SEO Training is SEO Insurance

This one’s for the businesses. For anyone who thinks SEO might help, but isn’t sure how. For anyone who’s got an SEO project underway or is thinking of starting one. This one’s for you.

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably considered whether or not your Web site could use some search engine optimization. (Quick answer: abso-frakking-lutely, but that’s a discussion for another post.) For now I’ll just say that investing in your Web site so that it can achieve high rankings and increase conversions is always good strategy.

So if you’ve decided SEO is for your business, what should you do first?

Then again, if you’re currently running an SEO campaign, how do you know if it’s doing any good?

Step one — no matter where you are in the SEO life cycle — is to secure your foundation for success. Training is the foundation of a good SEO project. And here’s why.

You know what you’re getting.

You wouldn’t commit to a relationship or a purchase without knowing what you’re getting into, right? Like studying before a test or doing research before buying a big-ticket item, starting an SEO project with training in the best practices of SEO ensures that your organization will be prepared and confident about a search engine optimization campaign.

SEO training helps attendees understand the intent of SEO, the strategy of getting there, and the technical requirements of the process. After training, you’ll know what to expect of search engine optimization. You’ll be able to set goals and select metrics that matter to your business. Your expectations will be rooted in the realities of what SEO can accomplish. And you’ll better be able to gauge the cost of achieving what you want from your site.

You know what you’re missing.

On the other side of the coin, with a solid understanding of SEO, you’ll know where the campaign is failing to deliver. Equally important, knowing what search engine optimization entails can protect you from being the victim of shoddy services or scams.

Wouldn’t it be awful to find out that your SEO vendor has been feeding you stats that look impressive on the page but turn out to have little effect on the bottom line? If you understand the campaign metrics and the best practices of technical implementation, you’ll be able to identify shortcomings and areas for improvement. It’s reassuring to know that no one’s getting sub-par work past you.

You speak the same language.

At our company we ask that all new clients attend our SEO training because we’ve found, undeniably, that attendance fosters better communication, cooperation and understanding. Communication between your organization and your SEO’s; cooperation among the many departments who have a hand in the Web site; and a common understanding of what must be accomplished and what results are expected. Plus, you’ll be more comfortable making a change to your site if you know why you’re doing and how it helps.

The place of SEO within a single organization continues to spread across departments. But the core concepts and language of SEO remains. It’s important that all members of a multi-department team are able to speak the same language and are able to communicate their successes and their concerns. With a solid SEO base to build from, the odds of success in a campaign increase.

My parents always said that education is like the foundation for the rest of your life. Likewise, SEO training is the foundation for a good SEO project. Give yourself the best possible staging ground for success and know what to expect from the outset.

Virginia Nussey is the director of content marketing at MobileMonkey. Prior to joining this startup in 2018, Virginia was the operations and content manager at Bruce Clay Inc., having joined the company in 2008 as a writer and blogger.

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