People who want to sell a course search far more for how to build one than for what to teach. In the US, “how to create an online course” gets 1,300 searches a month and “sell online courses” gets 1,000, while “online course ideas” gets only 140. Most creators pick a topic on instinct and find out after launch whether anyone is searching for it.
We checked ten course topics against Google data from seodata.dev on 2026-10-13. For each topic, we looked at monthly US search volume, cost per click, and Google Ads competition for the main keyword, along with related searches that point to a more specific angle.
Are people still buying courses?
Search interest suggests the market is cooling. US searches for “online course” grew slowly from 2021 to 2024, jumped through 2025 and early 2026, and since late August have dropped back to roughly their 2024 level.
Search data can’t tell us why, but we have a guess. People now ask ChatGPT or Claude for a lot of what they used to buy a course to learn. It’s free, and the answer fits their exact situation in a way a pre-recorded video can’t.
Ship a skill with the course
You can close that gap by giving buyers an AI tool built on your material. A Claude skill is a folder of instructions, examples, and files that Claude loads when a task calls for it. If you bundle one with your course, the buyer can add it to Claude and have it work through problems using your method, checklists, and examples, or review their own work against your standards.
Searches for “claude skills” are still too new to show up in Google Ads volume, but Google Trends shows the shift. Worldwide, people have searched for “claude skills” more than “custom gpt” every week since mid-December 2025.
Any of the topics below can include a skill. A medical coding course could ship one that checks code choices against the course’s rules, while a copywriting course could include one that critiques a sales page using the instructor’s framework.
The ten course ideas at a glance
| Course idea | Main keyword | Volume | CPC | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Medical coding | medical coding course | 12,100 | $31.42 | 0.70 |
| 2. UX design | ux design course | 5,400 | $14.36 | 0.36 |
| 3. Bookkeeping | bookkeeping course | 8,100 | $12.75 | 0.59 |
| 4. Copywriting | copywriting course | 4,400 | $8.29 | 0.22 |
| 5. Power BI | power bi course | 4,400 | $7.47 | 0.64 |
| 6. Drone pilot | drone pilot course | 1,300 | $6.79 | 0.56 |
| 7. Excel | excel course | 8,100 | $6.20 | 0.59 |
| 8. Home inspector | home inspector course | 3,600 | $5.65 | 0.44 |
| 9. Canva | canva course | 2,400 | $4.02 | 0.11 |
| 10. Grant writing | grant writing course | 5,400 | $3.80 | 0.53 |
We ordered the list by CPC, which is a rough guide to what a buyer is worth to advertisers. The competition column shows Google Ads competition on a 0 to 1 scale based on how many advertisers bid on the term, rather than how hard it is to rank in organic search. Close variants of a keyword often share a single volume figure in Google’s data, so don’t add the rows together.
1. Medical coding
| Keyword | Volume | CPC |
|---|---|---|
| medical coding course | 12,100 | $31.42 |
| medical billing and coding course | 5,400 | $38.73 |
| cpc exam prep | 590 | $6.31 |
Medical coding has the biggest volume and highest CPC on the list, and “medical billing and coding course” reaches $38.73 a click. A competition score of 0.70 means colleges and training schools are already bidding hard on the broad terms. A solo creator has a better shot teaching exam prep for the CPC credential (590 searches) than trying to sell a full career course.
2. UX design
| Keyword | Volume | CPC |
|---|---|---|
| ux design course | 5,400 | $14.36 |
| ux portfolio | 2,900 | $4.74 |
| ux research course | 390 | $10.74 |
UX design pairs a $14.36 CPC with a relatively low competition score of 0.36. Because “ux portfolio” gets 2,900 searches on its own, a course built around finishing a portfolio piece speaks directly to what students worry about.
3. Bookkeeping
| Keyword | Volume | CPC |
|---|---|---|
| bookkeeping certification | 9,900 | $10.17 |
| bookkeeping course | 8,100 | $12.75 |
| how to start a bookkeeping business | 1,300 | $8.16 |
More people search for a bookkeeping certification than for a course. Meanwhile, the 1,300 searches for “how to start a bookkeeping business” point to a different buyer altogether: someone who already knows how to keep books and wants help finding clients.
4. Copywriting
| Keyword | Volume | CPC |
|---|---|---|
| copywriting course | 4,400 | $8.29 |
| ai copywriting | 1,900 | $6.34 |
| email copywriting course | 70 | $4.84 |
At 0.22, competition here is the second lowest on the list. “Ai copywriting” pulls in 1,900 searches a month, so a course on directing and editing AI drafts matches how people actually work now.
5. Power BI
| Keyword | Volume | CPC |
|---|---|---|
| power bi certification | 12,100 | $7.05 |
| power bi course | 4,400 | $7.47 |
| pl-300 exam | 1,000 | $6.57 |
“Power bi certification” gets nearly three times the searches of the general course keyword. Microsoft’s official Power BI exam is the PL-300, and 1,000 people a month search for it by name, making exam prep the clearest angle here.
6. Drone pilot
| Keyword | Volume | CPC |
|---|---|---|
| faa drone license | 6,600 | $4.05 |
| drone real estate photography | 2,400 | $4.80 |
| drone pilot course | 1,300 | $6.79 |
“Faa drone license” gets 6,600 searches, about five times as many as the course keyword. “Drone real estate photography” (2,400 searches) is the follow-up course, for pilots who have the license and want paid work.
7. Excel
| Keyword | Volume | CPC |
|---|---|---|
| excel course | 8,100 | $6.20 |
| financial modeling course | 1,900 | $8.06 |
| excel for accountants | 320 | $7.06 |
Search volume is high at 8,100, though every big learning platform already sells a general Excel course. Narrowing the topic to a specific job, such as financial modeling (1,900 searches at $8.06), gives people a reason to pay for yours instead of using free tutorials.
8. Home inspector
| Keyword | Volume | CPC |
|---|---|---|
| how to become a home inspector | 8,100 | $3.16 |
| home inspector license | 5,400 | $5.45 |
| home inspector course | 3,600 | $5.65 |
| commercial property inspection | 2,900 | $8.47 |
“How to become a home inspector” gets 8,100 searches, more than double the course keyword. Because licensing rules vary by state, state-specific exam prep is one viable angle. Teaching commercial property inspection (2,900 searches at $8.47) is another, aimed at working inspectors who want bigger jobs.
9. Canva
| Keyword | Volume | CPC |
|---|---|---|
| canva templates | 18,100 | $2.13 |
| canva course | 2,400 | $4.02 |
| how to sell canva templates | 590 | $1.96 |
Canva has the lowest competition on the list at 0.11, along with a low CPC, which points to a smaller, lower-priced course. The 590 searches for “how to sell canva templates” come from people trying to earn money with the tool, which is easier to charge for than learning the software.
10. Grant writing
| Keyword | Volume | CPC |
|---|---|---|
| grant writing course | 5,400 | $3.80 |
| how to become a grant writer | 1,600 | $3.38 |
| grant writing for nonprofits | 1,000 | $11.87 |
The main keyword has the lowest CPC on the list at $3.80, but “grant writing for nonprofits” jumps to $11.87 a click. Nonprofit staff who need to win grants for their organization are the buyers worth focusing on.
How we pulled the data
Each number came from a call to the seodata.dev API, which also returns related keywords and their volumes:
curl "https://api.seodata.dev/v1/keyword?q=medical+coding+course&country=us"If you use Claude or ChatGPT, you can pull the same numbers through the seodata.dev MCP server. Its lookup_keywords tool checks a batch of keywords in a single call, so you can test demand for your own course idea before you record anything.