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Search engine optimization (SEO) is a mega-hot, high-paying field right now. Just a decade ago, practically no one but techies even uttered the phrase regularly. Now, it’s a common part of internet marketing language. Job opportunities in SEO have grown significantly, which means the need for SEO training is growing by leaps and bounds.

The Growth of Jobs in SEO

Just how much is the job growth in this sector? A 2012 study by Shareaholic revealed that:

Professionals with ‘SEO’ in their title or description on Linked-In grew by 112% in 12 months;Job listings with ‘SEO’ in it increased on job site Indeed by 1900% since 2006; and

Wanted Analytics reported that over 3,800 jobs were advertised online that required SEO skills in March 2012, which is a 24 percent increase compared to March 2011.

So yeah, SEO is hot – and so is SEO training.

What to Look for In an SEO Training Course

Before looking for specifics, the first thing you need to know is that search engine optimization is a broad field. So you have to determine what you want an SEO course to cover.

For example, if you want to learn how to write content, you’d look for an SEO copywriting course; if you wanted to learn how to do keyword research, you’d seek a class that covered this; if you wanted to learn how to optimize your site, you’d look for an SEO course that covered things like link structure and meta tags; etc.

How Much Does an SEO Training Course Cost?

What you’ll pay for an SEO course ranges from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. It’s really like the wild, wild west. It all depends on:

Factors That Affect How Much an SEO Course Costs

(i) What the course covers: As discussed above, there are many elements of search engine optimization. Some courses cover certain elements; others are more skill specific.

(ii) Who’s giving the course: SEO courses are given by everyone from universities to internet marketing firms, to individual industry professionals.

(iii) Online or in person: Many prefer to enroll in an SEO course online. This is because they can usually do it at their leisure. Some courses are held in person. Online SEO courses tend to be cheaper, obviously, because there’s no renting of a room, equipment, travel expenses, etc.

How Long Is an SEO Course?

(iv) Length of the course: Depending on what’s covered, SEO courses can last from a few hours, or span several days or a week or more.

Search Engine Optimization Training: A Worthwhile Investment?

Starting salaries tend to be high, which makes it a smart investment. For example, if you take an SEO copywriting course, you can expect to earn in the mid-40’s just starting out, and up to $90,000 with five or more years experience.

Proof?

According to a 2012 survey by Robert Half, one of the largest staffing agencies in the world, salaries range from the mid-40s ($45,000) to just over $90,000 per year. The study stated:“Web content writers with five or more years experience can expect a salary range of between $60,500 and $90,750, while those with less than five years experience should receive something in the range of $45,250 and $66,250.”

So yeah, SEO training can pay off – big!

About the Author: Yuwanda Black heads New Media Words (http://www.NewMediaWords.biz), an SEO writing company. She’s the author of numerous ebooks on the subject, as well as the creator of a leading SEO copywriting course. The course teaches everything you need to know about not only how to write SEO copy, but how to earn $50,000 to $75,000 per year – your first year – as an SEO writer. You can take it online, or in person – in Jamaica!

Business enterprises, whether big or small, involved in internet marketing recognize the importance of search engine optimization for overall success. Hence entrepreneurs often compare and evaluate SEO services that are done in-house or outsourced. Most commonly, comparison is done in terms of costs and quality of work. In this article we’ll analyze the different factors to consider when deciding whether you want in-house SEO or outside SEO.

There are many advantages and disadvantages of in-house SEO and SEO outsourcing. As in-house SEO experts know everything about the business, it becomes easy to know the market and overcome challenges efficiently. Moreover, in-house SEO experts can concentrate on a single website to generate the best results. Also, in-house SEO gives complete control of the SEO strategies to the company executives.

In the case of SEO outsourcing you can benefit from the service of a professional team with great experience. This SEO service also caters to the diverse needs of clients without time lag using advanced infrastructure. Thus your business can save resources and time and maintain an edge over competitors.

In-house and Outsourced SEO – A Comparison

• Infrastructure with advanced technologies – Overhead charges to set up and maintain an in-house SEO facility is comparatively very high. On the other hand, an SEO agency already has an infrastructure with the latest tools and techniques.

• Professional qualification of SEO experts – A professional SEO company has a team of experts with a wider perspective and experience.

• Cost for hiring employees – Cost for hiring a full-time SEO expert sometimes becomes a great burden for the business. But in the case of SEO outsourcing, often rates are quoted depending on the type of project. Hence it is necessary to compare the relative costs of in-house SEO and outsourced SEO depending on the business budget per annum.

• Budget – Affordable SEO services provided that stay within your budget.

• Time – Time-bound SEO services enhance overall business success.

• Accuracy and quality of work – Research of suitable keywords and phrases, website design with dynamic content, link building, directory listing and website review come under SEO services. Delivery of projects with precision helps to place your website at top positions in search engine result pages. A professional firm can help you achieve this more easily.

Other influential factors that determine the cost of SEO services are market value, research of popular keywords, brand promotion and requirement of various social media marketing strategies.

Search for an Established SEO Company

A professional SEO company can assure trustworthy services to satisfy your requirements. Choose an affordable SEO firm that offers customized services to associate with you and help you achieve business targets effortlessly. Consider important factors when comparing costs of in-house and outsourced SEO and this will help you decide on the right option that will work best in your favor.

Oklahoma search engine optimization services – MOS SEO Services, a professional, organic SEO service provider in Oklahoma is dedicated to offer both in-house and outsourced SEO services to enhance your search engine rankings, website traffic and thereby increase your leads and sales.

There are many ways you can bring more traffic to your website but search engine optimization or SEO is by far the best approach. SEO in layman’s term is the implementation of different strategies to please the search engines and in return, rank higher on their search results.

Traffic from the search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing is considered gold by online entrepreneurs because of the potential profit that can be made out of it. It is considered valuable because it’s highly targeted and has a high conversion rate. Therefore, if you are running a business online, it’s imperative and strategic that you include SEO in your online marketing plan.

Unfortunately, SEO is time-consuming and requires some technical skills to be effective at it. While it is no rocket science and can be learned from resources available online, the learning curve is steep and the training resources are oftentimes misleading. Remember that there’s a proper and ethical way of doing SEO. If you implement unethical SEO strategies that you have acquired from unreliable sources, you put your website at risk of being banned in the search results – the nightmare of every online entrepreneur!

If you don’t have time and you don’t want to risk your website from potential penalties, outsourcing SEO is a viable solution. Here are some good reasons why outsourcing SEO leads to better results and higher productivity:

• SEO companies invest in training and technology to be informed on all the latest updates from the major search engines. This allows them to create effective and safe strategies that will yield results and will not get your website in trouble.
• Since SEO is their core service, SEO companies are more efficient to carry out SEO campaigns. Their expertise and resources allow them to accomplish their tasks effectively.
• Outsourcing SEO saves you money. It takes away the costs incidental to the organization, maintenance and training of your in-house SEO team.
• Outsourcing SEO increases your productivity. By taking away the hassles of search engine optimization from your team, you are given more time to manage your resources and focus your attention to your core business resulting in higher and better productivity.

Not all SEO companies are created equal; hence, you need to find one that meets your requirements. Here are some helpful tips to guide you when searching for that ideal SEO Company:

Knowledge and Experience

You should choose an SEO company that is both knowledgeable and experienced in search engine optimization. The company should be able to discuss to you in detail the strategies that they use in running a campaign. More importantly, they should be able to answer your questions without using jargons. They should also be able to provide you with sample projects that they have managed successfully. If they are a reputable SEO company, they won’t have no problem providing you with references.

Immediate Results Guarantee

Stay away from SEO companies that guarantee results. The truth is, no SEO company can guarantee top ranking and the specific timeframe it takes to achieve it. Google’s algorithm is top-secret and unknown to all SEO practitioners. It’s constantly evolving, which makes guaranteeing results even more impossible. Chances are that you are dealing with an SEO company that uses unethical SEO strategies if they guarantee immediate success. While it’s possible to achieve top rankings in a few days using shady SEO techniques, it’s most likely going to be short-lived. Your website could be banned in the search engines, which is the worst thing that can happen.

Consider your SEO campaign as a long-term investment that should be approached with caution and should be implemented gradually and consistently.

Deliverables and Reports

You don’t want to be paying for your SEO without solid evidence that you are getting closer to your objective. This is why a performance report, that is delivered at least once a month, is essential to your campaign. A reputable SEO company will not only send you monthly reports but will make clear the deliverables you should expect.

For more than 8 years, Rocky John Tayaban has been helping businesses establish their online presence and increase their sales through search engine marketing. Currently, he is the Managing Director of iSolutions Media Company, a Philippine SEO outsourcing company that offers premium online marketing solutions. Among his expertise are search engine optimization, online reputation management, pay per click, web development and affiliate marketing.

A large part of our business is conducting professional Search Engine Optimization services for small and medium-sized businesses. So you might be surprised to learn that we talk ourselves out of more SEO projects than not. Or, more accurately, we talk our clients out of doing SEO.

Many people see, hear and read about various SEO success stories from friends, colleagues and business associates and think, “Hey, sounds great. How can I use that for MY business?”

The problem with SEO, probably more than any other Internet marketing tactic, is that it’s often the wrong tool for the job. No matter how bad you WANT it to be the answer to your problems and help you increase sales it’s just not not going to cut it.

So to help you evaluate whether SEO can be part of your well-rounded Internet marketing strategy, here’s 5 reasons why SEO will NOT help you”

1. You Have a Made Up Product: The whole foundation of SEO is to position your webpages to be the answer to the question regarding relevant searches. If the product or service you offer is something so unique or made up, you can’t leverage SEO for the simple reason that nobody knows to search for it. Case in point was a company that came to us to implement an SEO program for “Dog Wine.” The problem is two-fold: Wine is actually bad for your dog so nobody would be looking for those keywords together unless maybe it was for “Dog wine poisoning.” Secondly, the product wasn’t actually wine at all but a type of gravy commonly sold to spruce up kibble. So while the product was real and perfectly OK to feed your dog, the association between the made up product category (dog wine) and the actual product (a kibble additive commonly referred to as “dog gravy”) was beyond the scope of SEO. A better marketing solution that we suggested was a trade PR campaign combined with blogger reviews since the product needed explaining in order to “get it.”

2. Low Search Volume: The biggest issue we find is that the keyword phrases associated with the company’s products and services are in low demand. Nobody wants to hear that what they’re selling is not in demand or the greatest thing since sliced bread. SEO exposes weaknesses in branding and product positioning. Sometimes SEO is considered a panacea for a weak product offering or non-existing branding campaign. SEO can’t perform magic, and certainly can not create demand where little or none exists. SEO works best when you have a product or service with well-articulated BENEFITS to the person doing the search, since most searches start with “How do I… ” or “How to… ” Be the answer to that question assuming it’s even being asked. Our keyword research will expose those weaknesses right away.

3. No Supporting Efforts: Search Engine Optimization has become increasingly complex in that one-time efforts, while still important, aren’t enough to sustain any short term success. And with the rising importance of social media’s impact on SEO, businesses will need to invest in ongoing social media efforts to boost their baseline SEO results since all the major search engines have gone on record that social media signals going in and out of a website are a validation of that site’s authorityon a particular subject (and set of keywords). So to invest in SEO is really a baseline step that needs to be reinforced with social media marketing and content marketing and blogging on an ongoing basis.

4. Website Design is Not Set Up For SEO: While a website’s layout can be changed, this can often lead to additional costs in order to change the layout of the website to make it SEO ready. For instance, the number one problem is when all products and services are listed on a single page. In order to perform proper SEO, each product or service must have it’s own page since proper onsite SEO requires unique META tags, Title tags, keywords, etc. Another hurdle is when clients have Flash-heavy websites or resist placing actual text and words on the site preferring mostly pictures. SEO is about content, mainly text.

5. Need Results Immediately: And as you probably suspect, SEO can take time to take effect. In fact, the very nature of GOOD SEO practices is to try and mimic organic linking and social media activity in as natural means as possible. That means slowly, and gradually. And even then, it can take the search engines weeks and even months to index your site and move it up in the rankings – if at all! So if you have a special event or you’re planning a product roll out or other timely event, SEO isn’t going to be your ticket to the top. You’ll be better implementing a Pay Per Click advertising campaign or maybe an email marketing campaign combined with social media to make things happen on YOUR schedule.

Taking these 5 tips into consideration, SEO can be a very powerful tool in your Internet marketing arsenal. But it’s not the end-all be-all.

Gene Sower, president of SamsonMedia.net, is an SEO expert, speaker and Internet marketing professional. If you want the answers to “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About SEO (but were afraid to ask)” you can get your free ebook and video tutorials at http://samsonmedia-seo.com

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a host of techniques, approaches and strategies to prepare your website to be found by major search engines. It is often compared to alchemy. Everyone knows what SEO experts do, but very few know how they do it. In fact, many SEO gurus fiercely disagree on the how part. Many tactics are available, but SEO is not a cheap endeavor, so one has to be careful when allocating valuable advertising dollars to it.

• First, you have to be clear on what you are trying to accomplish on the business side-focus, focus, focus!

• Second, you have to reign in your zeal and prepare yourself for a grueling multi-month commitment that will require time, discipline, and money-be ready to spend time in the trenches.

• Finally, you have to decide which tools and techniques will produce the best return on investment (ROI). If you spread your resources too thin, you will fail.

If you’re looking to get yourself on the first page of Google’s search results immediately, this SEO guide isn’t for you. Don’t believe people who claim they can get you on the first page overnight in an ethical way. Even if you manage to cheat the system for a short time, Google’s wrath will land upon you swiftly and never go away. If you are serious about SEO, prepare yourself for the long haul and do it right-your patience and diligence will pay off. There is truly nothing complex about SEO. It rests on three principles:

1. Valuable, relevant, unique, timely content will rank well on search engines.
2. The content must be machine-readable in order to be found.
3. SEO work takes time to produce results.

Valuable Content

Let’s start with valuable content. Before you even mention the term “SEO,” ask yourself, what do I have to offer the world, why is it unique, and why would anybody want it? Do you have a digital strategy covering all your digital communications channels? Remember that you are competing with millions of other websites. Theoretically, you could spend lots of time on SEO and get to that coveted first page just to learn that customers don’t find your content, products, or services appealing. Conversely, don’t give up too fast. Many business owners that have great products and services never get through to their audiences because they don’t bother with SEO. The axiom “If you build it, they will come” stands eternally false on Google. The onus is on you, and if you don’t make a compelling case to Google, it will ignore you unless you are the only one in the universe offering that superhot product (e.g., you have a monopoly). So, produce content that stands out. Make sure you provide value. Sometimes it is a sacrifice. You may choose to share valuable information that your competitors may use against you. You may choose to take unique perspectives that may incite a debate or even draw criticism. Be yourself, be unique, and be interesting-you need to give in order to get. Provide more than a sales pitch. Do a cost-benefit analysis that includes the value of brand recognition. Remember that it takes time to see results, usually one to two months, sometimes longer. Your ultimate goal is to find your competitive niche and establish yourself as an authority in your area of expertise so you can influence buying patterns. People will remember you and come to you when the need arises. With respect to content, make sure everything you write is well structured, clean, and free of factual and grammatical errors. Write using plain language. There are multiple resources on this. It is generally recommended that website content be written at the grade six reading level. Sometimes it may not be possible for all industries, but do your best. Another helpful metric is the Flesch-Kincaid readability index. It’s recommended to keep it above 60 (you can use this free tool). Be friendly, approachable, and lighthearted. Use humor, but be careful not to offend and cross boundaries. Always keep your audience in mind. Make sure the most important information is at the top of the page so it can be easily located. Web users don’t read; they skim. Use headings and bulleted lists. Make information digestible, and avoid jargon, clichés, and colloquialisms as much as possible. Make sure that your navigation structure is task oriented and user friendly. Your user experience must always take people through the happy path.

Help Google Find You

You have valuable content, and now you’re ready to move on to the next step-showing search engines and humans how to find it. In this SEO guide, we focus on Google, since it has the biggest search market share, but this is equally applicable to other search engines. It’s probably safe to say that if you rank well on Google, you will rank well on other search engines. There are numerous SEO techniques, but we prefer to focus on a few that have been tested and proven in action:

1. Organically maximize the number of inbound links from websites with high domain and page authority.
2. Make your pages machine-readable by applying consistent on-page optimization for your key pages.

Building Inbound Links

This technique causes lots of confusion and debate in SEO circles but for no valid reason. It’s very straightforward and is based on the following assumption-counting quality links pointing back to your website is the most effective way for Google to determine the value of your website. Backlinks are very much like Facebook “Likes”-a vote of social confidence. Google’s logic here is utterly simple-if reputable and relevant websites link to you, your content must be valuable. One important caveat here is that the link building must be organic. If you have a very rapid increase in backlinks over a short period of time, Google may perceive this as spam, even if your efforts are legitimate. Spread your efforts over a few months. There is nothing wrong with doing link exchanges with your industry peers. Just make sure you avoid link farms and spammy techniques.

1. Spammy comments. Don’t post a comment on someone’s website just to add your link. Comment with a link only if what you have to say is relevant to the conversation and the link can be truly helpful to the audience.

1. Avoid link farms. These are sites purely created for link building purposes. Adding your website to relevant web directories and local listings is fine, but make sure you only work with reputable websites. Our benchmark is DA 50.

Earned and Unearned Links

Earned links are the cream of the crop in the SEO world and will generate more SEO juice (ranking power) than any other medium. An earned link is simply a link created by a third party without your involvement or persuasion. Google has complex algorithms to figure out which links are earned. In our experience, high-quality earned links are challenging to get, but that’s the gold standard. The next best thing to earned links is high-quality unearned links, which are placed on web directories, articles, blog posts, and other shared media resources. It’s absolutely essential that the primary purpose of the backlinks you add to your posts is to provide supplementary content that helps readers delve deeper into your content and access various thematically related components. Link quality is very important in the process. Link quality is influenced by two factors:

1. Reputation of the link host (domain)-the website where your link resides.
2. Link text (anchor) relevance.

Google has its own proprietary method for determining the reputation of a domain. It uses a 1 to 10 scale to determine a website’s rank. We rely on the domain authority (DA) metric developed by Moz as it is more granular. It marks all websites on a 100-point, logarithmic scale (the higher you climb, the harder it gets). We use the Mozbar Chrome plugin to determine DA for our sites. The metric’s value can change over time, so make sure you check it right when you need it. With respect to SEO, we prefer not to place links on any website that has a domain authority below 50. We believe this is where cost and benefit intersect. This certainly poses some challenges and makes our SEO work more expensive; however, it gives our clients peace of mind and ensures their links bring in high-quality SEO juice (ranking power). In the SEO world, quality always trumps quantity. You will have to make your own determination on what you consider a reputable website, as this surely will affect your SEO costs, but we recommend that you not use anything with a DA below your own, and we recommend anything you use be at least above 25 (especially if you pay for it). Be very selective of where you post your links. If the host website has been penalized by Google for questionable SEO tactics, this may affect you. Another important consideration is the anchor composition. An anchor is a text link that links back to your web page. It is extremely important that the link text is in sync with the keyword and meta data on your landing page. That’s how Google determines link relevance. For example, a link named “all about hamsters” pointing to a web page about “disco music” will surely not rank well in organic search results.

How do you get high-quality inbound links from reputable websites?

Content marketing

Content is truly king and even more so with the recent Google Hummingbird algorithm revolution. Google’s ingenuity became even more evident in the simplicity of the approach-provide valuable, engaging, timely content and you will rank well. Just a few years ago, Google could not afford the luxury of humanizing content analysis due to the lack of computing power, but with the advance of technology and the decrease in hardware prices, Google can now afford to analyze content deeper and build logical, intelligent connections between various web elements. Gone are the days of keyword stuffing. Content marketing is simply an ongoing effort to promote and syndicate your content via various publishing channels. Of course, the content-value and industry-relevance principles apply here more than ever. One way to promote your content is by publishing articles, blog posts, and news releases on relevant websites. Some are free, and some are paid. We have had great experience with PR Web, MyPRGenie, Social Media Today, and Ezine Articles, all of which have stellar DAs. If you manage to make it on these sites, the SEO-juice quality is truly supreme.

Website

Domain Authority (May 2014)

prweb.com

94

myprgenie.com

65

EzineArticles.com

91

hubpages.com

88

Another way to do this is via social media. This is more of a challenge because you will have to build a sizable following on multiple social media channels; however, it has huge marketing benefits well beyond just SEO. It is not clear how much SEO juice you will receive from social media though. Google has been shifting its emphasis to Google+, and now even that is in flux. We left social media out of this SEO guide because we believe it stands on its own and should not be used primarily as an SEO tool.

Free and paid directories

Placing your listings on web directories should be used to help local clients find your business on the web, not to advance your SEO agenda. These directories are usually organized geographically, by sector and by theme. Make sure you list your business correctly. We prefer to work with relevant directories that have a DA above 50. With most quality directories, you may have to wait for months. There is a simple reason for this: competition. Everyone else wants to be there for free. Some directories provide the option to pay for an expedited review process. When we say the word “pay,” we don’t mean paying for placement; we mean paying for a quick review, which is usually two to three business days. Your listing still might be rejected after you pay. Avoid directories that guarantee your placement for a fee. We also highly recommend you focus on the directories specializing in your industry first, as Google will assign these links a higher value. Paid directories range anywhere from $25 to $300 per year. Most offer an annual and a permanent option, with the permanent option being significantly more expensive. Some offer placing several deep links in addition to your main domain. Here is the list of directories offering free and expedited (paid) listings, along with their respective DA scores:

Directory

Domain Authority (May 2014)

dir.yahoo.com

100

dmoz.org

94

botw.org

79

joeant.com

60

jayde.com

69

ezilon.com

66

dirjournal.com

60

webworldindex.com

56

alivedirectory.com

56

avivadirectory.com

63

incrawler.com

50

hotvsnot.com

80

familyfriendlysites.com

66

abilogic.com

56

goguides.org

55

gimpsy.com

53

incrawler.com

50

jasminedirectory.com

57

On-page Optimization

SEO is not a science but rather a commitment to certain principles. It’s not the complexity of these principles that makes consistent SEO challenging but rather relentless discipline and a commitment to applying them. For one of our projects- a real estate website -just by properly optimizing key pages, we were able to see a 40% increase across key metrics month-to-month and a 14% increase in year-to-year visits, page views, and time on page. Our regional geometrics also improved by 24%. You should follow these principles relentlessly:

1. Try to focus on one relevant keyword (phrase) per page. It must be unique on your website-don’t reuse the same keyword in several places.

The keyword you choose for the page must be found in the following areas:

• Page title and meta title (some systems generate the meta title automatically based on the page title). Ensure your page title is always Heading 1.

• Headings.

• URL.

• Content (at least three times, with the first paragraph being the most important).

• Meta description. The meta description should be well written and capture your audience’s attention-it will show up as a search-result snippet and help to convert casual browsers into visitors.

• Image file name (it’s recommended you use at least one image).

• Image alternative description. Just remember that the primary purpose of the ALT attribute is to describe the image to make it more accessible.

2. Use internal links and links to relevant sources, but avoid too many. We consider three of each optimal per 500 words.

3. Your copy should contain at least 300 words.

4. The title should be limited to 70 characters.

5. The meta description should be limited to 156 characters.

6. The copy should be written in plain language-the Flesch Reading Ease score should be above 60 if possible.

7. Use static URL.

Conclusion

There are many more SEO techniques available, but we highlighted the ones we believe provide the best return on investment. Ultimately, you will have to decide for yourself what SEO work is manageable for you in the long run. Don’t turn SEO into your primary activity. Remember that your primary goal is to focus on what you do best-your business. Good business is the foundation of good SEO. Finally, we would be happy to take a look at your website and provide free SEO review and high level recommendations.

Enerica provides a comprehensive suite of web solutions and services to save small and medium-sized businesses the frustrating and time-consuming process of coordinating projects with multiple service providers. This allows business owners to focus their energy where it belongs-pursuing their core business and building lasting customer relationships.