SEO for Universities: How to Maximise Online Visibility

These days, it’s extremely risky to rely solely on internal and external reputation to attract national and international students to your university. Many competing institutions rely heavily on digital marketing to ensure visibility and applications.

SEO – Search Engine Optimization for Higher Education is one of the most effective strategies for placing a university and its courses on the first page of Google.

What is SEO?

SEO refers to a set of strategies and techniques used to improve the visibility and positioning of websites in the organic results of search engines such as Google.

The main goal of SEO is to increase the volume and quality of visitors who come to a site via unpaid search results.

How can it be applied in the context of Higher Education?

For example, whenever a potential student types “medical program” into Google, your university’s website should appear first. This is achieved through an SEO strategy geared towards the education sector and the specific needs of your university.

Is SEO important for universities?

More and more human interactions take place digitally and potential students spend many hours a day on the internet. A potential student’s first interaction with a university often begins with a Google search.

An effective SEO strategy ensures that your institution and its programs appear first when students search for programs and additional information.

In addition to this direct consequence, good positioning on Google builds credibility, authority and trust.

How to boost SEO in Higher Education?

One of the first steps towards an effective SEO strategy is to know the keywords that potential students are using. Tools such as Google Keyword Planner and Semrush help identify relevant terms.

For example, a search like “curso medicina” (medical program), according to Google Keyword Planner, occurs between 100 and 1000 times a month in Portugal.

If your university offers a degree in Medicine, does your website already come up first in Google search results when someone types in these keywords?

A well-targeted SEO strategy allows you to optimize your institution’s website so that it is the first to appear for valuable keywords.

However, in addition to good positioning on Google, it is important that the content presented is also attractive enough to generate a high volume of applications. An SEO consultant knows how to structure all the information, from course details to information about the university itself.

SEO is a comprehensive strategy

This is just one of the components of SEO. This marketing strategy also makes it possible to analyze the structure of pages, ensure easy navigation, ensure the technical optimization of the site, capture relevant backlinks, among many other aspects.

The main objective is always to ensure that potential candidates arrive at the site, clear up all their doubts and become interested in applying or finding out more. Goals can also be set for each page of the site, such as filling in a contact form or downloading an ebook.

SEO strategies can be measured

All SEO strategies for a university can and should be monitored so that adjustments can be made to the strategy depending on the results, and improvements in the site’s performance can also be tracked.

Implement an SEO strategy to attract more national and international students

Investing in SEO is important for any higher education institution that wants to position itself on Google and attract more national and international students. SEO allows you to achieve results in the medium and long term.

Where to start? An SEO audit is the first step in examining the current structure of a website, its content, performance and backlinks. From there, all you need to do is wait for a strategic plan to improve your site’s visibility and authority on Google.

Maria Eduarda Sousa is a freelance SEO consultant and Next Level Marketing partner.