Considering Teaching SEO @ Local Univ.

My local University (the Univ. of Washington) offers classes through an 'experimental' college. The program has been exceptionally successful, and I was considering possibly teaching a course there this spring or fall.

Have any of you ever taught (classroom-style) SEO?

What are your opinions?

What do you think I should focus on? (I have to submit a written proposal and be accepted first)

Go for it, you'll do great.

There is a lot, but usability for users and bot friendlyness would be a good idea I think, navigation and getting crawled is important. Page naming, site link structure, sitemaps... on page optimisation obviously. Link popularity and off page benefits, like backlinks anchor... what to ask other webmasters and how to make it easier to get links...

Just what we need, more competition, and taught by someone that actually knows their stuff not these wannabes.;)

Seriously, I think it would be cool. BTW, would you be at one of the main campuses, or one of the sattelites?

Gr8 - I would be in the University District - main campus.

I have a lot to think about, though. I want this course to be as comprehensive as possible, but I'll probably only get 8 sessions with 2 hours each. 16 hours is not a lot of time to teach all that SEO has to offer...

I'm also considering making some 'homework' that has them promoting a site of their own - possibly just a basic blog we set up in class... After all, one can really only learn by doing.

Go for it Rand. Teaching will force you to know the topic better. As you prepare your course it may force you to question some of your existing beliefs. So many knowns, so many unknowns. So many changes since a year ago. Also with MSN going official today that will begin to change things as your neighbors at MSN central start to put on a marketing push for search traffic.

Good luck.

Dave

Randfish, now you have the time, i.e. no DMOZ.

With so few hours to teach, why not use the outline in our Newbie FAQ, or a derivative, as the outline for the course. This way they get the basics in the classroom setting and become pros while doing it for real with advanced guidance from the forums.

I have taught SEO but not at university. They were private courses for webmasters and web agencies.

The biggest problem I have found was with the (very) low webmastering culture. Basicly, it was very difficult to teach on-page optimization because people didn't even know how the client/server model works, how to correctly write tags, URLs, links, how to create a redirect, etc.

I have solved this problem adding one or two introducing lessons about basic HTML and web standards.

The second problem was with the general opinion that SEO has to do just with tags and "magic" codes. I taught them that SEO, as any other profession, requires study and one of the main goals is not to "use tricks that search engines do not currently detect", but to develop a logic about what search engines want, helping the SEO when long-term decisions are required.

The third problem with teaching SEO is that many people see it only as a way to abuse search engines, directories and web sites. It was difficult to explain how SEO can be an ethic profession and how it is possible to get good results without spamming or abusing any system.

Boy, It would take me 16 hours just to talk about backlinks!

I think this is a great idea. I have been questioning why the universities didn't have classes on this topic.

Depending on the knowledge of people taking the classes, you may also want to talk about spiders, indexing etc as an introduction.

Yeah I have definately considered teaching SEO, but none of the universities around here offer any type of experimental course program. I really wish they did cause the class they do teach on internet marketing are from books 3 years old!

Phoenix -

Absolutely Right. I took an Internet Marketing class at the UW Business School, supposedly it's "highly regarded", but the class was worse than useless. It was straight misinformation - worse than not learning anything at all. My other concern, of course, is that only 2 or 3 people will sign up for the course... Perhaps I should do some online publicity of my own before running it.

There are schools/courses like this in Norway. I have never visited one of those lessons, neither do I belive they know what they are talking about when I look at their webpages. (I get a do as I say, don't do what I do feeling).

What they have done are that they have got accept for their product in several schools and in the Norwegian gouvernment. The course period is longer than you describe,- anyway, if you wan't a rough translation of their course just let me know.

Don't you hate classes like that. I basically spent the semester in class doing my own business and emails from the Windows 95, IBM computer they gave us in the classroom. Old books, old computers, most computers didn't work (i had to piece mine together), and all they made us do was create a website and talk about Dell all semester (as its based in Texas) as if it was the best model company for approaching internet marketing for small businesses. I asked my prof if I could give a presentation on search engine marketing at the end of the semester and he told me I could not as we didn't have time.

I wish you luck with the class though. I wish I could do the same!

Randfish it is actually a real bad idea you won't make money at it. It will fail and no one will not want to learn every little minor detail about SEO. Let the internet guru named Cory do what he does best and I will learn to hate some serious competition if you teach SEO.

All in jest Rand if you do go forward with the great idea I may be willing to drive 90 minutes to show up for class and learn some good techniques er... providing it works out with my day job.

Don't forget in your proposal preferably at the end that you refer them to this forum and identify who you are. I would hope that anyone with an I.Q. of 100 or above would identify you as having some authority with SEO. Good Luck Grasshopper!