Running a school and not having an online presence shall leave you behind competitors. Parents or students usually first look on Google to track down the best educational institution. Hence, Google has become the best ‘search source’ for people, it ranks the top universities or schools to provide relevant results.
As a result, it’s necessary to do SEO for schools and colleges to highlight your importance in your area. All the strategies from updating the website to doing the local SEO strategy for educational websites should be well implemented.
SEO is not just a long-term competent school digital marketing strategy but also affordable, organic and enough to provide you with better ROI than paid ads. Here, Digital Chaabi has listed the 7 best SEO for schools and colleges.
1. Analyse the Website Needs
Optimizing the website is the foremost thing to initiate SEO for educational institutions. Know your website requirements and enhance the user experience because Google algorithms want to rank websites which are relevant and user-friendly.
Make it interactive by adding a call to action and also a chatbot to allow the visitors to ask doubt anytime. Most importantly, check on the loading speed to provide a faster experience. Also, a website should be mobile-friendly, it will drive the majority of the audience. You can also take help from experts and professionals for website designing for school.
2. Do Keyword Research
Keywords are the basic to initiate the SEO for schools and colleges and to target the potential audience. Research keywords that are suitable for your education institute and include them in the content. It is advisable to go for long-tail keywords as they provide quality leads. For example, ‘best MBA college in Delhi’.
There are various online tools to find SEO keywords for school websites like Google Keyword Planner. Also, look for competitors’ keywords and incorporate those into your website. Keep note that keyword spamming will not result in you reaching on top but it costs your brand image.
3. Have Engaging Content
The Next SEO strategy for educational website is regularly posting unique and engaging content on the website. The content should be valuable and relevant for the visitors. It is a great way to boost the ranking on Google and visibility.
In the blog, use images and videos to keep it more attractive, and informational and also it takes less time to consume by users. Through content, try to resolve the queries of parents and students. Give quality to the audience instead of just adding irrelevant keywords because Google has started prioritising quality!
Have content regarding the admission process, course, careers, placements, the university/college/school and more. Blogs are the best way to keep the audience engaged and connected with your site.
4. Improve Local Search
Many students or parents seek education institutes in their nearby areas or people from other places looking in your city. So it is crucial to strengthen your local search. For improving local SEO for private schools or universities or colleges, optimise the website by local keywords.
For instance, ‘Best college for MBA in Delhi’ or ‘Biotechnology course in Mumbai’ will help you get quality traffic. Moreover, enlist your business on Google My Business to let people know about you. Keep information such as address and contact number updated to maintain credibility.
5. Add Links
Adding internal linking helps Google to identify the structure of your website and rank it more rationally. Also, it helps users to understand the topic well and gets deep into interesting topics. Besides, adding outbound links assists in earning credibility because it connects you to the other higher institutes.
Links are a real game changer in ranking on the first page of search engines. To improve your SEO for schools and colleges, keep checking the links whether they are broken or working. If you find broken links then fix them as soon as possible.
6. URL Structure
The next most important SEO strategy for educational websites is optimizing the URL structure of the page. URL is the address link by which people visit your website, so it should be clear and understandable by users. It helps Google to index the pages efficiently to provide better results to searchers.
For instance, the best URL for the homepage is www.domain.com, it is easy and not stretchy. For other sub-pages, the URL may differ according to the topic of that page. A good, short, relevant URL website helps in maintaining a good brand image and promotes a better user experience.
7. Optimise Images
The last but not least SEO for schools and colleges you have to focus on to score better is optimizing the images. First of all, upload high-quality pictures of your university or school, its library, classrooms, auditorium or more. Even try to get professional pictures, because it creates a great impression and also helps users to look at you virtually in a finer way.
Optimize the image’s alt tags and texts with descriptive keywords to improve their visibility It also helps sight-impaired people to gain a better user experience. As alt tags assist in detecting the message of the image. Besides, keep note that the image size should not be too large as it takes extra time to load.
Conclusion
These are the 7 important SEO for schools and colleges that you need to work on to get desired results. It may take a while to rank your site on top but investing time regularly will surely increase the performance. Further, focus on other areas too like social media management for school and adding videos on YouTube. Besides, for content writing or designing SEO to improve the page rank of your college, you may look for students in your universities or schools, this will give them exposure and at the same time you will have great blogs!
Facing trouble with SEO for schools and colleges?
If you find difficulty in doing SEO for private schools, colleges, and universities, you can look for professionals who have a specialisation in providing such services. Digital Chaabi is a team of experts who will help you to improve your website functionality and ranking on search engines. You can contact us here to let us know more about your business!
Frequently Asked Questions on SEO for Schools
1. How to do SEO for schools and colleges websites?
- Optimize the website loading speed
- Look for long-tail keyword
- Avoid keyword stuffing
- Create engaging content and add keywords to it
- Add keywords in URL, title, headings
- Optimize images with keywords
2. Why is SEO important for schools?
SEO for schools and colleges help in improving visibility and ranks you higher on search engines. As a result, you will observe an increase in the number of enrollments. Search Engine Optimization is the organic and affordable way to stand out from your competitors.
3. How to promote a new private school?
- Design a website to attract the users
- Post regular and unique blogs
- Optimize the website for SEO
- Make the website mobile-friendly
- Be on social media platforms
- Update Google My Business profile
4. What strategies can you use for your college website SEO?
- Optimize the website speed and make it mobile friendly
- Optimize the content with keywords
- Include internal links
- Add keywords in image alt tags
- Improve local SEO
- Check the titles and meta descriptions
5. How to find SEO keywords for improving the Google page rank of your college?
You can find SEO keywords for school website through various online tools. Include Google Keyword Planner, Answer The Public, Ahrefs, SemRush, Moz and more.