INCLUDED IN ALL PAID PLANS, CERTIFICATE INCLUDED
Local SEO training
Help your local audience find you online
Instead of walking into a shop, more people scroll and browse for local businesses first. They read reviews, check photos, and decide before they visit. This course teaches you to set up a local SEO strategy: optimize your site on-page, build trust off-page with reviews and citations, and set up your Google Business Profile.
Included in Yoast SEO Premium, Yoast WooCommerce SEO, Yoast SEO for Shopify and Yoast SEO AI+
Not sure yet? Start your free sample lesson
14 video lessons
Across 5 modules, 4 mandatory and 1 optional
Certificate included
And a badge for your site
Any business type
Online, in-person, or both
Why local SEO matters
More people are searching for local businesses online before they ever visit. This course covers what it takes to be found in that search: a technically excellent, user-friendly site, and unique content for your local audience. It also covers the off-page work, reviews, citations, links, and social media, that builds trust and visibility beyond your own site.
Who teaches this course
Every lesson is made by the SEO and WordPress specialists at Yoast, working with trained teachers.
- They build the most installed SEO plugin for WordPress.
- Between them, they have more than 100 years of WordPress experience.
- Companies including Facebook, eBay, and The Guardian use Yoast.
Go at your own pace
No deadlines, and your access doesn’t expire.
Pick up where you left off
Your progress is saved automatically.
Works on any site
The fundamentals apply whether or not you use WordPress.
What topics are covered in the course
What is local SEO?
A refresher on holistic SEO, then what makes local search different.
Technical optimization for local search
Crawlability, site speed, and mobile-friendliness, plus structured data, the schema.org code that helps search engines and AI tools understand and surface your business information.
Content and contact page optimization
Writing content for your local audience, and getting your contact and location details right.
Off-page optimization for local search
Link building, local citations, reviews, social media, and the behavioral signals that build local trust.
Google Business Profile
Set up and use your Google Business Profile to boost your local presence.
The Yoast Local SEO plugin (optional)
How the plugin helps, how to set it up and configure it, and how to use it in practice, if you use it.
I much better understand the inner-workings of SEO, how it functions, what Google is looking for and why. Breaking it down as you did made the information easy to retain.
Lynn Tall – Founder and Owner, Rugadvocate
What you get
Did you know?
Part of Yoast SEO Academy
Running an online store instead? Ecommerce SEO training covers the equivalent ground for product and category pages.
Yoast SEO Premium
Unlock local SEO training
This course covers on-page and off-page local SEO, Google Business Profile, and the Yoast Local SEO plugin, 14 video lessons and a certificate when you finish. It’s included with any paid Yoast plan.
- Full access to local SEO training and every other course in the Academy, each with its own certificate
- New courses added to your plan as they launch
- The Yoast Local SEO plugin: local structured data that helps search engines and Google Maps understand your business locations, plus a dedicated Locations post type with pre-configured schema markup for each location’s details, map, and opening hours
- The Yoast SEO Premium, News SEO, and Video SEO plugins included
- One seat for the Yoast SEO Google Docs add-on, check drafts before they reach WordPress
- 24/7 support from real people
Running WooCommerce or Shopify instead? Yoast WooCommerce SEO and Yoast SEO for Shopify include this course too.
No course can promise that. What this course does is help you set up local SEO properly, on-page, off-page, and on Google Business Profile, so local searchers can find you.
No. Four of the five modules apply to any site. The fifth module, on the Yoast Local SEO plugin specifically, is optional.
No. Local search results also show up in Google Maps, in-car navigation, and voice assistants, useful for service-area businesses too, not just businesses with a shop.
You’ll get a certificate and badge when you finish, proof you’ve completed Yoast’s local SEO training and can show for your CV, portfolio, or clients. It’s not a formal third-party accreditation, but it reflects real, applied local SEO knowledge.
Refreshing your knowledge: under 3 hours.
New to local SEO, going in depth: 5 to 7 hours.
Get yourself a coffee and join us monthly to catch up on SEO
You’re busy running a site or a team, not tracking every SEO headline. The SEO Update by Yoast fits into one coffee break a month: our Principal SEOs break down what’s actually happening across search and AI, so you don’t have to piece it together yourself. Recorded live with audience Q&A, and a recording’s available afterward if you can’t join live.
Expert analysis of the latest SEO & AI news developments with Carolyn…