When students first enter college, they either enter knowing exactly what they want to major in or they have no clue, so they go "undecided." But imagine going to college knowing exactly what it is you want to major in but tragically find out that the major you want to study isn't offered at the college you're attending... In fact, what if the major you wanted to study isn't offered at any college or university, and never will?

How crushing would that be? For most students, it would be devastating. Professors of introductory courses at colleges and universities typically help influence undergrad students in choosing a major, whether they're undecided or not. But the fact that a major or course of interest isn't offered anywhere would probably make you question why you want to study that particular area in the first place.

Well, there's not too many areas of study that aren't offered at colleges and universities but there is one, in particular, that isn't, and that subject in question is SEO, also known as search engine optimization.

SEO is the practice of increasing the quality and quantity of traffic to a website through organic search results by increasing a site's online visibility to internet users. 

Typically, this practice helps websites rank higher on search engines like Google or Bing, and ultimately, you want your website to appear on the first page within the top five results. 

According to searchenginewatch.com, 53% of internet users click on the first link of search engine results, and the SEO practice you implement can be the difference between ranking first and second.

Some of the top brands and businesses appear in the top results of search engines, and they've clearly invested in SEO... but now the question is, 

"If SEO is such a major part of brand recognition for all businesses, why isn't it offered as a major, or even as a course within the certain majors?"

That is a very good and logical question, especially since SEO has played a major role in the success of many small and large businesses. 

On your journey to entrepreneurial success, you can try your luck attempting SEO on your own or focus on finding the best link building company to meet your SEO needs. But whichever route you choose, just know that you have options and that you can achieve success with whichever path you choose. 

Nonetheless, SEO is a business practice that takes time to understand but it's a practice that just simply can't be taught in college... The reasoning may still make you scratch your head but don't worry, you're about to find out why... Everything will start to make sense then.

Take a look at the major reasons why SEO isn't offered as a college major or curriculum course. 

Top Reasons Why SEO Isn't Offered As a Major or Curriculum Course at Colleges and Universities

SEO is Constantly Changing

SEO changes so much that it would be pointless to try to add it as a major, and extremely useless to try and teach it as a curriculum course. Why? Because Google is always improving, coming out with changes to its algorithms. 

There was once a point in time where SEO's main focus was all about ranking for the right keywords, even if the content made no sense and was completely irrelevant to the subject matter... as long as the right keywords were placed, a business could rank extremely well. 

Attempting that now could leave you with a nice penalty from Google... 

But that's not the case today. Today, Google is all about user experience, relevancy, and if the actual content is valuable to internet users.

Because of such shifts, if a college professor were to teach SEO one semester, Google could change its algorithm over a break, making everything the professor taught the previous semester of no value... That's a major reason why SEO isn't taught and honestly, shouldn't be taught or offered in college.

There's No Set Method or Process to Apply SEO

With other college courses like biology, math, communications, etc, there are formulas and processes that you can follow to achieve accurate results, and you would achieve those same results now, or five years from now... With SEO, there is no "set in stone" guide or process that always works.

One particular method you use for a site might actually work and increase their online visibility but if you try to take that same method and use it on another site, it could prove to be completely useless. That's because there's no one-size-fits-all method with SEO. Successful methods with SEO is totally dependent on the site and the types of issues the site is having.

SEO is the true definition of trial and error.

SEO is Way Too Broad For a Course or Major

It was mentioned earlier that ALL businesses use SEO to achieve better online visibility... Well, that's true, and by ALL businesses, that also means all businesses across all industries. SEO is an industry that taps into social media, content creation, public relations, and even outreach. It could seriously take all four years of your college career, and more, to learn SEO. Even SEO experts today are still learning about it simply because it's constantly changing!

Your College Courses are Already Preparing You For SEO

SEO may be a little harder for someone who isn't taking college courses or if they've never been to college. But if you're in college and are taking business, marketing, or journalism courses, SEO will probably be a little easier for you to learn. You can take everything you're learning from college and apply it to your SEO practices.

Is SEO For You? Do You Still Want to Learn About It?

Now that you know why SEO isn't offered as a major or curriculum course, you've probably come to the realization that SEO is still something that can be learned on your own outside of the classroom. In fact, if you were to ask an SEO expert how they got their start in the industry, they'd tell you that they were self-taught or somehow just stumbled into the industry.

SEO is indeed a complex business practice that's vital to the success of all business but if it's more than you're willing to take on, that's okay... that's why there are experts in the industry to perform SEO for business owners who can't do it themselves.