Becoming the Best Certified Digital Marketer

Every single week I earn or renew a free digital marketing certification.

Why? Well, because in my career, the discipline to keep learning has served me so well. My gut tells me that is probably the case for you too. The gap from where you are right now and where you want to be is filled with the things you do not yet know.

This weekly quest is about filling that gap. It is about always being one chapter ahead and knowing with total clarity what to do next. The certifications themselves don’t have the answers. However, the discipline to keep learning does.

If you’re new here. Welcome! I would encourage that you to read the what I learned or the best digital marketing certificates sections of this post for a few helpful tips on where to begin.

Now on to my quest. This page is updated each week from my most current entry down to my first week all the way down there at the bottom.

Here Are the Courses I took:

Week 208: SEMrush Technical SEO Exam

This week was a renewal of my SEMrush technical SEO certificate from last year. This is another exam that pairs with the fundamentals course that Greg Gifford teaches. This exam covers, internal linking, crawling, response codes, log files, hreflang, website performance, structured data, AMP and Mobile first indexing.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 207:Google Primer Build Customers’ Confidence in Your Business

This is a quick course to about how to build confidence in your potential customers. The course covers things like using free trials and trying to answer your prospects questions before they ask you. If you are in a service business, this is worth checking out.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 206: SEMrush Backlink Management Exam

This was a renewal of my SEMrush backlink management certification. SEMrush has a few different tools that can help you earn and maintain a quality link profile. This exam is about how to use those tools best. If you use SEMrush regularly, you will have no problem earning this certificate.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 205:Google Primer Go Beyond Keywords: Know How Customers Really Search Online

This is a basic SEO course from Google Primer. The course covers search intent behind the keywords that customers look for.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 204: SEMrush Management, Reporting, and Collaboration Test

This is the SEMrush exam that focuses on managing projects and building reports. SEMrush has several report and dashboard building features. This course goes over each of them.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 203:Google Primer Build an Innovative Workplace Destined for Long-Term Success

This was a quick Google Primer course about empower your team to be innovative. The course covers removing road blocks so your teammates can be successful.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 202: SEMrush On-Page and Technical SEO Test

This week was a renewal of my On Page and Technical SEO certificate from SEMrush. This is a quick 10 question exam that tests knowledge of the SEMrush tool suite of technical SEO. If you use the tools daily, you will have no problem passing this one. It is an easier certification for your quest.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 201: Google Primer Identify Customers’ Needs to Create Better Solutions

This is a quick course that will help you understand the difference between your clients needs and wants. The idea with the course is to help you craft better service offerings or products to meet your clients needs.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 200: SEMRush Keyword Research Exam

This is a renewal of my SEMRush Keyword Research certificate. Keyword research is central to search marketing, so not too much has changed with this course year to year. I recommend this one for anyone interested in SEO or PPC.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 199: Google Primer Make Google Ads Work Harder for You with Analytics

This course is a high level overview of how you can get more insight when you combine Google Ads with Google Ads.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 198: SEMrush SEO Fundamentals

This week was another renewal of my SEMrush SEO fundamentals certification. This is the exam that pairs with the fundamentals course that Greg Gifford teaches. I really liked the course and still recommend this one to anyone that wants a free resource to learn more about SEO.

This course covers the following SEO topics. How Search engines work, Crawling, indexing, and ranking, Technical SEO, Offsite signals, On-page signals, Mobile SEO, International SEO, and Local SEO

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 197: Get Started with Google Analytics

This is a quick overview course of what Google Analytics is and how you can use it. This is an extremely high level course that doesn’t go into too much detail. If you are interested in learning more about Google analytics, check out the analytics academy here.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 196: SEMrush Advertising Toolkit

This was my 2021 renewal for the SEMrush Advertising Toolkit certificate course. This is an easier certificate course that covers using SEMrush as a paid search marketing tool. The course goes over how you can use SEMRush for PPC competitive research, PPC keyword research, and ad creation ideas. This course has only slightly changed from year to year, so you will be able to renew it easily if you are an active SEMrush user.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 195: Google Primer Measure Your Business’ Success by Tracking Its Profit And Loss

This is a quick refresher course about basic accounting. It covers profit and loss statements and tips on how to ensure your small business is profitable.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 194: SemrushMobile, International, and Local SEO Exam

This is a quick course for using the SEMrush tool suite for SEO at all levels of reach. SEMrush has tools to help you manage your local SEO listings, optimize your international tags, or make sure your mobile view is responsive.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 193: Google Primer Branded Content & Native Ads: Engage Your Audience

This is a quick course covering the importance of branded content and using native ads. With so many ads competing for our attention, using native ads are a better way to reach your target audience.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 192: Google Primer Track Your Acquisitions with Digital Metrics

This is another quick course from Google Primer. This covers the difference between rented and owned marketing channels. It covers the various metrics you can monitor on each type to help you acquire customers.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 191: Google Primer Use Video Content to Create a Community

This is a quick course to help you understand how to use video content to create communities. People buy products from people they know, like, and trust. One of the quickest ways for people to be able to tell if they like and trust you is through video.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 190: Semrush Site Audit Certification

This is SEMrush’s course for using their site audit tools. Part of SEO is monitoring your site’s health to ensure no errors prevent Google from crawling it. Additionally, Google doesn’t devote infinite resources to crawling your website, so you need to audit it to understand where Google might be wasting resources. SEMrush has tools to help you do this. This course covers how to use them.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 189: Google Primer Test Product/Market Fit Before You Commit

This is a quick course to help you understand if your business idea is worthwhile. It covers product-market fit and minimum viable products. If you have any interest in becoming an entrepreneur, then check this quick course out.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 188: Competitor Analysis With SEMrush

This is the SEMrush exam course for understanding all of the tools to monitor your competitors. There is a wealth of knowledge in what your competitors get right and wrong in their digital marketing strategy. This course shows you how to use SEMrush’s tools to learn those findings.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 187: Google Primer Start Small and Grow With Bootstrapping

This is a Google Primer course all about Bootstrapping for your small start-up. I am a solo entrepreneur who is building his own consulting business up, so this one appealed to me. If the recap sounds interesting, I’d recommend you take this one too. All of the Google Primer courses can be completed in under 10 minutes.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 186: SEMrush Content Marketing and SEO Fundamentals

This is the SEMrush SEO and Content marketing certificate. Eric Enge put together a course that covers all the benefits of blending content and SEO. This one is worth checking out.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 185: Google Primer Create a Fundraising Presentation Deck to Share Your Story with Investors

This is a quick Google Primer course about the benefits of building a pitch deck for your fundraiser. I recently got into skateboarding, and our town doesnt have a skatepark yet. So I’ll be using what I learned here to create pitch decks.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 184: SEMrush Local SEO Exam

SEMRush has a phenomenal Local SEO course in their academy. This is the exam for that course. If you are interested in improving your search engine ranking for any type of local business, then check this one out.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 183: Google Primer Actionable Online Videos: Get More Than Views

This is a quick Google Primer course all about creating videos that start a conversation and convert. If you are making videos online, this is worth the five minutes to go through. It will get you to emphasize your calls to action more.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 182: Drift Conversational Marketing Certification

This is a brand new certification for the learning quest. I use Drift on a client’s site and had no idea they had a few certification courses. This particular one is for converational marketing. If you’ve completed Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing certification, check this one out too. Drift is a chatbot AI technology. The certification course is to cover how to leverage chatbots in your digital marketing.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 181: Google Primer Create a Landing Page That Lands Customers

This is a quick Google Primer course to help you create phenomenal landing pages. This course reminded me that each page should have a purpose and to always gear the focus of your page on the outcome you are hoping for. I recommend this course to any digital marketer looking to add to their learning quest.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 180: Hubspot Digital Marketing Certificate

This is a brand new Hubspot certificate course that serves as an overview of all types of Digital Marketing channels. The course is an overview of paid media, SEO, content marketing, social media, and display ads. It takes only four hours to complete, and if you have been keeping up with your Hubspot certifications, you can likely skip some of the lessons as they will be a refresher for you.

I recommend this for anyone who is marketing online and looking for a new course for their quest.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 179: Google Primer: Create Display Ads That Click with Your Customers

This is a quick Google Primer course all about creating engaging display ads. This is an extremely high-level lesson, so there is not any groundbreaking strategy here. If you are brand new to display, check this out. Otherwise, you might want to check out one of the more comprehensive Google display courses like this one on skillshop.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 178: Hubspot Digital Advertising Certificate

This is a new Hubspot certificate course that covers everything about digital advertising. The courses cover everything from targeting through specific channels. Much of the focus seemed like it was about search ads. However, this does touch on earned media and display marketing too.

I recommend this for anyone looking for a new course for their quest.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 177: Google Primer: How Strong A/B Tests Can Read Customers’ Minds

This was a quick primer course about the importance of A/B testing.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 176: SEMRush PPC Fundamentals

This course was fora renewal of my SEMrush PPC fundamentals certificate for 2021. The course is an introductory level course of Paid Media advertising channels. The course covers campaign building, display, budget, and overall strategy.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 175: Google Primer- Measure Your Marketing’s Power with Google Analytics

This is a quick Google Primer course to help you understand how to track a custom campaign in Google Analytics. This is an extremely high level course and geared more towards beginners than someone who would be using GA on a regular basis.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 174: Content Marketing Toolkit 2022

SEMrush is a digital marketing swiss army knife. This certificate course covers all of the tools that can help you in your content marketing efforts. There are an arsenal of tools to help you build and track your content with SEMrush, and this is the course that covers all of it.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 173: Google Primer – Track Customer Behavior with Digital Metrics

This is a quick Google Primer course to help you measure metrics that are impactful to your business. The course covers identifying the importance of certain metrics over others. It also covers how to identify new behavior metrics as well. I recommend this for anyone interested in learning more about analytics.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 172: Google Primer – Build Brand Loyalty with Utility Marketing

As an SEO, I am always interested in what I can do on behalf of my clients to create enough buzz to get links from authoritative websites. I often recommend building a tool or calculator that provides value to my clients’ target audience. This recommendation is utility marketing.

It is a way to interact with your target in a manner that is helpful to them without selling to them.

I recommend you learn more about utility marketing in this quick 5-minute course from Google Primer.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 171: SEMRush Linkbuilding Exam 2021

This was a renewal of the SEMrush link building exam. In 2021, Google still treats a link from your website back to mine as a clue that my website should rank a little better. SEMrush has an arsenal of tools to help you build stronger links to your site. This is the certificate specifically for link building.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 170: Google Analytics IQ Certification 2021

This was a renewal of the official Google Analytics certification. This is the certification out of all of these that I recommend for all digital marketers. Every single website I’ve worked on has had a Google Analytics account, and this is the course and certification for it. I recommend this one to anyone who will be working online.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 169: Google Primer – Harness the Power of Google Analytics

This is another quick one for your quest from Google Primer. This is a high-level summary of Google Analytics’ importance and why you should use it to improve your digital marketing.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 168: Google Shopping Ads Certification 2021

This is the 2021 renewal of my Google Shopping Ads certification.

I began my digital marketing career with paid search shopping ads. While my focus is SEO now, I still find myself launching e-commerce product listing ad shopping campaigns for my clients on both Google and Bing. This is the certification for all things ecommerce ads. I recommend this for any ecommerce marketers regardless of their area of focus.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 167: Google Primer – Give Better Creative Feedback to Get Better Results

This is another primer five-minute course for your quest. This one is all about giving better feedback to get better results. If you are running an agency, check it out.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 166: SEMrush SEO Toolkit Exam 2021

This is the SEO Toolkit certification from SEMrush. This particular certification has been on the quest enough times to be familiar. If you’ve taken it in the past, it will be a breeze to renew it.

The toolkit exam covers all of SEMrush’s SEO tools. If you are someone focused on SEO, chances are good you already use SEMrush. This is the exam course that goes over how to use all of the various tools.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 165: Google Primer – Journey Mapping: Connect the Customer Dots

This is a quick reminder of planning out all of the touchpoints your customers and potential customers will have to go through.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 164: Google Primer -Why a Business Email Address Is Good for Business

This is a quick reminder of the value of having a business email on your own domain. The course comes with a discount on gsuite email address. It is another fast one that you can add to your learning quest.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 163: Google Primer -Tips for Crafting Effective Emails

This is another simple course from Primer. This one is a great reminder on what should and should not be in your business communication emails. I recommend this one because it is something you can take action on instantly.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 162: Surfer SEO Writing Masterclass

The Surfer SEO Writing Masterclass is free until February 28th, 2021. I highly recommend that you take this one over the next few weeks while it is free. The course covers everything you would need to know about writing content that ranks in Google in 2021. Additionally, this masterclass teaches you how to use the Surfer SEO Audit tools. I consider Surfer to be a secret weapon in my arsenal of SEO toolkit, and by taking this course, you would have the same competitive SEO edge that I do.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 161: Google Primer – Boost Brand Awareness by Curating & Repurposing

This week was for my third Google Primer app lesson called Boost Brand Awareness by Curating & Repurposing. This one covers the benefits of sharing other brands social posts and how you should work this into your strategy to share value with your audience.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 160: Google Primer – Appeal to Searchers and Search Engines with SEO

This week was for my second Google Primer app lessons. This one is called “Appeal to Searchers and Search Engines with SEO.” It is another bite-sized lesson covering the high-level notes on how search engines crawl and index webpages. This one would be good for anyone completely new to the world of SEO. If you are experienced, I recommend skipping this one.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 159: Google Primer – Short, Sweet & Powerful: Crafting Creative Briefs

Recently, Google launched an app called Google Primer. The app is designed to help professionals mini-marketing lessons.

For the next few weeks, I am going to cover a few of the courses in the app.

This week was for the “Short, Sweet & Powerful: Crafting Creative Briefs.” It is a fast digestible course to help marketers learn about creating creative briefs. If you work with clients in an agency capacity, I recommend that you take this one.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 158: Hubspot Enhancing a Website’s SEO

This week’s entry was for a quicker course on the Hubspot Academy called “Enhancing a Website’s SEO.” The course is a high-level SEO overview that you can complete in less than 30 minutes. This would be good for anyone who is entirely new to SEO. If you have SEO experience already you might want to skip this one as you probably heard all of this before.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 157: SEMRush Social Media Toolkit

This was a renewal of the SEMRush Social Media Toolkit. In addition to all the search engine marketing features of SEMrush, it serves as a social media marketing software too. SEMRush can act as a brand listening and post scheduling social software. This course goes through all of the features that will help you in your social media marketing strategy.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 156: Hubspot Growth Driven Design

It has been three entire years of this quest. Thank you so much for following along with the quest!

This was a renewal of the Hubsport Growth-Driven design certification. This was a course I took all the way back on Week 55 of this quest. It is crazy to think nearly two years and 101 certification courses have passed since then!

This course is a favorite of mine because it is about a newer methodology of optimizing and building websites. The main idea behind Growth Driven Design is that it is better to get a quick prototype version of a website launched and then use user data to guide the continuous optimizations you make. The end result is a website that outperforms one you would have spent months creating.

This is a course that will get you to think about optimizing the web differently, and for that, I love it.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 155: Hubspot Social Media Certification

The Hubspot Social Media certification was recently updated, and I needed to renew mine as it expires in Mid January. This course is one of the best free social certificates you can get. It will teach you how to develop an effective social media strategy that uses Hubspot’s inbound marketing methodology. The course is eight lessons and estimated at four hours long. I recommend this for anyone interested in social media marketing.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 154: SEMrush Backlink Management Exam

This is a quick certification course all about using SEMrush to manage your backlink portfolio. SEMrush has a few tools that help earn and maintain a quality link profile. This exam is about how to use those tools best. If you use SEMrush regularly, you will have no problem earning this certificate.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 153: LinkedIN Microsoft Word Skill Exam

This is the Linkedin Skills Exam for Microsoft Word. These skill exams are Linked In’s method for showing people who view your profile that you verifiably know the material for the skills you show on your profile.

This particular skill exam was for Microsoft Word. This one will be straightforward for any Office users out there. If you use Word often, you will be able to pass this exam with no issues. While it is not a difficult exam, you might want to brush up on margin formatting, keyboard shortcuts, and saving options.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 152: SEMrush SEO Toolkit for Advanced User

This week was a renewal of my SEMrush SEO toolkit for advanced users certificate. This is a 40 question exam that tests you on advanced knowledge of using SEMrush for SEO. If you use SEMrush often, you will have no problem earning this certificate. If you understand how to use SEMrush for all things SEO, this is a great certification.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 151: SEMrush SEO Technical Exam

This week was a renewal of my SEMrush SEO Technical exam. This certificate exam covers all things technical. You will be quizzed on meta robots tags, status codes, internal linking, and all things that go into getting a website to be in optimal shape.

I have one note with this exam. Technical SEO changes each year, and there were a few questions in this one where I wasn’t sure if I should answer the new way or the old way. An example would be that recently Google announced they don’t process pagination the same way they used to. This exam covers pagination the traditional way. My recommendation would be to go through the SEMrush Technical SEO course and answer based on their way.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 150: SEMrush SEO Fundamentals Certificate

This week was a quick renewal of my On Page and Technical SEO certificate from SEMrush. This is a 10 question exam that tests knowledge of the SEMrush tool suite of technical SEO. If you use the tools daily, you will have no problem flying through this one. It is an easier certification for your quest.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 149: WordPress Linkedin Skill Exam

This week was the Linkedin skill exam for WordPress. The skill exams are for adding certified badges to your Linkedin profile. These badges validate the skills you add to your profile. When people look at your profile, they know you are an expert in that area.

I took the exam for WordPress thinking it would be simple because I use WordPress daily. I will be honest. I failed this exam twice before passing it. If you are going after this one, I would recommend that you study a few of the details a developer would need to know over someone more of a WordPress user. You should study WordPress security, localization, installation best practices, and find the latest info about WordPress before taking this exam. This is not a difficult skill exam; it just might not cover the material you think it would. Good luck in your certification quest.

You can learn more about LinkedIn skill assessments here.

Week 148:Microsoft Outlook Linkedin Skill Exam

This is the Linkedin Skills Exam for Microsoft Outlook. The Linkedin Skills exam are designed to inform the people looking at your profile that the skills you add to your profile are valid. It is a way for Linkedin to vouch and say, “Yes, they really do know how to use Microsoft Outlook.” If you have used Microsoft Outlook in your career, you should be able to get this badge after some brief review. It is not a hard exam. However, you will want to cover task creation, shortcuts, signatures, and the view settings of Outlook.

You can learn more about LinkedIn skill assessments here.

Week 147: SEMrush SEO Fundamentals Certificate

This week was a renewal of the SEMrush SEO fundamentals. The course is a foundational level overview of search engine optimization. The lessons cover principles, strategy, terminology, and how to use SEMrush’s tools to get an edge over your competitors. I recommend this to anyone interested in learning more about SEO. The course is kept up to date and is an easier one to add to your learning quest.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 146: The Trade Desk: Marketing Foundations Certification

This week’s certification was The Trade Desk’s Marketing Foundations course. It is a foundational level introduction into programmatic advertising. Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of ads online. The course covers high-level concepts, the commonly used language, core concepts, and the skills required to master programmatic advertising. The course is simple and insanely informative. I recommend this to any marketers who want to learn more about programmatic ads.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 145: SEMRush Keyword Research Exam

This is SEMRush’s certificate for keyword research. Keyword research is such an essential part of SEO and PPC. To capture more traffic from search engines, you need first to understand what your audience is searching. This certificate covers how to use SEMRush’s tools to help with your keyword research.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 144: LinkedIn Google Ads Skill Exam

This is the LinkedIn skill assessment exam for Google Ads. This skill exam is a certification to verify your expertise in Google Ads on LinkedIn. I found this exam to be simple. If you are someone who uses Google Ads regularly and maintains the official Google ads certifications, you will have no problem with this exam. Whenever you fail one of LinkedIn’s exams, they make you wait for three months before taking it again. If you don’t use Google Ads often, you might want to brush up before taking this exam.

You can learn more about LinkedIn skill assessments here.

Week 143: Google Ads Measurement 2020

This is a renewal of my Google Ads Measurement certification. This is one of the newer Google Ads certificates. The course covers everything dealing with the measurement of your Google Ads campaigns. I would recommend this for any paid search or analytics experts.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 142: SEMRush Content Marketing Fundamentals

I’ve always considered myself more on the technical spectrum of SEO. I get results for my clients by getting their website out of its own way. It works well. However, once I started to tackle SEO from both the technical and content side, I really began to see massive results. The old saying, “content is king” can take you far. Once you start to create the right content and give search engines the right set of technical instructions you can really start to generate massive organic search results for your clients. So while I am technical minded, I too am a content marketer. This week’s certification was about brushing up on that side of things.

This week’s certification was SEMrush Academy’s fundamental exam for Content Marketing. This is all about using SEMrush’s tools to create better content. It covers ideation, tracking, and strategy. I recommend this for any marketers who will be creating content.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 141: Google Ads Search Certification

I can’t believe it has been a year already for this one. The certification for this week was a renewal fo my Google Ads Search certification. The Google Ads Search exam follows the Google Ads Fundamentals exam. Once you complete this one, you are officially Google Ads certified. The tip with any of these certifications is to keep renewing them. All of these are easier the second time around. In my case, this is the sixth time I have taken it. All it takes is a little refresher of the concepts, then take the exam. As long as you stay up to date, you will pass this exam every year without any problems.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 140: SEMRush Rank Tracking

This was a quick exam covering the SEMrush’s rank tracking and SEO visibility tools. SEMrush can be great for keeping your finger on the pulse of your keyword rankings and opportunities. This was a quick exam that covers tracking your website’s visibility, average position, and analyzing Google’s results. This is an easier certification for your quest.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 139: SEMRush Mobile, International, and Local SEO Test

There are several different types of search engine optimization depending on where in the world you need your search results to appear. The type of SEO that I help my clients with most often is mobile on a national level. That said, every SEO needs to know about the various types because you will get projects that require all three. My specialty is in national ecommerce SEO. This certificate would refer to that under the mobile or national category. The basic summary is that you need a different type of SEO strategy depending on where your audience needs to find you. SEMRush has a different SEO toolkit depending on your needs. This exam certification is for that purpose.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 138: Automate Marketing to Business with Pardot Lightning App

Salesforce and all of its tools have an entire learning system filled with badges and certifications to earn. The portal to do this is over on Tralhead.Salesforce.com.

I have a client that uses Pardot as its email marketing and automation platform. Pardot is a tool inside of the Salesforce tech suite. I want to think I know enough about Pardot to do everything we need. Then I started to take these courses and realized there is so much I didn’t know. It is a reminder that by continuously earning, you will uncover tools that make you a better marketer.

This course is called “Automate Marketing to Business with Pardot Lightning App.” It covers everything you need to get started with the lighting layout of Pardot. In addition to the basics of automation, this course covers lead scoring and grading.

You can earn this badge for free here.

Week 137: LinkedIn SEO Skill Exam

It is finally here. I am an SEO consultant, and now I can officially vouch for my skill on Linkedin thanks to the new Linkedin skill assessment exam for SEO. These exams verify the skills you add to your profile and get endorsed for. These basically say “yep, they know their stuff.” I have been an SEO expert for the past 10 years. Out of all the exams I’ve taken on LinkedIn skills, this is the one that mattered the most to me.

It wound up being fairly simple. Some of the questions seem more like they are based around rumors than actual guidelines, so it can be a little tricky. That said, I’ll drop some hints here. Study up on cloaking, what Google thinks of pop-ups, the meta robots tag, and best practices with headings. If you have SEO as a skill on your Linkedin profile, you should take this exam.

You can learn more about LinkedIn skill assessments here.

Week 136: SEMRush Competitor Analysis Certificate

This is a certificate that pairs with the SEMrush Competitor Analysis course. The course will teach you how to leverage SEMrush for getting the full picture of your competition’s strengths and weaknesses. The course covers benchmarking, analyzing traffic strategies, auditing, and identifying who is competing with you. This is an easier one to add to your certification quest.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 135: Hubspot Sales Enablement

This was a renewal of my HubSpot Sales Enablement certification for 2020. This course teaches how marketing and sales can blend to form a cohesive strategy. The course is 12 simple classes followed by a 60 question exam. I recommend this one for any marketer who wants to integrate more strategically with their sales teammates.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 134: ClickMinded Boost Your SEO Traffic With Perfectly Optimized Content

I am always on the hunt for free SEO courses to add to this weekly quest. I am an SEO consultant by day, so I really want to keep the latest with the channel fresh in my head at all times. I found a free SEO mini course from ClickMinded called “Boost Your SEO Traffic With Perfectly Optimized Content.” In addition to covering the SEO basics, this one actually shares the Click Minded team’s standard operating procedures for helpful tasks. Their section on finding SEO low hanging fruit opportunities is outstanding. If you have an interest in SEO or content marketing, take this one.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 133: SEMrush Local SEO Exam

This is a quick certification exam for Local SEO. Occassionally I get a local SEO client or family member who needs help with their Google Map Pack listings. I figured why not brush up on my Google My Business optimization skills?

You can take this course for free here.

Week 132: SEMrush The Role of Content

This is a newer SEMrush Academy course taught by SEO veteran Eric Enge. The course is 10 lessons and it will take you less than hour to complete. Just as the title states, the course covers the role that content marketing plays in your SEO strategy. Eric does great job explaining complex components of SEO into digestible, useful, chunks. I found the course to be a simple refresher and a nice certificate to add to the quest. If you’re an SEO or Content Marketers, I recommend that you take this one.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 131: Increase Engagement and Nurture Leads with Pardot for Salesforce

Over the past year, I started to work with a client who needed help with their email marketing campaigns in Pardot. Up until that point, I have never used Salesforce or Pardot. To tell you the truth, other than using Mailchimp, I never went deep with email marketing at all. It is an SEO client who needed help, and I like challenges where I can learn.

As I get versed with Pardot, I realize there is still so much that I don’t know. That is probably true of anyone that uses Pardot or Salesforce. You roll out your strategies and use the same features that you need to use. You learn enough to not get by, and learning quest friends, we are better than that.

I recently started to use Salesforce’s Trailblazer free course lessons and find them to be simple and insanely helpful.

This week, I worked on the free Trailblazer course called “Increase Engagement and Nurture Leads with Pardot for Salesforce Classic.” It took about an hour to read through everything, and I walked away with a better understanding of how to set up automation campaigns. There are reports I didn’t even know I had access to. It is another reminder that no matter how much you use a marketing platform, there is always more you can learn.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 130: Hubspot Content Marketing Certification

Today, the HubSpot Academy will donate $5 on your behalf to help UNICEF keep the world’s children learning during COVID-19. If you’re reading this on July 10th 2020, I highly recommend you go over to the Hubspot Academy and make your way through one of their certification courses.

For this week’s course, I renewed my Hubspot Content Marketing certificate. This course covers the foundational aspects of a content marketing campaign. It covers buyer personas, brainstorming, and tips to help you create your content calendar. I recommend that you check this one out.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 129: Conversion Copywriting 101 by Copyhackers

I recently heard about a great free resource for all things content marketing called Copyhackers. This is their Conversion Copywriting 101 course. The course has 28 videos, all centered around helping you become a better copywriter. The videos cover everything from writing for conversions on landing pages, emails, and ads. This is a course I am sure I will come back to as I need it. I recommend that you check this one out.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 128: SEMrush Advertising Toolkit

This was my 2020 renewal for the SEMrush Advertising Toolkit certificate course. The Advertising Toolkit is an easier certificate course that covers using SEMrush as a paid search marketing tool. The course covers how you can use SEMRush for PPC competitive research, PPC keyword research, and ad creation ideas. This course has not changed that much from year to year, so you will be able to renew it easily if you are an active SEMrush user.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 127: eMarketing Institute Social Media Marketing Certification

Here is the Marketing Institute social media certification. I found this course to be straightforward. Fair warning here, this is wildly outdated. The course did not go into detail on Snapchat or Instagram. Additionally, there’s information here on Google Plus, which is a depreciated network. If you’re taking this course, you will need to put yourself in the 2015 – 2017 frame of mind. I would still recommend getting this one as an easier certification for your linkedin profile.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 126: Google Ads Video Certification

This was a renewal of my Google Ads Video Certification. This is Google’s course for everything related to video ads. If you are looking to run ads on youtube or any of Google’s partner placements with video. This is the course for you. I recommend this for any search marketers who want to stay current.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 125: SEMrush SMM Fundamentals

All of the SEMrush certificate courses are short, simple, and insanely useful. This one is for their social media marketing (SMM) fundamentals. The SMM fundamentals exam covers the basics of social marketing and how SEMrush’s tools can help you get an edge over your competitors. I recommend SEMrush as my marketing swiss army knife tool of choice. I also recommend this course for any SEMrush users that are interested in social marketing.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 124: Google Ads Apps Certification

This is the brand new Google Ads Apps certification. Google’s skillshop learning portal finally has a new Google ad certification centered completely around promoting apps. This is a foundational level course that covers the basics of app campaign creation and a few optimization strategies. I recommend this for any search marketers who want to stay current.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 123: Hubspot Email Marketing Certification 2020

In the spirit of last week’s Hubspot renewal, I renewed my Hubspot Email marketing certification for this week. This is Hubspot’s foundational email course. It teaches you the basics behind building an email strategy to grow your business. There is not much that changes in this course year to year, so it will be a simple one to renew.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 122: Hubspot Inbound Certification 2020

This was a renewal of my HubSpot Inbound Marketing certification for 2020. The course covers a foundational overview of inbound marketing principles. If you’re wondering how to connect the dots between your content marketing, email marketing, and sales process, this is that course.

Every time I take this course, I get reminded about the importance of knowing precisely who you you are marketing to and understanding where that person might be in their buying journey. That is a lesson that will serve you well to reinforce every single year.

This is one of the best free digital marketing courses out there right now.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 121: Moz Academy Prepare for the SEO Client Pitch

This is another Moz Academy course that is free before 5/31/2020 using the coupon code WEGOTTHIS. The course was a simple and yet insanely helpful course. Last August, I started an SEO agency with only one team member (me). It has been a wild fun ride. After going through this course, I have made a few small adjustments to my pitch, and so far the results have been worth it.

Ultimately, this course does an excellent job of showing you what’s essential to your potential prospect. I recommend this for anyone who might be interested in learning more about SEO and the sales side of things.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 120: Microsoft Advertising Certification 2020

This week, I renewed my Bing Ads certification for 2020. There were not any significant changes with this certificate course from year to year. I recommend this one for both paid and organic search marketers. It is Microsoft’s equivalent to the Google Ads fundamentals course and exam. If you passed Google’s exam, you should have no problem with Bing’s exam.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 119: Moz Academy Local SEO Foundations

Here is another Moz Academy course that is free until 5/31/2020 using the coupon code WEGOTTHIS. This course is 35 lessons, all about understanding the basics of local SEO. This course goes into detail on everything you would need to understand to optimize the website or Google My Business listing for local SEO clients. I tend to be more of a national SEO and still found this course to be simple to understand and an easy way to catch up on the latest with the local search algorithms. I would recommend this course for anyone interested in SEO or looking to get more search engine traffic for their local business.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 118: Moz Academy Finding Potential SEO Clients

For this week I took another Moz course that is free for a limited time on the Moz Academy. Using the coupon code WEGOTTHIS before 5/31/2020, you can take some of the Moz Academy courses for free. This is the Finding Potential SEO Client course. This is for anyone who is looking to improve their SEO agency skills. It is all about finding prospects. This went into some neat detail around how you can use Moz’s tools to learn who might need your services.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 117: LinkedIN Google Analytics Skill Exam

This is the Linkedin skill assessment exam for Microsoft Excel. These exams are to verify your expertise in a certain area on Linkedin. I consider myself to be an advanced Excel user, and I failed this one the first time that I took it. Whenever you fail one of Linkedin’s exams, they make you wait for three months before taking it again. I brushed up on pivot tables and passed the exam on my second attempt. If you use Excel regularly, you should take this exam.

You can learn more about LinkedIn skill assessments here.

Week 116: SEO Fundamentals By Moz Acadmey

For this week I took a course that is free for a limited time on the Moz Academy. Using the coupon code WEGOTTHIS before 5/31/2020, you can take some of the Moz Academy courses for free. This is one of those courses. It’s the SEO foundations course. This is an introductory SEO course that covers most of the same basics the other 101 type classes do. It covers crawling indexing ranking and search intent. The significant difference with this course vs the others is that this course was a little more thorough and better explained than some of the others. If you’re new to SEO, this is an incredible place to begin.

You can take this course for free (before May 31st 2020) here.

Week 115: LinkedIN Google Analytics Skill Exam

This week, I took a brand new Linkedin skill assessment exam for Google Analytics. I was waiting for a Linkedin skill assessment that was relevant for digital marketers. Sure, they had exams for HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. However, this one feels closest to home, and I was wondering when we would start to see more digital marketing based exams. It looks like they are starting to turn up now.

If you are proficient with Google Analytics, and you have already passed the Google Analytics IQ certification exam, then this one will come easy to you. This basically is the assessment for your LinkedIn profile that says, “Yep this guy knows Google Analytics.” There is no way to study for this other than brushing up on the GA basics. If its helpful, I was asked a question about virtual pageviews, and that was the only unfamiliar feature for me. I would recommend reading up about virtual page views and then give this exam a shot.

You can learn more about LinkedIn skill assessments here.

Week 114: SEMrush PPC Fundamentals

This is becoming a staple in this certificate quest. This course was for the renewal of my PPC fundamentals certificate by SEMrush. The course is an overview 101 level course of Paid Media advertising channels. The course covers campaign building, display, budget, and overall strategy.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 113: 7 Scientifically Proven Steps to Increase Your Influence

This is a free Udemy course called seven scientifically proven steps to increase your influence. This course was excellent. It gave a ton of examples of what someone needs to learn to be influential and charismatic. One of the things you learn about is how being vulnerable makes you more influential. So the next time you go into a meeting telling yourself that you need to act mighty, you might want to reconsider that. People respond well to those who asked for help. That is only one of the seven details you will learn in this course. There are six others, along with some excellent examples. I recommend this course for anyone who is looking to speak publicly, be in sales, or land a job. This course is for any of you.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 112:Mangools SEO Certificate

This is a new SEO certification course that I heard of recently from Mangools. This course will help you understand the basics of organic search. It covers on-site SEO, off-site SEO, and works in a few pro tips along the way.

The course is digestible, and the exam was insanely simple. If you are well versed in SEO, there is most likely not anything in here that have not heard before. I would recommend this for anyone who is just getting started with SEO or anyone looking to add another cert to their LinkedIn profile.

You can earn this certification for free here.

  “

Week 111: Regex Academy: An Introduction to Text Parsing Sorcery

Over the years, I’ve found myself needing to use regular expression and not really knowing enough about it. Sure, I always seem to find a tutorial online that is close enough to brute force my way through whatever task I need. However, this week I began the process of learning more about regex.

This is a free certification course from Udemy that armed me with the foundational understanding of regular expression that I needed. The course is called Regex Academy: An Introduction to Text Parsing Sorcery. I recommend you take this if you’re working on anything in Google Datastudio or Google Analytics.

This is a fast-paced course that I recommend bookmarking so you can use it as a resource.

You can earn this certification for free here.

 “

Week 110: SEO Training Course by Moz

This is an older free course Moz put out on Udemy. I went into this one thinking it was going to be like every other foundational SEO course. However, there was a lot of excellent content here.

This course teaches more than the basics. You will learn how to generate demand around brands that currently have none as well as how to use competitor keywords strategically. Additionally, it does a great job of covering the basics you would expect too. You will walk away with a solid understanding of SEO strategy, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO. Even though the dates on this course are three years old, this one is very relevant and highly recommended.

Ps. if anyone from Moz Academy is reading this, I’d love to review a copy of your actual SEO certification course. However, I know this audience would benefit from that course too.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 109: Google Shopping Ads Certification 2020

This is the 2020 renewal of my Google Shopping Ads certification.

I got my start in digital marketing in paid search, specifically focusing on the various product shopping search engines like Google Shopping and Bing Shopping. Over the years, I find myself still launching e-commerce product listing ad shopping campaigns for my clients on both Google and Bing. In some cases, I’m even blending SEO strategies as being the first customer touchpoint and then using Google Shopping ads for retargeting as well as the second touchpoint. The combination of SEO and Product Ads has worked so well for my clients. I highly recommend this course to any e-commerce marketers, regardless of their area of focus.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 108: eMarketing Institute Blogging Certification

The emarketinginstitute.org blogging certification is a newer course that I didn’t even hear of until this year of the quest. Like the other emarketing institute courses, this one is ridiculously simple. The course gives a foundational overview of blogging, the various blogging platforms, and explains how you can use blogging as part of your SEO strategy. You will be able to pass this one in your first few attempts, so you might as well give it a shot.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 107: Google Analytics IQ Certification

For this one, I thought it would be neat if I could find a screenshot of the first time I earned this certificate. I am pretty sure I found one of the early years here from 2014. This week was a renewal of my Google Analytics IQ certificate for 2020. I’ve been earning this certificate since 2014, and still use Google Analytics every single day. If you are in any digital marketing field, this is the staple certification you earn and renew. Keep renewing this one, and stay sharp, friends!

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 106: LinkedIN HTML Exam

This week, I took my third Linkedin skill assessment exam. This one was for HTML. While I’ve been an SEO for the past ten years, I never had any formal HTML training. Everything I know about HTML has been learned through trial and error or reading about certain parts of it as I needed to know more about them. Even with passing this, I still would not consider myself an HTML master. I know the HTML basics well enough to write and optimize it. If that describes you too, then you’re all set to take this exam because a foundational understanding is all you need to pass this one. As with any of these courses, the stakes are so incredibly low, so you might as well try to take the exam.

You can learn more about LinkedIn skill assessments here.

Week 105: eMarketing Affiliate Marketing Certification

This is eMarketing Institute’s Affiliate Marketing certification. It is a foundational overview of affiliate marketing. While I consider myself a search engine optimization expert, I’ve never actually done much as an affiliate myself. For any of you that know me, that is probably odd to read because I’ve even led an SEO team at an affiliate network. I was interested to learn more and took this course. The course is extremely high level, and it covers how to become and affiliate, how to manage an affiliate program, and a few strategies to help you on either side of being a publisher or manager of an affiliate program. With any of the eMarketing Institute certifications, this one is incredibly simple, so there is no reason not to get it.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 104: eMarketing Content Marketing Certification

With this cert, it is officially two years of this weekly project. This is another course from the emarketinginstitute.org site. The course is a free certification course that covers content marketing. This course gives an introduction to content marketing and covers content creation, management, and optimization. This is an easier course that will look nice on your Linkedin Profile.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 103: eMarketing E-Mail Marketing Certification

This is another new one from the emarketinginstitute.org site. The course is a free certification course that covers email marketing. Last year was the first year that I began to learn more about email marketing. It was always a marketing channel I intended to learn more about, I just never really forced myself to dig deeper there. When I discovered the Emarketing Institute’s free courses, I figured why not see what this one is all about. I thought it was a decent introductory course for email marketing. This course gives an introduction to email marketing and covers the basics of growing your list.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 102: eMarketing ECommerce Certification

This is another new one for 2019 from emarketinginstitute.org site. This is the free exam for eCommerce marketing. This is a basic introduction to ecommerce marketing online. The course covers basic strategies to increase sales, SEO for ecommerce, common ecommerce issues, and marketplaces.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 101: eMarketing Search Engine Marketing Certification

Here is another new one for me from emarketinginstitute.org site. This is the free exam for all things paid search with some SEO mixed in. This course covers Google Ads, campaign structure, tracking, and a little SEO overview too. I recommend taking the official Google Ads certification course over this one. That said, the Emarketing Institute Search Engine Marketing certification is still an excellent foundational level course for any paid search marketers looking to add another credential to their Linked In profile.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 100: eMarketing Institute Web Analytics Certification

The emarketinginstitute.org web analytics certification is another new course for me. Until a few weeks ago, I didnt know the eMarketing Institute.com existed. This course coveres the basics of web analytics and using Google Analytics. While I still recommend the Google Analytics IQ certification course over this one, this is still a great resource for anyone who wants to learn a little more about web analytics.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 99: SEMrush for Digital Agencies Certification

SEMrush has a new certificate that is right up my alley. This week’s course was the material to pass the SEMrush for Digital Agencies Certification. This certification is designed for marketers who would like to use SEMrush to assist them with winning new clients as well as using SEMrush to retain clients.

SEMrush has some features that I didn’t even know existed. It has a tool called Oppty which generates qualified leads for your digital agency business. The leads available in this tool are based on a target location and business type. The tool interests me because it can identify leads based on a gap it finds in SEO or PPC. Its neat. If you are thinking of providing SEO or PPC services. Certainly, consider SEMRush and go through the course to learn about how their toolset can help you grow your business.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 98: eMarketing Institute SEO Certification Course

While looking online for new free certification courses, I found the eMarketing Institute SEO Certification course. I had no idea this existed before skimming through the course and taking the exam. If you are an SEO, you can probably imagine what material is in this course and pass the exam with no problems. The course is an SEO basics overview which covers how search engines work, keyword research, algorithm updates, link building, site development, SEO tools, and best practices.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 97: SEMrush Technical SEO 2019

This week was a renewal of my SEMrush technical SEO certificate from last year. This is another exam that pairs with the fundamentals course that Greg Gifford teaches. This exam covers, internal linking, crawling, response codes, log files, hreflang, website performance, structured data, AMP and Mobile first indexing.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 96: Google Search Ads 360 2019

This was my 2019 renewal of the Google Search Ads 360 Certification. This was one of those exams I had to study for again as I don’t use the program on a daily basis, so I still found it to be difficult. This exam covers setting up paid search campaigns across multiple search engines, targeting, and bid strategies, troubleshooting issues, measuring progress, and optimizing campaigns.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 95: SEMrush SEO Fundamentals

This week was a renewal of my SEMrush SEO fundamentals certification from last year. This is the exam that pairs with the fundamentals course that Greg Gifford teaches. I really liked the course and still recommend this one to anyone that wants a free resource to learn more about SEO. That said, I don’t think the course has been updated over the past year. Some of the questions on the exam about pagination get a little clumsy. Even without being 100% up to date, it is still a phenomenal resource for learning SEO.

This course covers the following SEO topics. How Search engines work, Crawling, indexing, and ranking, Technical SEO, Offsite signals, On-page signals, Mobile SEO, International SEO, and Local SEO

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 94: LinkedIN Powerpoint Exam

This week, I took my second Linkedin skill assessment exam. This one is for Powerpoint. Any of my clients will tell you that my entire career life is spent delivering SEO recommendations in Powerpoint. With that in mind, I had to try my hand at taking LinkedIn’s skill assessment for it.

I find these skill assessments to be a little tricky. There is no way to really study for them or see what is covered on the exam outside of just taking it and failing it. Luckily for me, I must have answered enough of the questions correctly to pass. I wasn’t so lucky when it came to my Excel or Javascript exams. If you don’t pass one of these, you will have to wait three months before you can retake it. If you’re a Powerpoint user, then I would recommend brushing up on your animation options and then give this exam try. As with any of these courses, the stakes are so incredibly low, so give it a shot!

You can learn more about LinkedIn skill assessments here.

Week 93: Waze Ads Advanced

To follow up last week’s post, this was a renewal of my Waze Ads Advanced certification for 2019. This more in-depth course teaches you how to optimize Waze Ads campaigns and how to position Waze Ads to clients. This is another certification that has not changed much from last year, so it will be an easier renewal course to add to your quest. .

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 92: Waze Fundamentals Certification 2019

This week was my 2019 renewal of my Waze Ads Fundamentals certification. This course is on the new Skillshop (formerly Google Academy for ads) platform. This certification expires every year, and since the course has not changed much in one year, you could easily renew this one.

The Waze Ads Fundamentals course covers the mission of Waze, an overview of the ad formats available, and how to track progress advertising on the platform. This cert is excellent for any display or paid search marketers looking to learn more about Waze Ad placements.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 91: Hubspot Frictionless Sales

This is a brand new Hubspot certification all about reducing the friction in your sales process. This course covers a few different points. It will show you how to identify what keeps your sales reps from closing, how to enable more impactful conversations, and how to create a culture of learning. I walked with a few actionable steps. It was a quick course, and if this sounds like it could be helpful, I recommend that you take it.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 90: Google Ads Measurement

This is a brand new Google Ads certificate called Google Ads Measurement. Last week I received an email saying that the Academy for Ads has rebranded as Skillshop. Along with the notice, they mentioned that there was a brand new Google Ads certificate specifically focused on the measurement of ads. Lately, my strategies are beginning to look more like a strategic blend between organic and paid search, where I lean heavily on the data to tell me where energies or ad spend need to be devoted. With that in mind, I thought this certification would have been a breeze.

…and then I failed this four times. Well, in my case, the fifth time was not a charm. It took four failures for me to take the course that you are supposed to take before taking the exam. It turns out some of the vocabulary and stats I use daily, and I was completely wrong about those points.

This course teaches you about the measurement and effectiveness of all types of Google Ads. I recommend you review Google My Business, Firebase, and Adwords Gtag installation before firing up the exam.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 89: Facebook Achieving Scale with the Reach Objective

Here is another shorter certificate that is part of the Facebook Blueprint certification series. This is the “Achieving Scale with the Reach Objective” Facebook Blueprint course. The Reach objective can help you grow the number of impressions you get on your ad campaign, so I was interested to learn more about it. This course is a basic 101 type course where you can learn when, how, and why you might want to use this campaign objrective.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 88: Youtube Music Certified

Here we are in the 88th week and there is still no shortage of new content or certifications to add to this quest! On the Google Academy for Ads, I noticed there was a new certification I never heard of before. It is the Youtube Music certification. This program covers how music artist’s can grow their fanbase and measure their channel performance. The topics covered are content strategies, analytics, revenue, and basic rights management.

I am a musician, so when I saw this certification come up, I had to add it to the quest. If you have a firm grasp on Youtube, you will have no problem earning this certificate.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 87: Hubspot Content Strategy

Last month I received an email from the Hubspot Academy newsletter saying they posted a new Content Strategy course. This course is taught by experts like Larry Kim, Andy Crestodina, Sujan Patel, and the HubSpot Academy Professors. Naturally, I had to go through this one. While there is no shiny certificate at the end, it is still worth it. The course covers storytelling, building a long term strategy, creating pillar pages and a session on how to effectively promote your content. I walked away from this course, learning some actionable things I am going to implement in my content strategy. I know there is going to be something in here that you will learn too.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 86: SEMRush Site Audit Course and Exam

I noticed the SEMrush recently added a new course about the SEMrush site audit tool so naturally, I had to take it. The Site Audit tool in SEMrush’s built-in organic search crawler bot tool. This tool is used to measure your website’s overall health as well as show you any technical SEO opportunities. The main benefit to using this tool over a standard crawling tool like Screaming Frog SEO spider is that it records your progress over time. The course covers everything about the tool. If you are interested in technical SEO, I recommend going through this course.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 85: CSS LinkedIn Skill Assessment

If you look through your LinkedIn profile’s skill endorsements, you might be prompted to take a “skill assessment quiz.” Linkedin recently added this as a feature to help set a baseline for gauging someone’s proficiency in a certain area beyond the self-proclaimed, “yep, I am totally great at that.” In their help file, it says that this feature is not currently available to all users. It is available for me. However, it looks to be limited to only programming languages. I took the CSS course and, fortunately for me, I passed. I did this more as an experiment to be able to report back here than to profess I am stylesheet genius. I am not. If you know CSS, I recommend that you give this exam a try. The downside here is that if you fail, you need to wait three months before you can opt to retake it. The screenshot for this week is what it looks like once you pass the quiz. To be honest, I had a hard time finding any badge for this on my own profile. I imagine it will be buried for any prospective clients or recruiters too. As with any of these courses, the stakes are so incredibly low, so give it a shot!

You can learn more about LinkedIn skill assessments here.

Week 84: Pardot 101 Course

Recently I began marketing for a client that uses Salesforce and Pardot for their marketing and CRM needs. I’ve used other systems, however, here is where I need to admit that until this point I have never actually had to use Pardot. I am the type of learner that looks for courses and videos I can complete to help me get up to speed. Pardot has a vast help section. I found one webinar session much more valuable than any of the other material that I went through, so it deserves its spot here on the quest. This is a webinar for “getting the most out of Pardot in one day.” I agree. If you watch this, there will be enough dots that connect for you to get started with Pardot.

You can watch the video for this session here.

Week 83: Facebook and TV

Here is another shorter micro-certificate as part of the Facebook Blueprint certification series. This is the “Facebook and TV” Blueprint course. The marketing landscape is changing for advertisers and now we can create video campaigns that can be planned, purchased and reported on like TV and other video channels. Facebook advertising allows for using Nielsen-verified Target Rating Points (TRPs) on Facebook and Instagram. This course is all about using TRP and targeting delivery to your target audience.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 82: Facebook – Reach and Frequency Buying on Facebook

This is another shorter micro-certificate as part of the Facebook Blueprint certification series. This is the Reach and Frequency course. It is all about reach and frequency ad buying and how it enables you to predict the number of people in your target audience that you will reach. The course will teach you when to use reach and frequency as well as how to optimize your campaigns.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 81: Facebook – Promote Your Business From Your Facebook Page

This is the fourth certificate as part of the Facebook Blueprint certification series. This is the Promote Your Business From Your Facebook Page. It is shorter course that explains the types of promotions you can launch through your Facebook page. The course teaches you step by step how to launch promotions and how to manage, track, and optimize them.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 80: Facebook – Simplifying Lead Generation in a Cross-Device World

I will be staying focused on Facebook for the next few weeks. This is the third micro certificate as part of the larger Facebook Blueprint certification. This is called Simplifying Lead Generation in a Cross-Device World. The lead gen coursecovers creating lead forms, integrating them with your own CRM data, and how you can promote them to acquire more leads.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 79: Facebook – Offers: Attract, Convert, and Reward Customers

Lately I have been working on my Facebook marketing game. This course is the second of a group of smaller, Facebook Blueprint certifications that I took. This one is called Facebook Offers: Attract, Convert, and Reward Customers. It covers everything about Facebook Offers. It teaches you a foundational level so you can create your own offer and reach a larger audience by promoting it.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 78: Facebook – Drive Store Traffic

This week begins a new collection of shorter courses for me, the Facebook Blueprint cert.  Facebook has a collection of micro courses on their Blueprint portal.  All of these courses are incredibly helpful and also very short.  I’ll be the first to admit that 78 weeks into this, I’ve begun to pick up with client work.  For me, that is the idea here, to continue my education so that I can share it and win on behalf of my clients.  The process is working for me, and I know it can work for you too.  That said, as I keep the quest going, getting ahead by a few weeks certainly helps.  The next few courses are shorter courses from the Blueprint academy. If you’re looking for shorter courses to help keep your quest moving, I think you’ll enjoy the next handful.

The Drive Store Traffic Facebook course is designed to help you reach people near your physical location. This course basically helps with using Facebook to drive people to your store to accomplish your offline goals.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 77: Google Ads Mobile Sites

This is the 2019 Google Ads mobile sites certification. This certification covers both basic and advanced mobile optimization concepts.  It covers best practices for creating, managing, measuring, and optimizing mobile-friendly websites.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 76: Google Digital Garage Improve Your Online Business Security

Here is a quick course about security on the Google Digital Garage. This course covers the importance of passwords, phishing attempts, training employees, and all that goes into maintaining your online security. Chances are good you have already heard a lot of this; however, it never hurts to get a refresher.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 75: Hubspot Inbound Marketing Certification

I needed a break from renewing some of last year’s digital marketing certificates, so here is a new one! This is the Hubspot Inbound Marketing certificate course. This will teach you about various inbound marketing strategies ranging from content creation to social media promotion and nurturing leads along the way. All of the Hubspot certification courses are pretty good, and I encourage you to take this one too. You will walk away from this one a stronger marketer.

You can earn this certificate for free here.

Week 74: SEMrush SMM Fundamentals

This week was yet another renewal of a certification from last year. This is the SEMrush SMM (Social Media Marketing) Fundamentals certification. I love SEMrush and consider it my go-to digital marketing tool. This particular exam is less about SEMrush and its features and more about having a strong foundation to build your social media strategies off of.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 73: Google Ads Mobile

This week was a renewal of my Google Ads mobile certification. Over the past few years Google have embraced that most visitors will view your website from their phone, so they have created an ads certification for dialing in your mobile user experience.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 72: Google Ads Search Certification

This week was another renewal of my Google Ads Search certification. This is the more advanced of the two exams required to become Google Ads certified. The first one is the fundamentals exam and then this is the Google Search ads specific exam after that. Both exams expire each year, so we are forced to take both of them again. I’ve renewed this certification for the past five years, and the best advice I have is to just stay current on any major changes. As long as you stay up to date, you will be able to pass this exam every year without any problems.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 71: Google Digital Garage – Increase Productivity At Work

This is a really quick course that you can work on in between some of the more challenging certification courses. This one was on the Google Digital Garage, and it is called “Increase Productivity at Work.” It is designed to provide you tips that will make you stronger at managing your time. In here you will learn delegation and prioritization tips that can help you work more efficiently.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 70: Google Ads Display Certification

This week was a renewal of my Google Display certification. This is the certification course covers foundational best practices for creating, managing, and optimizing Display campaigns on Google Ads. This is the quintessential certification for Display ads.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 69: Amazon Sponsored Product Ads

This week I dove into the Amazon Sponsored Product Ad course on Sellercentral. This is a foundational level course in the Amazon seller portal that is designed to teach you everything you need about launching and maintaining Amazon Sponsored Product Ads. I’ve been assisting a teammate with Amazon ad campaigns for a few months now, and I still found the course to be really insightful. While there is no exam or certificate at the end, I walked away from this with a few new tools and strategies to use in my campaigns. I’ll call that a quest worthy win.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 68: Google Introduction to Data Studio

This week’s course was the new intro to Data Studio course on Google’s Analytics Academy. Data Studio is Google’s reporting software tool that lets you go beyond the standard Google Analytics dashboard. With Data Studio, you can bring in multiple data sources to create visual dashboard reports that are easy for your team to use. Data Studio incorporates a variety of widgets and interactive controls. There is a small learning curve, and once you get it, you are set. I recommend this course for any digital marketer.

You can earn this certificate for free here.

Week 67: Understand the Basics of Machine Learning

This week was a quick course from Google’s new Digital Garage called “Understand the Basics of Machine Learning.” Machine learning powers organic search engine rankings, so anything I can do to understand it better is going to be part of my weekly learning. This was an easy course that did not get into any of the technical details. It will help you better understand what machine learning is and is not. I recommend anyone interested in SEO take a few minutes to go through this one.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 66: Bing Ads Accredited Professional Certification 2019 (Another Renewal)

This week was a renewal of the Bing Ads Accredited Professional Certification. Similar to the Google Ads certification, this is the exam and course you need to pass in order to become an Accredited Bing Ads pro. The course covers the fundamentals of the Bing Ads platform. I will admit that this exam took me a few more attempts than it did in previous years, so it is either getting more difficult or I am using Bing Ads less than ever. I would just account for some extra study time this year.

You can earn this certificate for free here.

Week 65: Google Academy Choosing the Right Mobile Asset

This week was a quicker course on mobile from the Google Academy for Ads. The course covers the benefits of both mobile sites and apps and where they can fit into your mobile strategy. This is a very quick course that would fit well in your quest while you work on some of the longer, more difficult, exams.

You can take this for free here.

Week 64: Hubspot Inbound Sales

This week was all about getting better at sales. It is one thing to be a very disciplined marketer and another if you are, a marketer with a very strong sales toolkit. Fortunately for me, Hubspot has the Hubspot Inbound Sales certification course. This course is for great for anyone for tips they can use in their next sales call. The course is a foundational level course that will help you identify new prospects, connect with them, explore their needs, and advise them on a path forward.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 63: Google Ads Fundamentals

This was another renewal. This one is the staple for paid search marketers. It is the fundamentals course and exam for Google Ads (Adwords). While this is a paid search certification, I feel it is a vital exam for SEOs to earn too.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 62: SEMrush Advertising Toolkit Certification

This was a renewal for SEMrush’s Advertising Toolkit certification. This one is the certification for all of the advertising features for SEMrush. SEMrush is my go-to digital marketing tool for SEO. I often have to remind myself it has a brilliant wealth of data on the paid search side too. Maintaining this certification is about reminding myself we have more tools than we can ever need, we just need to use them.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 61: Google Shopping Ads Certification

This was a renewal for my Google Shopping ads certification from last year. Not much has changed from this test from year to year, however, I have also been using shopping campaigns more than ever. The best advice I have is that if you are an ecommerce search marketer of any kind, you really should get this certificate.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 60: SEMrush SEMrush Content Marketing Toolkit Certification

This was another renewal from an SEMrush certificate from last year. This was the SEMrush Content Marketing Toolkit exam. This is their certification on using the features of their software that would aid in content creation. As you’ll see from other certificates, I view SEMrush as my digital marketing swiss army knife, so I highly recommend this one.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 59: SEMrush SEO Toolkit Certification

This was a renewal for the SEMrush SEO toolkit exam from last year. This is their certification on using the SEO features in their software. I see SEMrush as my digital marketing swiss-army knife, so I highly recommend this one.

You can earn this certification for free here.

Week 58: Hubspot Developing an End-to-End Instagram Marketing Strategy For Your Business

This course has no certification at the end of it, however, it is still worth going through it. This is an Instagram marketing course that will give you the foundation you need to manage it for yourself or clients. If you’re interested in social media, check this one out too.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 57: SEMrush PPC Fundamentals 2019 Certificate (A Renewal)

This certification is for advertisers who want an edge over their competition. SEMrush is what I consider to be the swiss army knife of digital marketing. This is their PPC fundamentals course. I recommend this for anyone who is doing any form of SEM.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 56: Hubspot’s Growth Driven Design Agency Certification

This certification is for agency owners who want to put an emphasis on growth for their clients. I liked this one because it challenged me to think differently about what would happen if I reworked my digital marketing clients to be centered around growth rather than certain deliverables. The truth is that I get hired to make things happen, and going about that does not look identical from site to site. This course helps you understand everything you will need to make the shift to being growth driven. I recommend this one for my agency and consulting friends.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 55: Hubspot’s Growth Driven Design

This week was spent taking a course that is all about creating campaigns and experiences online that are growth driven. The school of thought behind this is that it is better to get a quick first version of a site out and spend more time making small incremental improvements to it based on what the data tells you than to take forever launching the perfect site. This course alone has gotten me to rethink how I put together strategies for the sites that I work on. Launch and adjust is better than guess, launch, measure, report and wish the conversion rate was better. I liked this one and think you will too.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 54: Google Search Ads 360 Mobile Basics

Week two was all about brushing up on my mobile SEM game. For this week I made it through the Google Academy for Ads’ Search ads 360 Mobile Basics course. This was a foundational level course that can be used as a refresher for mobile ads. The course is designed to “help customers find you wherever they are.”

You can take this course for free here.

Week 53: Scale and Optimize RLSA Performance

Here we are one year later and there is still no shortage of digital marketing content to help us become stronger in our craft. For this week I wanted to learn more about some of the new Google retargeting strategies, so I took the Scale and Optimize RLSA Performance course on the Google Academy for ads. The course was helpful. It even lit a fire under me to begin using Google Analytics to create a few new retargeting audiences.

You can take this course for free here.

Week 52: SEMrush Social Toolkit

It is the 52nd week of our weekly certification quest. This week was Semrush’s “Social Toolkit” certification course. This course covers Social Strategy in general and how you can use SEMrush’s social tools to help manage your social presence.

You can take this course for free here: https://www.semrush.com/academy/courses/?subj=SMM

#socialmediamarketing #certquest #digitalmarketing

Week 51: YouTube Creative Essentials Course

Stay the course and keep learning, Friends! It is the 51st week of our weekly certification quest. This week was Google’s “YouTube Creative Essentials” course. This course covers Youtube creative strategies for video marketing. It goes over what works and what does not work. By 2025, half of U.S. viewers under 32 will not subscribe to a pay TV service. The is another course about being on the right side of history.

You can take this course for free here: https://lnkd.in/ec-Gc4S

#videomarketing #socialmediamarketing #youtube #certquest #digitalmarketing

Week 50: Video for Brand Basics Course

We’ve got to keep pushing. We’ve got to keep learning, Friends! It is the 50th week of our weekly certification quest. This week was Google’s “Video for Brand Basics” course. This is an introductory course that covers Youtube and marketing with video. By 2025, half of U.S. viewers under 32 will not subscribe to a pay TV service. The course is about building your brand with video now so that you’re on the right side of history.

You can take this course for free here: https://lnkd.in/edbMUFn

#videomarketing #socialmediamarketing #youtube #certquest #digitalmarketing

Week 49: Measure your customer-centric marketing

Let discipline and learning be your advantage! It is the 49th week of our weekly certification quest. This week was Google’s “Measure your customer-centric marketing” course. This course will help you anticipate differences between the traditional and digital worlds and offers tips to ensure effective measurement of your campaigns. Instead of focusing on isolated transactions, this course helps you understand how to better attract and retain customers who will bring your brand the most value in the years to come. This one is worth checking out.

You can take this course for free here: https://lnkd.in/eyMu4aH

#certquest #seo #analyticis #ppc #digitalmarketing #customercentric

Week 48: Google Digital Garage Foundations of Digital Marketing Certification

Let’s keep this momentum going, Friends! It is the 48th week of our weekly certification quest. This week was the new Google Digital Garage foundations of Digital Marketing certification course. This course was on the longer side, however, it was totally worth it. It is a foundational level course for all things digital marketing. It is up to date, and you will finish this course having a grasp on what it is like to be a digital marketer. You also get this neat looking certification once you make it through it.

You can earn this certificate for free here: https://lnkd.in/ejJQdjJ

#digitalmarketing #seo#ppc #sem #advertising #certquest

Week 47: SEO Toolkit for Advanced SEMrush Users

Let’s keep learning, Friends! It is the 47th week of our weekly certification quest. This week we focused on the “SEO Toolkit for Advanced SEMrush Users” from the SEMrush Academy. This is a free exam for SEMrush users who are looking to sharpen their mastery of the tools.

You can take this course for free here: https://lnkd.in/e5ft-wC

#seo #certquest #semrush

Week 46: Hubspot: Business Writing course lead by Daniel Pink

Remember to challenge yourself, friends! It is the 46th week of our weekly certification quest. This week we focused on HubSpot Academy‘s Business Writing course lead by Daniel Pink. Yes, that’s the best selling author Daniel Pink. This was a fun course where Daniel shared his top writing tips for researching, outlining, and editing his work. Anyone can benefit from the tips shared in this course. I recommend this one.

You can take this course for free here: https://lnkd.in/ez4QphQ

#writing #business #marketing #certquest

Week 45: Google’s Search Ads 360 basics course

Let’s keep learning and stay sharp, friends. It is the 45th week of our weekly certification quest. For this week we focused on Google’s Search Ads 360 basics course from the Academy for Ads. This course will teach you how to set up your first ad campaign, manage your budgets, and measure your ads performance. It is not an in-depth overview, however, it is enough to get started. If you’re looking for a basic ads course, you might want to check this one out.

You can earn this certificate for free here: https://lnkd.in/eXKRVUk

#digitalmarketing #advertising #sem #doubleclick#certquest

Week 44: Google’s Studio Basics

We got to keep our discipline and stay sharp, friends! It is the 44th week of our weekly certification quest. This week’s course was Google’s Studio Basics from the Academy for Ads. Google Studio is a tool to simplify the creative development of rich media display ads. This course covers enough of the basics so that you could begin to make rich media ads on your own. If you’re interested in graphic design or display marketing, you might want to check this one out.

You can earn this certificate for free here: https://lnkd.in/ef6ANuU

Week 43: Amazon Product Quality

Keep that momentum, friends! It is the 43rd week of our weekly certification quest. I am learning that there is no shortage of free certification learning material online. Lately, I’ve been working on the PPC side and helping a teammate strategize his budget for Amazon’s Sponsored Product Ads. To get up to speed, I’ve been making my way through the learning material that Amazon provides in its Seller Central portal. In Seller Central’s learning section, there are a few benchmark quizzes that you can take to test your understanding. This one is all about product quality and what you can list vs. not list on Amazon.

You can take this quiz for free in the learning section of your Seller Central account: https://lnkd.in/dSedGhG

Good luck in your quest!

#digitalmarketing #ecommerce #amazonppc#amazonsponsoredproductads #sharpenyoursaw #certquest

Week 42: Google Performance 2018

We’ve made it to week 42 of the #certquest! This week was Google‘s Performance 2018 course. This is a quick course to get up to speed on the latest ad products and changes from Google. This covers some of the new automated bid types and ways to target users across all devices. Google is constantly changing, so I recommend adding this one into your quest.

You can earn it for free here: https://lnkd.in/eVkrJTE

#digitalmarketing #ecommerce #analytics

Week 41: Alison Diploma in E-Business

It is the 41st week of our #certquest! Let’s keep it going! This week’s course was the Alison Diploma in E-Business.  This is a general diploma covering e-commerce, SEO, PPC, and Analytics. It is worth noting that this is one course that I do not recommend. The course is out of date, and if you would like to learn more about any of the topics covered, you should earn one of Google’s official certifications.

You can earn this one for free here: https://lnkd.in/eQSFfis

#digitalmarketing #seo #ecommerce #analytics

Week 40: Hubspot Academy Social Media

The quest continues for its 40th week! This week’s certification course was the new HubSpot Academy Social Media Certification course. The course does a great job coving all things social. Here is what is covered in the course: 1) social media strategy 2) social listening and moderating 3) content strategy 4) extending your social reach with user-generated content 5) working influencers 6) customer service via social channels 7) social selling, 8)measuring ROI 9) social governance and risk and so much more. You can earn this certification for free here: https://lnkd.in/ec2MGYE Good luck in your quest, friends!#socialmediamarketing #digitalmarketing #certquest #socialmedia

Week 39: Google Analytics for Power Users

Let’s keep the momentum going, friends! It is the 39th week of our certification quest. This is a brand new Google Analytics Academy course. It is called Google Analytics for Power Users, and it is all about turning your insights into action. I recommend this one for anyone who uses Google Analytics on a regular basis.

You can earn it for free here: https://lnkd.in/eZazGEf

Join me in the quest by earning this cert too! Good luck! #digitalmarketing #searchengineoptimization #analytics #googleanalytics #seo #sharpenyoursaw #certquest

Week 38: SEMrush Technical SEO Course and Certificate

Our certification quest continues on for its 38th week! This week’s certification course was the new SEMrush Technical SEO Course and Certificate. This course is great for anyone who wants to learn more about the technical side of SEO. It will teach you technical SEO concepts so you can avoid any potential issues and learn how to leverage your technical ranking opportunities. I often find that websites don’t rank as well as they should due to a simple technical reason, so I recommend this course for anyone with an interest in SEO.

You can earn this new cert for free here: https://lnkd.in/dn_sPHK

Each week I am earning or renewing a digital marketing certification. Join me in the quest by earning one of these free certs too! Good luck in your quest, friends! #digitalmarketing #searchengineoptimization#technicalSEO #seo #sharpenyoursaw #certquest

Week 37: Google Android Enterprise Platform Associate

It is week 37 of this certification quest! Please know that as I went to type, “and still going strong,” I was really thinking to myself, “I can’t quit now.” This week’s course was Google’s Android Enterprise Platform Associate certification. It is designed to teach you about the value of Android and walk you through examples of where it can fit into your business process.

You can earn this certification for free here: https://lnkd.in/eteZp-5

#digitalmarketing #android #seo #mobilemarketing #certquest

Week 36: Waze Ads Local Advanced

Week 36: Google’s Waze Ads Local Advanced course This is the second, more advanced, Waze ads course. This course will teach you how to optimize your Waze Local campaigns and dashboards. There is even a section to help with pitching Waze local to clients.

You can go through this course for free here: https://lnkd.in/eb-SHv3

Join me on the #certquest by keeping your career sword sharp.#digitalmarketing #waze #wazeads #ppc #localmarketing

Week 35: Google Analytics Individual Qualification

This is the 35th week of our #certquest! Let’s keep this going! This week’s course was my #localmarketing 7th renewal of the Google Analytics Individual Qualification. This is actually the first digital marketing certification that I have ever earned. If you’re wondering where to begin with your certification quest, this is it! Measurement is so vital to the success of your marketing efforts. Being that Google Analytics is free and most likely installed the majority of website’s you will work with, it is a platform you will want to master. This course is where you can begin that journey.

You can go through this course for free here: https://lnkd.in/exfqx63

Good luck with your quest, friends! #digitalmarketing #googleanalytics #seo #ppc

Week 34: Waze Ads Fundamentals

The #certquest continues with week 34! This week’s certification was Google’s Waze Ads Fundamentals. Yep, there is a certification for Waze! The course covers the Waze Local ad formats and how to track the performance of your campaign.

You can go through this course for free here: https://lnkd.in/edcbvP6

Join me on the #certquest by keeping your career sword sharp.#digitalmarketing #waze #wazeads #ppc #localmarketing

Week 33: Google Display & Video 360 Certification

It is the 33rd week of the #certquest! This week’s course was Google’s Display and Video 360 certification. D&V 360 is the new branded Google platform that blends features from DoubleClick Bid Manager, Campaign Manager, Studio and Audience Center to a single hub, and this is the certification exam for it. The exam covers campaign setup, assigning inventory, goals, budgets, targeting, and creatives. This is another new certification course for Google, so all of my display marketing friends should check this one out.

You can earn this cert for free here: https://lnkd.in/e8KC4GZ

Join me on the #certquest by keeping your career sword sharp. #digitalmarketing #videomarketing #displayadvertising #doubleclick

Week 32: Google Campaign Manager Certification

The #certquest continues with week 32! This week’s certification was Google’s Campaign Manager certification. The Campaign Manager exam covers planning, implementing, and reporting inside the Campaign Manager. This is a new certification course for Google, so all of my display marketing friends should check this one out.

You can go through this course for free here: https://lnkd.in/enUrvZs

The rules of the #certquest are simple. Every week keep your career sword sharp by taking a course or earning a certification related to your field. Good luck in your quest, friends!#digitalmarketing #videomarketing #displayadvertising #doubleclick

Week 31: Google Video 2018

Week 31 of the #certquest was all about Video Marketing.  This week’s course was Google’s Video 2018 certification.  This will teach you about the latest video ad formats, how to target your audience, and how to measure your efforts.  It is a quicker course to go through, and it will get you up to speed for all things video in 2018.

You can go through this course for free here: https://lnkd.in/eEMZ7zJ

The rules of the certquest are simple. Every week keep your career sword sharp by taking a course or earning a certification related to your field. Good luck in your quest, friends! #digitalmarketing #videomarketing #youtubemarketing

Week 30: Google Web Designer Basics

It is already the 30th week of our #certquest!  Let’s keep this going! The rules of this quest are simple.  Every week keep your career sword sharp by taking a course or earning a certification related to your field. This week’s course Google Web Designer Basics. Google Web Designer is a free HTML5 creation tool that helps beginners make engaging creative for banner ads. It allows you to easily create engaging ads without the need to use a developer. This course covers enough of the basics for you to get started using the tool to create ads.

You can go through this course for free here: https://lnkd.in/drbS4Ms

Good luck in your quest, friends! #digitalmarketing #marketingstrategy #certquest #sem #ppc #bannerads

Week 29: Google Measurement 2018

It is week 29 of our #certquest! Each week we are earning or renewing a marketing certification. This week was about sharpening my Google Analytics sword. I made it through the Google Measurement 2018 course. This will show you the latest ways of using data to make intelligent marketing decisions. Basically, the course covers attribution and the various ways to gain insights about your audience.

You can go through this course for free here: https://lnkd.in/eG5crRW

Good luck in your quest, friends! #digitalmarketing #marketingstrategy #certquest #sem#ppc Google #googleanalytics #analytics #attribution #seo

Week 28: SEMrush PPC Specialist Course

It is week 28 of the #certquest! It has been incredible to get tagged in your weekly accomplishments too! This is about sharpening our swords, so let’s win together. This week I refreshed the SEMrush for PPC specialists course. There is a wealth of knowledge found inside monitoring your competitors’ ads in SEMrush. This week was all about tapping into that mindset. This course reminds me to leverage my competition’s strengths and devoting energy to the areas where they are weak.

You can go through this course for free here: https://lnkd.in/ehNB426

Each week I am earning or renewing a new digital marketing certification Good luck in your quest, friends! #digitalmarketing #marketingstrategy #certquest #sem #ppc SEMrush

Week 27: Feedonomics Courses

It is already week 27 of this quest! Join me in this quest by going through a free online course this week. Keep the sword of your skill set as sharp as it can be, friends! This week I dove back into my Google merchant center roots by completing two Feedonomics.com courses. This the educational portal for the data feed management software Feedonomics.

Check out Feedonomics here.

Each week I am earning or renewing a new digital marketing certification Good luck in your quest, friends! #digitalmarketing #marketingstrategy #certquest #googlemerchantcenter Feedonomics

Week 26: Google My Business

Week 26 of the certification quest was all about Google local results. This week we conquered the Google My Business basics cert. This course is an easier course for your quest. This will teach you about the latest Google My Business features and how you should use them to attract local customers. If you have a business that you would like its local listing (or Google Maps listing) to rank higher in search results, then check this one out.

You can earn this new cert for free here: https://lnkd.in/d35PCUc

Each week I am earning or renewing (or at least attempting) a new digital marketing certification Good luck in your quest, friends! #digitalmarketing #marketingstrategy #googlemaps #certquest Google #googlelocal

Week 25: Youtube Channel Growth

It is the 25th week of our certification quest! This week we powered through the YouTube channel growth cert. This YouTube marketing course teaches how you can grow your YouTube channel. The course covers best practices, video strategy, and assessing /analyzing how a channel can fit into different content categories. It is worth checking out if you are running a Youtube channel or thinking of launching one.

You can earn this new cert for free here: https://lnkd.in/eHQQhYk

Each week I am earning or renewing (or at least attempting) to pass a new digital marketing certification Good luck in your quest, friends! #digitalmarketing #marketingstrategy  #videomarketing #youtube

Week 24: SEMrush’s 2018 SEO Fundamentals Course

It is the 24th week of our certification quest!  This week we conquered SEMrush‘s 2018 SEO Fundamentals Course with Greg Gifford. This course is an up to date foundational SEO course. If you were ever wondering, “isn’t there one resource that is up to date and teaches both technical and content-based SEO?” Yes, this is that course. This is great for anyone who wants to learn more about search engine optimization.  It is also great for well versed SEOs who want to quickly get up to date with 2018 best practices.

You can earn this new cert for free here: https://lnkd.in/eVQR7F2

Each week I am earning or renewing (or at least attempting) to pass a new digital marketing certification Good luck in your quest, friends!  #digitalmarketing #marketingstrategy #semrush #seo

Week 23: Hubsot Sales Enablement

HubSpot Academy Sales Enablement Certification = Conquered It’s the 23rd week of our certification quest! This course is great for understanding how marketers and sales professionals could work better together.   The course will teach you methods for aligning both sales and marketing to create buyer-centric content.  I would recommend this course to anyone who would like to get an edge when it comes to sales or their inbound marketing strategy.

You can earn this new cert for free here: https://lnkd.in/dJnY7GE

Each week I am earning or renewing a digital marketing certification.  Join me in the quest by earning one of these free certs too! Good luck in your quest, friends! #digitalmarketing #marketingstrategy #hubspot

Week 22: Google Doubleclick

The saga continues for our 22nd week! This week’s certification course is a new Google beta exam for DoubleClick Search. There are a few new DoubleClick certifications that I’ll do my best to review over the next coming weeks. This course is great for any Paid Search marketers interested in learning about how DoubleClick can help elevate their strategies. This course covers automation, bid strategy types, floodlight variables, merging offline with online conversion and what felt like everything in between.  Being that this course is still in its beta stages, I felt this one was more challenging than most of the other exams on the Academy for Ads portal. I say that because I am not 100% sure that every question I was asked during the exam was actually covered in the prep material. That said, it took me an extra two attempts to pass this exam. With every attempt, my score seemed to get a little better until I passed. I would recommend giving yourself an extra 2-3 hours of study time due to the gaps in prep material.

You can earn this new cert for free here: https://lnkd.in/dCnv4Yc

Each week I am earning or renewing a digital marketing certification. Join me in the quest by earning one of these free certs too! Good luck in your quest, friends!

Week 21: Hubspot SEO 2018 Course

It is week 21 of our weekly certification quest!  This week’s course is near and dear to my heart because it’s an SEO training course!  For week 21 we made it through HubSpot Academy‘s  2018 SEO Training Course.  If you’re interested in SEO and want to learn how to get organic traffic in the latest ranking algorithms, then check out this course.  I highly recommend this one as there are not many up to date resources to learn SEO from.  This will give you a solid foundation to learn from.  While I focus on SEO professionally, even I learned a few new strategies which I am excited to deploy.

You can earn this cert for free here: https://lnkd.in/dnaM_gP

Each week I am earning or renewing a digital marketing certification. Join me in the quest by earning one of these free certs too! Good luck in your quest, friends!

Week 20: Getting Started With Google Analytics 360

It is week 20 of our certification quest! This week’s course was the Google Analytics Academy “Getting Started With Google Analytics 360” certification. I recommend this course to any online marketer or analytics wizard who might be interested in learning more about the benefits of Google Analytics 360. GA 360 has a few key features which are not available in the standard free GA suite. If you are involved in any form of online marketing for an enterprise brand or large website, check out this course because there is a good chance you’ll encounter GA 360 sooner than later. The course will walk you through the additional features of roll-up reporting, custom funnels, and unsampled data. Additionally, the course will cover GA 360’s seamless integration with each of the Doubleclick platforms and BigQuery. The course is a great introduction to learning about why you might want to begin using GA360.

You can earn this cert for free here: https://lnkd.in/dYCYEn9

Each week I am earning or renewing a digital marketing certification. Join me in the quest by earning one of these free certs too!  Good luck in your quest, friends!

Week 19: Google Tag Manager Fundamentals

It is week 19 of our weekly certification quest! This week has been fun with some career change announcements share!  I began a new role as the SEO, SEM, and Data Analytics expert for World Wide Stereo! I am now client side and remaining close to agency life by consulting after hours. The new role requires that I stay sharp on my Google Tag Manager (GTM) skills, so renewing my GTM cert felt like the way to go this week.   This week’s certification was Google Analytics Academy Google Tag Manager Fundamentals certification. I recommend this course to any online marketer, web developer, or anyone interested in learning more about the basics of Google tag manager. The course will walk you through the basics with simple examples and video training.  It will help you get your hands dirty enough to feel confident using GTM, building tags, using triggers and migrating existing tags into your new container. The whole idea of GTM is based on simplicity, so if GTM is not a tool in your marketing kit, take this course.

You can earn this cert for free here: https://lnkd.in/d_APTwW

Each week I am earning or renewing a digital marketing certification. Join me in the quest by earning one of these free certs too! Good luck in your quest, friends!

Week 18: Hubspot Contextual Marketing

It is week 18 of our certification quest together! This week has been one gigantic reminder to just keep moving forward! This week’s certification was the HubSpot Academy Contextual Marketing course. This was a new course for me. I wound up making it through all of the material and still failing the exam twice before passing it with only one point to spare! After passing the exam, I’ve come to learn that I will not be awarded the certification because there is an extra graded feature that is accessible only for Hubspot paying users. With this course being technically free and the certification itself requiring you to pay, you might only want to consider this course if you are already a Hubspot user. This detail is not disclosed anywhere in the prep material of the course. In the meantime, the important part is not the piece of paper saying that we passed; it is who we become while we are on our quest!

While the certification is reserved for Hubspot users, you can still take the entire course right here for free: https://lnkd.in/dc_-WZ9

Each week I am earning or renewing a digital marketing certification. Join me in the quest by earning one of these free certs too! Good luck in your quest, friends!

Week 17: Advanced Google Analytics

Our progress continues with week 17 of our certification quest! This is Google’s Advanced Analytics certification from their Google Analytics Academy program. This is a short four module course to help sharpen your Google Analytics sword. This certification is great for anyone who would like to learn more about the advanced features of Google Analytics.  I recommend taking this course before beginning the larger Google.com/partners Google Analytics certification course.

You can earn this cert for free right here: https://lnkd.in/dP8Qite

Each week we are earning or renewing a digital marketing certification. Join us in the quest by earning one of these free certs too! Good luck in your quest, friends! ?

Week 16: Google Mobile Sites

It is week 16 of our certification quest together! A few of you have approached me about this whole “sharpening your sword” kick, and I am thrilled it is serving you well too!  Your discipline is what will set you apart, so please keep going with it! This is the Google Mobile Sites certification. This was a renewal for me. All of the Google certifications expire, so we need to renew them each year.  It is just more fuel for our quest.  About this free cert:  This certification is great for any webmaster or SEO who wants to understand more about creating a solid mobile user experience online. This course is one of the more relevant courses for an SEO.  It  will give you a foundational understanding about everything you will need to do in order to optimize your mobile user experience.

You can earn this cert for free right here: https://lnkd.in/dczi4nN

Each week I am earning or renewing a digital marketing certification. Join me in the quest by earning one of these free certs too! Good luck in your quest, friends!

Week 15: Hubspot Email Marketing Certification

One of the best career tricks I’ve learned over the years is to recognize the powerful combination of discipline and the compound effect. This is the 15th week of the certification quest we’ve been on together!  The goal here is to convey that there is no barrier to keeping your sword as sharp as possible! In my field, there is a small collection of certification courses and 90% of them are completely free.  There are likely small barriers to entry that would make you a qualified juggernaut in your field too. The real trick is to chunk the lofty goal down into bite-sized weekly chunks and force yourself to see it through. What barriers are there in your field? You got this, friends!  Here is all the info about this certificate: This is the HubSpot Email marketing cert. This cert is excellent for anyone who wants a better understanding of how to shape their email strategy. It covers the tried and true email best practices while maintaining its customer-centric focus. These lessons come from a welcome “surprise and delight” place which other email marketing courses seem to overlook.

You can earn this cert for free right here: https://lnkd.in/d-37tWM

Here is to weekly progress!

Week 14: Hubspot Inbound Certification

Thanks for your support of this certification quest! This is the 14th week of the certification quest we’ve been on together! The goal here is to convey that there is likely no barrier to keeping our swords as sharp as possible!  So let’s do this!  About this cert: This is the HubSpot Inbound marketing cert. This certification is free, and it is excellent for any marketers who want a better understanding of how to shape their inbound strategy. The course covers everything from identifying your buyer personas to delighting customers at all stages of their journey. It is a customer-centric course that would benefit any marketer or webmaster.

You can earn this cert here: https://lnkd.in/dzvhiRs

Each week I am earning or renewing a digital marketing certification. Join me in the quest by earning one of these free certs too! Good luck in your quest, friends!

Week 13: Hubspot Content Marketing Certification

This is the 13th week of the certification quest we’ve been on together  A new week and new chance to sharpen that marketing sword!  Our cert quest continues!  This is the HubSpot content marketing cert.  This certification course is excellent for any anyone who wants to be more effective with the content they create online.   I recommend this course to anyone who wants to create meaningful content online.  The lessons will teach you strategies that leverage the needs of your audience while simultaneously accomplishing your marketing objectives.

You can earn this cert for free right here: https://lnkd.in/dCVEMMH

Each week I am earning or renewing a digital marketing certification. Join me in the quest by earning one of these free certs too! Good luck in your quest, friends!

Week 12: Google Analytics: Ecommerce Analytics From Data to Decisions

Our progress continues for the 12^th week!   This week the certification quest continues on with the Ecommerce Analytics cert from the Google Analytics Academy.   This certification is excellent for any Ecommerce marketers interested in leveling up their Google Analytics analysis skills.

You can earn this certificate for free here:  https://lnkd.in/d-qh8Mf

Each week I am earning or renewing a digital marketing certification. Join me in the quest by earning one of these free certs too! Good luck in your quest, friends!

Week 11: Hootsuite Social Marketing Education 2018 course

Week 11 The certification quest continued this week with the Hootsuite Social Marketing Education 2018 course.   This course covers every aspect of social media marketing in 2018.  I would recommend this for anyone interested in learning more about social media marketing as well as paid social marketing.   I should caution that the course itself is free, however, they don’t make it extremely clear that it costs $199 to sit for their actual Social exam.  I did not pay to sit for the exam itself.  However, I reviewed the course material and enjoyed testing what I’ve learned in their quizes for free.  If you’re looking for a free path to conquering social, check out the course without sitting for the $199 test.  The entire course is free, and it will arm you to the T with every detail you might need to dominate the world of social marketing

You can enroll in the course for free here: https://lnkd.in/dFBfT9Q

Each week I am earning or renewing a digital marketing certification. Join me in the quest by earning one of these free certs too! Good luck in your quest, friends!

Week 10: Bing Ads Accredited Professional Certification

Week 10 Our discipline is still the name of the game here! The certification quest continues with the Microsoft Bing Ads course!   About the cert: This is the paid search certification course for anyone who is interested in pay per click advertising on Bing.

You can earn this certification for free too here: https://lnkd.in/dyRTah5

Each week I am earning or renewing a digital marketing certification.  Join me in the quest by earning one of these free certs too!

Week 9: Google Video Advertising

Week 9 – Here is to keeping our skillset swords sharp! The certification quest continues on for another week! This course is great for anyone interested in advertising on YouTube. YouTube offers some really neat ad types where you pay only if a viewer chooses to watch or engage with your ad. This course is free and relatively simple to conquer. With most of us watching YouTube videos on nearly every device we own, this certification makes complete sense to earn for anyone interested in marketing online.

You can earn the Google video advertising certification over here: https://lnkd.in/e6VesRB

Week: 8: Google Ads Search Certification

Week 8 – The cert quest continues!  Join me in the quest of sharpening our marketing swords by earning or renewing your certs!  In each of these posts, I’ll do my best to include all of the information you will need to earn the certification too.  This one is the Adwords Search certification course.  This is the next course after the Adwords Fundamentals exam.  It is the quintessential paid search marketing exam as completing this would qualify you as being “Adwords certified.”  Being that it gives you a foundation for search marketing, I recommend this cert for digital marketers of all types. This exam is 100 questions at an immediate level.  I would say if you use Adwords regularly, you would have no problems earning this cert.  Even if you have very little hands-on experience with Adwords, you could still pass this exam with 2-3 hours of the pre-exam tutorial exercises.

You can earn this certification here: https://lnkd.in/dkt-sS5

Week 7: Google Ads Mobile Certificate

Week 7 – Here is to momentum for all of us!  Another week another step forward in the cert quest!  Earlier this morning I passed the Google Adwords Mobile Ad cert.  This free certificate course is perfect for anyone interested in advertising in Google’s mobile results.  With all of us using our phones as our primary source for navigating the web, online advertising is changing.  This course will help you understand some of the new machine learning targeting types available as well as understanding where mobile devices fit into the online buyer’s journey.   If this sounds interesting, I recommend you join me in the cert quest and get this one!

You can earn this certificate here:  https://lnkd.in/f_G33GG

Week 6: Google Ads Display Certificate

Week 6 – The cert quest continues! I seriously encourage you to join me in the quest as all of these certifications are free. Sharpen that marketing sword, friends! This is the Google display marketing certification. This covers some of the new automatic bid types available to Google paid search and its display network partners. This certification course is great for anyone interested in generating buzz about their business online.

You can earn this certification here. https://lnkd.in/daf5Dp8

Week 5: Google Ads Shopping Certification

Week 5 – Here is to another productive week and the cert quest continuing! This is the Google cert devoted to all things product ads. This certificate is excellent for anyone interested in marketing an e-commerce website. With several ads above the organic results for all commercial keywords, this is also great for our organic brothers and sisters too.

You can earn this cert here: https://lnkd.in/eQitmhM

Week 4: Google Ads Fundamentals

Week 4 – We are still keeping the certification conquest going, friends! This is the first of at least two Google certifications you’ll need to become AdWords certified. This is the staple cert for anyone interested in paid search advertising on Google. It is completely free for you to get, so join me in the cert quest and earn it!

You can take the course here: https://lnkd.in/eznsq4R

Week 3: SEMrush Certificate for PPC Specialists

Week 3  – Round 3/3 – We’re still keeping that momentum going! This is the third and final certification from SEMrush. This one is great for anyone interested in paid search.  Now go conquer all three of these certifications and sharpen your marketing swords, friends!

You can earn this certificate for free here: https://www.semrush.com/academy/courses

Week 2: SEMrush Certificate for Content Marketers

Week 2 – Round 2 of 3 = Conquered! Here is to another productive week. This is another SEMrush certificate you should earn. This one is excellent for anyone focused on content creation. Go get it, friends!

You can earn this certificate for free here: https://www.semrush.com/academy/courses

Week1: SEMrush Certificate for SEOs

Week 1 – Here is to kicking off Thursday in a productive way! Semrush has a new certificate you should go conquer!

You can earn this certificate for free here: https://www.semrush.com/academy/courses

Here is what I learned after earning a digital marketing certification every week for a year.

For the past year, I have been on a certification quest of earning one new certification per week. If you follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter, you’re likely sick of seeing my #certquest posts by now.

I am going to continue sharing my progress each week. Along the way it has been fuel for some social posts, however, I am really just doing this to make sure I remain disciplined, educated, and hungry within my field of search engine marketing.

Here is what I’ve learned so far:

Do this for yourself

When I began this I was thinking to myself, “this is great for getting social engagement!” At first, sure it was. By week 15 or 16 my followers quickly learned that I was going to do one post like this every week and seemed to be less inclined to “like” my progress.

That said, this isn’t about them. It’s about you and I. It’s about the people who want to be the best in their field and they understand that being the best takes work that compounds over time to make them the best. So for me, I am going to keep going.

Not all courses are created equal

Some of the courses took over 10 hours to complete while others took 20 minutes. The truth is not every digital marketing certificate is worthwhile, and they are certainly not all created equal.  The ones that will help you get ahead in your career are the ones that will be from one of the major resources:

• Google
• Bing
• Hubspot
• SEMrush

Ultimately it comes down to the type of marketing you’re doing now or hope to be doing in the future.

These exams are not difficult

With being primarily an SEO, I used to think some of the Google display certifications exams were impossible to pass. It was completely not the case.  None of the digital marketing certification exams, or any exam I’ve taken over the past year, was that difficult. The more exams you pass from the same source, the more you will understand their ultimate goal with the type of marketing you are attempting to become certified in. You begin to understand the underlying message and can pass these in 1 to 3 attempts.

All of the tests are multiple choice and they follow the typical two are options are obviously weak answers and two are potential correct answers.  The goal is to identify the answer that is most likely correct.  If you take a step back and ask yourself, “of these two answers which would make for a better user experience?” then you will likely get the correct answer.

It is ok to fail these

These certifications are all free.  If you fail you can take these again either immediately or after a few hours. The stakes are insanely low and the benefit here is that you will potentially learn something new that could make you a stronger marketer.

Becoming a stronger marketer > a useless certificate

This is more about who you’ll become along the way than to have an exact schedule.  Everyone learns differently, and I’ve been marketing online for the past 12 years.  I have exposure to many of the systems, strategies, and marketing types I was learning about.  Above all else, I believe it is more important to learn and retain information than to simply earn a useless certificate.

Small wins compound to big wins

This is a reminder that little habits done wins consistently over time can compound into profoundly positive change.

Does an SEMrush or Google Certificate Land You a Job

No way.

That said, the act of continually learning, experimenting, measuring, and improving 100% does get you a job.

In digital marketing you need to do whatever you can to demonstate your results and show that you have passion to keep learning. By getting these certificates, you are already going the extra mile. The discipline to keep doing that will absolutely give you an edge over other candidates.

Here is a new section to help you jump right to the ones that I’ve found to be the most helpful.

Here Are The Best Free Digital Marketing Certifications:

• Best for Analytics / The Best to Start With: Google Analytics Individual Qualification
• Best Digital Marketing Overview Certificate: Google Foundations of Digital Marketing
• Best for SEO Overall: SEMrush’s SEO Fundamentals Course
• Best for an SEO Overview: Hubspot SEO Course
• Best for SEO Technical SEO: SEMrush Technical SEO Course and Certificate
• Best for PPC / SEM: Google Ads Search Certification
• Best for Social Media Marketing: Hootsuite Social Marketing Education Course (Course is Free the Certificate is not)
• Best Free Social Media Marketing Course: Hubspot Social Marketing Certificate
• Best for Email Marketing: Hubspot Email Marketing Certification
• Best for Display Marketing: Google Display & Video 360 Certification
• Best for Youtube Video Marketing: Youtube Channel Growth
• Best for Content Marketing: Hubspot Content Marketing Certification
• Best for Agency Digital Marketers: Hubspot’s Growth Driven Design Agency Certification
• Best for Digital Marketing Concepts: Hubspot Inbound Marketing Certification
• Will Any Of These Certificates Help Me Get a Job?

Good luck in your quest, Friends!