SEO Certification?

[CatMuse33]

A potential client just asked if I am an "SEO certified" writer. I've never heard of this terminology or any certification programs.

Is anyone reading this certified and, if so, how much does it cost (in time and money?)

Are the so-called certifications valid or can anyone with a few hundred bucks "buy" the certification degree? It honestly sounds like something to me that people say to make them sound more professional but if there are no actual standards for certification--well, that's ripe for scammers to say, "Oh, we'll make you SEO-certified."

If it's valid, it's something I wouldn't mind looking into.

[speel00]

I did a Google search on it and it seems to be a scam. No legit schools offer it and there is no body over looking over it. All in all, just some people trying to scam you out of money.

Hope this helps!

[SouthernFriedJulie]

Scam. This was half-assed valid when meta tags meant something.

Technically, I could certify you. So could probably 9/10ths of the writers here.

[princessvessna]

A potential client just asked if I am an "SEO certified" writer. I've never heard of this terminology or any certification programs.

Is anyone reading this certified and, if so, how much does it cost (in time and money?)

Are the so-called certifications valid or can anyone with a few hundred bucks "buy" the certification degree? It honestly sounds like something to me that people say to make them sound more professional but if there are no actual standards for certification--well, that's ripe for scammers to say, "Oh, we'll make you SEO-certified."

If it's valid, it's something I wouldn't mind looking into.

Yeah, it's hard to certify when there is no exact way to do it. I mean, yes, there are common practices we THINK work, and etc...but unlike, say, Microsoft certification....yeah, no guaranteed, 100% proven methods to test you on.

This article explains a lot about it. From 2005, but a good read.
http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Search-Engine-Optimization-Help/SEO-Certification-Necessity-Myth-or-Scam/

[CatMuse33]

Thank you. In all likelihood, I will send him links to a few articles explaining why SEO certification is no big deal. I suspected as much... .Or I could let SouthernFriedJulie certify me. ;)

Dawn

[lobiso]

I haven't posted here in ages so your next comment will be "who is that?" but I wanted to reply to this thread.

Just about a week ago I came across an "SEO certification" site that offered courses only about 45 minutes from where I live. Since I'm fairly new to this type of writing, I investigated. Looks legitimate enough, but the cheapest course, which was I think 3 days, was $1,000 and a 5-day course was over $2,000. It was the first I've ever heard of certification and I tend to think it's just some folks who found another way to cash in on it. Just my opinion, but I did say "no thank you."

[SouthernFriedJulie]

I haven't posted here in ages so your next comment will be "who is that?" but I wanted to reply to this thread.

Just about a week ago I came across an "SEO certification" site that offered courses only about 45 minutes from where I live. Since I'm fairly new to this type of writing, I investigated. Looks legitimate enough, but the cheapest course, which was I think 3 days, was $1,000 and a 5-day course was over $2,000. It was the first I've ever heard of certification and I tend to think it's just some folks who found another way to cash in on it. Just my opinion, but I did say "no thank you."

Who was that masked bird???

[Hsekhar]

Probably, He meant to ask if you had any experience writing for any big SEO companies. It's always better to have experience via working in companies rather than attending those courses.

[Orientalist]

Julie,

Meta tags are totally worthless now?

Susan

[SouthernFriedJulie]

Julie,

Meta tags are totally worthless now?

Susan


People still use them and some search engines index by them. From everything I've read, content is king with Google. Great, relevant titles and informational content with properly placed keywords do the magic.

Meta-descriptions are still important, it is how different search engines let searchers know what's on your page. Problem? Essentially a porn site can put whatever they want in the metas- desc or tags, and people will be directed to something they never wanted on their computer.

For example a while back I was searching for information on a book. A site came up with the proper description so I clicked. As soon as I landed a download started of a trojan that took quite some time and effort to get rid of.

So use meta tags if you want. Definitely use a meta description. But always put the best, most relevant information on your page.

[speel00]

Most companies or people who want you to do SEO(and I know this from experience) will either teach you SEO or you can learn by looking it up.

I agree with SouthernFriedJulie, that Meta tags are a thing of the past. Keywords is used much more now.

[Orientalist]

What's the buzz about how Bing searches?

I hadn't tried msn in years, but I can tell that a few people are coming to my pages from Bing now. So I've been trying it. I can't say yet whether the general Web search engine is comparable to Google or even Yahoo, though it's much better than the last time I tried msn. However, for image search Bing seems pretty good--better than Google? At first you get a bunch of images; you can pick one and choose "more like this" --and they really are more like that. Then you can drill onwards.