Is Getting SEO Certification Worth It?

          

By Adam Hansen on Wed Jul 16 Wednesday July 16 0Comments

         As the need for search engine optimization professionals grows, there is a growing debate: Is it better to “learn from the trenches” or get formal training through some sort of SEO certification program?
While formal education isn't necessarily an indication of workplace competence, most employers have certain expectations in regard to knowledge, fields of study and practical application.
If you have a degree in chemistry, I can assume you have a strong understanding of the sciences and math and in addition to specialized knowledge in chemistry. If you have a degree in finance, it’s assumed you have a general understanding of business administration and so on.

The explosion in online marketing over the last decade has allowed countless businesses to flourish and succeed like never before, but it has also created a new set of problems for employers. There is a huge demand for qualified online marketers, but finding quality professionals isn’t easy for most businesses.

Unlike other fields, there aren’t “Ivory Towers” for online marketing specialties like SEO, PPC, social media and so on. It’s difficult to have well known educational programs for occupations that didn’t even exist 15 years ago.

This makes it challenging for many employers to use education as a baseline in considering a potential employee for a job in SEO or other Internet marketing fields.
Many argue that knowledge and results will reign supreme, but is the tide beginning to change?  Education versus experience — it’s a battle that has been going on as long as there has been job hunting. How will this industry deal with it?

Is SEO Certification Worth It?

Education of any sort is an investment, and like any other investment, you have to look at the cost compared to the perceived return.
The reason many people are willing to shell out $60,000 a year to go to an Ivy League school is because they think that the education and pedigree of those schools will pay off later, in the form of better jobs and higher salaries.

Of course, you can also get an education without the fancy piece of paper.  As Matt Damon tells a Harvard graduate student in the movie "Good Will Hunting," "you dropped 150 grand on a f@*%in' education you could have got for a dollar-fifty in late charges at the public library!"
There are plenty of examples of titans of industry who never had formal education in business, yet were able to rise to the highest ranks through hard work, ingenuity and intelligence. But if you’re hiring for Goldman Sachs, who are you going to go with: the Harvard business grad or the "wicked smart" kid with no degree?

When deciding to take SEO certification courses, what you really need to look at is the return on that investment of time and money compared with your goals.
If your dream is to own your own online marketing empire of affiliate sites that make you passive income while you live the "4-Hour Work Week" lifestyle, then gaining SEO knowledge is more important than getting a formal SEO education.

If you’re looking to work at a large company’s online marketing department and they require or prefer SEO certification courses, it might not matter how much knowledge you have. You could be an SEO god, but if you don’t fit their parameters you might not even get a chance to prove that.

Another factor to consider is how potential clients might perceive you and your SEO business. Maybe being certified and having a cool-looking diploma hanging on your office wall will make some clients feel better about forking over the large amounts of cash you’re asking for.
The decision to get formal SEO training or not is one that highly depends on you, your goals and what value you estimate you’ll gain from it. Run through this analysis yourself and see where you come out.

SEO Certification Courses to Consider

If you’ve run through the numbers and you think that pursuing a formal SEO education is the way to go, there are plenty of options to consider.
While it doesn’t take much for “an expert” to throw together a certification program, here are a couple of quality programs that are well known and worth you looking into:

• Market Motive: This self paced course runs $299/month and you have up to six months to complete the program.
• SEO Certification: This is a great beginner's course as it offers various levels of education at different price points starting at $89.
• UC Irvine: If you’re looking for a well known name in education that employers might respect more, then check out the SEO program at University of California, Irvine’s extension center. But at $3,500, you will be paying for the name along with the education.
• Web CEO: This is an in-depth program at a reasonable cost of $295. There is also no time limit to complete the course.
• Full Sail: This online university offers certification courses, bachelor's and master's degrees in Internet Marketing that all include SEO education. If you’re looking for a wider scope to your education, you might want to consider this.

If none of these online courses work for you, check out your local options. Many community colleges, universities and for-profit schools offer “brick and mortar” classrooms where you can learn the same SEO skill sets.
What’s your take? Do you think formal SEO training and certificates are the wave of the future? Let us know in the comments.

Improving the Search Engine Rankings of Your Blog

Improving the Search Engine Rankings of Your Blog:

Bloggers who are interested in reaching a large audience with their blog should consider paying special attention to search engine optimization of their blog. Reaching a large audience may be a priority for a number of different reasons. One of the obvious reasons to attempt to generate increased traffic to a blog is to generate a profit. Bloggers who rely on high blog traffic for their revenue are obviously interested in increasing traffic. However, bloggers who create their blog to promote a cause may also be interested in increasing traffic simply to allow their message to reach a larger audience. Regardless of the reason to want to increase traffic, one of the best ways to do this is by optimizing the blog for search engines. This article will discuss the importance of search engine rankings and offer tips for optimizing a blog.

Why Search Engine Rankings are Important

The importance of high search engine rankings is they can contribute to increased Internet traffic to the blog. This is because Internet users who use search engines to find information on a particular topic are much more likely to visit websites which appear on the first page of the search results than they are to visit websites which appear on subsequent pages of the search results. The websites appearing on the first page of the results are likely to get the most traffic. However, Internet users are not likely to search through more than a page or two of the search results when looking for more information on a particular subject.

High search engine rankings essentially act as free advertisement for a blog or website. This is because many website users rely on popular search engines to assist them in finding useful information on the Internet. The search engines apply complex algorithms to evaluate websites and rank them accordingly for specific search terms. As a result Internet users put a great deal of value on the search results produced and trust these results to lead them to the best available websites relevant to the keywords they specified in the search.

Tips for Optimizing a Blog for Search Engines

One of the most common ways to optimize a blog or website for search engines is through the use of relevant keywords. Specifically the practice of applying specific keyword densities to the content of the blog is a common search engine optimization tactic employed. Blog owners and others who attempt to optimize their websites do not always agree on the optimal density for keywords but many believe a percentage of approximately 2%-3% is appropriate.

Another method for optimizing a search engine optimization is to place relevant keywords into the code of the website. This includes the title tags and META tags. This is important because search engines often consider the prominence of keywords when evaluating a website. This refers to the location in which the keywords first appear. Placing keywords early in the content of the website is helpful but it is important to note the search engines view the code first so keywords appearing before the body of the blog will be crawled first by the search engines.

Blog owners can also help to increase their search engine rankings by generating back links to their blog. This can be accomplished in a number of different ways. One way to do this is to find other websites willing to place a link to the blog on their website. This is beneficial because many search engines factor the number of links to a website into their ranking algorithm because these links are considered to be one website vouching for the validity of another website. Some website owners may be willing to do this in return for a link to their website on your blog. This is known as reciprocal linking and some search engines may not value this link as highly as a link which is not reciprocated. There are also some link exchange programs but these links may not be beneficial because many search engines consider the rank of the website linking to your blog. Therefore, if the website linking to your blog does not rank well, the back link will not improve search engine rankings significantly.

Finding The Best Professional SEO Service

Finding The Best Professional SEO Service: The search engine optimization boom in recent years has led to the formation of hundreds of firms offering professional SEO service. It's no surprise, really – SEO is the buzzword (or buzz-acronym, in any case) in the world of Internet marketing these days. The options for professional search engine optimization are varied. There are all kinds of different services for a variety of prices… it's important to know exactly what you're looking before you sign up for professional SEO service.
If the world of Internet marketing is known for one things, it's for being fast-paced and highly competitive. There are thousands of talented people who can give you the kind of service you need, so long as you know what you're looking for. As with most things in life, you get what you pay for. You simply can't expect top quality search engine optimization work if you're not ready to pay for it.
Finding a professional search engine optimization service isn't really that hard. Just search for SEO service on Google or any other search engine. The real trick is finding an SEO service that's going to work for you, and within your budget. That will require some research.
One of the best ways to choose professional SEO service that's right for you is to investigate previous clients of that service. If that information is available, it can provide a great preview of the kind of results you can expect. If you look at the client of a service and their website is on the 10th page of a main keyword search, you should stay away. However, if multiple keywords are showing that site on the front page, you may have yourself a winner.
Different SEO services operate differently. Some of them simply provide consultation services, letting you know the best ways to optimize your site. They leave the actual work to you. Other services provide a full package: they'll perform all the necessary modifications to your site so you don't need to. Of course, the prices for each service will vary. Some basic plans can be just a couple hundred dollars, while the highest quality services can cost thousands per month!
One thing to watch out for in your search for a professional SEO service is services that employ “black hat” SEO techniques. These techniques involve things like spamming a keyword all over a website, or forming “link farms.” These types of tactics frustrate and annoy users, and search engine operators actively seek to remove them from search engine rankings. They might be good for a short-term boost, but they'll eventually bring your website down.
Search engine optimization is a vital part of any business' marketing plan, especially online businesses. Avoiding search engine optimization is just throwing away potential customers. No matter your product or service or traffic needs, hiring a professional SEO service can pay for itself. The extra traffic you'll bring in thanks to solid SEO will be a great boost to your website.