How to Increase Higher Education Enrolment with SEO

There are a number of ways to increase higher education enrolment with SEO.

Firstly, universities can create targeted content for their website which is designed to attract students who are searching for information on their chosen course or institution.

Secondly, they can use social media to reach out to potential students and promote their courses.

Finally, they can use SEO to improve their visibility in search engine results, making it more likely that students will find and click through to their website.

By taking these steps, universities can significantly increase their higher education enrolment.

With 67% of prospective students using search engines as their primary source of information for higher education institutions and 9 in 10 not knowing which school they want to attend during their early stages of research, it is more important than ever to ensure that your website looks and performs to a high standard to show up in top search results.

Unlike other industries, users looking for higher education information do not stop at the homepage, but also browse the sites to find admissions and course information, student associations, and even details about life on campus.

Choosing which higher education institution to attend is one of the most important ones someone will make in their life, so it is essential that these aspects are covered in detail to enable prospective students to make informed decisions.

But 80% of education search queries end without conversion, so how can your website combat this trend? This is where a higher education SEO campaign could really benefit your institution.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, refers to the processes by which search engines such as Google and Bing determine the ranking of websites in search engine results pages (SERPs).

If your website does not live up to search engine expectations, you may not appear in the first pages of search results, which means that your site users looking for engaging content are less likely to find what they were looking for when the page doesn’t quickly meet their needs.

In fact, it may not yet be seen by prospective scholars at all!

This is why having a good SEO for your higher education campaign is so important: it ensures that your site receives the most exposure possible to the right audience.

Conversion results for higher education are often slower than for many industries.

Such an important life decision requires careful consideration, with 44% of prospective students converting between 60 and 120 days after visiting a higher education website for the first time and many continuing to visit the site multiple times during this period for more information.

This is why it is crucial that a higher education SEO campaign is ongoing, as the time individual users spend on the site can range from a few weeks to a few months.

How To Use SEO To Increase Listings

In order to engage with potential students and generate more applications, it is important to have a broad SEO campaign that encompasses a variety of features.

Here are some ideas.

Long Content

Long-form content and blog posts, for example, are a great way to educate potential students about different attributes of your school.

Whether it’s in the form of student testimonials, interviews with professors, or even advice on how to survive your first semester, increasing the amount of content on your website is a fundamental part of a referral campaign.

This content is highly shareable, often generating natural links on social media, allowing search engines to recognize that your institution is both relevant and authoritative in the SERPs.

With 78% of candidates influenced by these results, using SEO can really boost your signup numbers and help you gain an edge over your competition!

Social Media

At the same time, maximizing visibility on social media is an ideal way to engage with potential students.

Social media lets you talk to prospective students in real-time, answer their questions, and direct them to your site.

Not only will this increase traffic to your site, but it will also improve the user experience, allowing them to view your higher education institution as helpful and student-focused.

Social media also gives you the opportunity to connect with other educational associations, be they governing bodies, universities, or schools that encourage their students to enroll in your institution.

Responsive Website

Having a mobile-friendly site is also particularly important with the growth in the use of smartphones and tablets, especially among young adults, with a Google study finding that more than half of prospective students use a mobile device to search higher education institutions.

Keyword Targeting

Location keyword targeting can be another aspect you should consider as part of your SEO campaign.

Often, potential students look at institutions outside of their state, sometimes even their own country, so attempting to rank for keywords specific to your location can be beneficial in generating the most qualified leads, students who s will actually enroll, and also help your institution rank highly even in the early stages of an SEO campaign.

For example, “liberal arts school of Michigan” will be easier to categorize than “liberal arts school”.

There is usually less competition for these longer phrases, called long-tail keywords.

Taking advantage of these conditions will be increasingly beneficial throughout your campaign.

SEO: The Most Cost-Valuable Way To Reach Prospective Learners

A higher education SEO campaign is the most cost-effective way to ensure your institution is introduced to the most relevant researchers possible: those who are likely to apply for enrolment and become your future students.

SEO gives you the ability to determine what terms you want to search for in the SERP rankings, gives you the ability to see what your competitors are doing, and generates unique, shareable content that will build authority for your website and your Higher Education Institutions.

To Conclude

Higher Education is a huge industry, with hundreds of thousands of students enrolling every year.

If you are looking for ways to ensure that your college or university is well-represented online and is being seen by the right people, SEO is a great way to help!

It can ensure that your school is being found by more people, and more people can find out about the things that you have to offer.

For example, if you are a university that specializes in a certain industry, you can use SEO to ensure that your school is being found by people who are interested in that industry.

By doing this, you will be able to help more people than ever before to learn about what your school has to offer.