SEO for Universities
Google loves universities. Their domains are some of the most trusted on the Internet because of their authority and relevance, in fact generally the .edu extension is the most trusted by search engines along with .gov.
As educational institutions, there are many links to their work and relevant websites that also have good authority, which is why university links are highly sought after (when building links).
So do universities need to invest in SEO to boost their rankings?
The answer is yes, universities need to manage their online presence just like any other business. This is especially true with an increasing number of people accessing universities – with more people and more course choices than ever before, securing a high ranking is extremely important for any university.
In fact, online searches rank as the most popular method used by prospective students to discover universities and the second most popular method used both during and after the admissions process.
Competition is increasing in the industry. With online universities and other qualification options now available, the race to the top spot in Google will only get more intense. University SEO must be undertaken ethically, to harness the power latent in University websites.
The Benefits of SEO for Universities
Universities typically already have an excellent organic link profile, so there is often no need to focus too much on link building. Universities are also at the forefront of content, with research and topic updates added regularly.
However, they still have to compete with each other and the myriad of other online courses available to prospective students from around the world. Universities are competing to attract students from all over the country and the world, so being at the top of the search results is crucial.
The first way to do this is to ensure that your website is compliant. It’s good to be relevant and have authority, but if your website isn’t very search engine friendly, the extra points won’t matter much. Simply by making your website compliant, a university can dramatically increase its rankings for certain keywords.
Keyword strategy is key with university SEO
That’s the next thing: keywords. By ensuring that the keywords you optimize for are ones that appear frequently on your site or can at least be added to your content to create them, you’ll rank higher in Google. This is something that should happen naturally at a university where, for example, “Film and Visual Effects” would appear hundreds of times throughout the website and online prospectus.
If you have a large science department at your university, keywords like “Science Degrees”, “University Chemistry” and “Biology Degrees” would be good ones to target. It’s surprising how many universities don’t use simple SEO tactics or an SEO agency to help them rank high in the subjects they excel at.
University SEO: Conclusion
The benefit of already having great content and authority is that simple content tweaks and keyword optimization can really have a huge effect on where your university appears in search engine rankings.
You can optimize for hundreds if not thousands of phrases, depending on the size of the university and the breadth of subjects taught, not to mention the levels available to study… The possibilities when approaching university SEO are astonishing and should not be overlooked.
