SEO Training and Certification

When I was a budding engineer in the 90s, I became one of the first Microsoft Certified Professionals in the country. At that time, the certification business was still relatively young and the most popular certification was Novell's Certified Netware Engineer (CNE), somewhat pioneered, notably, by emerging tech exec Eric Schmidt. Back in the day, certification was a legitimate way for product vendors and industry-leaders to ensure that the people who claimed to know their products actually did. As Windows NT/2000, Microsoft Exchange, and other Microsoft networking and database products started selling like mad, the certification business likewise caught fire.

Training businesses, integrators, and vendors alike smelled the opportunity to make a lot of money by providing training and certification. Of course, not all of those training programs were legit. Many started "teaching to the test" and creating what were, and still are, referred to as "paper engineers." In California, a law sponsored by Congresswoman Maxine Waters was passed that put major restrictions on businesses promoting training that led to employment. The law, as you might expect, required businesses to jump through some pretty serious hoops in order to continue offering training. Many changed the way they operated, while others simply got out of the business. As the web grew, test answers became widely available online, and the damage to certification was done.

So why would I write a blog called "SEO Training and Certification"? Simple. The more the demand for SEOs and SMMs grows, the more so-called "experts" will emerge and give the industry a bad name (point being, this has happened before). SEOs know too well that this is happening in their business. The question in my mind isn't so much if there should be more training and certification, it's when there will be. The only other question is, which one will come first; product or generic? Consider this:

Product Certification - Google already has product certification with their Adwords program (and Eric Schmidt is where now?). Other vendors offering certification on their products include Cisco, Sun, Dell, and even Apple. Who in the SEO industry has products for which certification could add value? Let's think about this for a second...oh yeah, SEOmoz. As I sat through the third day of training at the mozinar, it occurred to me that I would pay good money to come back to Seattle for a hands-on, two-day training class on the web app and others, but I would also want to walk away with at least a certificate that said I was there. And I would want a chance to take a test that validated my knowledge. With 6,000 Pro members and growing, SEOmoz app users are going to take advantage of opportunities to differentiate. Certification offers that. Perhaps even more importantly, budding SEOs are going to want a way to prove that they really know the software when looking for a job.

Generic Certification - the organization most likely to be interested in helping to create an SEO certification would be Comptia. Their industry-standard certification, A+, helps people interested in tech careers certify that they know the hardware and software basics. Comptia has similar tests for security, networking, programming, databases, and more. Their exams cover features of Microsoft and other vendors' products but are generally vendor-neutral. If industry leaders (the SEOmoz' and in-house experts at large companies) thought this was a good idea, they would form a Comptia advisory committee, determine what the minimum requirements would be, then help create the exams.

What About Testing?

Most certification tests are administered by Prometric, which handles the registration process, manages the test centers, and issues the certificates. A few vendors administer their own tests for even more control. Most notable of these is Cisco, who only administers their CCIE test at Cisco headquarters (CCIE certification is worth an estimated $150,000 annually). So if a company like SEOmoz wanted to offer certification on their products, and the industry in general wanted a vendor-neutral test as well, they could all be administered by Prometric.

Having been around certification for a long time, I know there will be criticism for this suggestion and all kinds of suggestions as to why it's a bad idea. But I believe certification adds legitimacy to a maturing technology industry, and SEO is at the cusp. A quick search on simlyhired shows jobs in SEO and SMM trending upward, and where there are jobs, there are people looking to capitalize.

Take a look at all the vendors offering product certification from Prometric. They all had this discussion and ultimately saw the value. As for a generic certification, if you gathered up the SEOs from Fortune 500 companies, plus trustworthy vendors like SEOmoz, and established industry-standards, maybe the media that claims SEOs are snake-oil salesman would at least end their claims by recommending that "the SEO you hire is certified."

Exciting news re SDFF's Web Development for Small Businesses

Two years ago, SDFF performed an interesting study to find out how many businesses in the community of City Heights in San Diego had a web presence, and analyzed what that web presence was. The approach was simple; search Google for businesses by name, address, or phone number. Surely if a company had a listing on the Internet, they would be found by this mostly unique information. And if they weren't found but they did have a presence, they may as well not have one if we couldn't easily find it. Page two of the search results is as far as we were willing to go.

We surveyed roughly 1,000 of the approximately 5,000 small businesses in the community, and this is what we found:

- 25% had no web presence of any kind
- 10% had a website
- 65% were listed in a web directory such as the Yellow Pages or Yelp

An additional, random door-to-door survey of 150 businesses was performed. 70% of the participant had no website. 50% expressed an interest in having one. 45% said they didn't know why they needed one. 20% said websites are too expensive.

In a follow up survey with the group that expressed interest in having a website, 90% indicated that $1,000 was too much money. When asked if a low-cost or free directory listing would suffice for them, 100% indicated it would.

Using this data and other data collected from small businesses, the DiverseCity Techs overhauled their program and created new products and services to offer that better suit their target market. While we're not quite ready to announce them, we're getting close. So I thought I'd give a sneak preview of what's to come.

Workshops
The DTechs have teamed up with the City Heights Business Association, North Park Main Street Association, and other nonprofits to put together monthly workshops that focus on technology, finance, and other subjects that are important but difficult for small businesses to keep up on. This workshops will target the 45% of small businesses that say they don't know why they need a website. The technology portion will focus on the value of a web presence, how to have a web presence at a low cost, how to manage and use a web presence, social media, and other online resources to generate more business.

Local Directory
The DTechs spent considerable time developing a directory product that will be locally sold, developed and managed. Anyone who works in a small, particularly low-income community knows that trust among residents and businesses is a HUGE issue. Business owners who are not particularly tech-savvy shy away from the web in part because they don't know who to trust. A local vendor providing a locally-managed directory product helps ease that objection. But that's not the key selling point of the site and that's not why we developed a whole new directory product when there are plenty out there already. The reason we did it was to focus on a media element that resonates with small businesses.

Video
The DTechs have been out in the community shooting videos of small businesses to include in the new local directory for months now. To date they have 20 videos to post on the new site, and to include on websites they've developed for nonprofit organizations. Complete, custom video production services will be available to nonprofits and small businesses for as little as $200 for a 60-second video. This includes storyboarding, scripts, voice-over, titling, filming, and post-production.

Web Presence Management
The DTechs are really doing more than "web development", particularly because a fairly significant part of their target market is not likely to have (or even need) a full website. Web presence includes a locally-hosted and managed account on a directory site, a website if needed, all of the integrated social media services, search engine optimization, marketing, updates, coupons...you get the picture.

The DTechs are a group of four young adults ages 18 to 24 from City Heights and nearby communities who are learning how to start, grow, and manage a successful web development company in City Heights. They are a videographer, a web developer, a graphic designer, and a business manager starting an Internet company in one of the poorest neighborhoods in San Diego county. And they're on the verge of something amazing.

Another Reason Meta Descriptions Matter

We're putting a lot of time and resources into our Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts since we've ramped up our web development and our DiverseCity Tech program. DiverseCity Tech is a social enterprise, which means it serves two purposes; it provides a valuable service to the nonprofit and small business community, and it helps young adults learn how to build a business and develop marketable skills. The DTechs build websites, manage web presence, and market their services in the community.

SEO is how you improve your site's "attractiveness" to the search engines in order to improve its position in search results. Everyone wants their site to be #1 for certain terms (keywords), right? Well, the "meta description" portion of a page is the text you see underneath the URL in a search result. Here is a search example:

The site in the #1 position on Google for the term "vacant" is m-w.com. Google obviously figured that I wanted the definition of that word and served this site and others like it to me. The "meta description" for the site in the #1 position is

"Definition of vacant from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary with audio pronunciations, thesaurus, Word of the Day, and word games."

The problem is, it doesn't give the actual definition. How helpful is that? The next one down, from reference.com, does.

Of course, I can click the first URL if I want the definition but why would I do that when another site gave me the information I was looking for? If you're viewing the results on a desktop monitor, it's not such a big deal I suppose because you can scan down the screen and find what you're looking for, but if you're viewing it on a mobile device, scanning the screen isn't always as easy, and you don't want to open the site if you don't have to. Of course, if you do, the site you're most likely to visit is the one that gave you more information initially. Mobile devices are one reason why meta descriptions are even more important than ever.

I know, I know...there's an app for that. But the point is, the more descriptive your meta descriptions, the better your site and its pages serve their purpose, and the more attractive your site is for your potential visitors and the search engines.

Now if you follow this logic or if you're an astute SEO and you know what the little graphs underneath each result mean, you're probably wondering why the top site is actually in the top position. That's one of the many questions SEOs ponder and work on every day.

Just remember, better meta descriptions make for a better quality site.

NOTE: Bing's top result on the term vacant is from their Encarta website, which gives the full definition.

A Peek Inside

I've been working on a handful of planning documents for SDFF over the last few weeks. One is related to the expansion of the San Diego Broadband Initiative. The other is a white paper I owe to one of our funders.

Since the document is being written for the potential benefit of other communities who may wish to put a program like ours together, I'm going to try and make it as thorough and detailed as possible. To do so, I realize that I need to include some of the "intangibles" that have made SDFF successful. That's easier said than done, considering that those intangibles include unique people, experiences, and philosophies. I hadn't given a lot of thought to the "depth" of this document before I started writing it but now that I'm into it a bit, I realize there are certain "trade secrets" that need to be shared.

From time to time I plan to post excerpts of the paper to this blog. The excerpts will include some of the basics like "find a reliable source of hardware, get a supporter with unrestricted funds, hire some interns, and go forth". But it will also include some of those intangibles I mentioned. I think for just about any successful organization, whether "for" profit or not, the things you can't see or don't read about in press releases are usually the things make the biggest difference.

As someone who worked for a Fortune 500 company not long ago, it's still strange to think that sharing the "company secrets" is a good thing. But in the world of doing good, it really is.

Microsoft Office Live: Gettin' Real

I'm writing this blog using the Web-based version of Microsoft Word. Yes, you read that right; Word for the web, and it works. If you're keeping up with developments in the software, browser, search worlds, you already know that Microsoft and Google are going at it on many fronts nowadays. Both have browsers (MS Internet Explorer and Google Chrome), search engines (Bing and Google), and applications (MS Office and Google Docs). I have to admit that the competition Google is giving Microsoft is probably good for the industry on the whole but it's getting to be a chore keeping up with and evaluating all the different features and developments, and particularly what they mean for our customers. As a provider of technology and technical services, SDFF must keep up, evaluate, and make recommendations, so here's a little background on Office Live and, in particular, Word.

Getting Started

To use it, you need to navigate to office.live.com. If you don't have one, you'll need a Live account. MS logins have their heritage in the legacy Hotmail and Passport, but these days you can think of Live as just another login to web-based resources and services. And what you get with Live is a TON of stuff. The other Microsoft "legacy" that is being left behind, at least for now, is cost; Office for the Web is free.

Office Live Home

The Office Live interface gives you the option to create new Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files. Simply click the button, name the file, and start working. From the home screen you can also view the files you've already created and any files you've shared with others. This is the web, sharing is easy.

Working with Word

Once you create a new Word document, a new interface will open and provide tools that are similar to what you would see in the desktop version. The main menu consists of File, Home, Insert, and View. Obviously this is not the desktop version of Office 2010 but it offers most of the basics you need (in fact, some might argue you need a whole lot less than what the desktop version offers so here is your alternative).

The editing and formatting tools consist of:

• Full cut, copy, paste
• Font control including 20+ of the most common fonts, plus styles like bold, strikethrough, and highlights
• Basis paragraph formatting including numbered lists and bullet points
• Styles
• Spell Check
• Tables
• Pictures, Clip Art, and Hyperlinks

Among the common uses that the online version doesn't offer include:

• Page layout tools such as landscape versus portrait
• Columns
• Table of contents
• Editable styles
• Editing in the Reading or Page view

The good news is, for the more advanced stuff, there is an "Open in Word" button, which I just did and I am now editing the document in Office 2007. When I do a CTRL-S to save, it saves to Skydrive, not to my local disk. There is obviously no “go back and edit in Word Live” button in the desktop version so I close and reopen. But not before changing the page orientation to Landscape. I just repoened the document online and, going to the "View" tab I check out the Reading View and voila, my document is Landscape.

I haven't tried any of the more advanced features like Tables of Contents linked to heading styles yet, but I think this application has a lot of promise. As a sidenote, I've decided to marry my browsers, search defaults, and apps to their developers in order to compare experiences, so when I open IE, for example, it runs the Bing Toolbar and when I open Chrome it loads the Google Toolbar. Microsoft has really upped the ante and has moved much closer to a more complete, web-based work and search experience with Office Live.

Word.

Software and the Social Enterprise

This week, Google announced the development and availability of several products in their “Apps” suite that were in beta or available only to select businesses and individuals. SDFF has been using Google Apps for email and calendar-sharing for about six months. This blog analyzes the need for and availability of critical productivity applications, and evaluates the potential benefits Google Apps provide.

Social enterprises (also known as nonprofits) are no different than any other business when it comes to software requirements. In fact, I would argue that social enterprises require more software and expertise than the typical for-profit business does. The reason is because social enterprises have a “triple bottom line” to track and report.

The triple-bottom line requires that you accurately track and report multiple sources of income for individual and multiple programs, report individual and multi-funder financials, report cash and in-kind matches and, on top of all of that, track and report all of the demographic and social outcomes expected from each grant or funding source (except good ole’ earned income).

My background is in the for-profit sector and I can say without hesitation that social enterprises are more difficult to manage primarily due to these reporting requirements. And, oh by the way, very, very few funders will allow their money to be spent on “overhead” like hardware, software and the systems nonprofits so desperately need to actually provide the information funders expect. “But,” as Carl the FedEx presentation guy says, “I digress.” (If you want to read more about that unfortunate situation, please take some time to visit uncharitable.net).

So software is really, really important to the social enterprise, and like any other business, social enterprises gravitate to the industry standard, which is Microsoft. Fortunately, Microsoft products are available to social enterprises at very, very deep discounts. What’s not so fortunate is that Microsoft puts restrictions on the number of titles that can be ordered and the number of orders that can be placed in a certain timeframe. A nonprofit with ~20 or more employees needs:

• A productivity suite - Office 200X
• A collaboration platform - Sharepoint with Client Access Licenses
• A mail server - Exchange with Client Access Licenses
• An operating system - Windows 7
• A server - Windows 2008 Server with Client Access Licenses

Unfortunately, that is more titles than Microsoft will allow to be purchased, and a social enterprise doesn’t have to be very big to exceed the number of total copies of software that can be ordered. This all adds up to the medium-sized social enterprise having to consider other options.

What About Google Apps?

In December of last year, our organization switched from Exchange to Google Apps for mail hosting. I have to admit that I wasn’t completely on board with this idea. I will also admit that I am actually a fan of Microsoft in many ways, and that Microsoft has been good to SDFF.A Microsoft representative has been on our Board since we formed in 1999. But my ambivalence regarding Google Apps wasn’t a matter of being beholden to Microsoft, it had more to do with “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But our Manager of Tech Services wanted to switch for three main reasons:

1. Reduced internal technology overhead (goodbye Exchange server)
   
2. Bigger mailboxes and less mailbox management
3. Better mobile interface

The migration didn't come without some pain. We experienced delays in mail delivery for a while (some mailed delayed by weeks), the implementation caused some confusion and fairly significant downtime for staff, and most of the value was experienced by the IT department, not the end users (“why are we doing this again?”).

So we come to today and the introduction of Wave for Google Apps, not to mention a slew of other products and services including the Google Chrome Web Store, which makes everything about Google Apps more interesting.

And wouldn’t you know it, the subject of our next Microsoft order is on the front burner. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, we can’t order everything we need, and NOBODY FUNDS OVERHEAD, so something has to go. I guess the plan to move back to Exchange can be dropped.
Needless to say, we’ll be taking a much closer look at what Google Apps can do for us and our customers in the coming weeks.

Related Links

San Diego Futures Foundation
Google Chrome Web Store
Google Apps for Nonprofits
Google Announcements
Uncharitable.net
Stanford Social Innovation Review, Nonprofit Starvation Cycle

The San Diego Futures Foundation (SDFF) was created to help bridge the digital divide in San Diego County. Among it's programs, SDFF provides technology services to social enterprises.

SDFF's Move to Social Media

SDFF has been using online tools and resources including our website, this blog, and eNewsletters to promote our programs and services for several years. To a minor degree, we've used them as a vehicle to raise funds for financial support and to promote fund raisers. Of course, in order for online campaigns to be successful, people need to know they're there. In the past, online campaigns had to be combined with print or other advertising in order to capture as much of your target market as possible. But, thanks to technology and the growth of social media, that need too changing.

Part of our mission is to help nonprofits stay current on technology. To date, our efforts have been focused on networking technologies, desktop PCs, and software. We currently provide network and desktop support to more than 30 nonprofit agencies in San Diego, some of whom have outsourced their entire IT operations to us.

As social media sites like Facebook and Twitter become more prominent as business tools, it makes sense for SDFF to use them more prominently in our own marketing campaigns and to offer our skills and abilities as a service to other nonprofits. As I stated earlier, we aren't new to social media and online tools, so we have experience to offer now, but the value of these online resources is something more nonprofits should know about and take advantage of, and our role is to demonstrate that value and help nonprofits get the most out of it.

Expect to see a lot more use of social media from SDFF, even "firsts" and "exclusives" offered via the various outlets (inlcuding this blog). I would be remiss if I didn't end this post without asking you to follow us now on Twitter and Facebook.