Let’s face it – most colleges and universities serve similar fare. In addition to programmatic similarity (Online MBA, Liberal Arts, Nursing), even the benefits and values that many institutions boast about (such as “small class sizes”) are not exactly unique to a small handful of schools. Unless you’re one of those elite institutions (you know who you are), you might not get noticed when someone does a Google search for “private college California Liberal Arts.” In fact, St. Katherine College was the first institution that I could find in the organic search results when searching for that keyword combination. The result appeared on page 5, far past when many give up searching, especially when bombarded with all of the paid advertisements on the first page.

Sure, those paid advertisements are great. But, so many institutions are missing the boat when it comes to organic search engine optimization. It doesn’t have to be this way. When it comes to SEO for higher education, colleges and universities need to figure out what page they’re on. Has your marketing team identified what keywords your institution could optimize for that could make it show up on page 1?  If not,

• Meet with your marketing team to determine what you want to rank for (terms that really represent your brand and what makes you unique).
• Research the competition to identify what your competitors are ranking for and where you can gain ground. This can be done with the right software and techniques.
• Identify the keywords that will help you gain traction in the search engines.
• Generate a content strategy in which you use your keywords in all of your online communications.
• Create fresh content that uses your keywords on a routine basis.
• Measure your search engine optimization results constantly and modify your efforts based on consistent analysis.

We can’t help you meet with your marketing team. But, we can help you with everything else on that list.