The increased use of the internet and digital media is a major influence in the field of education today because your target market (students) is online constantly. In the field of education – information is king and the recent studies suggest that students and parents alike conduct research into the best schools, colleges, and educational institutes. Potential applicants continuously search for the best prospects on search engines. Most people will never go beyond looking at the first page of the search engine results to find classes or online courses, so your educational institution needs to show up on page 1, preferably in the top 3 organic search positions.We, at Digital Solution World, are the leaders at SEO for educational institutions, SEO for school websites, and SEO for colleges and can help you navigate this challenging landscape.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical for the growth of your educational institution. SEO for educational institutions is the process of making changes to your educational institution website and other related web pages like directory pages, Google My Business and social media pages to help the search engines recognize your site as a relevant resource for users searching for an educational institution or for online learning courses. When your site is considered relevant by the search engines, it will move up in search engine rankings.
There are two primary strategies for SEO for educational institutions – increasing the rank of your program or degree pages and creating a content marketing strategy to reach prospects at the top of the funnel. Below are the two important things associated with SEO for colleges that you should know:
- If your website content is optimized to rank on search queries frequently used along the prospective student customer journey — e.g., a particular degree program, scholarship opportunity, or campus amenity — there’s an opportunity to engage and convert. By ensuring that the keywords you optimize for are ones that appear often on the site – or at least can be added to content to make them, you will rank higher on Google.
- Conversion results for higher education are often slower than many industries. Such an important life decision needs careful consideration, with 44% of prospective students converting between 60 and 120 days after first looking on a higher education website and many continuing to visit the site multiple times during this period to find out further information. This is why it is crucial for a higher education SEO campaign to be ongoing, as the time scale that individual users spend on the site may range from a number of weeks to a few months.
A SEO for education institutions campaign is the most cost-effective way to ensure that your institution is being shown to the most relevant searchers possible: those who are likely to apply for enrollment and become your future students. In a highly competitive field like education, it’s important for educational institutes to rank high on search engines in order to establish trust. Hence, we often recommend educational institutions to get a .edu domain. Off-page SEO, digital PR, and being listed in directories also raises brand visibility and traffic for educational institutions.
