When it comes to private school SEO, most administrators don’t even know where to begin. Many believe that they need to hire outside help, but an uninformed administrator may inadvertently waste resources on methods that don’t create results. Other schools decide to tackle their digital marketing by themselves, which can be a smart decision if your private school is familiar with the processes.
With so many conflicting theories and approaches to SEO for private schools, it can be very challenging to figure out what strategies are effective, and which ones are may hinder you.
If you aren’t sure where to start with your private school’s search engine optimization, keep reading.
In this article we will share three effective SEO tips for private schools that you can’t afford to ignore!
1. Your Website Needs to Provide Useful Information
One of the most common mistakes we see private schools making with content on their websites is “keyword stuffing.” Keyword stuffing is creating content that is solely focused on cramming as many variations of your keywords as possible into your writing. The written content on your site will be more effective at attracting new students to your institution if it is written with the needs of those students in mind.
The best strategies for marketing private schools always include lots of high-quality, relevant content that is useful to the audience you are trying to attract.
Instead of hunting for opportunities to stuff as many keywords as you can into your blogs posts and web pages, focus on producing content that is high in quality and provides useful information to potential students—doing this leads to the relevant keywords naturally appearing in your writing as you go.
2. Use Long-tail Keywords
While appropriate use of keywords is important, they should not dominate your content, and should be centered around the concerns, needs, and issues of prospective students. Utilizing long-tail keywords is effective in accomplishing this, and are a part of any successful private school marketing plan.
There is a very common misconception that most people who initiate a search online use very brief or concise language. The opposite is actually more typical, and understanding how potential students search for information on Google can be helpful in developing your content. Most search engine users enter their queries similar to the way they speak, and that results in unique and specific results.
Take the phrase, “Where can I find a good private school in Sacramento?” for example. This isn’t just detailed, but far more likely to lead a student or parent to the outcome they are searching for — you just need to make sure that your private school’s content supports the key words or phrases you are writing about.
3. Build a Knowledge Base
A powerful way to set your private school apart is by establishing yourself as “thought leaders” in the scholastic community. This can be accomplished through building a large knowledge base. A vast collection of valuable, educational resources made available to new or existing students, faculty, families, donors, and supporters will establish your educational facility as an authority, and increase your credibility.
Establishing a knowledge base requires a significant investment of time and effort, but these efforts will pay off in big ways by attracting qualified prospective traffic to your website and motivating them to enroll at your private school.
The best private school knowledge base is one that addresses a broad spectrum of questions that students or parents might have about particular topic areas – each of which can be the subject for its own piece of content. Try not to worry too much about the post length or number of times a keyword is used. If you focus on thoroughly answering a specific question a potential student is asking, the keywords will flow naturally as you write, and the quality will be rewarded by the search engines.
Effective digital marketing for private schools doesn’t need to be intimidating. If you take the time to understand some SEO basics, and follow our marketing tips for private schools, you have a head start!
Remember, just like education, SEO and digital marketing evolve – its no longer about stuffing as many keywords as possible into random pieces of content. Consistently create high-quality, student-focused content, and the rest will fall into place on its own.
