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5 SEO Tips That Every School Marketer Can Implement

Mar 02 2019

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) has been a long-time love of mine. It’s one of those ever-changing digital arts that keeps you on your toes and never lets you get too comfortable. But then again, that pretty much sums up all digital marketing, doesn’t it? (It’s a good thing I like a challenge!)

SEO isn’t always that easy and doesn’t happen overnight. Some of it is technical, but most is actually within every marketer’s reach. In this article, I thought I’d start with 5 tips from the top SEO experts which every school marketer, with a little time and patience, can implement to improve your school’s website ranking in search results.

Just a quick preface to this article. Remember you don’t need to optimise every page of your school website. Think only of the keywords you want to be found on and then look at the pages it makes sense to optimise using those terms. For instance, if you’re a boys boarding school you’ll want to put boarding keywords on your boarding page. And of course first and foremost, do your keyword research. What are the terms parents are searching on? They may not always be what you think.

Neil Patel

I love Neil. He’s straight-forward, to the point, and always gives practical advice to his followers in his blogs and videos. Sort of like me I suppose (except for the huge following and the SEO guru status bit). Neil is a self-made SEO expert but his results speak for themselves. So he’s always on my list of articles to read to catch up on the latest inbound marketing tips. One that I’ve pulled out of his recent ‘How To Rank #1 on Google in 2019’ video, is an old standby that you can’t go wrong with…

1. Optimise Your Meta Titles and Descriptions

Optimising your meta tags is basic SEO best practice, but it’s still surprising how few schools pay attention to them. Meta titles and meta descriptions are what users see when entering a query or keyword in a search engine. This is the first impression many visitors will have of your school so you’ll want to make it as enticing as possible to encourage visitors to choose your ‘ad’. One of the ways to do that, of course, is to include the keywords your audience is searching on.

As Neil says, imagine that you search for the term ‘boarding schools for boys’ (okay I’m changing his example from online dating) and none of those words showed up in the results, would you click on it? Why would a person click on a result that wasn’t related to what they were searching for? Google knows that people click more on search results that have the keyword in the listing. So, by default, they’ll show those listings first. For that reason, you’ll want to be sure that you include your keyword in your page title and description. But you’ll want to do it right:

  • In your title tag, add your keyword first, followed by your school name. Results with the keyword first tend to rank higher
  • Make it flow. Don’t try stuffing your keywords in your description, it has to sound natural
  • Stick within the character count. Check out this handy online tool by SERPsim.com that allows you to preview what your search result will look like both on a desktop and a mobile. Google recently reduced the characters (after expanding them) so make sure yours aren’t being truncated

Search Engine Journal

Launched in 2003, Search Engine Journal is a go-to place for me to keep on top of what’s happening within the search marketing community. With a number of expert contributors covering everything from SEO to social media, it’s a great place to find answers from real-life marketers. I thought I’d share a tip from a recent article of theirs on ‘9 Keys for Creating Your Best SEO Content in 2019’…

2. Create Audience-Focused Content

I’ve always emphasised you need to be writing content that matters to your audience. Not just from an SEO perspective, but just as good marketing rule of thumb. But if we are talking about SEO, then according to Search Engine Journal…

Content that’s highly ranked, that drives traffic and leads, is always user-focused, first and foremost.

In a recent article, they break creating such content into three steps:

1. Audience research: Start by identifying your ideal parent. Find out where they congregate online, their personal habits, preferences, demographics, and stats
2. Keyword research: Next find the keywords that relate to what your school and what your parents are searching for. Remember they don’t have to be your school keywords only. Perhaps they’re looking for support on online safety, bullying, or what to look for when choosing a school
3. Topic research: Finally, come up with content topics based on the targeted keywords you discovered and what you’ve uncovered your parents want to learn/know

I think a lot of schools miss the opportunity to capture the attention of parents that aren’t looking for them. Those are the ones you want to be targeting with your content. Look to answer the questions parents are searching. Check out Answer the Public if you haven’t already.

Moz

Moz is a software company founded by Rand Fishkin in 2004. If you follow SEO at all you will have heard of Rand. He was probably the first to really bring SEO to the mainstream and make it understandable and accessible. His site Moz, not only offers some great SEO tips and advice, but they also got some helpful free (and paid) tools worth checking out. Two suggestions from Moz for ranking in 2019 that I thought I’d share…

3. Optimise Your Header Tags

H1, H2, and H3 header tags are still super important. You want to make sure that the title of your page is the H1 and so forth. But just to check on all of that would be good.

Again, this is an SEO basic but one that any marketer can implement. When thinking of the keyword/phrase that you want a particular page to rank on, you’ll want to make sure that it’s included in your page title (H1) and your subheadings (H2, H3 etc).

One thing I’ve noticed over the years is quite a few older school websites (and a few newer ones as well) have their school logo as their H1 tag. Because your H1 tag helps to tell Google (and other search engines) what your page is about, you’ll want to make sure that your H1 tag is unique and in fact your page title. If you can’t see this information in your CMS, you can right-click on your webpage, select source code and search H1 on the page. You’ll be able to see what is attributed to your H1 tag there.

4. Optimise Your Images

Images are the biggest source of bloat of on-page site speed. So you want to make sure that your images are compressed and optimised and keeping your page fast and easily accessible to your users.

Photos play a big role in a school’s brand so it’s important if you are going to have a lot of images (especially those big showcase photos on your homepage), you upload the correct file type and size so you don’t slow down your website load time. In addition, where possible (and again, this needn’t be every page, just the pages you want to optimise for search), include your keywords in your image Alt tags and name.

Talking to your website developer is a start for guidance or you can learn more about optimising your images from my blog How to Optimise My School Website Photos for Search Engines. For even further guidance, check out this article by Kinsta ‘ How to Optimize Images for Web and Performance’.

SEOPressor

SEOPressor is actually a WordPress website SEO plugin tool, but that doesn’t stop them from providing some great tips on how to optimise your website for search, no matter what platform it was built on. My final tip comes from their recent blog ‘9 Powerful SEO Benefits of Internal Linking in 2019‘ …

5. Improve Your Rankings with Internal Linking

There has always been a big emphasis on external link building (that from other sites to your school website), but according to SEOPressor…

There is another major factor almost as important, that is often being neglected. That is internal linking. Internal linking is essential for a website’s on-page SEO, and it is an evergreen SEO strategy that should really be practiced by every SEO marketer out there.

Internal links (from one page in your school website to another) really serve three purposes:

  1. They allow parents to navigate easily and logically through your website
  2. They allow search engine crawlers to discover more pages of your school site – especially those with no external sites (which a lot of schools don’t have)
  3. They tell search engines that the page you’re linking to has more internal authority. In other words, linking to those key pages you want to optimise from another internal page, gives that page even more authority

Aside from search engines, think about how your internal link structure might help guide prospective parents towards a conversion. Whether that’s signing up for your newsletter, downloading a prospectus or registering for an Open Day, use your internal links to guide their journey.

I said SEO wasn’t easy, but an optimised school website is attainable with a little bit of effort and a lot of patience. Start with the five above and you’re on your way!

Looking for some help with your school’s SEO? Ask me about the SEO training and SEO services I offer!

Contact Me

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Alta Justus, The Virtual Marketer

Alta Justus, The Virtual Marketer

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An equally creative and analytical Digital Marketing Consultant with over 18 years education and commercial marketing experience, I'm passionate about helping schools succeed in the digital arena. Read More…

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#tuesdaytip: Have a Google account? Use it or lose #tuesdaytip: Have a Google account? Use it or lose it! Google's recently announced accounts that haven't been used in a couple of years, or exceeded their storage, will be at risk of deletion. If you're like most school marketers you'll probably have a few Gmail accounts and a Google Drive or two that you haven't looked at for a while. Of course, I'd always recommend using a verified school email over a Gmail account but if are using a random Gmail and Drive to store photos or to access your Google Analytics, etc, make a point to check those accounts. It will be a while before your data is deleted, and you'll receive a couple of warnings, but as we all know tasks like this can be set aside until it's too late. Don't risk losing valuable data or photos - review your Google accounts today. And while you're at it why not switched to a Google verified work email so you don't miss any important messages like this one 😁

How to verify your school email with Google: 
Visit my blog via my bio or go to
👉 https://thevirtualmarketer.co.uk/how-to-use-my-school-email-for-my-google-accounts/

#vmdigitaltips #digitalmarketing #googlenews #schoolmarketing #educationmarketing
I love this quote about being productive vs busy. I love this quote about being productive vs busy. And this article — 11 Differences Between Busy People And Productive People — gives some great examples of the differences as well as tips to become a more productive person. I know I'm bad at saying 'Yes' a little too quickly for my own good so a great reminder for me. Who couldn't use a few tips for improving productivity... 😁

👉https://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/11-differences-between-busy-people-and-productive-people.html

#mondaymotivation #timemanagementtips #digitalmarketing #schoolmarketing #educationmarketing  #strategicmarketing
I'm so pleased to see an increase in schools reach I'm so pleased to see an increase in schools reaching out for SEO training and support. Yes, digital advertising is the fastest way to get in front of your parents, but you should still be thinking long-term. That may very well include digital campaigns, but ideally, you'll want to grow your organic traffic to the point that you can reduce your advertising spend. At the very least you'll want to maintain your school website's SEO rankings.

When it comes to optimising a website for search engines there are a few things that have remained consistent throughout the years - like these 5 SEO tips. Still relevant after all these years and yet many schools have failed to do them. Why not grab a cuppa, have a read then make a plan to optimise your school website in 2021. Every little helps...

👉 Visit my blog via my bio or copy the link below

https://thevirtualmarketer.co.uk/5-seo-tips-every-school-marketer-can-implement/

#thursdaythoughts #schoolmarketing #educationmarketing #seotips #seostrategy #studentrecruitment #2021goals
Do the computers in your ICT classroom default to Do the computers in your ICT classroom default to your school website? If they do you'll want to filter out your internal traffic from Google Analytics to get a true sense of your data. It's not difficult to do but you'll first want to have a chat with IT to get a list of your IP addresses.

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗱𝗱 𝗮 𝗳𝗶𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀:

👉 Start by creating a new view. Once you filter traffic out of GA you can't get it back so create an additional view such as 'Filtered Traffic'
👉 Next, create a filter on your new view. Go to Admin > Filters and click +Add Filter
👉 Name = Exclude Internal IPs (or whatever you choose to call it)
👉 Filter Type = Predefined
👉 Select filter type = Exclude
👉 Source = Traffic from the IP addresses
👉 That are equal to = your IP address or range

For more details on how to create your new view or filter visit https://support.google.com/ or ping me a message 😊

That's it! Now you'll be able to see both your filtered and all data dependent on the view you select! 👍📊

#tuesdaytip #vmdigitaltips #googleanalytics #schoolmarketing #educationmarketing #strategicmarketing
I'm not sure about you but I certainly don't belie I'm not sure about you but I certainly don't believe marketing can be learned in a day! And as marketing is continuously evolving, are any of us ever 'Masters'? But I agree with the intent behind the message—marketing is a profession where your training never ends. Or shouldn't! When was the last time you did any training—digital or otherwise? Why not make CPD a priority in 2021! 👍

#digitalmarketingtraining
#socialmediamarketing
#digitaladvertising
#seo
#googleanalytics
#schoolmarketing
#educationmarketing 
#studentrecruitment 
#mondaymotivation
Does your school brand reflect what parents are lo Does your school brand reflect what parents are looking for and engaging with online? The internet has evolved over the years and so have our audiences. They're savvy to sales pitches and blatant self-promotion. What they want is to connect with businesses and people they can trust—especially with their child. For brand authenticity, you need to be perceived as reliable, respectful, and 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡. Does that sound like your school...?

#morningcoffeethoughts 
#brandidentity 
#schoolmarketing 
#educationmarketing 
#contentmarketing 
#socialmediamarketing 
#schoolwebsite
You've probably heard me mention many times the im You've probably heard me mention many times the importance of gaining control and optimising your Google My Business account to improve your search engine rankings.
 
One of the fields that has a direct impact on your SEO is your Business Category. You may currently have one or two added, but did you know you can have up to 10 categories? Google is updating their categories all the time so it's worth looking at this field when you're adding new photos or sharing your latest blog within the platform. 
 
I came across this fab website the other day that can quickly show the different categories available outside of GMB. Select your country and add your term (i.e. 'school') and see all the options available. Of course, you can also do the same in GMB but this may be the prompt you need to add those additional categories and improve your school's SEO!
 
👉https://pleper.com/index.php?do=tools&sdo=gmb_categories
 
Just a note, I'm having difficulties accessing this site this morning (not sure if it's me or them??) but hopefully, you'll have no problem getting in 🤞
 
Not sure what Google My Business is? Have a peek here: https://www.google.com/intl/en_gb/business/
 
#tuesdaytip #vmdigitaltips #digitalmarketing #seotools #seotips #seostrategy #seoservices #schoolmarketing
Since how you think dictates how your week goes, w Since how you think dictates how your week goes, why not start on a positive note?! It's not always easy but there are ways to help you develop a more positive mindset. 

If you have 5 minutes, grab a cuppa and have a read of this article by @womenontopp, 𝟱 𝗪𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽 𝗮 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗳𝘂𝗹:

👉https://www.womenontopp.com/5-ways-to-develop-a-positive-mindset-to-help-you-become-more-successful/

(you can also search 'improve your mindset' in Google to find it) 

There's some great advice in there to help shift your mindset, so definitely worth the read. 

Here's to a fantastic week, everyone! 😊

#digitalmarketing #schoolmarketing #educationmarketing #digitalmarketingtraining #wellbeing #mondaymotivation
I know Monday is the last thing on your mind on a I know Monday is the last thing on your mind on a Friday afternoon but if you can do these few tasks today I guarantee you'll feel so much more positive and in control of your week:

👉 Plan for the week ahead. Tuesdays are apparently the most productive day of the week so schedule any of your big projects for that day and see if that's the case for you.

👉 Keep Monday as your flexible day. Monday is the day that sets the tone for the week and if you pack too much into the day you'll start the week off feeling behind. Schedule smaller tasks and keep as much time open as you can.

👉 Do a little digital housekeeping today. With energy usually low on a Friday afternoon it's a great time to tidy up your computer files. It's easy work, but also immensely rewarding. While you're at it, maybe give your desk a little dusting off as well. A clutter-free desk and mind are the best way to start your week!

I'm off to clear my own desktop files. I'm terrible at 'I'll file that away later'... 😁

Have a fabulous weekend everyone. See you Monday!

#fridayfeeling #organisedchaos #schoolmarketing #educationmarketing #digitalmarketing #digitalmarketingtraining
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