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How Do I Choose the Best SEO Training Course?
Choosing the best SEO training course can be difficult because many of these courses are scams. Essentially, the theory behind search engine optimization (SEO) is that understanding how the search engine works will allow a person to make a website maximally appealing to that search engine. Most websites feel that creating quality content without regard to how it will be found is the best way to appeal to search engines, but some people find that filling a page with keywords or applying other tactics to the design of the site is the best strategy. When choosing an SEO training course, it is important to make sure that the course teaches not only what methods currently work, but also why they work and how to adapt to changes in the algorithms used by search engines.
One of the most important things to consider when choosing an SEO training course is whether the course teaches something that could not be learned using common sense or general tips. If you are taking a full course on this subject, it should cover not only instructions about using keywords and metadata, but also explain in detail how a website interacts with a search engine. When trying to optimize a single website, it is relatively easy to find tips and tricks for free. The people who benefit most from in-depth courses on this subject are those who run large websites or who for other reasons need a deep understanding of how search engine optimization works.
Most of the time it is most convenient to take an SEO training course online. When choosing the course, it is important to make sure that it is recommended by several students who have completed the class or that it is taught by a reputable person, because many of these courses are not associated with schools. It is usually not necessary for an individual to physically attend a course, but classes with physical locations can provide more opportunities to ask questions and get information.
In some cases, a person may benefit most from an SEO training course offered by an employer because the employer has highly exacting standards when it comes to methods of search engine optimization. When a person writes for an individual company on a regular basis, that company may mandate that the individual complete a specific course of study. Generally, it is in the employee's best interest to learn these specific SEO guidelines rather than attempt to innovate according to his or her own knowledge. One might even say that the best SEO training course is the course that provides precisely the level of knowledge needed by the individual in question.
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Discussion Comments
@Ana1234 - Another important thing to remember is that the search engines themselves change their models frequently. Content websites often go out of business if they rely on sneaky SEO tricks rather than solid content.
Any course that is older than a year is not going to be much use. The most they can tell you is to provide good information, which is something you should be doing anyway.
@Mor - All the training that I have in SEO has been done on the job so to speak. Starting out with articles for various websites (mostly for free or for ad revenue) where they each had house rules or at least suggestions for raising your rank in the search engines. I've learned something new at every website I've written for or placed artwork on and mostly it's in their learning center or in the forums.
Occasionally I've paid close attention to my own statistics and tweaked pages on that basis. But often the subtle differences are due to individual websites rather than anything an individual user can do. With some, the title is all important. With others tagging is king. With others you aren't ever going to get very high in search engines without some kind of very niche topic, because they just aren't a respected website.
It is definitely important to put your work somewhere prominent and to figure out the best way of displaying it. And if all else fails, you might need to change your topic because no amount of SEO training is going to help a generic health food article stand out among the crowd.
There is plenty you can learn about SEO and I imagine that if you have to learn it in a hurry there are definitely courses online that you can take. I wouldn't be inclined to pay very much for them though. There are a multitude of e-books on the subject for very low prices as well. The only point I'd be willing to pay is if the course is genuinely attached to a big name that you can put on your resume.
There are huge amounts of SEO information out there online for free, though and a lot of it is very well organized and easy to find (as you would expect) so really don't feel like you have to pay for an education in this subject.
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