This last course was a big disappointment. A very large amount of project work, and subsequently a very large amount of peer review work. I think one of the projects had around 30 criteria for grading peer submissions of a ~20 page project report. I would not have taken this course had it not been a required part of the Specialization, which it should not have been a part of.

Not to mention this course, and a lot of the previous content in the Specialization track, dealt with SEO Consulting way too much, and also went way outside the lane of learning SEO into more general marketing. If I wanted to take an SEO Consulting course, I could have done that. For those not looking to do SEO Consulting, this was a big waste of time and effort, for the projects and the peer review.

All of the courses could be streamlined too. There is a lot of wasted time and content, i.e. 5 minute videos with a 1 minute introduction/goals section and a 1 minute summary at the end.

Finally, some of the courses require/recommend use of SEO tools that have free trials or need to be paid for. Once you reach your trial limits, you are out of luck for that tool unless you pay for it. This would not have been a problem had it not been for the large amount of project work that required constant use of these tools in later modules.

The course content itself was exceptional and I learned a lot about SEO. I would strongly suggest that Coursera change its system of peer reviewing submitted assignments, because it leaves a lot of opportunities for negligence. I had two assignments where two of my three peers passed my submissions while a third individual would fail my work citing that I was missing components of the assignments that were actually present. This caused a lot of unnecessary stress due to concerns of whether or not there would be individuals still present, and willing, left in the course session to grade the assignment. I am aware that this is no fault of the instructor, but rather the platform the course is presented on, but this should not be the case. Assignments should only be graded by qualified instructors who are experts in the subject matter, not random individuals who have no prior training or experience.

I did the 5-part course. Overall I liked it, but it's very old. The video's are made more than 5 years ago, so there's actually misinformation in it. Needs an update! The other thing that I didn't really like is the weight on the peer-graded assignments. I spent hours on these to make them according to the guidelines and tried to actually learn something from it, but I've seen other assignments that were really not even close to what was asked. I feel that they get the full score anyway, because the lists of questions is too long and it's too much work to actually read through the whole assignment. Also, there's no real room for feedback. So in fact, I think anybody can complete this course without even understanding the matter or doing the assignments properly.

Course content was good but poor course management, Specially peer review assignments are not planned and managed properly.

I did the SEO specialization. I started in April and ended in August (Don't do that as the last course - this one- is demanding. For each milestone you have to produce an average of 5000 written words.

Before starting: This specialization requires good MS Office skills (to make a PPT, an Excel document and Word) to know and use software such as Acrobat, Foxit, or Nitro, a bit of digital marketing (you can take free courses on Coursera or some free Hubspot courses or Google Analytics). As a prep, you can also read the international bestseller "The Art of SEO" by Erik Enge ( which is also one of the teachers in this course), look to www.moz.com for free guides and gain facility with Screamfrog ( an SEO audit software).

What you will get: A solid foundation in SEO. Whether you are into affiliate marketing, or have a local business, or you are pursuing a career in the SEO arena, this is an excellent course to start with and complet in itself. By the end of the full specialization (5 courses) You will optimize your website professionally, and if you don't know something you will know where to search for.The course is also a good reference for further expansions.

Last but not least, Rebekah May is an excellent teacher; thanks to all teachers, students UC Davis and Coursera

I’ve taken a full course, all 5 parts, and can say that it’s a good course overall . I've got a lot of basics about the SEO field and I liked the assignments at the end of the courses, as it is something we could practice on after all the information was given. However, only 4 stars because of a couple of reasons. The peer-graded assignments are a joke. I was very careful with the gradings at first, trying to read everything carefully and check if all the points were done by my classmates, but after checking more and more works I become very disappointed as I’ve seen a lot of missing information or unfinished works..I had 3 different people having submitted exactly the same presentation..I felt like I am wasting my time on this, so at the end I was giving the highest grades, even if some of the points where missing just because it was nice to see that someone did care.

The reviewing itself actually takes a lot of time, and it would be nice to know the reviewing points at the beginning, before you submit your own work, so you could check if you miss anything.

It would be really nice to be reviewed by the teacher, so I could get a grade based on my knowledge of the subject and not based on if I analysed 10 pages of the website or 9. Because if all of them were done incorrectly then it doesn’t matter if it is 100 pages or 10, it is still incorrect. And the same otherwise, if I have done 9 pages correctly I don’t think someone needs to lose the points because they haven’t done the 10th page.

I also think that the video part at the end of this course it’s too much, because we already spent a lot of time doing just a single presentation that consists of 15 pages.

Other than that, I’ve got a lot of good information. But be careful because this course is way too old, so you would have to read all the updated information as addition to that.

This course is very informative and goes over areas such as the history of SEO, deep dives into algorithmic changes and updates, and other topics rarely covered in many online SEO guides. There's lots of practical assignments to work on too to make sure you have a real understanding.

My reason for giving this 3 stars is due to how the assignments are marked. They are marked by other students who have enrolled in the course, and I know this is more convenient for the course so everyone can have their work marked - but it is not done properly...

Receiving a pass in the assignments doesn't make me feel like I have earned it as it is not checked over by someone who is well-versed in SEO, such as in uni you would receive a tutor who is an expert in the subject, who would grade your work.

Many of the times, I have found that other students who marked my work do not give me real, constructive feedback which would help improve the quality of my work, or in other times, simply fail me on every criterion for no reason even when I have completed it, which delays the process of getting your work remarked.

The course content is great, but the assignment process is the reason I have given the course a lower rating.

It's an okay course but having the capstone project graded by other students is not a good idea. I clearly completed the project, but people were not passing me on it.

Vorse course in terms of session timing. Be prepared to wait and pay for 3 weeks between the sessions, even if you already enrolled in this course. During these three weeks, you can't even review the requirements for peer-graded assignments, so you can prepare everything and submit when the session will start. Unlock the requirements for peer-graded assignments, and it won't feel like a waste of time.

If you want to be an expert in SEO and work in the field this is the series of courses to lean the craft.

When you complete this course you will be ready to put your skills to work!

Loved every bit of SEO Specialization. I am so confident in my SEO skills today. All the credit goes to the amazing instructors and cooperative peers! Thanks a lot!!!

Great course, it does need an update though since it still references google +.

While the projects were interesting and helped me apply what I have learned, I dislike the way this was structured. I believe it would have been much better (and more productive) to complete each Milestone after finishing the respective part of the course. This would have avoided getting stuck at the end, waiting for reviews. Plus, you should clearly mention that people need to receive 3 reviews in order to pass. I submitted my assignment on time and the course info stated that if you submit in time, you only need one review to receive your grade. However, that's false information, since I needed 3.

outdated waste of time

It was a fantastic opportunity to practice and gain experience in real SEO problems. Moreover, the Website Optimization Client Report Project has helped me to grow myself as an SEO professional to deal with a client. I am excited to go a long way with my SEO skills.

Да, это был отличный курс! Он превзошёл все мои ожидания. Много информации, которая отлично систематизирована и последовательна. Множество готовых шаблонов, готовых для работы. Очень эффективная система тестирования. Огромное спасибо за проделанную работу!

Great course! Learned a lot from this and gave me more confidence in my new chosen field. Thanks a lot!

It can be better all the resourcer are for previous videos I think they should add more examples and tools to complete the Capstone.

The evaluation forms of the last two milestone projects are quite burdensome for students to grade by item.

The Milestone SEO Project course exceeded my expectations. Concise, practical, and rich in content, it provided an in-depth understanding of SEO strategies. The step-by-step approach was incredibly helpful, offering clear guidance on optimizing websites effectively. The course's actionable insights and real-world examples made learning both engaging and applicable. A definite game-changer for anyone diving into SEO.

Thank you Rebekah and the rest of the team because right now I have a new career. Just this week I started to help a client with a clinic who needs to improve his local SEO because his clinic didn't show up in the local search for the services he provide. Just working for a week and today he is number one in one of the keywords. I'm so proud that I was able to help him. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Very useful project!

Actually one of my main goals behind talking this specialization was to have a clear idea of how the process of dealing with a real project would look like? what should I prioritize first? how should I determine my price? what elements should I look for to audit the site, etc.. and that project just delivered that goal and answered all of these questions

The assignments are demanding and a good practice close to real work. I'm very happy I took this course.

A small feedback to admins of the course. The grading criteria at assignments are not always clear and I lost a few days because I had to redo one assignment. You could review what is asked when working on a paper and what is asked when grading a paper.

There was a lot of work involved. The final-final assignment consisted of me handing in a 24-page report. But It wasn't that bad. Just everything I learned and had from previous assignments. Also note, TAKE NOTES. I think that's what saved me. Imagine going back several weeks, fishing out some facts. Damn, what a headache that would've been. OMG.

The specialization is really well thought out. On the other hand, the correction of peer-reviewed assignments is extremely disappointing. There are no relevant comments, it seems as if the students tick the boxes without reading the assignments. For the final project, my video and full audit were not uploaded even once. However, I have 5 grades...