Lilac James is an established digital marketing agency with significant experience in the Education sector
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and effective digital marketing is vital when looking to improve the quality and quantity of visitors to your school website.
There is a common sector misconception that if schools and education providers create great courses and manage amazing facilities, then the students will come knocking at their door.
Lilac James has been fortunate enough to work with tens of schools and education providers and with course and term start dates approaching it’s vital to have a well planned and implemented digital marketing and SEO campaign to maximise student acquisition and revenues. As digital marketing specialists in the school and education sector we have a proven track record of helping schools, colleges and other education facilities, attract and retain their key student demographic.
All aspects of the education sector can benefit from good digital marketing practices.
Increasing use of the internet to source information via a myriad of channels provides the educational provider the opportunity to communicate with their target audience at all stages of the buying process.
Social channels provide the perfect opportunity to create awareness within a specific demographic and territory, such as working parents with toddlers or parents looking to decide on the right college for those all-important A-Levels.
Organic search remains prevalent and with Google taking over 85% of the search sector it is critical to optimise for Google and utilise all their features including Google My Business and the important review facility. A full Google My Business profile, showing good reviews and including questions/answers, posts and pictures is much more likely to make the important ‘3 pack’ on local map results which drives significant page traffic for key search terms.
As with other sectors, it is critical to understand what individuals search for, what words are they using and whether they are including a regional reference? Is it ‘private nursery Cambridge’ or is it ‘Kindergarden Cambridge’. Ideally you should be optimised for both but which one should you lead with not forgetting that users are much more likely to engage with your site if you have used words they are familiar with.
Solid keyword research is therefore essential, ideally an educational website should be built from the bottom up with SEO in mind but if search engine optimisation is being applied laterally then allocating search terms to specific pages and sectors of the site will be important. A geographic landing page strategy may be required.
In the private educational sector attention needs to be paid to pupil age groups, terminology and abbreviations –Â prep and preparatory to name just one.
Private residential educational facilities targeting internationally should consider setting up country folders within their website. These folders can then be geo targeted to specific countries, improving organic results within country specific search engines including Google.
Google needs words, it likes them to be unique and informative. What can your education school site include that others don’t? How can you make it bigger, better and more engaging? What resources can you add that will augment the user experience, drive traffic that otherwise would not be there?
Opportunities exist to improve revenue streams if the research conducted is thorough and the business is ready to seize opportunities.
Google Ads including display advertising and re-marketing also presents opportunities to reach targets within a specific geography for specific keywords. Boarding schools across the UK benefit from paid ad strategies across counties. Such campaigns are highly measurable, allowing you to fully understand ad and user engagement, importantly what enquiries and admissions result from paid activity.