Historically, Google’s position has always been that they do not (or will ever) offer any SEO certification whatsoever.
This is Google’s Gary Illyes explaining on video that they are not going to be offering such certifications.
Barry Schwartz also reported on Gary over at SEroundtable.com.
However, that seems to have changed. Because this past week, Google has announced that they are now offering a much-in-demand SEO certification.
On Monday May 2, 2022, Google announced that they are now offering SEO certification tracks for SEO professionals.
The Benefits of SEO Certification
Google offering SEO certification is a step in the right direction towards legitimizing SEO as a real profession, considering that most other professions have some sort of certification being distributed by a certifying body.
In addition to that, all of the SEO certification courses are taught by Googlers themselves.
Google explained that all of these course instructors “are Google employees who are subject-matter experts.”
Is marketing not something people can learn?
— 🦙 johnmu.xml (personal) 🦙 (@JohnMu) May 3, 2022
Google Career Certificate Scholarships
Google’s announcement also explained that:
These scholarships are worth up to $100,000 in workforce training per American company. Businesses can apply at grow.google/certificatesforbusiness.
It’s no secret that businesses of all sizes are struggling to acquire and retain talent. Those who create growth opportunities for their employees have a much better shot at retaining them. Businesses can use Google Career Certificates to train their employees for jobs in data analytics, digital marketing & e-commerce, IT support, project management or user experience (UX) design. No experience is required, and employees can earn an industry recognized credential in three to six months of part-time study. For every scholarship we give, a business will be gaining capabilities and, at the same time, an employee will be growing new skills.
More Detail about Google’s Digital Marketing & E-Commerce Certificate
If you dive deeper into the course selection for this certification, you will see “Search Engine Optimization Specialist” in this list.
Google offers the SEO certification in the “Search Engine Optimization Specialist” track of their Digital Marketing & E-Commerce certificate.
What do You Think of This SEO Certification Course?
This is a very good move by Google and we expect that there will be more than the odd SEO specialist here and there who are going to sign up and take the certification.
What do you think? Are you going to try and get Google’s new SEO certification? Will you take their course and maybe gain something new you haven’t learned before?
Additionally: this could also turn into the current competitive spectrum that Google Ads certification brings. Really, any SEO agency who has a staffer who has Google Ads certification could claim they are “Google Certified.” This is really where all the myths come from about certification anyway.
It’s definitely not a myth any longer, however. Now it’s the real thing! Are you ready to get certified?
