Are you looking for an in-depth Brian Dean Backlinko review? Then keep reading.
Talking of search engine optimization, you cannot but mention Brian Dean.
He’s an industry leader in search engine optimization.
Known for his honest SEO advice through his blog posts and videos, Brian Dean has built so much influence in the marketing world.
He and his team at Backlinko have together carried out different case studies and experiments on SEO.
When it comes to ranking on Google, Brian Dean has the key to that.
His greatest discovery, Skyscraper Technique, landed him more fame in the industry.
In this post, I’ll be reviewing Brian Dean, his net worth, and his works in the industry.
So let’s dive in.
Who Is Brian Dean, the founder of Backlinko?
Brian Dean is a 38 years old Berlin-based digital marketer. He was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States.
Featured as one of the best marketing entrepreneurs to watch by Inc, his blog was also listed as one of the marketing blogs to follow by Forbes.
Not just that, Brian was listed as one of the most successful bloggers by Problogger and as the world’s foremost expert on search engine optimization by Success Magazine.
Needless to say, he has many honors and awards to his name.
Having successfully grown his blog, Backlinko.com, from zero to over 190,000 monthly visitors using SEO, Brian is proof of his work.
His blog has a whopping 2.2 million backlinks from over 24k referring domains.
However, his story isn’t without a beginning.
Before there was a world-renowned SEO consultant. Before there was the popular Backlinko, before there was a successful blogger, there was a Dietician.
Yes, you read that right. Brian Dean didn’t start his career in the marketing field. He was a nutritionist.
Brian Dean earned his undergraduate degree in nutrition from the University of Rhode Island and also got his master’s degree in nutrition from Tufts.
He was on the path of becoming a professor, which was his dream.
Dean worked on human clinical trials at Tufts and loved the science of it all. And he got interested in it. He enrolled for his Ph.D. program at Purdue.
Fortunately for him, he ended up hating the program.
In an interview he had on Forbes, Brain said:
“I didn’t like living in Indiana, and my advisor turned out to be a jerk. So, I decided to quit my Ph.D. program and get a job as a dietician. Unfortunately, this was 2008 and the heart of the financial crisis. Getting a job was a tall task, especially for a new graduate with very little experience.”
And that led a Ph.D. candidate to become an internet entrepreneur.
Brian Dean got his hands on The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss and this set him on the path of entrepreneurship.
Luckily for him, after reading Tim Ferriss’s book, he landed a job as a Dietician and also started working on an eBook (on back pain) in order to start practicing the 4-hour workweek.
However, as he would have it, he couldn’t continue writing the book because of his job as a Dietician.
He didn’t spend too much time trying to continue the book, Brian Dean hired a freelance writer on Elance.
Not like he expected, Dean was disappointed by the low quality provided by the writer. And Dean knew he could do a better job than what they did.
And that was how Dean got started as a freelance writer. He got to the stage where his freelance writing was actually paying the bills and he quit his job.
“I wasn’t impressed with their writing and I thought to myself, I could totally do better than these guys. So I started writing for clients on Elance (now Upwork), which wasn’t the four-hour workweek lifestyle I was looking for, but it paid the bills to the point I could quit my job.”
However, after quitting his jobs, Brian Dean started creating sites. Brian recorded that he created over 150 sites during that period.
All his sites were keyword match domains with a single page of content optimized for one keyword.
Yes, the sites did well not until Google Panda was launched.
Just like you figured, he lost all his traffic overnight. Not just his sites, a lot of sites were hit badly because of their black-hat SEO.
That was dated as far back as 2010.
His experience with Panda would then lead him to start learning more about building sites that are friendly with Google.
He learned a lot about building a site that’ll not get penalized by Google’s panda. And that led him to start his own agency and also creating Backlinko in 2013.
Before creating Backlinko, Brian Dean had success with his personal finance blog which he built off the knowledge of Google’s Panda and other SEO tactics he learned and discovered.
What Is Backlinko?
Backlinko is a blog created by Brian Dean to share his knowledge of SEO with his audience consisting of bloggers, digital marketers, and business owners.
While it’s a blog, it’s more of a resource site jam-packed with a lot of valuable SEO tactics to take your blog to the next level.
The most notable work Dean published on Backlinko was his skyscraper technique.
Best of all, that particular post has been regarded as a law to follow in the SEO world, with Brian Dean as the scientist.
The Skyscraper technique is a three-step tactic to attract more links and also increase your blog traffic.
Here are the three steps:
Step 1 – Find Link-Worthy Content
Step 2 – Make something even better
Step 3 – Reach out to the right people
It starts with finding a link-worthy content that has attracted a lot of links in your industry. And the way to do that is to either use Ahrefs, BuzzSumo, or Google search.
And then you create better content. Creating better content also requires rendering a better content experience for your readers.
Lastly, you reach out to the people that linked out to the other content. These people would be a better link prospect because they already linked out to one content before.
And this technique has been warmly welcomed in the industry.
If nothing else, Brian has greatly contributed to the SEO industry through his frequent case studies and experiments.
Why Is SEO Important To Your Business?
Practically, why would you want to go the long-term SEO road, when you could just buy some traffic from Google using Google ads?
There’s nothing wrong with buying ads from Google, but remember that your ads will only remain on the SERPs for as long as you can spend.
And once the campaign is over, you won’t be getting any referrals from Google.
And that’s the best part of SEO. Search Engine Optimization provides you with free organic traffic to your website.
With SEO, if done properly, it keeps referring people to your site without you having to spend on ads.
It’s the perfect long-term strategy to employ for your business.
Because going the short-term way by running paid ads, will be expensive in the long run, except you have a lot to spend.
If not, I see no reason why you won’t be planning the long-term strategy, SEO, for your business.
How Brian Dean & Backlinko Is Different Than Other SEO Experts
While there are a lot of SEO experts on the internet, Brian Dean is the real man because of his value.
Brian Dean creates and shares all the SEO hacks he has tested and proven to be effective with his audience without hiding anything behind.
And that’s why it’s of no surprise that marketers from million-dollar companies and billion-dollar companies joined his email list to receive new SEO insights.
Brian Dean is honest with his advice to the extent where he publicly shares some of the link acquisition strategies he has used to grow his blog.
Brian Dean Backlinko Blog
His blog is one of the most sought after resources in the SEO industry.
While Brian doesn’t publish a lot of posts regularly, whenever he does, it always attracts hundreds of comments.
To be exact, Brian Dean only has an average of 111 posts on his blog at the time of writing this post aside from his hub pages.
Here are some of the best content on Backlinko.
This is by far one of the best content he has published so far, this was the first skyscraper technique case study, Brian carried out.
In this case study, Brian was able to double his traffic within 14 days by looking for a link-worthy content, creating a better version, and building links to the post.
Needless to say, this was a massive hit for Brian. And the post has so far generated nearly 6000 shares on both Facebook and Twitter.
This was first published in 2016.
You read the headline right.
That is a whopping 652% increase in traffic during the second experiment.
That’s the second case study. Brian used the skyscraper technique. This was the second version of the experiment.
And as expected, this provided a better increase to his organic traffic.
Needless to say, this is another post that you need to check out if you want to increase your blog traffic without having to beat yourself up to get backlinks to your blog.
This was published in 2018.
When it comes to SEO, link building is the most essential aspect of improving your website SEO.
And that’s exactly what Brian Dean of Backlinko teaches. His guide to link building is definitely one of the best you can find in the industry and also a must-read for anyone into SEO.
The blog post has gotten over 11,000 social shares and has over 500 comments as at the time of writing this post.
Lastly, Brian’s keyword research post is a must-read for all marketers.
Brian breaks down the process of carrying out keyword research for your blog before creating any content.
His process is well detailed and covers everything you need to know when it comes to keyword research including tools to help you in keyword research.
Absolutely one of the best in the industry. It discusses how to curate content ideas from Google using autosuggest, people also search sections, related searches, and many more to create wonderful content.
Brian Dean YouTube Channel
While his blog is a great resource, his YouTube channel isn’t any less amazing.
It’s also another hub of helpful and valuable SEO hacks to implement.
And here’s the best part:
While Brian Dean has a huge followers count, 349K followers, he only has 35 videos as at the time of writing this post.
And to be honest, that’s very impressive.
While some YouTubers with over 100 videos are yet to hit the 50,000-mark, Brian only has a handful of content but an impressive followers count.
And the most interesting part is that his videos are short videos within the range of ten minutes to15 minutes.
Here are some of the videos that did so well:
Brian Dean’s Online Courses
Absolutely, Brian Dean offers a lot of valuable free content on his blog and YouTube channel.
But what would it look like, if he has a course on SEO?
Well, Brian Dean has a course, or online courses to be precise. And his online courses are the primary ways Brian Dean makes money.
He makes seven figures annually from his online courses.
Below are some of his courses.
What Is The SEO That Works Course?
The SEO That Works course is one of the best courses Brian has to offer if you’re a digital marketer or a blogger that wants to make the best of your blog.
The course teaches advanced SEO hacks to boost your organic traffic and take your website to the next level.
Who is SEO That Works For?
Needless to say, this course is best for intermediate SEOs that want to learn advanced SEO hacks for their blog.
It isn’t the best for beginners. If you’re a beginner and you are just learning SEO and how it works, then you should start by devouring all the free resources on Brian Dean’s blog and YouTube channel.
Also if you are an affiliate marketer, or own a product, then I consider the course a good deal for you.
However, if you monetize your blog via AdSense or you are a news site publisher, then I don’t consider this a good investment to make.
You would be better off learning from his blog. And that’s because his course doesn’t come cheap.
And just like every other course, there’s no quick fix to SEO. You need to be ready to put in the work to see a good result. If you’re not ready for that, then the course is not for you.
What’s Included In The Course?
To start with, Brian Dean and his team have constantly updated the course to make it relevant to today’s SEO trends.
Needless to say, SEO is a fast-changing industry with Google rolling out new algorithm updates regularly.
So you definitely need an SEO course that’s constantly updated to the trend, and that’s what sets Brian’s course apart.
Here’s what you will learn in the course:
- The current SEO trends
- How to Find Industry bloggers in your niche that will be willing to link to your blog
- How to write an engaging and thought-provoking piece that will generate a lot of shares
- How to reach out to link prospects to enable getting links
- How to optimize content for UX Signals
Coupled with the real-life case studies of the past students achieving the first page for their keywords, you also gain exposure to a working SEO system that has helped Brian to grow his traffic with fewer contents.
How much is SEO That Works?
SEO That Works costs $497 per month which amounts to nearly $6000 per year.
No doubt, this is a hefty price. But it’s worth the investment if you are planning on building a sustainable online business without having to worry about the ever-changing Google Algorithm.
Notably, the course is presently closed for enrollment, but you can join the waitlist to get updates from Brian Dean whenever the course is back in session.
Is SEO That Works Worth It?
As said earlier, SEO That Works is worth it if you already have a good knowledge of SEO and how it works. Only then, you will be able to follow and apply all that Brian Dean teaches in the course.
Aside from that, the course might be overwhelming if you are just a beginner trying to cramp what SEO is.
What Is the First Page Videos Course?
I did mention how Brian Dean is performing excellently with fewer videos on his YouTube channel, right?
It isn’t guesswork, it is also based on a working system. And that’s what the First Page Videos course is all about.
Brian Dean is also the instructor for this course. Having performed excellently with his YouTube channel, Brian has set out to teach his knowledge to others.
Who Is First Page Videos For?
This course is for YouTube content creators willing to attract more subscribers and build a healthy audience on YouTube.
Also a good course for business owners and entrepreneurs willing to tap into the YouTube industry.
What’s Included In The Course?
Here’s what you will learn in the course:
- Advanced video SEO strategies
- Real-life case studies of people getting #1 rankings in YouTube
- Follow a proven step-by-step YouTube SEO system
- Get more targeted traffic from YouTube
And the best part is that the course is created by a global-renowned SEO expert, Brian Dean.
How Much Is First Page Videos?
As expected, this also comes at a hefty price. Dean offers two different packages for this course.
The standard costs a 12-month payment of $199. While the complete package costs a 12-month payment of $299 per month.
The complete package unlocks unlimited consulting with Brian Dean.
Is First Page Videos That Works Worth It?
The First Page Videos course is definitely worth it. But you must be ready to put in the work to get good results.
What Is Grow Your Blog Fast Course?
This is one of Brian’s courses to help bloggers to grow their blog fast and also increase their email subscribers.
While the SEO That Works course is all about ranking high on Google and building links, Grow your blog fast course is more concerned about building an engaging audience and then selling to them via your blog.
Who is Grow Your Blog Fast Course For?
According to the name of the course, it is for bloggers who want to build a serious blogging business.
Likewise, business owners and content marketers will also find huge benefits from the course. As a content marketer, having the skill to build an engaging and converting audience is priceless.
What’s Included In The Course?
While the course is about growing a successful blog fast, it covers more than that.
Brian prioritizes creating an engaged audience in the course. He also teaches methods of creating and selling products to your audience.
Obviously, Brian earned the authority to teach building an engaged audience of true fans. A look at his followers and audience shows a religiously ardent audience.
This course is laid out in five modules to help you grow your blog.
Here are the modules:
- Module 1 – Jumpstart your Blogs Growth
- Module 2 – Publish Amazing Blog Content
- Module 3 – Promote your Blog
- Module 4 – Build Your Email List in Record Time
- Module 5 – How to Launch Product to your Audience
However, the course doesn’t cover social media marketing for blogs.
How much is Grow Your Blog Fast?
About the pricing, this course also comes at a hefty price too. The course costs $2000.
However, enrollment for the course is closed but you can join the waiting list to get an update from Brian.
Is Grow Your Blog Fast Worth It?
Absolutely. If you want to build a successful blog fast, Brian is the real deal.
And the course is absolutely helpful. No doubt, building a successful blog is becoming more difficult. And if you are only trying to guess your way around it, you might find a hard time doing so.
What is Create Profitable Courses?
While Brian doesn’t display his earnings publicly on his blog nor does he flaunt his wealth, he has recorded immense success with his courses, well beyond 7-figures by now.
Brian Dean has three courses aside from this course. And definitely his course has been a great success.
His first and major course, SEO That Works has over 3000 students. And considering the hefty price of the course, definitely, Brian is a huge success when it comes to creating a course.
Who Is The Create Profitable Courses For?
Best for online course creators willing to grow their online business and attract more students to their course covers all you need to know to build a profitable course.
Also a good deal for bloggers who want to monetize their audience through online courses.
What’s Included In The Course?
Brian covers all you need to know about launching an online course and making it profitable.
And in this course, here’s what you’ll learn:
- How to Create a Course People want to Buy
- Access to Proven Launch Templates and strategies
- Follow a step-by-step blueprint that works in any niche
Likewise, you’ll also learn the system that helped Brian did $80,000 in his first-course launch.
How Much is Create Profitable Courses?
This course is not in session presently. But you can also join the waiting list to get notified when the registration is on alongside the price.
Is The Create Profitable Courses Worth It?
Absolutely. If your goal is to launch online courses for your audience, then it’s worth it.
However, if you are a blogger or content creator yet to build an audience (engaged email list), then it’s best you start by building an audience for your blog.
And when it comes to building an audience that’s ready to buy your courses, you can consider joining the Virtual Summit Mastery, where you’ll learn how to build an audience through virtual summits by building your email list.
What Is Brian Dean’s Net Worth in 2022?
Brian is a very confidential person and little is known about his net worth. However, his net worth is definitely into 7-figures.
Because Brian’s courses have done over $20 million dollars. And the cost of running online courses alongside the team isn’t as expensive as running in-person conferences and events.
In essence, Brian will still get to keep a bigger percentage of his online course revenues.
The farthest Brian Dean has gone to reveal is that his business is now in the 7-figures. And that was in 2018 in an interview on Hackernoon.
And in the interview, Brian Dean revealed that 100% of his earnings come from his online courses. And that pretty much explains why Brian Dean has four online courses.
100% of our revenue comes from online course sales.
“From growing our audience and creating better products, our launches have grown quite a bit. Our first launch did around $80k. We’ve since had multiple that’s done 10x that.“
Brian Dean
Name | Brian Dean |
Nationality | American |
Date of Birth | August 31, 1983 |
Age | 38 Years Old (2022) |
Net worth | His net worth is in the 7-figures |
Education | University of Rhode Island |
Update: Brian Dean recently announced (January 2022) that he sold Backlinko to one of the largest SEO company’s, SEMrush. Although the sum SEMrush paid to Brian to acquire Backlinko wasn’t revealed publicly, it’s expected to have been in the 7-figure range (considering how much traffic Backlinko has). Brian Dean and his team will continue to work part time on Backlinko and join the SEMrush team.
Brian Dean Backlinko FAQs
Here are some frequently asked questions about Brian Dean and Backlinko.
What Is The Secret Key To Brain Dean’s Success?
Speaking of what has played a great role in making Brian Dean a successful entrepreneur, you cannot but mention his persistence in learning the hacks.
Brian Dean didn’t go for the quick fixes the second time. Instead, he started by studying how SEO works and thereby going by implementing it on his blog.
What has also helped Brian Dean build a loyal audience is his willingness to provide optimum value for his audience through his content.
Both his blog posts and videos are wonderful resources to help you put your blog in the right direction for free organic traffic from Google.
Famous Brian Dean Quotes
Here are some famous Brian Dean quotes:
“Like links, the tweets a page has may influence its rank in Google.”
Brian Dean
“Longer content helps you rank better for your target keyword and brings in more long-tail traffic … a win-win!”
Brian Dean
“SEO isn’t about content creation. It’s about content promotion.”SEO isn’t about content creation. It’s about content promotion.”
Brian Dean
Random Facts About Brian Dean & Backlinko
Here are some random facts that you might interest or motivate you about Brian Dean and Backlinko.
- Brian Dean worked on his SEO business from hotels, guest houses, and cafes from places like Thailand, Cambodia, Japan, and Spain.
- Brian Dean is a graduate of nutrition and was once a Ph.D. candidate before quitting to start his entrepreneurial journey
- Brian Dean is the co-founder of Exploding Topics, a tool that helps you discover fast-growing topics.
- He was born on the 31st of August, 1983 (38 years).
Brian Dean Review Summary
Here we are at the end of this Brian Dean review. Absolutely, Brian Dean is the real deal.
Now I’d like to turn it over to you:
What do you think about this Brian Dean Backlinko review?
Have you gone through any of his paid courses before?
What do you think about his courses?
Let me know in the comments below.
Want to learn more?