A Week in the Life of an SEO Trainer
A Week in the Life of an SEO Trainer was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.
It happened again the other day. An email came that just made my week:
“Your training has taken me so far in my career in a very short time. I feel like it is by far the best training I have ever had on SEO.”
– Tye Odom, an in-house SEO manager who also commented on LinkedIn
Bruce Clay and Mindy Weinstein, SEOToolSet trainers
Our SEOToolSet® training is not your typical SEO training course.
By the numbers, we cover a massive binder of material, or two, depending on which course you take. And more than 5,000 people so far have attended our classes worldwide.
What’s harder to quantify is how the classroom becomes a place where friendships and business collaborations are formed.
For three years, I’ve had the privilege of watching relationships grow from the front of the room, as a co-trainer with none other than Bruce Clay.
I love training people. You’re probably thinking, “You have to love training, you’re the trainer.” But it’s more than that.
In my role as SEO trainer, I get to help all sorts of people — whether it’s a business owner who’s tired of being taken advantage of, a spammer who’s ready to reform his black-hat ways, or even an occasional attendee who hasn’t a clue what search engine optimization is.
Training enables all of these people to transform their businesses and move ahead in their careers.
Let me give you a glimpse of what I’ve seen in our classes.
A Week in the Life: SEO Training Begins
Day 1 – A roomful of strangers
Standard training goes from Monday through Wednesday.
Mondays are my favorite day of our SEOToolSet Training course. I arrive excited, anticipating who will be sharing the classroom for the next few days.
Each attendee is greeted by Reyn (our amazingly organized receptionist) and by me. I confess I probably seem a little too enthusiastic at 8:30 a.m., especially as we pile a massive training binder and several large books into their arms.
Once the attendees are situated, the fresh coffee and breakfast spread seem to restore their smiles.
After some preliminaries and a couple of corny jokes to break the ice, I get to my favorite part: introductions.
As we go around the room introducing ourselves, I’m always glad to see a diverse group of people in terms of location, backgrounds and job titles — with a variety of reasons for coming to training.
Take the business owner I’ll call Pat. She was tired of being taken advantage of by people claiming to know SEO, so she signed up for our three-day Standard training. On the third morning, Pat came in early and found me by the buffet table, steeping a cup of tea.
“I’m blown away by all that goes into SEO,” she said, and asked if she could stay two more days to take the Advanced class, a Thursday and Friday morning extension.
Pat subsequently sent four of her staff to attend the SEOToolSet course. Training helped her understand the value of SEO for her business, and she embraced the knowledge.
Day 2 – SEO training and learning go deeper
On the second day of Standard, the foundation has been laid. Everyone now grasps the basic concepts of search engine optimization. Training from the ground up is crucial because, even if someone has experience in SEO, it could be self-taught knowledge, a different interpretation or just wrong. 
