No major organization has offered SEO Certification to this point; however the DMA (Direct Marketing Association) has officially announced a SEO Certification Program that will be initially offered at DMA06 in San Francisco.
The program offered in San Francisco will be the Level 1 Certification, with a Level 2 offered later. Initially, there are four Level 1 modules that will be offered at DMA06, and there are ten modules that will eventually be added.
• Introduction to Search Marketing - Jeannette Kocsis of Harte Hanks
• Search Engine and Directory Submission/Inclusion - Detelev Johnson of Position Technologies
• Site Indexing Challenges and How to Fix Them - Matt Bailey of Sitelogic Marketing
• Search Engine Basics - Lee Odden of TopRank Online Marketing
Dr. Amanda Watlington of Searching for Profit is organizing and planning the certification modules and strategy for the DMA.
This is an awesome opportunity and I have had a lot of fun developing the Site Indexing Challenges module. Teaching what I consider to be the foundation of a good SEO strategy, site architecture, is always fun. I am really looking forward to being a part of this certification process and being a part the team of excellent professionals in this field.







Matt Bailey is the owner and founder of SiteLogic and has over a decade in the web marketing industry. He focuses on consulting and training to help companies take control of their websites and marketing strategies.
This certainly is a great line up of courses and instructors and no doubt this will be well received. I don’t know however what you consider to be a major organization but I thought the same thing until I learned and blogged about this. Color me wrong on SEO SEM certifications by associations
It looks like the DMA but some thought behind this and I wish everyone involved the best of luck!
Comment by David Temple | October 10, 2006 @ 4:44 pm
Thanks, Dave. That means a lot. Of course, anyone who offers SEO certification will be under close scrutiny, but it has to start somewhere. I’m thrilled to be a part of it and I am positive that this will improve our industry rather than take away from it.
Thanks again for your support!
Comment by Matt Bailey | October 10, 2006 @ 7:06 pm