Following a recent interview with Google’s Gary Illyes, an SEO certification programme does not look likely for the future.

Conducted by Stone Temple Consulting, the interview with Illyes covered various things, including SEO certification. Illyes commented that this was something that had been discussed by Google but wasn’t something that they would be proceeding with.

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Currently, Google offer certification for Analytics, Google Apps, AdWords and AdSense (to name a few), but when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation, Google will not be offering any form of certification.

Organic Results to Stay the Same

The main reasoning appears to stem from the fact that Google does not want to have any money passing hands for organic search results. As these results are achieved through a company’s efforts and not by paying Google, taking money from people like a website designer in Cheltenham to aid organic rankings would seem wrong.

He also added that the organic side of Google is achieved through scaling things and that training and certification wouldn’t be things that would scale well. So whilst they have discussed SEO certification on numerous occasions, the same conclusion is reached with every debate: this isn’t something they will be providing.

Why Won’t They Offer SEO Certification?

A former Google employee, Pedro Dias, offered numerous reasons as to why Google won’t offer SEO certification, including the fact that if they certified an SEO professional, they would then be somewhat responsible for any methods or practices used by this person across the internet.

He goes on to say that SEO is a personal thing for many websites and should remain a private aspect for businesses and professionals who are building these sites. He also commented that if people were to start paying for organic results, it would give Google more control over their websites when the accuracy of their index is all Google wants to control.

Furthermore, for many companies, including those such as http://www.16i.co.uk/, the organic side of Google remains a platform that can see both small and large businesses succeed. If money was brought into this side of the search engine, this could remove the level playing field that many companies benefit from.

Some suggest that the closest thing one can get to a Google SEO certification is the top contributor programme, but even this isn’t a clear-cut way.