usaseopros.com - Search Engine Optimization

The rising cost of higher education coupled with an incredibly competitive job market means knowledge and experience is more important than ever.

But in the internet world – the world of search engine algorithms, trending topics and the blogosphere – things change very, very quickly.

Trying to get an education in online marketing or search engine optimization (at least in the traditional, college or university sense) is nearly pointless. By the time you’ve finished your degree, everything will have changed.

Heck, by the time you finish up a semester, everything you thought you knew about meta-keywords and dynamic link generation can have changed.

The idea for this blog post came from a great article posted back in May 2008. Titled “Top 5 College Majors for Internet Marketers”, author Gyutae Park talks about the lack of university support for internet marketing degrees – largely due to the fast changing nature of the industry.

Park picks five college degrees someone could look into if they’re interested in online marketing, and he’s spot on.

- Computer Science/Programming
- Business/Marketing
- Engineering/Math
- Writing
- Design

That set of degrees is really a highlight of what is needed to do solid SEO and online marketing – but who’s going to get all 5 degrees? SEO needs as much an eye for aesthetics and design as it does for proper canonicalization.

I think many SEOs have felt their way through the emerging industry without any sort of formal education (with the exception of Matt Cutts’ videos, and events like SES and SMX).

The landscape may be changing though, as more and more universities are creating courses that target online marketing.

For example, Harvard now offers a course called Internet Marketing Strategies (MGMT E-6620) that focuses on “role of internet marketing in the overall marketing strategy of the organization as well as the need for careful integration between strategies executed in cyberspace and in the physical world.”

Similarly, the University of Southern California offers a couple of courses (MKT 425 and MKT 556) which target online marketing specifically.

And in our own backyard, the University of Nevada Las Vegas offers JOUR 333 – Interactive Media Design, and JOUR 450 – Media Technologies and Society. The latter focuses on the evolution of and “impact of computer technology and prospects for the future of mass communication technology”.

So we’re starting to see higher education chasing down emerging technologies and industry, but I think it will always be a catch-up game.

My advice to someone interested in search engine optimization and/or online marketing would be to get a degree in computer science and a minor in marketing. Writing is a must-have skill, and that will need to be picked up along the way, but I would argue it’s easier to learn on the fly than complex Web site programming.

Not all colleges and universities are going to offer all programs, and USC might not have the equivalent of UNLV’s JOUR 450. But you can make up for it with regular visits to industry leading events like the Search Marketing Expo (coming up in October in New York City).

**Update: After writing this post I came across this great list of case studies of social media in the classroom. Although not exactly SEO or online marketing, it’s good to see SM infiltrating education!

By: Zack S.

Tags: education, online marketing, search engine optimization, SEO

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Blog Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.