questioned and checked. Vague claims about rankings or guaranteed results cannot be verified. This course walks through each of those checks, module by module.

Not always. If your pages already rank and convert, the work may be content or operations rather than SEO. The honest starting point is to check whether your pages are being seen but not chosen, whether traffic is falling for a technical reason, or whether demand itself changed. Modules 1 to 6 show how to tell those apart before you spend anything.

In practice: technical inspection, page and query analysis, content and internal-link work, local search and profile management, and measurement. What separates a useful engagement is whether each of those is tied to evidence you can inspect rather than a list of activity. Modules 8, 9 and 21 cover what to expect from each.

Typically a crawl and indexability review, page-level content and title work, internal linking, local profile management where relevant, and reporting. What matters is the order and the evidence behind each item. Ask for the fix list in priority order, with the reason each item ranks where it does.

Compare on evidence, not promises. Ask every provider the same questions: which property and date range, which pages and queries, what the observed signal was, what one action they recommend first, and what they would measure to know it worked. A provider who cannot answer specifically is guessing.

It depends on whether people search for what you sell, and whether your pages currently earn the click when they appear. If you have impressions but few clicks, the fix may be page-level and inexpensive. If you have no visibility at all, the work is longer. Modules 1 to 6 show how to tell which situation you are in.

An audit changes nothing by itself. It identifies what to change and in what order. Whether rankings or revenue move depends on implementation, competition and demand. What a good audit does give you is certainty about what to fix first and why, which is exactly what this course teaches you to judge.

Doing the diagnosis yourself is the cheapest first step, which is what this free course is for. A read-only check of your own Search Console data can tell you whether the problem is visibility, selection, technical access or demand before you commit to a retainer.