The journey to higher education often starts with a simple internet search. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the key to being found.
Our research shows that more than 50% of higher education traffic comes from organic sources.
And student inquiries that originate organically convert to enrolled students at a higher rate than paid search, advertising, email and other similar approaches. All of this happens through unpaid traffic that comes from Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). At Sextant Marketing, we are experts in the SEO strategies that increase student enrollment cost-effectively.
Tailored Marketing Services: SEO for Higher Education
Higher education SEO is designed specifically to help increase potential student traffic and enrollments.
Sextant uses industry SEO best practices to improve digital visibility on search engines. Higher education websites benefit from ongoing attention to SEO. If you want your higher education website to be found in organic search, it’s important to keep up with changes in Google algorithms.
Our personalized approach will help increase your visibility on SERPS for the specific programs YOU need to focus on. Success through SEO is a long game – you won’t observe results immediately, but they will be quality, sustaining, and financially efficient.
SEO for Enrollment Growth:Our Process
IDENTIFY GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Our bespoke approach to SEO, and all of our higher education marketing services, requires a thorough review of your goals and objectives. It’s important that we understand the needs and intentions of your potential student audience so we can help you offer answers to the questions they have and problems they are trying to solve.
SITE AUDIT AND ANALYSIS
A thorough site audit provides a clear picture of our starting point so we can begin to make strategic decisions that will have the most impact for your University’s website. During a site audit you will understand how your website is being crawled and indexed and be able to identify any problems at the outset. It’s important to continue regular audits to assess the technical health, security, speed and mobile friendliness of your site.
3. COMPETITOR RESEARCH
Combined with a thoroughly researched knowledge of your University, competitor research is a valuable tool in the development of an effective SEO strategy. Sextant will help you uncover what your high-ranking competitors are doing, from regional and national competition to program level competition and brand protection. The insight gained from competitor research will be used to draw organic traffic and refine your strategy.
4. ON-PAGE SEO for ENROLLMENT GROWTH
Meta Data
Meta tags appear in a page’s source code and let search engines know what a page is about. Accurate meta data helps your page show up in relevant searches, attracting high-quality traffic – visitors who are looking for the information you are providing. While Meta Descriptions don’t technically contribute to SEO, they let users know if they’ve found what they’re looking for. Sextant helps Universities understand the intricacies of the application of meta data.
Content Optimization
Keyword research informs effective content optimization and copywriting by providing a solid foundation for informative content that serves student searches. An effective SEO strategy includes the regular publishing of new content and updating and optimization of existing pages to provide a positive user experience.
User Experience Optimization or Website Redesign
Once you’ve developed a steady flow of incoming traffic you want those visitors to stay on your page and take action. Optimize your site for lead generation and create opportunities for student inquiry. Sextant can help you integrate prominent RFI forms, newsletter sign ups, resources, and blog recommendations that will encourage potential students to act. And if a website refresh or complete redesign is needed, Sextant has experience partnering with universities to create a site that gets results.
5. OFF-PAGE SEO for ENROLLMENT GROWTH
Link Building
A backlink is a link to your website from an external website. Search engines see backlinks as “upvotes” for your page. Higher quality backlinks are seen more positively by Google. An effective backlink strategy takes time and research to implement but is very important for increasing search engine rank.
Social Signals
Social signals refer to your website’s likes, shares, social media presence, and visibility. Like quality backlinks, Google sees a high number of quality social signals as a positive vote for your website. A strong social presence will lead to higher conversions and word-of-mouth referrals. Sextant can help you navigate the world of social strategy.
Domain Authority
Domain authority is a Moz-created metric that helps you understand and predict how well your website will rank on search engines amid your competitors. This is in addition to Page Authority which predicts how well a specific page will perform in the SERPs. Your site’s domain authority is ranked using a combination of factors like quality and quantity of backlinks, popularity, and trustworthiness. Knowing your domain authority will help you understand the strengths and weaknesses of your domain and help you optimize towards increasing your score.
6. ANALYTICS REPORTING
Regularly measuring, analyzing, and reporting results will help guide the future of your SEO strategy success. KPIs and organic metrics tell the story of what’s working and where adjustments can be made. To help accomplish this, Sextant SEO experts leverage first, second-, and third-party data to analyze performance and make recommendations.
WE GET SEO RESULTS
When it comes to SEO, Sextant goes beyond organic search results and industry-aligned processes.
Our approach is BUILT for YOU
And then we MEASURE the RESULTS
Well and OFTEN
“Sextant listened to our needs and learned about our business model before offering solutions. They provided data-driven options within our budget, allowing us to expand our market share, grow program offerings, and increase revenue year-over-year.”
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