Reason to be more thorough in selecting your professional course
When it comes to the decision of selecting the right course for any professional field, like SEO or digital marketing in this case, it can face or suffer from one of the following things:
- Not knowing how to start or select, at all
- Selecting a course on wrong parameters
- Selecting a course for wrong reasons
- Lack of guidance or advice or reference for course screening & selection
- Not knowing what all criteria or aspects to look in a course
- Not fully understand or setting learning goals & matching these with the available courses
When we talked about how best to learn SEO here, we looked at many aspects and factors about learning aspect, methodology, practices and approach for SEO or any other professional area discussed few things.
Few things which we believe you are now clear about from reading that SEO learning 101 guide are:
- Who all wants to learn
- What each learner is looking at
- Types of courses of learning approach you can take
- How and why online learning is best
- How learning at home is a decision and can be better than enrolling for classroom courses
- How you learn more online
- How you can turn home based learning into a career advantage
Now you may decide or be comfortable in taking up classroom, online or home based learning.
It is entirely up to you, but the fact is that a course remains the important foundation of your SEO learning.
A wrong or incomplete course will give you incomplete knowledge, skills and will be a waste of time (more than the money). It could even hurt your confidence.
How to select the best professional course
So, let us look at the steps and ways which will help you to make the right learning decision and avoid wrong decisions (as much as possible).
So, let us start with and take the first and the most important issue of SEO learners which is selecting the right course. We will now explore few facts and aspects not discussed before.
We will look into some interesting, important and unique aspects of professional courses which can be on SEO or digital marketing.
These are a set of a checklist of few unique parameters for selecting the right course. Or at least to look at professional courses more clearly.
This selection approach is best suited to find the best and most helpful and resourceful SEO course or even a digital marketing course.
But what is even more useful is that you can use and apply these parameters for any type of professional course.
The first step to selecting best SEO course
Knowing and understanding your learning goals fully and deeply is the first step to selecting the right course or taking the best possible learning path.
Few things to help you look deeper into your learning goals and help you make them right, relevant and helpful.
- Starting to learn without fully understand all aspects related to a course may be a wrong decision
- Learning ONLY for a job is incomplete
- Deciding to learn any new thing without fully understanding its usefulness, scope and utility for you would be incomplete (but not wrong entirely)
- Learning a professional skill without knowing few things about the actual job environment could make it difficult to adjust later
- Deciding to learn a new skill without finding out other job related skills or qualities may be incomplete
How to select the best SEO course
If you decide to go for an SEO course to learn full and complete search engine optimization then what you need to find for yourself is one good or best course. The question is, "How to find the best SEO course" for yourself. This would depend upon many factors. We have listed those factors or parameters against which you can evaluate the different courses.
These parameters are not exactly to decide the best course, but are about how to know which course is more suitable for your needs and what are the things that each course teaches and the level of knowledge and expertise you can expect from different courses. The one you select for yourself which ticks all the boxes of your suitability and needs, ultimately will become the Best SEO training course for you.
If you are going to enroll for an SEO course, then you can evaluate the courses against these few questions or parameters.
- SEO course vs. training
- How complete the course is
- Course content
- Delivery mode
- Time and duration
- Projects or exercises
- Course level and target
- The base of the course
- Certificate
Let us look at the various parameters in detail now
SEO course vs. training
SEO course is basically more of theoretical teaching on search engine optimization basics and fundamentals. It is usually designed for beginners. An SEO training is and should be specifically focused on training a learner on advanced SEO or some specific and expert level SEO techniques. Training means to train someone and it is more than just theoretical teaching. Not all SEO courses are training even if they say so. A truly SEO training course is the one that says specifically what area of SEO it trains you on. It will train you to be an expert or professional on some aspects of SEO or complete SEO.
How complete the course is
Whether the course is for beginners or for professionals the one thing you should look for in it is that it should be complete in teaching you SEO. It is more applicable for beginners. You cannot again and again go for some courses to learn something or the other. You should learn complete SEO at one go it is always best to select a SEO complete course.
Course content
Look at what all the course covers and delivers. You should know before selecting a course what all it will teach you. You can look at the syllabus.
Delivery mode
Check how the course will be taught and delivered. Studying the course page will make you know if it is a classroom based course or an online. As we discussed before on online course can be delivered in various ways. It may be through videos or PDF files or may be both.
Time and duration
If it is a classroom based course then check the timings and the duration of the course. Check what are the timings and duration of the classes. Also check the complete duration of the course. You should be comfortable with the timing and duration or make dedicate that time for the course.
Practical or Proven training
This is one of the features which you may not find in all the courses. Practical training is one of the best features of any course.
And also what matters is the level of that practical training.
Having live projects can help you apply what you learned.
Learning expert level SEO in steps and strategies which the trainer has applied and are in a way proven to help is the next best thing a training can offer.
For example, Purpalyn offers DIY SEO Training in proven steps and strategies which help you rank websites on Google.
This training is based on experience of Kshitij Thakur with expertise and who has ranked many keywords on Google first page.
He is the SEO consultant with proven expertise.
Certificate
There are courses which provide certificates and there are courses which do not. If you ask me, it does not make much of a difference. Students may feel more confident and comfortable with a course which comes with a certificate.
However, the thing to note is that whether the certificate adds any value? Having a certificate does not make you good in SEO. It is the course content which does and how best you learn it.
Course level and target
Check the level of the course. There are so many courses and each of these courses are designed for beginners or for professionals. Then there are courses for different types of professionals like there are SEO courses for bloggers, courses to learn SEO for particular types of websites or courses for specific types of SEO aspects like courses for local SEO, courses on keyword research or optimization or on linkbuilding.
The base of the course
This may more apply when you are looking for an advanced level SEO course. Advanced course means teaching expert level and advanced aspects of SEO including techniques. This only experienced SEO professional or an SEO expert can teach or train. So, look at the expert level SEO courses and SEO training programs and check what they say about their training or course. They should tell you something about their experience or expertise which is the base for designing this course.
Who is behind it
This is one of the important factors to decide your best course. For us, it is little more important hence we decided to cover it as a separate section. This section will tell you all about the types of SEO institutes or SEO experts and other individuals or organizations or websites who or which provide or can offer various SEO courses.
There could be few types of websites or providers for any SEO course. Looking at the course and its factors is important. Equally important could be to look at who has designed or created the course. Please note, the instructors who teach in classrooms are not the ones (usually) who designed the courses. They are just teaching it. Let us look briefly and explain to you who all are the persons or organizations behind the various SEO courses and who are the course creators.
BEST SEO Experts
SEO or learning it can be of much little fun and excitement if it were not for these renowned and true SEO experts. Every industry, field has experts, but SEO experts are in their own separate league. Learning from any of these experts is like learning the best, most advanced and truly complete SEO.
This section or anything about "Learning SEO" cannot be complete without two names, Brian Dean and Neil Patel.
SEO Institutes
The first one is the institutes. Many of these institutes are owned and were started by SEO professionals and experts. While some were started by digital marketing pioneers and entrepreneurs.
So, while selecting SEO courses from any of these institutes you can, and you should, look for who started it. They are the ones who would have designed the courses or at least played an important part in creating the course material. Institutes usually have, and should have, a page about their founders. You can also find this information in their about us page.
Few of such institutes may have contributors who can also be professional or industry experts and have helped in designing the courses. These institutes and their courses can be considered best.
SEO Professionals
There are SEO professionals who have designed courses. Look at their experience, expertise and anything that can validate this.
More SEO experts
Then there are SEO experts. They will specifically tell you about their expertise. Because for them expertise matter more than experience. Please note expertise are different from experience. Not all experienced professionals have true expertise. Their courses are best for advanced learning.
SEO Agencies or Consultants
Some of the SEO consultants and agencies also offer courses on search engine optimization. These courses can provide some practical knowledge and perspective on SEO for beginners. Such courses are also called SEO agency course.
Bloggers
There are bloggers who provide their own courses which may be focused more on blogging and SEO for bloggers.
Course Aggregators
You will also see plenty of course aggregator websites like coursera, udemy where SEO experts have their own courses which are provided through these course focused websites.
Reputed SEO sites
There are reputed and authority SEO websites like MOZ, searchenginejournal which provide SEO tutorials for free.
Non SEO websites
Lastly, there also could be any other non SEO websites which may offer SEO courses. These courses may be designed by someone else and are just offered through these websites. It is important to look at who has designed the courses.
Concluding thoughts on selecting best SEO course
If you are interested in learning search engine optimization, if you want to learn SEO for job or career, then just start with reading few things about it. Find a good course and build you foundation and skills. You can start learning SEO right now, it is so easy and fast online.
I Hope to have covered much on learning SEO and how best to learn SEO, and not have missed anything!!