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."
