SEO Partner Its been said that internet users have the patience of just four to five seconds for a page to load. That's not a very long time, and a lot of sites lose visitors every day for just this reason. It will always be important from a user standpoint to have your websites load as quickly as possible. It's already a challenge to get people to visit your site and the last issue you want visitors to experience is slow loading times. How Can You Test Your Sites Load Time? If you don't already have a Google Webmaster Tools account, create one. Log into your account and click on the "Labs" tab on the left hand navigation. From there click on "Site Performance". You will find a graph with your performance overview here. Internet users have the patience to wait roughly four to five seconds before giving up on a page loading. Is your websites loading time causing you to lose well deserved traffic? Fixing Your Page Load Times Lucky for all of us, Google has already figured out an efficient way to speed up all of our pages. Scrolling a little further down to the "site performance" page, you will see "Page Speed Suggestions". Here you will see suggestions such as gzip compression, combining JavaScript, and minimizing DNS lookups. These are issues specific to each page, so make sure to look at all the suggestions. Will Load Times Have An Effect On SEO In 2010? Google's priority is to always give its search users the most relevant search results. One would think that it's also important to Google that all users have a positive experience when looking for websites that match their search queries. With this kept in considerations it would make sense that Google would give ranking preferences to sites that have faster loading speeds. Nobody wants to wait ten or more seconds for a page to load and unfortunately there are many sites out there that exceed ten seconds. Whether loading time has an affect on SEO or not, it's important to keep your site loading times to a minimum. You work hard to get your existing traffic, don't let something like loading time ruin your users experience. Google has given us this tool for a reason; it's silly to not take advantage of it. If load time does become an SEO factor in 2010, lets all be ready for it! Nick LeRoy is the search marketing specialist for DKS Systems. DKS Systems is a MN Web Design firm located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. You too can rank in the search engines, contact our Minneapolis Web development team today! Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_LeRoy Is SEO Certification Necessary For Search Engine Optimization Professionals? Today's global economy demands that people, and especially small businesses, take extra time making decisions on how much to spend and where to spend their advertising money for their online advertising needs. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one of those places where companies are starting to pay extra attention to specialists with credible training and certification. SEO professionals build their reputation on what they know, how they help their clients build a strong search engine visibility, and what they continue to learn. In order to ensure that they are on a steady course of training many SEO companies or individual professionals seek out SEO certification through credible sources like SEO Certification.org. Taking the step to become SEO certified also gives you, the individual a viable income Learning SEO Is Essential To Your Growth and in Raising Customer Results Think of what would happen if you all of a sudden you stopped eating. Your body wouldn't grow. In fact, you would begin to deteriorate. For comparison the same holds true. Continuous changes within search engine algorithms and ranking criteria create the dynamic of having to keep up with current trends. Learning SEO with up to date SEO study guides enables you to grow and provide your clients with top rankings on all major search engines. SEO Certification Creates Confidence in Yourself and Your Clients Certification in anything is a means to an end. Certification means you have successfully completed a training course designed to instruct you how to solve this industry's greatest question and provide competent service for those who need it. Certification is an exclamation point at the end of a momentous statement. As stated already, companies are choosing their SEO providers with a much more meticulous set of criteria, and one of those is a desire for trained, certified SEO professionals. They want to know and be confident in the person or company for that matter that optimizes their website! You, as an SEO practitioner also gain a great deal of confidence whereas you know you now possess the SEO training necessary to provide quality services. When there are thousands of qualified individuals, and entire SEO companies to compete with, it's critical to have something that gives you an edge above and beyond your competition. Training and being SEO certified gives you that big confidence boost and edge you need. How to Become SEO Certified Becoming SEO certified is a process by which at the end of it you know you have the knowledge necessary to provide your customers with what they need for effective search engine marketing. The process has been refined to the point that you are not wasting time with out-of-date information or rudimentary SEO techniques. Much like anything you strive to learn there is a learning process incorporated into a certification program. In most cases, you can download an eBook on SEO techniques and advanced SEO strategies. This is often referred to as a study guide where you can read and take notes at your leisure. Continuing along in the process there will be some practice test questions to help you become better acquainted with the information presented. During this time you can also begin implementing some of the things you've learned to see if you are getting a solid grasp of it. If so, then you are on your to certification. If not, you should go back to the study guide and again, practice with the sample tests. Once familiar with the information and techniques of solid, ethical SEO you can then take a certification test. Once passed you are usually given the credentials, both printed and digitized, you need to show, to yourself and your customers, that you have gone through a credible SEO training program and can provide the utmost in effective services. How To Find An SEO Certification Program The Internet is loaded with all kinds of different certification programs. The line between credible and irreputible is sometimes blurred by low prices, impossible guarantees, and quick, trivial certification process. Of course, you receive the benefit of receiving credentials and limited knowledge. This may, or may not, lead to gained confidence and higher search engine rankings. However, one of the biggest faults to these types of programs is that they contain out of date information and are not updated frequently. Old information in the search engine industry is like driving around with dirty oil. Things begin to break down. When looking into SEO certification it is extremely important to look at other parts of their certification rather than cost, ease, and time for certification. Instead look at things like; * What type of information is being taught? Is it new, updated or out of date? * Is the process one where you know you'll learn strong, ethical SEO techniques? * Are you going to be pushed through the program or will it take time to complete? * Is this a recognized organization that has helped others before me? * Are any of their graduates at the top of the search engine rankings? All valuable things to ask and to look out for. SEO Training Leads To Powerful, Effective SEO Practices Staying in touch with current SEO practices is a must for anyone who is operating their own online business or for entire companies competing in a highly volatile economy. Every dollar budgeted towards advertising must be spent wisely. Knowing solid optimization practices will add to your bottom line and, in the case of individuals, could mean a new career or added income stream. SEO Certification also proves, and assures potential clients, that you have gone through an approved process and are substantiated and affirmed by a recognized industry organization. Places like SEOCertification.org are places where you can feel confident in their overall SEO Certification process. Copyright - 2010 SEOcertification Roland P. 920 Yonge St. Toronto, ON service@seocertification.org http://www.seocertification.org Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Roland_Pap