If you’re are looking for the best digital marketing training websites to build or improve your online marketing skills, you’ll love this list.
It includes websites, blogs, and online academies offering digital marketing training programs, courses, certifications, and a number of other resources (articles, case studies, etc) to help you stay informed about everything that is happening in the digital marketing industry.
The best part of all, they are all free.
Best Digital Marketing Training Resources
- Reliablesoft Academy
- Content Marketing Institute
- Marketing Land
- Search Engine Land
- SEMRush Academy
- HubSpot Academy
- Google SkillShop
- Facebook Blueprint Academy
- Microsoft Advertising Learning Lab
- Think with Google
- Google Keyword Blog
- Google Analytics Academy
1. Reliablesoft Academy
Reliablesoft academy is one of the best sources to follow for all your digital marketing training needs. The academy is run by digital marketing experts with years of experience in the industry.
They are actively managing digital marketing campaigns for a number of clients in various niches and through the academy resources, they share actionable advice and tips based on real-life examples and not just theory.
There are three ways to follow reliablesoft academy:
Digital Marketing Blog: An active blog that covers all digital marketing disciplines including SEO, social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, eCommerce marketing, PPC marketing, and blogging. The blog is updated weekly with new content and you can access all resources for free.
You can start your digital marketing training journey by reading these articles:
- Best Digital Marketing Courses – The 10 best online marketing courses to enroll and learn digital marketing.
- Digital Marketing Certificate Programs – Online and Offline institutions offering digital marketing certifications.
- How to learn digital marketing – a step-by-step guide for beginners in digital marketing.
- Free online marketing courses – a list of the best free courses about online marketing.
Free Downloadable eBooks and Guides:
When you register for the newsletter, besides getting notified of new articles, you also get access to the Resources area where you can download a number of eBooks covering popular digital marketing topics.
Online Courses: Realiablesoft offers two bundles. The SEO Course bundle and the Digital Marketing Course Bundle.
The SEO Course Bundle includes 4 courses (SEO Course, Keyword Research Course, Google Analytics Course, eCommerce SEO Course) and will teach you everything you need to know about SEO.
Digital Marketing Course Bundle starts from the beginning and covers all important marketing channels. It includes the SEO Course Bundle plus five more courses (Facebook/Instagram ads course, Google Ads course, content marketing course, social media marketing course, digital marketing basics course, email marketing course).
The courses are not free but they are affordable for anyone. The combination of a blog, free downloads, and online courses, is everything you need to enhance your digital marketing education.
2. Content Marketing Institute
Content marketing is an essential element of a digital marketing strategy and contentmarketinginstitue.com is one of the leading resources to learn content marketing.
CMI offers a plethora of free educational resources suitable for all types of marketers. It’s a great website to visit if you are new to content marketing but it’s also great for experienced marketers that want to learn advanced content marketing topics.
The site is updated multiple times per day with how-to articles, guides, research data, case studies related to content marketing, and other digital marketing techniques.
How to use CMI to improve your skills?
The best way to get started with CMI is to visit their Getting Started Page. It includes downloadable material and links to different sections of the site to start exploring content marketing and other digital marketing disciplines.
3. Marketing Land
Marketing Land is one of the websites I visit on a daily basis. It’s a great resource for online marketing news and updates.
The website monitors all popular platforms (Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc) and reports on breaking stories, industry trends, and feature announcements.
Besides news coverage, they also offer a number of training resources that include marketing articles, podcasts, and webinars.
Although they don’t offer formal training courses, it’s still a great resource to educate yourself on the latest marketing trends.
4. Search Engine Land
Search Engine Land is one of the first websites to report on the search industry. It was founded by Danny Sullivan, a search industry veteran that now works as Google’s Public Search Liason.
The main channels covered by SEL are SEO, Search Engine Marketing, Local SEO, and Social Media Marketing.
What makes Search Engine Land a great training resource is how their news articles are structured. Each article has a section “What’s Changing” and “Why we care” that gives you a summary of what you need to know, and how it can impact your online marketing efforts.
In addition to the free resources, SEL is organizing the Search Marketing Expo (SMX), which is a series of training events and conferences on topics related to digital marketing.
The events include live workshops and presentations from industry experts and besides learning new things, it’s a great way to make connections with other digital marketers.
5. SEMRush Academy
If you’re looking for free digital marketing courses, then SEMRush academy is the place to get started. SEMrush is one of the leading digital marketing platforms in the market and through their academy, they offer training resources and certifications to users for free.
You don’t need to have an active SEMRush subscription to register for a course, it’s free for anyone. Most courses have an exam to test your skills and they also offer a certification.
Topics covered by SEMRush academy include:
- SEO
- Content Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- PPC Marketing
- Competitor analysis
6. HubSpot Academy
Hubspot is a popular marketing platform offering a full stack of software for marketing, sales, customer service, and CRM.
Their training academy offers free courses and tutorials covering a wide range of marketing topics and business skills. The most popular are:
- Content Marketing Strategy
- YouTube Marketing
- Email Marketing
- SEO
- Inbound Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Digital Advertising
Training is delivered by HubSpot engineers and other experts and upon completion, you also get a certification.
7. Google SkillShop
Google Skillshop is another free digital marketing resource. As you might have guessed, the main focus is to provide training for Google products. Skillshop has a number of courses to improve your online marketing skills, the most valuable are:
Google Ads Academy
A complete digital marketing training plan should include Google Ads. Google ads is the platform to use to advertise on Google search, Google products like Gmail and Youtube, and the thousands of websites that use Google Adsense.
PPC advertising is an important channel and Google Ads Academy is one of the resources to learn how to run effective PPC campaigns on the Google network.
Google My Business
Google My Business is the tool to use to improve your local SEO and Google maps listing. This free course will teach you how to set up and optimize your Google My Business Listing.
Google Marketing Platform
The Google marketing platform is an advertising and analytics platform for smarter marketing and better results. It is mostly suited for large enterprises that want to take full advantage of all Google products to boost their marketing presence.
Their training bundle includes the following courses:
- Display & Video 360
- Search Ads 360
- Google Marketing Platform Certification Exam
- Campaign Manager
- Creatives
- Google Web Designer
- Programmatic concepts
YouTube Training
Skillshop includes a number of YouTube training courses that cover the following topics:
- YouTube Music Certification
- YouTube Asset Monetization
- YouTube Content Ownership
- YouTube creative essentials
8. Facebook Blueprint Academy
Running paid campaigns on Facebook is not optional. In the past, FB was considered as a low converting sales channel but that’s no longer the case. With the right approach and tactics, you can reach your target audience on Facebook and make sales.
To build the necessary skills to run Facebook campaigns, you should enroll in the Facebook Blueprint academy. FBA is free for all users and has hundreds of courses that cover topics related to Facebook and Instagram.
What is worth noting about the Facebook training academy, is the course learning format. Unlike other training courses that are video-based, FB has gone a step further and created lessons that combine text, short videos, learning cards, and knowledge checks.
9. Microsoft Advertising Learning Lab
Microsoft is not so well known as a resource for digital marketing learning but it does offer a number of free courses through the Microsoft Advertising Learning Lab.
In the Lab, you’ll find courses related to Bing Ads (an alternative to Google Ads if you want to advertise on Bing and the Microsoft Advertising Network) and other resources.
10. Think with Google
Think With Google is a resource-full website created by Google marketers for marketers.
Google experts share their findings and experiences working with big clients and they even share how they do digital marketing at Google. A good example is this article that describes how Google approaches SEO.
The best way to follow Think With Google is to register to their newsletter and get notified of new updates.
11. Google Keyword Blog
Google is the biggest player in the digital marketing industry, there is no doubt about that. One of the ways to make sure that you’ll not miss an important announcement or update for any Google product or technology is to follow the Google Keyword Blog.
Unlike the Google Skillshop Academy, the Keyword blog does not offer courses but stories, product updates, and company news related to Google products and services.
12. Google Analytics Academy
To become a successful digital marketing specialist, you need to know how to measure the performance of various digital marketing campaigns and Google Analytics is one of the popular tools to use.
The Google Analytics Academy offers a number of courses to help you learn Google Analytics. Analytics Courses are aimed at both beginners and experienced digital marketers. In particular, the academy has the following online courses:
- Google Analytics for Beginners
- Advanced Google Analytics
- Google Analytics for Power Users
- Google Analytics for Power Users
- Introduction to Data Studio
- Google Tag Manager Fundamentals
Key Learnings
Digital marketing training is a continuous process. Rules change all the time, new platforms rise to the surface, new trends emerge and if you want to stay relevant and up-to-date you need to embrace lifelong learning.
In practical terms this means spending a portion of your time reading articles, taking courses, watching webinars, and experimenting with new processes.
I know from experience that it’s a lot of information to consume, that’s why it’s important to follow a few but good resources that can give you reliable and up-to-date insights.
A word of caution. You don’t want to cross the line and spend all your time on training, reading, and learning. This won’t get you anywhere. Your top priority should be to practice what you’ve learned in a course and adjust it to your business needs and goals.
