SEO Blueprint for Bloggers Review: Create and Go’s New Course
I just finished taking the SEO Blueprint for Bloggers course, which is the latest course from Create and Go, so I wanted to write this SEO Blueprint for Bloggers review.
Short summary:
- I recommend this course for anyone in the beginner to advanced beginner stage.
- If you HATE spreadsheets, this course is for you. It doesn't involve complicated spreadsheets or formulas
- If you love using Trello, you'll love the content calendar they use.
- It was well-planned with plenty of helpful examples.
- You do need to purchase a 7-day trial of Ahrefs keyword tool for $7 to complete the course.
- It's made up mostly of video, with some video transcripts if you prefer to read.
- Overall, this is a good SEO course that essentially teaches the same Ahrefs competitor keyword strategy as Stupid Simple SEO for $300 cheaper. BUT, if you can afford it, Stupid Simple SEO is more advanced and complete, and it's my #1 pick.
Who Teaches SEO Blueprint for Bloggers?
Alex Nerney and Noah Riggs. I know Alex from back in 2017 when he and Lauren launched Pinterest Traffic Avalanche (an excellent course that helped me skyrocket my Pinterest traffic). He definitely has street cred in the blogging space. Case in point: His blog Create and Go made $75,394.70 last month (yes, he made that much in ONE month!).
Noah is a new to me. From what I learned in the course, he didn't start out as an SEO expert. He was hired as a virtual assistant for Alex and Lauren, and they tasked him with figuring out how to use SEO to boost their blog's traffic. What he learned is what he put into the course, and he now works as an SEO consultant.
What You Learn in SEO Blueprint for Bloggers
I'm going to give you just a TASTE of what's inside SEO Blueprint (these are not ALL the modules, but these are the most important ones, in my opinion):
- SEO 101: Building Your Foundation
- Choosing Your Niche
- How to Narrow Down Your Niche
- Narrow Down with Ahrefs
- SEO Basics and Terminology
- SEO 101: Website Setup
- Necessary Pages
- Categorizing Your Content
- SSL Setup
- Google Analytics and Google Search Console
- Optimizing for Keywords and E-A-T
- Using + Installing Rank Math
- Improving Page Speed and Performance
- SEO 101: Keywords
- What Makes a Good Keyword
- Identifying Keywords That Generate Income
- Brainstorming Keywords
- Finding Keywords from Affiliates
- Using UberSuggest
- SEO 101: Ahrefs Training
- Ahrefs: Why It's #1
- Ahrefs: Keyword Explorer
- Ahrefs: Site Explorer
- Ahrefs: Finding Your Competitors
- Ahrefs: Competitors' Top Pages
- Ahrefs: Competitors' Top Keywords
- Ahrefs: Keywords Strategy
- Ahrefs: Keyword Difficulty – LOVED this lesson. Keyword difficulty is not always an honest indicator of how hard it will be to rank for a keyword. Noah reveals a secret for checking the true competitiveness of a keyword. This was something totally new to me.
- SEO 101: Blog Content
- Know Your Competition
- Different Types of Blog Posts
- How to Write a Perfet SEO Blog Post
- Writing Great Headlines
- Main vs. Additional Keywords
- Internal and External Links
- Optimizing Images for SEO
- SEO 101: Ahrefs for Blog Content Calendar
- Ahrefs: Your Content Calendar
- Ahrefs: Content Calendar – Trello
- Ahrefs: Exporting Keyword Data in Bulk
The course does get into SEO 201 and 301 (more advanced strategies), but the BULK of the course is the SEO 101 that I shared above.
Pros of SEO Blueprint for Bloggers
- It assumes you have ZERO knowledge of SEO, so if you're a beginner, it's great for you.
- It uses a MUCH more effective keyword strategy of competitor research using the powerful keyword tool Ahrefs. This is MUCH better than “brainstorming” and guessing at what you should write next.
- It's not overwhelming.
- Instructors walk you through how to use Ahrefs, which can be a complicated software if you've never used it.
- It shows lots of real-life examples to drive the point home.
Cons of SEO Blueprint for Bloggers
- Credentials are not as strong as other instructors in the SEO space. Create and Go became known in the blogosphere for their Pinterest expertise; that's where they got nearly all of their traffic. SEO only became a focus for them in recent years, which they admit to in the course. On the one hand, you might say that they don't have the credentials because SEO is fairly new to them, BUT on the other hand, you could say that BECAUSE they came from a standpoint where they were relying on Pinterest and had to learn SEO from scratch, they're the most qualified to teach beginners. They have the proof that their SEO efforts have paid off.
SEO Blueprint for Bloggers vs. Stupid Simple SEO
I have taken both courses. Below, I've outlined the major differences.
| SEO Blueprint for Bloggers | Stupid Simple SEO | |
| Length | 9 hours | 11+ hours |
| Price | $197 | $497 |
| Requires a $7 trial of Ahrefs | Yes | Yes |
| How many years has this course been around? | Launched June 2021 | Launched in 2018 |
| Instructor credentials | Alex Nerney co-founded two successful blogs, Avocadu (health niche) and Create and Go (blogging niche), the latter of which raked in $75K in the MONTH of June 2021 alone. | Mike Pearson has launched and scaled niche sites, including CreditTakeOff.com, and makes six figures a year from them. He recently sold a niche site for multiple six figures. |
Bottomline: Should You Buy SEO Blueprint for Bloggers?
I LOVE Stupid Simple SEO, and the main difference between that course and SEO Blueprint for Bloggers is that Stupid Simple SEO feels much more strategic and advanced—it even comes with customized spreadsheets with special formulas that make the competitor keyword research go so much faster.
Having said that though, both courses give a much more effective competitor research strategy that's better than what you're probably currently doing (thinking of keywords and entering them into a keyword research tool).
If you're strapped for money, SEO Blueprint for Bloggers is a good SEO course that's pretty affordable!
