Search engine optimization (SEO) is just as important to colleges and universities as it is to any other business. You may not wish to look at these institutions of learning as businesses but that’s how they operate.
They desire to be profitable and are in competition to be the best while endeavoring to attract the best students (customers) possible. For this reason, they have to invest in effective SEO. In this article, we look at the seven most important SEO areas that they should focus on.
Performing SEO Audits
Almost all colleges and universities have websites, which they hope to see ranking higher on search engine results. Because of this, they need to perform SEO audits to identify what’s wrong. The audits will also help them realize why they are not as highly ranked, as they should.
Reviewing Keywords
Next, colleges have to review keywords, constantly. Students are very specific in terms of the queries they type on search engines. Therefore, colleges and universities need to review their keywords to confirm that everything matches with the types of questions students ask. Kindly Edufficient.com for more info about it.
Posting Unique Content
The uniqueness – or lack thereof – of the content that colleges and universities post on their websites affects SEO. Google doesn’t lower its requirements for ranking websites simply because colleges are involved. It still ranks these institutions’ sites based on:
- Quality
- Superb user experience
- Unique content
Building Relevant Links
Relevant links that appear on a college’s website give it more credibility. Often, this happens when the links in question are from the high authority websites. In this regard, these learning institutions have to find ways of incorporating outbound and inbound links to their sites.
Optimizing for Local Searches
Many times, colleges and universities attract students who are not from the surrounding cities, towns, or areas. However, there are times when a bigger chunk of applicants will be local. For them, the colleges have to start optimizing for local searches. Invest in local SEO!
Building Mobile-Friendly Sites
Globally, the use of mobile devices to browse the Internet and obtain helpful information has increased mightily. For this reason, universities must focus on building mobile-friendly sites. Students are more likely to use mobile gadgets than desktops to search for colleges of choice.
SEO-Biased URL Structures
Finally, URL structures must be SEO-friendly. Here, we are talking about the URL structure of each web page. The URL structure should never cause confusion. Always ensure the structure of each web page starts with a domain name followed by other specifics that define it.
