SEO For Schools: How To Get To The Top Of Google
If you’re managing the website for a school, then you know there’s a lot of competition out there. Schools are constantly competing to win over potential students and keep existing ones happy. These days, that means having a solid web presence. But how can you compete with other schools on the web?
When it comes to school websites, there are so many things you want to get across. You want your students to know what’s going on in the world of sports teams, you want your parents to stay up-to-date on classroom events and fundraisers, and you want potential students and their parents to be able to find information about the school.
Search engine optimization (SEO) doesn’t just help businesses. Schools also benefit when they implement SEO strategies.
The Internet is a huge resource for students and teachers. As a result, schools need to make sure that their websites can be found easily by anyone interested in the school’s programs and offerings.
This article will explore the benefits of SEO for schools and explain how they can use it to get more students and funding.
What Is SEO?
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is one of the most important tools you can use to help students and faculty find your school online.
With proper SEO practices, your school’s website will rank higher in search engines, making it easier for prospective students to find and learn about your institution. But what is SEO, and why is it useful for schools?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It’s the practice of optimising content so that people using search engines can find it more easily. This means that people looking for content on topics related to your business are more likely to find you, which means more potential clients for you!
For schools, this means that you’ll be able to get your website in front of more eyes. The more eyeballs on your website, the more potential clients and customers you’ll have.
What Are The Benefits Of SEO For Schools?
In the last decade, there has been a huge increase in the number of searches for educational information. From private schools to public schools, it seems as though people are searching for something new to learn.
With this increase comes an opportunity for growth and expansion of your school’s reach. By encouraging your students to find you through search engines, you can increase enrolment numbers, improve brand awareness, and make the most of the digital space.
Whether you are a small school or a large one with hundreds (or thousands) of students, SEO can help your school grow.
But what exactly is SEO? And why is it so important?
Let’s break it down.
SEO is the process of making changes to your website that make it appear higher in search engine results for relevant keywords and phrases. Achieving a higher ranking in search results can result in two major benefits:
1) More traffic. Ranking highly for keywords that potential customers are searching for brings more visitors to your website. The higher you rank, the more likely it is you’ll be noticed by someone who would like to use your products and services.
2) Increased credibility. Ranking highly in search results can make people trust you more. People tend to assume that the site with the highest ranking must be the best one, so if you’re right at the top of Google, the credibility of your business will grow as well.
#1 SEO Tip For School: Find Relevant Keywords
Keywords are the lifeblood of search engine optimisation (SEO). It’s all about getting people to find your website in Google, which means you need to get your keywords right.
Keyword research tools like KeywordsFX, Keyword Tool, and Answer the Public are great because they are based on actual search data. And they can help you uncover keywords and phrases people search online to find your practice.
These tools can help you find search trends and give you ideas on what to talk about on your site, which can be very valuable when you aren’t sure where to start. For example, if we were optimising a website we could use these tools to discover alternative topics people would search when searching for “restaurants near me”.
By discovering this data you can then make sure your website content was relevant and present yourself as a solution for the issue.
#2 SEO Tip For Schools: Create Your SEO Strategy
A well-crafted content strategy can help you drive traffic to your business’s website. This SEO content strategy template includes strategies, templates and samples of content that may help you in your own marketing efforts.
If you want your site to succeed, you need to be thinking about two things:
- creating and publishing unique, helpful content
- positioning your company as a leader in your field.
If you have a blog, make sure to update it regularly with industry news, helpful information, and the latest company news. Giving readers the inside scoop is an effective way to keep them engaged on your site and give them something interesting to look at.
#3 SEO Tip For Schools: Optimise Your Website With Relevant Keywords
You want your website to be easily discoverable in major search engines. For this to happen, you need to optimise your website with relevant keywords.
We’ve included a quick guide below to help you with the process of on-page optimisation:
- Title tag – The title of the page that a user will see within Google search results, ideally between 50-60 characters long
– e.g Brisbane | Sydney | Melbourne - H1 – The heading of the page which should tell the user what the content is about
- Content – Text written on the page, it is recommended to include the target city/location within here with relevant keywords
- Alt Tags – This is the text that describes what an image represents, it should include the target location within the description here
- Meta Description – This is the snippet of text underneath the search result on Google, include the target /location with a relevant keyword at least once (between 150 and 160 characters long)
Pro tip: We recommend adding keywords in sub headings. This way people can easily scan the content as they scroll down the page.
#4 SEO Tip For Schools: Optimise For Local Search
When people search online for businesses in your area, you want to appear at the top of the results.
The easiest way to optimise your site for local search is by adding location keywords in your page titles, headings, and site content. Optimising your website for search engine optimisation is a long-term battle. You need to be consistently inserting relevant keywords into phrases you index, and spotting opportunities to rank for highly specific words. It always pays to be systematic, especially when prioritising work to reduce search engine ranking fatigue
#5 SEO Tip For Schools: Setup Google Search Console
Google Webmaster Tools can help you monitor the status of your website on search engines like Bing and Yahoo, and even gives you the direct IP address. This helps you fix technical issues or check if your website seems to have slowed down or a page is not loading properly. Use this tool if you’re having any technical issues with your site.
#6 SEO Tip For Schools: Build Links To Your Website
A backlink is a link on one website that points to another website.
When Google sees multiple websites linking to your site, it assumes you must have something special going on—and it ranks you higher in the search results. This is particularly helpful for schools because it allows them to get noticed even if their site isn’t as popular as larger sites that already rank well.
While there are many strategies for building backlinks, one of the most common methods is guest posting. Guest posting involves contacting a blog or website with similar interests and offering to write an article for them. The blog or website will often link back to you in exchange for your content. This is great for physiotherapists because it allows them to gain exposure from a relevant audience while also forging new relationships in their industry.
SEO For Schools Requires A Specialised Approach
SEO for schools requires a specialised approach. There are many reasons why this is the case, but it all boils down to the fact that, in order to succeed, you need an expert in your corner who knows exactly what they’re doing.
SEO is a great way for schools to gain visibility and become known to their target audience. In the vast landscape of the internet, standing out is the first step toward getting your business in front of those who are searching for you.
Need Help With SEO For Your School?
Find an Australian SEO agency for your school:
If SEO is still new to you, we understand. But it’s time to learn. SEO will help your business grow, and it will make you stand out from the crowd.
SEO is not just for large corporations or the tech-savvy. In fact, schools need SEO more than anyone else, because they rely on visibility to build their customer base and grow their brand.
There are tons of benefits to implementing SEO into your website: increase traffic and improve user experience, boost your credibility, and increase conversions.
If you’re interested in growing your school, contact Merge today.
