Udemy Course SEO Optimisation

Algorithmic Factors

The algorithm is a mathematical formula

There are aspects you can influence directly e.g keywords

Other aspects you can influence indirectly e.g course quality

The level of engagement you have with your course is also counted

  • Answer discussions
  • Post educational announcements
  • Message students
  • Post new lectures and content

Unlike Google, it is not thought that the Udmey search algorithm changes very frequently.





Keywords

When considering keywords, ask yourself what students are searching for. A solution to a pain or problem will be high on the list. Think about your student avatar and what their needs and wants are. Your title needs to speak to them in their terms.

Choose keywords that sell.

When you search for a keyword in Udemy, you can see how many results come back for that search. This is your competition. If you are not ranking highly for a very competitive keyword, can you rank higher for a less competitive one.

If there are very few results, consider moving into a more competitive space. This suggests that there is little demand for this keyword.

  1. Identify your primary and secondary keywords
    1. Primary keywords in title, if possible twice
    2. The biggest mistake you can make is not having keywords in your course titles and particularly having your primary keyword at the start of your course title.
    3. Secondary keywords in sub title. Include one in title if it makes sense
    4. To find best keywords use Udemy search - put in single main keyword and see what options come up in the drop down menu - select from these to choose your secondary keywords. The order these come in must be significant. Chose secondaries which are higher up the list
    5. If you must have a two word primary keyword, repeat the operation.
    6. Check what other secondary keywords are suggested by Udemy if you search for these.
    7. Now create your title and sub title. Include a primary benefit in your title and at least three benefits, using secondary keywords in your subtitle.
    8. See if you can combine keywords to create word combinations which are keyword rich.
    9. Calculate the ratio of keywords to non keywords in your title and subtitles. This is how the algorithm will calculate it.
    10. Shorter titles giving you high ratios for your primary keyword are good - this is also called keyword density. Use all the characters available to you in your subtitles but also apply some copywriting expertise to this - communicate benefits and not features.
    11. There is no such thing as the long tail in Udemy search so don't go after long multi word keywords. Keep them to one or two words only.
    12. Equally, Udemy will not rank your course if it does not meet a minimum criteria. I would state that the absence of a keyword in your title or sub title but its presence in your course description may be enough for your course not to rank at all in the results for that keyword.
    13. Don't be afraid to experiment with your course titles and change them from time to time.
    14. If you are following my strategy of hub and spoke, building clusters of courses around key topics can you start to dominate a keyword category? If you can when a prospective student searches for your course keyword, they will see that you are the go to expert in that topic through your domination of the search results.
    15. How can you expand your secondary keywords to reach more students? Do your broaden the reach horizontally or vertically. Do your targeted keyword get more specific or more general?
    16. Beware of keyword equivalence: this is where Udemy will attach search results for one keyword when a second one is the term used in the search. Check when you are searching for your primary and secondary keywords to see if strange results are coming up. These are easy to identify. You will see a title which does not contain your search keyword at all. Identify the keywords which are appearing. You may consider adopting one or two of these as secondary keywords.
    17. Don't' let any other characters or symbols touch your keywords. Make sure that there is a space between them.

How to Create the Perfect Course Title

  1. Total length is not important
  2. Primary keyword at the front
  3. One or two word keyword, there is no long tail in Udemy
  4. Try to create combinations of words which cover several secondary keywords
  5. Ensure you have a high ratio of keyword terms to other words
  6. Communicate the solution to a problem
  7. Include a benefit in the title if you can
  8. Check listings of other courses for different word combinations





How to Create the Perfect Sub Title

  1. Use all the characters
  2. Include primary keyword again
  3. Include secondary keywords
  4. Explain at least three benefits of the course
  5. As high a keyword to non keyword ratio pas possible. This can be lower than in your title.
    1. Start your first paragraph with your primary keyword and end it with the same. You should ensure that your primary keyword appears frequently in your course description
    2. This can be as long as you like.
    3. Make it readable and scannable by using bullets, bold, italics and short paragraphs. Apply the AIDA formula - Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
    4. The same goes for your course goals, section and lecture titles and lecture descriptions.

Course Description

Choosing your URLS

Course Sales

  1. Udemy measures your conversion rate
  2. Consider what steps you can take to improve this
  3. Drive traffic to your Udemy courses from outside Udemy
  4. Increase organic sales with full price links as well as discounted links
  5. Optimize your course description as a sales page with a call to action to enroll in the course
  6. Improve your promo video and make some lectures available free on preview.
  7. Take every opportunity to have a call to action to drive traffic to your courses
  8. Always have a PS asking for a rating and a review
  9. Download your sales CSV from your revenue page and take a look at the free and paid sales for your courses on a month by month basis.
    1. Can you see any trends?
    2. Do sales meet your expectations based on your marketing efforts that month?



Course Pricing

  1. Udemy wants to sell courses and make money
  2. Free courses will always be out ranked by paid courses, everything else being equal.
  3. You cannot promote your others courses to students in free courses. So free should be a limited time option only.
  4. Low priced courses will be out ranked by more expensive courses. Most people buy at $10-$19 so make your course look like it is great value. Start your pricing at $97.

Course Analytics

  1. Numbers of reviews in the last three months are important. Work hard to keep those reviews coming steadily
  2. No of recent students
    1. Paid students are rated more highly than free students. Can you offer $1 promotions?
    2. Need to keep students flowing into your course steadily, use free and paid promotions. Don't forget to cross sell between your courses
  3. Minutes Viewed
    1. You can see how your minutes viewed compares with other courses in your sub category. If you are below average. Take a look at the analysis of which lectures are being watched. Do you need to improve some of them?
    2. Some suggestions that 60 minutes is a critical threshold
  4. Student Ratings in Past three months
    1. See how you compare to your competitors. What do you have to do to improve your ratings
    2. Take a look at the comments coming back from students and act on them. Then make an announcement that you have done so.
  5. Udemy looks at how many of your students are active. Consider sending an educational announcement to students who have not yet started your cours encouraging them to do so.
  6. Unsubscribe and Refund rate will impact your SEO ranking.
  7. Student satisfaction report
    1. This is taken by Udemy while students are taking the course. You want 9/10s. Below this Udemy ask for reasons which can appear in your analytics. If they do, show you are taking action on them.


Course Quality Actions

  1. Student engagement is the key to course quality assessment
  2. Keep your courses alive, updated and active.
  3. Modify and add to your content
  4. Include close captions?
  5. If you publish a discussion and no body responds to it, come back post an answer to it within 3 days as Udemy will penalise you for unanswered discussions outside of this time limit.
  6. If you have an old discussion post with no responses, delete it and repost it.

Competitive Analysis

  1. Consider in enrolling in some of your competitors courses. You can do this by offering them a course swap or by purchasing their course in a $10 Udemy promotion. On the basis of keep your friends close but your enemies closer, this is a good strategy.
  2. Take a look at the top three to five courses who rank against you for your chosen keywords. Create a spreadsheet and keep a measure at least once a month. Those will give you objective criteria for improvement.
    1. What keywords and secondary keywords are they targeting?
    2. Title keyword density score
    3. Numbers of students
    4. Numbers of reviews
    5. Activity in the course
    6. Ratings and reviews
    7. Keyword density in descriptions
    8. Secondary keyword in subtitles
    9. Review course content for courses who directly compete with you. What can you add to your course to improve its content?
    10. Do a detailed analysis of their course description. How effective is it as a sales page? How can you improve yours to compete with them. I always send people to take a look at Alun Hill's course descriptions of you want an excellent example.
    11. Keep an eye out for your competitors educational and promotional announcements which you will see if you are enrolled in their courses.
    12. Read their reviews, particularly the bad ones. What can you learn from them?
    13. When did they last add new material to their course?
    14. What is the length of their course, how many lectures does it have? What mix of content and bonus material do they offer. It is difficult for you to mathematically evaluate some of these factors but you can take note of them and use them as guidance to improve your own courses.
  3. Now work out what you have to do to improve

Organic Ranking vs Search Term Ranking

  1. You should monitor regularly your organic ranking and keep a dated note of this in a spreadsheet.
    1. Open an incognito page in Chrome. Go to your courses sub category and simply see which page and position it appears in. This is a measure of your courses organic ranking.
    2. Carry out competitor analysis on the top ranking courses to see what you have to do to improve.
  2. Search Based Ranking for Primary and Secondary Keywords
    1. This is how you will appear to students searching for courses like yours. Keep a track in your spreadsheet of how you rank for several secondary keywords and work and test to improve your position.

Examples of Keywords and Secondary Keywords

  1. Affiliate
  2. Copywriting
    1. Copywriting 101
    2. Copywriting course
    3. Copywriting secrets
    4. Copywriting clients
    5. Copywriting basics
    6. Copywriting business
    7. Copywriting white paper
  3. Startup (can be also written Start Up, Startups, Start Ups)
    1. Startup capital
    2. Startup founder
    3. Startup checklist
    4. Startup financing
    5. Startup accounting
    6. Startup fundraising
    7. Startup pitching