Comments on: Search Marketing Professionals Shortage & What Your Company Needs to Know

By: NS

NS — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:53:23 +0000

Well, coming to the main agenda and responding to Ken, I would say that I totally agree with his ideas on overcoming shortage in the SEO area, but I think I can totally relate myself here, and as I mentioned in my other comment that even though I am getting training on the job, a formal training is very crucial in boosting the employee’s self confidence and skills. Hence, I believe that in order to overcome the acute shortage it is definately important to create awareness at college level in form of short term certifications and swiftly transitioning students to full time long term credit courses after generating enough curiosity and interest, that I am sure will eventully happen at th end of the certifications.

Also, with due respect to one of the comments made here about why do we need to do create awareness for SEO as it will eventully lead to competition for us in future, then I just want to say that yes, it is true that it will generate competition, but then I just want to end by adding “What is the fun in winning the race which you run alone?”

By: NS

NS — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:31:57 +0000

Well, this is a very generic question. I think this is the best place to get my answers. I have 2 months of experience as an SEO specialist. I had no background in SEO before I got this job. I was offered training while on the job. I somehow don’t feel very confident due to lack of professional training. Is it a good idea to look for some 5 day SEO trainings, such as the SEO Tool Sets (held in CA), that offer a certification if I pass the exam at the end of the 5 day training.

I now know how to do a complete Keyword Analysis from the scratch , do basic website Structural Recommendations, do a full Keyword Development for PPC, also PPC Campaign Expansions and how to use third party search engines like wordtracker, Keyword Discovery, and make and publish ads on Google Adwords etc…. which is not much given the SEO spectrum, but ofcourse I am few steps ahead of where I started 2 months back. Do you think that a week long formal training followed by a Certification would help me move further and also make me a strong potential candidate for an SEO position in the market today.

Thanks

By: Michelle Chance-Sangthong

Michelle Chance-Sangthong — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:30:38 +0000

Excellent point of view and it is quite true. I also think there is another side to it. Many of the folks who are amazing at the SEO gig, are doing it for themselves, as entrepreneurs in their own businesses. They bypass the whole model of doing it for others, and focus their effort to build their own ‘in house’ search empire.

Truly SEO is a learned skill, but not just for the tech types. SEO is really a marketing skill that sometimes demands technical thinking – rarely the other way around.

Perhaps tapping the marketing spectrum is the way to go, and not looking towards the IT schools for that feed in pipeline.

By: Malte Landwehr

Malte Landwehr — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:13:46 +0000

Why do you care about training people and bringing more talents into the industry? Currently the SEO niche is very cosy one and I don’t think that raising and teaching your future competitors is a good idea.

By: PPC Specialist Wanna be

PPC Specialist Wanna be — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:07:56 +0000

I have witnessed the job hopping, lack of candidates and ever increasing demand and would like to learn this trade. I would like to increase my knowledge so that I may enter the field so where is the best place to start if I don’t have my own sites to utilize to learn. I have been reading all I can and set up my own google adwords campaigns for fake buisnesses but can’t analyze or tactically learn. Any help would be appreciated as many have told me as fast as I have caught on to what I have already and my prior work expereince I would be the perfect PPC specialist/analyst.

Many thanks!

By: Adam Donkus

Adam Donkus — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:42:28 +0000

Perhaps part of the curriculum would involve an internship where the student had to actually do the work. Or as a project, they had to do the keyword research, do the onpage, and actually get some rankings for an actual brick and mortar site.

By: Frank Antonellis

Frank Antonellis — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:03:12 +0000

First, great post on how SEO is hot and in demand and the lack of talent out there. I think that a school/training program may produce bodies, but unfortunately I have a feeling that this may result in the type of SEOs many would hope for for a few reasons. Gyutae earlier made a perfect comment about how he learned about search marketing through endless experimention with his own sites and it forced him to have no choice but to learn on his own, experiment with websites, and figure out the latest in the algos, all this after not finding any related courses while attending and graduating from Northwestern. I think that ultimately this is the kind of person you want managing your SEO. Can it be taught thru some school/training program? Sure, but I have a feeling I’d be more fascinated with the school’s curriculum than with the graduating student.

By: Joe Straw

Joe Straw — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:56:36 +0000

What a great article.

By: Adam Donkus

Adam Donkus — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:36:13 +0000

The national shortage has been really good for us. We seriously have more SEO work than we can handle. Being too busy is a good thing though. I have actually been thinking about developing our SEO training part of our business. Currently, it exists in a rough draft, but a better, model with an emphasis on educational design needs to be utilized.

By: MikeM

MikeM — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:48:57 +0000

Impossible to hire people without having to train them from the ground up.
Recent marketing grads from our local university are NOT taught about online strategies.

Who would teach them?