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Top performing SEO agencies help their clients realize that fortune smiles on colleges and universities that pursue and achieve top organic rankings. Prosperity takes many shapes and forms for colleges ranked on page #1 of search engines. Their best practices arsenal includes: 1. Determine Goals and Objectives The best SEO agencies help colleges and universities realize that a college website has numerous audiences and each enjoys unique benefits. They help their clients determine the right goal for each SEO campaign: Prospective Students find them, get them to inquire, show up at open houses, apply and enroll Prospective Talented Faculty and Staff find them and motivate them to apply for open job postings Prospective Parents: find them and suggest their kids apply Foundations and Donors: connect with mission-aligned colleges Corporations: seek and connect with faculty for research & development Faculty: help media find faculty experts on various topics Ranking and Rating Agencies: discover new emerging gems Enrollment Officers: boast a low acceptance rate, making the college more … Continue reading
Posted in: Higher Education Marketing, Higher Education SEO, Higher education SEO agency
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Whether we’re working on higher education website design projects or marketing campaigns for colleges and universities, SEO strategy is always central to our thinking. We always start by creating an SEO Keyword Lexicon that guides our content creation and optimization efforts. The Keyword Lexicon includes different types of keywords that a prospective student will use at different stages of their college search process. Here’s an infographic that illustrates the various stages in the search process and the type of keyword used at that stage. Awareness = Reputation Keywords: At the beginning of the college search process, people tend to use broader keywords looking to build awareness about possible options at that time. One way to start the search process is by using reputation keywords – using “top” and “best” keywords as you look for the most reputable solutions. For example, someone searching for MBA programs in Pennsylvania will start their search with keywords like ‘top MBA programs in Pennsylvania’, ‘MBA … Continue reading
I attended a talk recently by Dr. Illah Nourbakhsh, a Robotics professor at CMU. The talk was about his book Robot Futures which discusses how machines are taking over our world. As technologists, we are always celebrating the amazing discoveries in the industry. Don’t get me wrong. I love and support technological innovation wholeheartedly. However, I also feel we don’t really think about the implications these technological innovations have on our lives. Let’s take a recent article I came across in Search Engine Land which talks about creating repeatable and scalable processes. Mitul Gandhi gives the example of SEO keyword research and how the human element in that process is a waste of time. His take is that automation of the keyword research process through usage of SEO tools is the optimal way of doing keyword research. I disagree. The key intuition that a human brings to SEO keyword research will be lost if the whole process is handed over … Continue reading
Posted in: Higher Education SEO
We’ve received many calls this year from colleges and universities looking for help in enrollment marketing efforts for traditional undergraduate students. The things that worked in the past just aren’t working. When I ask them about their current enrollment marketing efforts, I often hear the same things. Many institutions continue to use search services like College Board, ACT, NRCCUA and CBSS to market to potential students for their outbound efforts through mail and email. Others pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to companies like RuffaloCody and Royall & Company who apply sophisticated predictive modeling to efforts for which they will charge ten of thousands of dollars. So I ask… Why continue to funds these efforts at the same level with decreasing results? The answer is always the same: “We’ve done it this way for years and it has been our highest yielding effort.” My response is always the same… “It was your highest yielding effort!” So what has changed in … Continue reading
While higher education marketing professionals traditionally equate the “new year” with the turning of an academic calendar, starting in September, the approach of 2013 gives us good reason to offer 5 New Year’s Higher Education Marketing Resolutions. 1. Reach Across the Aisle. Colleges increasingly recognize the value and wisdom of working in collaboration with peer schools that share a geographic base or demographic/psychographic profile. Confident schools recognize the concept of “right-fit” and realize that by raising the overall pool of inquiry and interest, all schools benefit. While formal organizations link colleges in every manner possible — by denomination, geography, prestige — it’s often ad-hoc collaborations that produce real innovation and spark. In a smaller state like West Virginia, for example, a handful of liberal arts colleges might benefit from raising the overall profile of private education in an area not well known nationally for its residential, four-year college options. 2. Cultivate Keyword Literacy While higher education marketing professionals have largely … Continue reading
Gods smile on colleges and universities that pursue and achieve top organic rankings on Google, Yahoo and Bing. Prosperity takes many shapes and forms for colleges ranked on page #1 of search engines. e.g. 1. Prospective Students find the college, inquire, show up at open houses, apply and enroll. 2. Prospective Parents find the college and suggest their kids apply there. 3. Prospective Talented Faculty and Staff find and apply for open job postings at the college. 4. Corporations, Nonprofits and Government Agencies recruit graduates and connect with faculty for consulting engagements and R&D. 5. Enrollment Officers boast a low acceptance rate and shape classes making the college more exclusive. 6. Financial Aid Officers extend aid by design not compulsion. 7. Media and Journalists find faculty experts. 8. Ranking and Rating Agencies discover rank the colleges higher in their rankings. 9. Presidents and Cabinet Members are invited to speak at top conferences for their genius. 10. Vice Presidents for Advancement see … Continue reading
Most colleges and universities have surrendered their rightful claims to keywords to lead aggregators, content/link farms, ranking/rating agencies and personal opinions. Why would colleges let this happen? I have heard many reasons: “It’s too hard”, “We tried it and we failed”, “We tried it and didn’t see any real results”, “We invested in it and didn’t see any impact on our enrollment”, “The game keeps changing”, “I didn’t know we could influence the rankings”, and so on. So many colleges are putting their legacy and reputation at risk. If US News & World Report says that your college offers one of the best peace studies programs, and your college doesn’t appear on the first page of Google when someone types in “top peace studies programs”, the question is “do you really offer one of the best peace studies program?” If you don’t claim what’s rightfully yours, then others will claim it – and the truth is they are claiming it, … Continue reading
Photo courtesy of Google. I recently attended Google’s 3rd annual Think Education marketing summit in their New York City office. Google’s offices are packed with color and excitement, and yes, they really do have chefs who cook every day for the employees! The event was led by Google education industry experts, and attendees consisted mostly of agency and marketing reps from many higher ed institutions. So much valuable information was shared about ways prospective students (80% of which are applying online!) are finding and engaging with higher education brands that I wanted to share some of those learnings here. Search Search is very much a part of prospects’ journeys, as they research and collect information on colleges and universities. Google reported that 78% of converting prospects on education websites are, in some way, influenced by search. It’s critical for schools to ensure high organic rankings in the search results not only to allow maximum visibility for key reputation terms, but … Continue reading
Appeared in University Business in 6/1/2008. Just how popular is online search? More than 113 billion core searches were conducted in the U.S. in 2007, according to comScore, which maintains databases that provide real-time measurement of the internet’s use. That’s about 310 million searches per day. No wonder Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary has added “google” as a verb. Savvy higher ed leaders realize they need to add search engine marketing (SEM)-everything from site optimizations, to the management of paid listings, to submitting sites to directories-to their overall marketing plans. But several common mistakes can hinder efforts. When a potential student searches for a program your school offers, will you appear on a search engine’s first page? Avoid these top 10 search marketing blunders to have a better chance of answering yes. 1. Not using geo-targeted search Do all of your students come from within a 30-mile radius of campus? Probably not. It makes sense to use different keywords to reach different … Continue reading
A new addition to ‘University Business’ magazine article titled ‘College Search Gone Bad’ outlining the top 10 search marketing mistakes made by colleges and universities.