I had the opportunity to attend a workshop on SEO training yesterday. It was presented by a new local company called Buzzhound. I was looking forward to the training for two reasons. I thought I would be able to put additional knowledge to work for the benefit of my website, this blog and in general, my online marketing efforts. Additionally, I thought it important to keep up with the principles of online marketing. It's obvious that online/digital marketing is a huge growth area for the future of marketing and advertising. SEO is fundamental to and the foundation of every company's online presence (or certainly should be). I want to stay as current as possible.
It took less than 15 minutes for me to be impressed with the presentation and to realize that the two presenters were experts on their topics. I assumed that would be the case. What I wasn't sure of, is how they would present the materials. I wasn't sure how complex the material would be or if I had enough basic knowledge to be able to take advantage at all.
The presentation was incredibly well organized. It was presented in a straightforward, simple and logical way. Each of us was given our own computer, already set up with all the documents, tools, links, etc. that we'd be using during the day. It was slick, it was efficient . . . and it was effective!
It was obvious from the conversations with the other eight participants that they were as excited as I was to be "finally" reaching a level of understanding about how SEO works. What's more important, is that I believe every one of us walked out of the event with a clear idea of how to improve each of our own websites. There were some marketing professionals in attendance as well. It was obvious that they were excited about what they were learning and how they could take that knowledge and add value to their clients. They mystery of SEO was removed. We were able to see "behind the curtain" and realize that there are simple tools available to help a website's SEO.
I was also impressed with how organized the presentation was and the support materials we were able to take back to our offices. Buzzhound provided all of the tools used for key word development, website page ranking and overall site "health", analytics and more. I think part of the real value of the workshop was having the ability to see someone using these tools. You can read and/or hear about this stuff ad nauseum, but to see how simple it is to use the tools made all the difference. In fact, SEO concepts are not all that complex or difficult to understand. The presentation made sense, so it was easy to learn and understand the material. The Workbook we all left with has even more detailed than the presentation itself. I know I'll be able to successfully refer to it for answers, when I have questions later. Buzzhound even gave us a jump drive with the documents we created during the presentation and the tools/applications and links we used for the tools.
I want to recommend this training. I think every professional company should send (at least) one person to this workshop. I think the money spent is well worth the value received. I don't know how anyone can be serious about enhancing their web presence, or marketing communications without starting with SEO. It's the most fundamental essential, after having a website at all!