SEO schools... legit?

Was thinking about getting a few certificates from University San Fransico for some internet marketing stuff... one of which includes SEO.

Is it worth it? Or just better off teaching myself? Wasn't sure if the SEO certifications were a big thing in the market or not.

Thanks!

University of San Francisco is a legit university but I would suspect their course guideline is quite dated ... being pedagogically correct normally takes years to get to the instruction level so you would likely be learn stuff that isn't valid today.

Teaching yourself the latest and greatest also has in drawbacks... you can easily get locked into learning from speculative information which can taint any offerings you may offer to potential customers.

The free self-learning is the better way of going and asking lots of questions here OR offering advice to others based on what you learned which if invalid usually catches more senior members eyes. I for one will quickly say "RUBBISH" if it is so!

While there are lots of courses, software packages and programs in the mix (including mine) they are all self-serving offers... most of which are worthless as ****!

yeah still undecided if I'll do it, I have a month or so to decide.... in the mean time I'm diving hard into the literature and asking questions to self-teach as much as I can... setting up some dummy websites tonight to toy with.

I'm under the impression it can takes weeks if not longer to see sites register with google and start to show up in the search results... is this correct?

The odds of taking a brand new domain to a successful plateau level (even a minimal one) is pretty remote... mostly due to the fact that results tend to favor those that have be doing SEO longer.

e.g. if the average website in the top 20 have invested $1000/month in SEO for 5 years... that a $60,000 war chest you have to overtake...

If the traffic on the highway is going 73 MPH and you're going 70 MPH... it doesn't take a genius to see "everyone will be passing you"... that's the same thing here.

It depends. Are you an entrepreneur? If your goal in life is to run your own business, gain clients and stand the marketing world on its arse, then no, no degree necessary.

If your goal is to be in a large building running pretty reports to send to your boss with 30 other dullards for 60k a year, then yes, you will probably need a degree.

Very true.... I def. see your point. The "brand new domain" is more for practice than anything....

That being said... another question...

Is there anyway to successfully take a "relatively new" (read: 1-2 year old) and move it up a decent amount?

I'm not talking top 10 hits... just a reasonable bump? Mainly by using on-page tactics? I understand they only accommodate for roughly 10% of SEO... just curiosity at how possible.

I take it you're an entrepreneur? ;)

Lets say for argument sakes... to sell my services as an optimizer to other companies... not run my own business...

How does your opinions change?

Also, on the same note, well maybe not, but any suggestions for SEO programs that help a newcomer (or anybody for that matter)... been dabbling around with both firefox and chrome to see which is more suitable... safari is horrible! I'm on a mac if that matters.

Sure... click on the big banner at page top (the blue one with the bimbo) and you can see the potential in less than 30-days for free.

I have done both.

In order to sell your services to other companies don't you have to be a business?

Yes, very true ;) Misunderstood your implications I suppose.

Personal experience, which did/do you prefer? Reasons?

If you're going to spend any money on real school then you'd better be looking extensively into aspects of web marketing which would include, but not limited to, branding, social media, some type of analytics course (stats), maybe SEO, etc. Some good advice above thus far though......

I have a pretty wide background of schooling right now... bachelor's degree, and part of a master's (which I won't be finishing)... medic license, etc etc....

All that includes quite of few different math, marketing, accounting, stats stuff.... if I would do the schooling, it would most likely be the master's certificate (entire internet marketing) that USF offers.

Still debating though... still reading up on SEO to see what I can teach myself.

hmmm, so you have been in school for what, 6 years? Sounds like you need to decide what to be when you grow up. (just kidding but not really) My guess is that you should choose to do whatever you will be passionate about. Without passion for your work, you will not succeed.

You sir... have hit the nail on the head.

I have been choosing careers because they were "different" or "pay well"... all of which have done the latter, but I have been miserable in.

My true passion is computers, just about anything related to them. Was always told it was sort of "taboo" career... but now it's time to decide things for myself.

I have only been reading on seo for a day or two now, but am loving it so far... going to keep reading for another couple months and see where things go... The only thing I can so for sure is that I haven't felt this passionate about any career line before. Time to choose what "I" want to do, not what others want me to do.

There is no certification in SEO yet, which is industrially recognized. However Google provides couple of certifications in other areas of internet marketing like PPC, web analytic, search advertising, display advertising etc. All these certification have industrial recognition and are worth pursuing.

In addition to these I would suggest you to get a degree/diploma in e-commerce or traditional sales/marketing which can help you in understanding the overall marketing process. SEO is a subset of marketing and so is pay per click, conversion rate optimization, social media marketing and other online marketing channels. If you understand the basics of promotion, how product life cycle works, what is brand, brand value, market segmentation and other marketing terms and how they work together, then you have an edge over other SEOs and will excel in this field at a faster pace. Certifications demonstrate competitive distinction. It helps in getting jobs, enticing clients esp. when you are just starting out.