Why is there no SEO Qualification?

I was reading a post from SEO Theory (which loses its way in the middle) about SEO Certification which made me think that there needs to be some sort of SEO standards qualification or award in the UK.

How have we come so far without it?

Marketing, in general, should be treated like any other trade; you can learn it with experience. Digital marketing (and SEO) should be especially examinable – this isn’t “blue sky” jerks sitting in a glass room imagineering a new billboard campaign, this is search engine optimisation.

If this is the case, an individual or an agency should be able to gain some sort of award or qualification to prove their knowledge and experience – however basic. PPC has the Google Adwords Qualifications so that an agency can become Adwords certified, so why is something similar impossible for SEO?

However complicated and clever people tell you SEO is, the fundamentals are logical.

Possible Problems

I tried to think of the problems with this idea, and here are two biggies that I came up with:

• It would require some sort of SEO Council to come together, and run the scheme.
• It would require the buy-in from some top agencies and individuals to gain credibility.

These might be large obstacles, but wouldn’t the SEO community benefit from having some sort of standards to deter the sharks, and having some well researched learning materials for new SEOs to use? It wouldn’t be breaking the magicians code – just outlining the accepted fundamentals.

Who Would be on the “Council”?

Why is there no UK body that can act as an authority on SEO? It wouldn’t take a great deal of time to get together some training material that, say, 10 well known freelance and agency SEOs agreed on – and surely contributing to this group would raise the profile of that individual or agency sufficiently to make it worthwhile?

Surely a Good Thing?

A recognised training body and the related cerifications would only help educate more people about the best practices for SEO, and this will only aid the people looking to sell “advanced” SEO services, as long as you aren’t trying to sell people rubbish. The material would only cover the hard-and-fast basics that are not up for discussion, and I don’t see why Google shouldn’t be involved in it. For that matter, why isn’t there a “Google Webmaster” qualification based in the Google guidelines for webmasters?!?

I can’t see any negative effects of having some sort of SEO standards test that can be taken, that can also allow agencies to become accredited if all their SEOs have passed.

….maybe a bit “pie in the sky”, but why not?

Flickr image from m00by

8 Responses to “Why is there no SEO Qualification?”

1. Michael Martinez says:

   21/12/2009 at 10:41 PM

   I’m sorry you felt I lost my way through the article. People sometimes tell me I ramble too much.

   You might be interested to know that there is indeed an initiative underway to create a certification in the UK market through the IPA (which I understand has been around since 1917).

   You can check out http://www.seo-chicks.com/1293/seo-accreditation-strategy-session.html for more info.

   That article was one of the reasons why I decided to say something today. Also, the fact some nitwit is running around claiming to be from the non-existent “National Search Engine Optimization Association” got me to thinking people might believe there really is some sort of authoritative body.
2. Rob Green says:

   22/12/2009 at 11:34 AM

   Hi Michael – sorry about the comment about your post, but I did skim over a couple of paragraphs.

   Thanks for pointing out the IPA/SEMPO initiative, I had no idea. The company I work for is now IPA accredited, and a qualification linked with them would be very well recieved in my opinion. Lets hope it happens quickly!

   ….kind of makes this post a little redundant though
3. Michael Martinez says:

   22/12/2009 at 4:35 PM

   These initiatives have a tendency to die. I did, btw, correct some grammatical errors in my article after reading your post so you spurred me to action.

   Anyway, “good post” — really. More people need to discuss this topic on both sides of the pond.
4. Lynn Masn says:

   04/01/2010 at 2:47 AM

   I’m happy lol to view that some one finally posts something non-traditional about search engines.
5. Chris Dinwoodie says:

   30/09/2010 at 12:57 AM

   I heard there was a free SEO qualification. That’s not going to be worth the pdf it was printed on.

   Have you heard anything about it?
6. outsource web design says:

   27/11/2010 at 10:24 AM

   While we’re in Why is there no SEO Qualification? | Rob Green mode, Web designing is a process of designing the electronic data by planning, concepts, ideas, creative imagination, thinking, language and so on, which happens to be transferred via net in the form of web-site.
7. Ben says:

   27/12/2010 at 1:46 PM

   I think a UK SEO body would be a good idea!
8. Tom says:

   25/02/2011 at 9:39 AM

   I don’t think Google Adwords and Google Analytics qualifications are enough. There’s too many SEO companies out there, who, while they know their stuff will use black hat techniques to get quick results… I think qualifications will help improve the reputation of the industry but I think more regulation and accountability is needed.