Anyone else want a BS in SEO?

[rmccarley]

http://www.seomoz.org/blogdetail.php?ID=656

Great discussion at Rand's site about SEO and certification. What can be taught in a classroom? What esential skills would have to be part of the cirriculum?

[toddieg]

hmmm.. i guess i would've wanted one ...

however, it seems like the industry changes so much and has such an uncertain future that the skills you learn might not apply 5 years down the road.

[Wit]

I always thought there was a lot of BS in SEO already...

[Robert Paulson]

Over the holidays I was talking to family about how interesting SEO really is, with the limited knowledge I have of it.

It's so new that the only people qualified by experience to be professors seem to be in their 20's. Even Google was launched in what, the mid-90's? And the thing I'm finding about it's newness is, relative to other industries there's but a handful of people really good at it. This of course means that they can charge an arm and a leg for their services (and at this point, it's definitely worth it).

Way back when I started in SEO (10-11 months ago ) I was a proponent of some form of certification, to make buying SEO services a little easier - there seem to be more scammers than earnest SEO'ers. However, as with other industries, certifications can sometimes become more of a marketing tool than an educational tool, and businesses still end up hiring sub-par "professionals". A BS might have a similar effect. Not to mention what Todd already said about the fast-paced changes in the industry. I mean seriously, I don't have much use for the Fortran book I still have from college.

Maybe a slightly different track for a CS major would be the right angle to take.

[jadibones]

Originally Posted by rmccarley

http://www.seomoz.org/blogdetail.php?ID=656

Great discussion at Rand's site about SEO and certification. What can be taught in a classroom? What esential skills would have to be part of the cirriculum?

RMC,
Thanks for posting this. The school I go to offers a (very) short class about SEO. It is by no means any kind of certification for it, but I will say that I would really recommend the program that I am doing. It is the MSIE (Master of Science in Internet Engineering) Program. Here are a list of courses that you take. It isn't easy, but it is so so fun. Its the only time I have ever actually gotten excited about going to classes.

I didn't know that there were job listings on CraigsList.org. And I really didn't know that there was an Internet Engineering jobs section. I am going to be graduating very soon, and this is going to make it a lot easier to find a job. Thanks RMC and also if you are reading, thanks Randfish for posting that.

[Too Bad]

Well this is nice :-)

I studied E-business, a combination between mathematics, IT and economics. I think it's the perfect preperation for a job as 'SEO'.

A while back I posted that I will be teaching some e-marketing courses at the uni. starting next february, seo will be a large part of that. It's a 'one semester' class only and it isn't mandatory (how do you write that...). Out of the 120 students doing e-business already 80 signed up for my classes so there will probably be some follow-up courses.

I really like to do something more specific to SEO after the first course and maybe get some sort of certification for it.

I have too many ideas and too little time...

[Robert Paulson]

Jammer, I was talking about you specifically when I was talking to family about SEO instruction. I think that's pretty cool.

I think the cert is a great idea, just that it needs to be something that once granted is some level of assurance of a certain level of competency. That's what a cert is designed to do, but I've seen too many cases where a 2-day or week-long seminar ends with a certificate for every attendee (or there's a test, but a monkey could pass it). It becomes more about the marketing of the certification and less about the knowledge gained in getting it.

And I know this firsthand because I use those throw-away certifications myself to market our b&m business. I know they're worthless, but our clients don't.

[rmccarley]

As far as certifications go I learned a long time ago they are usually worthless. All they prove is that the person can read a book and then test well on the limited scenarios provided by the book. And those programs tend to come from a place of "this is how it should be in an ideal situation" which just isn't the case 99% of the time. Every company is unique with their own culture, knowledge-level, and budget to consider and these factors often add up to a less than ideal reality.

Talking to people from all walks, I know a lot of SMBs that refuse to higher certified people if all they have is the certification. It's not the learning curve, it's the ego that tends to accompany such programs. There seems to be a feeling of "I'm certified and know what I'm doing" which translates to "unteachable". Many SMBs have found it's better to just grab someone fresh with a passion to learn than deal with those headaches because I don't care what your silly book told you, this is how we do it here.

I think a degreed program would be an entirely different scenario but the issue of classification comes up. I don't think we're really engineers. I don't think we're even computer tech people. We're marketing people that happen to use tech. But there's a big design part of the equasion as well.

SEO is a great field for schiztophrenics.

You need to have great communication skills, the ability to think of and create content (both written and programmed), project management skills are essential, graphic/web design skills, promotion, advertising, marketing, accounting (for the budget and PPC) and know how to operate a computer.

I think if we looked at how varied our backgrounds are it would be revealing.

[skitzzo]

Not to but I think we are getting back into the question of what SEO really is. I mean the stuff that RMC mentioned I would consider more of an internet marketer or something along those lines. IMO, the job of SEO's are to get targeted traffic from the search engines to a website. Now, I know traffic is nothing without conversions or whatever but that starts getting into so many other factors that RMC mentioned that you end up losing the SEO focus.

[rmccarley]

That's a good point Skitz but as you said "targeted traffic". That is marketing pure and simple.

And the way you do that is with onpage (Design & Programming) factors, quality content (English, Creative Writing, Technical Writing, News Reporting, Communications, Programming), and backlinks (Personal Networking, Communications) and all of it is done on a computer (IT, CIS). You probably (hopefully!) do some billing (Accounting). No matter what hat you wear Ethics come in to play. And if you are independant you also have to spread the word about your own services (Business, Marketing) and keep yourself afloat (Business, Accounting, Law). And all of that is under "strict" SEO.