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About the SEO Specialist Courses

SEOPSA Level 2 Specialist Certification:

BlueMagnet is pleased to announce the launch of our SEOPSA Level 2 Specialist Certification programmes. These programmes have been designed as elective specialist modules for SEOs with a minimum of 3 years’ experience in SEO and who have previously completed the SEOPSA Level 1 Professional Certification course.

Students are only required to complete one specialist programme for Level 2 Certification, however additional electives can be taken (at a discounted rate) if interested. Students who complete all elective modules within a 12-month period will become eligible for the SEOPSA Level 3 – SEO Master Certification Assessment.

Specialist Progammes

  • Local SEO Specialist (ELE-LOC)
  • International SEO Specialist (ELE-INT)
  • News and Publishing SEO Specialist (ELE-PUB)
  • eCommerce and Online Shopping SEO Specialist (ELE-ECOM)
  • Medical and Healthcare SEO Specialist (ELE-MED)

  • Financial Services SEO Specialist (ELE-FIN)

  • Travel and Hospitality SEO Specialist (ELE-TRH)

  • Technical SEO Specialist (ELE-TEC)

Certified Search Engine Optimisation Professional

Tools Covered

ahrefs
google
web ceo
semrush
screamingfrog
pingdom
moz
keywords everywhere

Programme Contents

Local SEO Specialist (ELE-LOC)

  • What is Local SEO – What is Local SEO and why is it important
  • Google My Business – How to create and optimise Google My Business listing to get found on the local map.
  • Locations – How to optimise your site to show up in your searchers location.
  • Citations – The importance of Citations in local search and how to ensure that they are set up and accurate.
  • NAP – How to optimise Name, address, and phone number consistently across all digital citations..
  • Reviews – How to set up a strategy to solicit reviews from your customers.
  • Local Search Tips – Local Search Optimisation Tips
  • Keyword Research – Optimising for local modifiers and ‘near me’ queries

  • Hreflang Implementation – How to implement Hreflang attributes and important SEO Considerations for Multilingual and Multinational
  • Content – Understanding the difference between Translations vs Transcreation
  • Multi-language Keyword Strategy – Keyword Research in other languages
  • International Hosting – Servers and TLD / Domain Name Considerations
  • Strategy – Managing an International SEO Strategy
  • Cross Domain Tracking – Analytics across Multi-Site
  • Migration – How to migrate international sites
  • Cross-Domain vs Single Site hreflang implementation
  • Testing Hreflang – How to test your Hreflang implementation
  • Use Cases – When to use / not to use hreflang
  • Attributes – Language vs Location attributes
  • Canonicalisation – When and how to implement canonicalisation

  • Top Stories – How to optimise your site to show up in Top Stories and drive more qualified visitors to your site.
  • Discover – How to optimise personalised news for your readers to be featured on Google’s Discover feed.
  • Archives – How to manage large sets of dated content and create a strong archiving strategy.
  • Image Required – Understand the image requirements for eligibility to appear in Google’s news search results.
  • Flexible Sampling – Learn how to leverage flexible sampling lead-ins and experiment with free content metering to attract new readers to your subscription-based content.

  • Product Descriptions – How to distinguish your product pages from the standard, mass-duplicated manufacturers product descriptions to set yourself apart from your competitors in the index.
  • Architecture – How to structure your strategy to address all stages of the buying funnel.
  • Merchant Centre – Learn how to manage and optimise how your inventory displays in Google search.
  • Structured Data – How to use structured data for products, offers & reviews.
  • URL Structures – How to correctly optimise your URL structures to avoid error response codes.
  • Pagination – Learn the correct way to implement pagination.
  • Product Reviews – Learn about Google’s Product Review update and requirements.

  • Quality Raters Guidelines – Understand Google’s Search Quality Raters guidelines and regulatory requirement for the financial services sector.
  • E-A-T – The importance of E-A-T for Financial services and insurance sites and how to achieve a high EAT score.
  • YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) – How to adhere to Google’s YMYL Rules
  • Fintech Industry Challenges – How Financial SEO differs to other industries and the SEO challenges within financial services.
  • Financial Schema – How to leverage proper schema markup for financial services to your website to gives Google more context and information about your page.
  • Universal Elements – How to take advantage of the SERPs universal listing features for ‘I want to know’ financial queries. “I-Want-To-Know” queries.
  • Featured Snippets – How to optimising financial services content that can present valuable opportunities to expand your presence in search.
  • Google Business Profile – Google Business Profile attributes available for the financial sector and how best to optimise for the Map Pack.

  • E-A-T – The importance of E-A-T for Medical sites and how to achieve a high EAT score.
  • Medical & Pharma Limitations – Understand Limitations Specific to Healthcare and Pharma Fields and how to ensure you’re not violating them.
  • YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) – How to adhere to Google’s YMYL Rules
  • Visual Elements – The impact of Images of Staff, Your Office, and Your Equipment on your performance.
  • Local Pack – How to optimise for Local Pack rankings to ensure your practice is discoverable by your community.
  • Readability Level – The impact of Flesch-Kincaid Readability and how to balance expertise and relevance for your audience.
  • Medical Schema – How to implement medical schema (doctors, conditions, medical drug, guidelines etc.) to your website to gives Google more context and information about your page.
  • Industry Keyword Modifiers – How to create the right Healthcare industry keyword strategy using modifications and multipliers.

  • Travel Insights  –  Google’s Travel Insights tools (Destination Insights; Hotel Insights; Focusing Facts; and Demand Sizing;) to understand travel trends, destinations preferences and where potential travellers are coming from.
  • Schema for Travel & Hospitality – Schema markup entity types for travel and hospitality such as trips, flights, attractions, hotel rooms, etc.
  • Brand Concierge Strategy – Discover the power of developing a brand concierge strategy to connect with travellers through persona identification, journey mapping and content.
  • FAQ and Voice Optimisation – Leverage FAQs and optimise for voice search, and learn how to use structured data markup for rich results.
  • Optimise Booking Process – How to optimise the booking/inquiry process for users in order to maximize your website’s potential
  • AI Assistants & Chatbots – Discover how the industry is leveraging AI & Chatbots to leverage user engagement and increase touchpoints.
  • Hotel Class Ratings – Understand How Google Grades Hotels to display ratings in the knowledge panel.

  • Security – Important SEO Security Requirements that could affect your Rankings
  • Sitemap Best Practices  – Best practice guidelines for implementing SEO Sitemaps
  • International SEO – How to implement Hreflang attributes and important SEO Considerations for Multilingual and Multinational Sites
  • Hosting & Servers –Web, Domain and CDNs – Server and Hosting Considerations and how they impact Site Performance
  • Networking, Protocols & Status Codes – Protocols, Requests, Responses & Status Codes and why they matter for SEO
  • Standards – The importance of W3C, RFC and WCAG Standards and Guidelines.
  • Crawl Budgets – How to optimise crawl budget and learn about the latest trends in reducing carbon footprints with IndexNow.
  • Core Web Vitals vs AMP – Core (and non-core) web vitals, how they impact rankings and what should be done to improve page experience.
  • Featured Snippets for Mobile  – Featured Snippet Optimisation for Mobile
  • Structured Data & Schema Markup – How to implement Schema markup, validations and checks.
  • Predictive Search & Google Discover – Learn about Predictive Search and Google Discover
  • New Image Formats & Image Optimisation -WebP and other modern image formats for superior compression
  • Voice Search Optimisation – How to optimise for Voice Search and Google Assistant
  • Visual Search Optimisation – How to optimise your website for visual search
  • Video Search Optimisation – Learn about Seek Markup and Clip Markup to help video content show up on the search results
  • Split Testing –How to implement SEO Split Testing without impacting SEO Negatively
  • Edge SEO – Learn what Edge SEO is and important considerations when implementing Edge SEO
  • Pagination and Faceted Navigation – How to implement pagination and optimise Faceted Navigation for SEO

This certificate is endorsed by the Association for Search Engine Optimisation Professionals South Africa (SEOPSA). The Association for Search Engine Optimisation Professionals South Africa (SEOPSA) is a non-profit organisation established to further the SEO profession in South Africa. The association strives to promote the interests of the SEO industry through encouraging legitimate practices within the profession while safeguarding the interest of companies through ethical best practice compliance.

Students need to pass the SEOPSA Level 1 Examination (80% pass grade is required) to be eligible for the SEOPSA Level 2 Specialist Programmes . Note that SEOPSA Level 1 Certifications are valid for 24 months from date of issue. Students who have completed Level 1 more than 2 years ago, will be required to pass the latest Level 1 Exam before proceeding with Level 2 in order to renew the certification. Should the pass grade not be achieved, students are required to complete an SEOPSAL Level 1 (SEO Professional) refresher course.

Due to the increasing number of changes to the SEO Ranking Factors, students are required to renew the certification every 2 years. Should you remain up-to-date on SEO, you can attempt the renewal examination when you are due for renewal; however students who do not pass this exam will be required to attend the full course again.

Students who pass the SEOPSA Level 1 Certification Exam will become eligible to attend the SEOPSA Level 2 Specialist Certification.
Students who pass all SEOPSA Level 2 Specialist Programmes within a 12-month period will become eligible for the SEOPSA Level 3 Master Certification.

These programmes have been designed as elective specialist modules for SEOs with a minimum of 3 years’ experience in SEO and who have previously completed the SEOPSA Level 1 Professional Certification course.

Previous Experience with SEO Implementation
Completed SEOPSA Level 1 Exam (or recognized SEO Certification / Qualification)
A Laptop or Tablet is required to take part in the practical assignments during the training.
Basic Computer, Internet and Google knowledge is required.
Screaming Frog Desktop Installation Recommended
We also advise that you set-up a Google Ads account prior to attending.
We recommend that you have access to your website’s Search Console and Google Analytics Accounts.
Contact us for assistance in setting up or gaining access to your Google Accounts.

R3,500 ex vat per *specialist programme / per student
*Technical SEO Elective is R5,250 ex vat per student

Bulk discounts available for bookings of 3 or more delegates.

Specialist Programmes – Upcoming Course Dates:

  • Technical SEO (2 Days) – 28-29 Mar’23
  • Travel & Hospitality (1 Day) – 25 Apr’23
  • International SEO (1 Day) – 7 Jun’23
  • Local SEO (1 Day) – 8 Jun’23
  • e-Commerce & Online Shopping (1 Day) – 30 May’23
  • News & Publishers (1 Day) – 20 Jul’23
  • Financial Services (1 Day) – 22 Aug’23
  • Medical & Healthcare (1 Day) – 23 Aug’23

Courses will be presented live via Zoom.  

Why BlueMagnet

Over 45+ Years’ Experience in Digital Marketing

Our team comprises of a collective of over 45 years having delivered professional digital marketing research analysis, strategy, online advertising, paid search, social media and search engine (SEO), user-centric (UX) compliant web development and design specialists across all touchpoints. We are have been practicing digital marketing in South Africa for as long as Google and Facebook has been in existence.

Founded in 2007, BlueMagnet proudly carries the reputation as the longest standing SEO Training Company in South Africa – endorsed by the Association for SEO Professionals South Africa (SEOPSA) – having trained some of the top SEO Agencies in South Africa. BlueMagnet was the first accredited South African Training Partner to the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI) in Ireland, having provided the internationally recognised Certified Digital Marketing Professional accreditation to over thousands of students across Africa since 2012. BlueMagnet has been at the forefront of digital training and skills development for the past 12 years, with lecturers and trainers who have hands-on practical experience in digital marketing research, analysis, strategy, UX, SEO, PPC and various other digital channels.

All our Digital Marketing Consultants have achieved outstanding grades in the internationally recognised Professional Digital Marketing Certification through the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI). Our Search Marketers are all Google Ads and Analytics qualified and have also completed SEOPSA’s SEO Professional Certification Program. Our Digital Marketing practitioners continuously enforce and uphold best-practice standards and compliance in digital marketing, ensuring that we adhere to a strict code of ethics and white-hat principles.

Our user-centered design methodology is based on the Human Factors International (HFI) framework which has been perfected over the past 30 Years. Recognised as the global leader in user experience (UX) design, HFI have incorporated best practices across every part of the user-centered design process including UX strategy, innovation, user research, structural design, detailed design, testing and validation.

We apply a stringent recruitment, selection and upskilling process to ensure that we employ the most experienced and technically competent Digital Marketing Experts in South Africa to deliver only the best Digital Marketing Services to serve our valued clients. Our Google specialists draw experience directly from the world’s leading advanced Search Marketing conferences, staying ahead of the latest Google algorithms, search trends, and search marketing tools.

We continuously evaluate available technologies to ensure that we utilise the most accurate and sophisticated digital marketing tools and software to conduct Website, SEO, UX, Google Ads, Content, Social Media, Online Brand Reputation, Sentiment and Analytics Audits; as well as Competitor Analysis; Online Market Research and ongoing Digital Marketing performance benchmarking, optimisation and management.

BlueMagnet partners with only the best web development companies and responsive web design companies, to ensure that your website is planned and development according to the highest standards.

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Years Digital Marketing Experience
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Top Performing Digital Campaigns
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Trained Digital Marketing Professionals
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Years SEO & UX Experience
Gift

Our Students Work At

clickatell
click maven
cubic ice
fleishman hillard
mind share
mobitainment
native VML
NXT
ogilvy interactive
ramsay media
TBWA
Virtuosa