I go to the best barbershop in the Hudson Valley, if not the world. It’s run by the eponymous “Pugsly”, has rockabilly on the sound system, complementary beer on tap, and an ambience and attitude of another era. While getting my monthly head polishing, I noticed a sign on the mirror informing the clientele that Pugsly would be in Vegas this month. While I’m sure he’ll have his share of leisure, the purpose of the trip is to attend a professional conference.
In Search Engine Optimization (SEO), we do the same thing – we go to SMX, SES, and countless other events for our profession. In fact, come May, I’ll be speaking at Blog World East on the very subject of SEO.
This is a remarkable age we live in that we can share time with our fellow professional SEO’s. Yesterday evening, I spent and hour on Twitter in a “chat” with some of the top SEO professionals in the country, like Matt McGee (editor at Search Engine Land), Ash Buckles (President of SEO.com), Alan K’necht, Dan Patterson and Matt Siltala. Rand Fishkin, Joe Hall and Rhea Drysdale (from Outspoken Media) briefly weighed in. If it had been a real room, you’d be hard pressed to find a place with more top SEO Professionals per square foot. It’s not quite Vegas, but it sure is satisfying in the short run.
Matt McGee led the charge on a heated discussion about SEO certification. I think he mentioned a Sphinn article on the topic – and that brought back an avalanche of certification distracters:
There were some big points of disagreement: (and I’m paraphrasing the Twitter stream here)
- Certification is valid when there is a defined set of knowledge & methodology. This doesn’t apply to SEO. With a changing foundation, you can’t have certification.
- SEO Certification has to be accepted by the industry? Right now few would go for it. Certification requires oversight, control and standardization. Who do you expect to do that in SEO?
- Who would establish the standards? Government, Google, SEMPO, SEOMoz, …? A Governing body couldn’t be agreed upon. It’s hard to create a law abiding certification for an unwritten law.
Matt’s response was that it’s a myth that SEO changes too rapidly for certification, that 90% of SEO is still the same today as 5 years ago. “You think medical industry never changes? Law? Real estate? All industries change. Serious ones certify”.
“SEO industry needs to pull its head out & stop pretending what we do is special or unique and beyond certification. If they can train and certify people to do brain surgery or defend accused murderers, you can train & certify people to do SEO.
“Who would certify? An international organization that doesn’t yet exist. Also need standard training a la medical/law school. Most importantly, need non-selfish visionaries to recognize need and lead the way. We’re severely lacking in that dept. First thing is that industry has to want it. Then leaders can be found. Pointless to even try right now.”
Joe Hall’s response was a fair summation of much of the opposing sentiment, “the only thing that needs to be said is that certification will ruin this industry.”
This type of heated debate is what is needed in any professional environment. There might be hotbeds of SEO’s in Seattle, New York, and Atlanta, here in upstate New York, we don’t quite have it. I’d like to see that change. It’s also one of the reasons that DragonSearch is hosting a “Hudson Valley Talent Meet-up”. Yes, we’re hoping to meet people who might be potential candidates for future jobs – but I’m also hoping to see an environment developed where professionals in the Hudson Valley share information, get into heated debates, and perhaps even join work together. We might even be able to attract some talent from out of town.
Are you an SEO in the Hudson Valley? What are your favorite local resources? Would you like to see more networking events?
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I am certain that SEO certification is well on its way to be accepted by the industry and it is just a question of time before a governing body gets established and accepted. We are already seeing some colleges integrating SEO and internet marketing into their programs. There are also some organizations emerging with training, and yes, certification programs. I went through the MarketMotive SEO certification program and found it very good; I’d like to go through their other programs as well (with Ric’s approval :-). For me the major point was not just to get certified but to soak up as much knowledge, understanding and experience as possible. Just getting certified is not going to make you a “master”, be it in SEO or any other profession. You can learn the techniques, approaches, best practices, etc. But what you will DO with them and make of them is what will make a big difference. And that is totally up to you… in any profession, not just SEO. I see SEO as a form of art, knowing the techniques won’t make you an artist. It is what you bring to it from deep down, from your creativity and imagination, determination, understanding, experience, hard, hard work, trying and failing and trying and succeeding, and never stopping.
There are peeps in all industries who get their certificates and degrees but are still not good at their profession. So we need to stop thinking of SEO certifications as the magic formula. Our industry is changing and evolving just like many other industries. Soon it will grow up to be accepted as any other industry, rapidly changing or not, and the certification will be just as much part of becoming and SEO as it is for other industries today.
On another note; SEO can be very confusing for clients especially because of the snake oil association from the past… and even today. I know if I were a business owner looking for an SEO, seeing that they are certified by a reputable organization would be very reassuring for me… again... just like in any other industry.
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