533025_graduation_diploma.jpgRecently I toyed with the idea of getting SEO certification. After all, getting training for any kind of field and getting a certificate boosts your credibility. Does this apply to a new field of study such as SEO? It might help me when it comes to my SEO career. Or it might be a complete waste of time and money. Should I finally get SEO-certified? I’ve looked at some certification programs for the answer.

SEOCertification.org. You can be certified as a professional, a company, or a trainer. You get a 152-page training manual, exam software, access to member areas, and client leads. The annual membership prices run from $200 to $675. I can’t seem to find a list of instructors, so I have no idea who’ll be answering you when you tap the “Ask the Instructor” feature.

ExpertRating. Apparently you get certified “quickly online” and will have access to a wealth of SEO courseware. It costs $49.99, and the contents of the courseware is pretty vague. From what I understand, you pay the $49.99, go through the online materials at your own pace, then take the exam. If you pass, you get the pretty piece of paper. If not, you can pay $10 to retake the exam.

OnlineWebTraining. According to their website, they are approved by the US educational system and their courses can be taken as CEUs. I think this program is what Jennifer Sullivan Cassidy was talking about in her article SEO Certification: Necessity, Myth, or Scam? This program seems to be the online version of Search Engine Workshops.

Search Engine College. What I like about Search Engine College is that they are upfront about the fact that they’re not accredited by any government institution. Plus, they let you know who the tutors are. You can have a self-study course (less expensive) or a tutored course - but only tutored courses let you have a certificate. They partnered with Overture in 2004.

Judging from what I’ve found, it seems like there are only a few SEO certification courses out there that aren’t shady. Search Engine College seems to be the likely trustworthy candidate, since they don’t seem to be pretending they’re more than what they really are - a taught workshop/course. SE College is clear about providing a certificate that isn’t accredited, but will look good in your resume or on your wall.

Is it advisable for SEO practitioners to get certification? Let’s look at some pros and cons:

Pros:

  • A piece of paper means something to some people, which will be more important if those people are future employers and clients. Then again, for some people, knowing that you’ve gotten the number 1 result in a search engine for a competitive term is enough.
  • You might learn a lot. That is, if the resources available to you are of high quality. I think this is reflected more in the tutored programs, where you get to interact with experienced professionals - assuming you know who the professionals are and they’re not just some shadowy internet persona without a name.
  • If you get it from a reputable source, there may be some credibility attached to it. I probably wouldn’t bank on an ExperRatings Certified professional.

Cons:

  • Search engines are constantly changing. SEO isn’t some solid, unchangeable technical field. Search engines can change algorithms at the drop of the hat. If you’ve got the certificate but can’t get actual results, then your certificate is worthless.
  • SEO isn’t the be-all and end-all of internet marketing. I know that Shoemoney doesn’t apply SEO to his personal blog, and yet he has 12,770 RSS subscribers (as of now). Most people have the misconception that on-page and/or off-page SEO is the only thing that will bring them traffic and sales.
  • Unless the certificate comes from an actual search engine such as Google or Yahoo, a good percentage of SEO knowledge is speculation anyway.

Does this mean you shouldn’t spend on your SEO education? Of course not! I bought Dan Thies’ Search Engine Marketing Kit for the price of some of the listed courses above and it’s still paying off. I get free education as much as I can through blogs and forums, but if I have to pay to get tot he good stuff, I will. But I’ll probably focus more on the marketing aspect of SEO rather than the technical stuff.

In sum, getting certified is completely up to you. Just do the research first and look at all your options, because if you’re to pay those (sometimes annual) hefty fees, it better be worth it.

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