Course overview

Most SEO advice you will read this year is wrong, out of date, or written to sell you something. That is the honest starting point for this course.

This course is short on purpose. It teaches the parts of search that have stayed true for years and are documented publicly by Google, and it teaches how AI helps with the honest work behind them. It does not teach tricks. Tricks stop working, and the ones that stop working loudly can cost you your ranking or your Business Profile.

You will start with how search actually works: how a page gets found, how it gets stored, and how it gets chosen for a result. You will learn what Google has published about AI-written content, which is more permissive and more specific than the internet believes. You will learn what AI Overviews change for a small business on this island, and what they do not change.

From there you will learn the fundamentals that hold up: writing for a real audience, titles and descriptions that describe the page, site structure a person and a crawler can both follow, and the local basics that matter more than everything else combined when someone searches “nantucket hotel” from a phone on Steamship Wharf.

The third module is the AI part. You will learn to use AI for question research, drafting, and metadata, run each pass through H.E.L.P., and treat the Evaluate step as a fact-check rather than a formality. You will also learn the short list of things you should never let a tool publish on its own.

The last module is about staying honest over time. You will learn to read Search Console, understand the three Core Web Vitals thresholds in plain terms, check any advice you hear against the official documentation, and spot the warning signs Google itself publishes about bad SEO offers.

This is an Assist course, the second rung of the Nantucket AI trust ladder. Assist means AI drafts and you own the result. Every claim in this course about how search behaves is sourced to Google’s own documentation, and each lesson names the page it came from so you can check it yourself.

Who this is for

• Innkeepers, restaurant owners, and shop owners who want to be found by visitors
• Contractors and trades who get most work from local search
• Nonprofit staff who need people to find a program page
• Anyone who has been cold-emailed by an SEO agency and did not know how to judge the offer
• Anyone using AI to write website copy who wants to do it without getting penalized

No technical background is required. You do not need to run your own website to follow the course, but you will get more out of it if you can log in to one.

What you will be able to do

By the end of this course you will be able to:

• Explain crawling, indexing, and serving in plain language
• State Google’s actual published position on AI-generated content
• Name the three spam policies that decide whether AI use is fine or a violation
• Explain what AI Overviews change for a local business and what they do not
• Explain why E-E-A-T is not a ranking factor and what it is instead
• Write a page title and meta description that describe the page honestly
• Organize a small site so pages link to each other in a way people can follow
• Keep a Google Business Profile accurate and stay inside the reviews policy
• Use AI to research the questions your customers actually ask
• Run a draft through H.E.L.P. and use Evaluate as a real fact-check
• Name the tasks you should never let AI publish without review
• Read clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position in Search Console
• State the three Core Web Vitals and their good thresholds
• Check a piece of SEO advice against official documentation
• Recognize the warning signs of a bad SEO offer

Assessment

Each module ends with a short quiz. The course ends with a final assessment covering all four modules.

Passing grade: 70 percent. Retakes are unlimited. Nothing about your score is published or shared. The quizzes exist so you can check your own understanding before you spend money on a website change or an agency.

Modules

1. How Search Actually Works Now (3 lessons) – Crawling, indexing, and serving in plain language. What Google publishes about AI-written content and where the line sits. AI Overviews and what they mean for a local business.
2. The Durable Fundamentals (3 lessons) – Helpful content for a real audience. Titles, descriptions, site structure, and internal links. Local basics: Business Profile accuracy, consistent contact details, and a reviews policy that will not get you suspended.
3. Using AI in the SEO Workflow (3 lessons) – Question and keyword research with AI. Drafting with H.E.L.P. and treating Evaluate as fact-check. Metadata at scale, and the short list of things to never automate blindly.
4. Measuring and Staying Current (3 lessons) – Search Console basics. Core Web Vitals in plain terms with the three thresholds. How to check advice against official documentation, and the red flags of bad SEO advice.

A note on currency

SEO advice ages badly. Two examples from the last three years: FAQ rich results were retired from Google Search on May 7, 2026, and HowTo rich results were removed in 2023. Plenty of guides still tell you to add both.

Everything in this course was checked against Google’s published documentation before it was written, and each lesson names its source page. When you read this course a year from now, treat the source pages as the truth and this course as the explanation. Module 4 teaches you how to do that check yourself, which is the most durable skill in the whole course.

After this course

The next rung of the trust ladder is Supervise. If you want more on the writing side first, the AI for Marketing course covers content planning, social, and email using the same H.E.L.P. method. SEO and marketing overlap heavily, and the two courses are designed to be taken in either order.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need my own website to take this course?

No. You will get more out of it if you can log in to one, but the course works if you are evaluating a website you are about to build or an agency you are about to hire.

Will this course get me to the top of Google?

No, and neither will anything else. Google’s own documentation says it does not guarantee that it will crawl, index, or serve a page even if that page follows all the rules. Anyone promising a ranking is promising something Google refuses to promise. This course teaches you what you can actually control.

Does Google penalize AI-written content?

No. Google judges quality and intent, not how the content was produced. The course covers the three spam policies that decide whether your AI use is fine or a problem, and where the line sits.

Do I need special optimization to show up in AI Overviews?

No. Google states there are no additional requirements or special optimizations for AI Overviews or AI Mode. Module 1 covers what the eligibility rule actually is, and Module 4 covers the AI SEO products being sold that Google’s documentation says do not work.

How current is this material?

Every claim about how search behaves was checked against Google’s published documentation before the course was written, and each lesson names its source pages. Module 4 teaches you to run that check yourself, which is the part that stays useful.

Is there a certificate?

Each module ends with a short quiz and the course ends with a final assessment. Passing grade is 70 percent with unlimited retakes. Your score is not published or shared.

Where this course sits

This is an Assist course on the Nantucket AI trust ladder, applying the H.E.L.P. method to search work. Related: AI for Marketing and The H.E.L.P. Framework.