Fernando Beltran is a senior at San Diego State University in Journalism and Media Studies as well as minoring in Rhetoric and Writing Studies. He also volunteers at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center as a special events/marketing intern and assists in the Development department by writing grant proposals.
Beltran recently enrolled in theSDSU College of Extended Studies(CES) Increasing Traffic to Your Website class in the Digital Media program. He adds, “search engine optimization (SEO) is such an important skill for marketers to have. To be competitive in the marketing field you must possess four skills which are: writing, editing, Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, etc.), and SEO. I felt that completing an introductory course in SEO would help strengthen my résumé and create effective marketing copy for web content.”
The course’s instructor, Michael Martin, is a working professional in the field of SEO. “He is well-informed with current and topical information. He really knows his stuff, and he ensures that students understand the concepts covered in class. He is also available to speak with students one-on-one with questions that may be too advanced for the topics covered in class. The instructor is very patient and understanding. Since the course is only four weeks long, students have the opportunity to connect the weekly topics while they are still fresh in the mind. Without exaggeration, the entire class was amazing,” says Beltran.
The class teaches students many aspects of SEO; however, Beltran says there is one thing he learned in class that he uses daily. “The course taught me the importance of keywords. I research keywords whenever I write content for the Fleet’s blogs and website, and I make sure to use words that are constantly searched.”
Regarding his classmates, Beltran says, “My classmates were fantastic. Everyone came from different backgrounds, which helped diversify our course topics. We were able to learn how to use basic principle of SEO for a wide variety of applications, from blogging to understanding what elements in HTML are important to SEO.”
Beltran believes taking the class made his résumé stand out. “Hiring managers who have spoken to me have mentioned interest in my SEO skills, and although my SEO is very fundamental it still appeals to many employers.”
