Could Your University Website Benefit From Search Engine Optimisation?SEO for universities is important for a number of reasons, which we will explore.
Does your university website need website optimisation help, help in getting higher on organic web searches?
Then you are best talking to an search engine optimisation agency that has experience in the education industry and in doing web optimisation for universities.
For free advice and quotes from SEO companies with university website optimisation experience, just fill in the form opposite.
SEO for universities is a complex and constantly changing form of marketing to improve website ranking on search engines such as Yahoo, Bing and Ask. Google is the dominant search engine since it is the web browser that is loaded onto most websites and smartphones.
The process involves getting traffic to your website from the main UK search engines:
Each of these search engines use a different formula (known as a website algorithm) to rank all UK university websites, which changes throughout the year.
SEO is very much an unknown, since each of the search engines keeps its formula for ranking university websites a secret. The best guess is that SEO broken down into 2 main areas:
All search engines use complex algorithms to rank all university websites based on how relevant they think it is to the user’s search query. These algorithms change several times a year as search engines evolve.
The quality of your website content is important, but not everything. The usability of your site and the amount of backlinks your website has from trustworthy sites can all help to increase your site’s visibility and help you rank higher on the search engine results page (SERPS).
The load speed of your website also now is considered as part of the mix.
The hosting of your website is important (which effects page load speed).
Your social presence is another factor that effect where your appear on the web. When social media landed, sites like Facebook were disregarded. In the following years, social media is taken into account big time!
Users who have made a relevant search are more likely to click on your website, interact with your brand and make a purchase. If your website gets people returning, this is also taken into account (news websites for example have returning visitors).
Search engine optimisation is not necessarily as essential for a university website as a commercial business.
However is still important as the website does need to be found easily. For this reason, making the site SEO friendly, and encouraging new student registrations.
These day’s, people rate a business/institution on how visible it is on the internet, if the website is difficult to find, or looks bad, then it says a lot about the university.
A little like a shop being judged by it’s window display. Generally, the more famous a university is (Cambridge, Oxford, St Andrews because of Prince William), the easier the optimisation is to do on it.
Site optimisation is an ongoing process, it never really ends as the internet (and websites) and continually evolving and developing.
Therefore optimisation is going to be an ongoing process and SEO prices will be ongoing also.
Normally search companies will charge a monthly retainer for optimisation work (dependent on the amount of work that needs to be done).
SEO for universities should not be too expensive, as the competition between universities is not high.
Choosing a marketing company to handle the SEO for your university can be challenging. There are thousands of SEO agencies around the UK, ranging from top SEO companies in London, to freelancers working from home in Wales.
It is advised for universities to select an SEO agency that has experience in university marketing. If the search engine optimisation company has experience in doing optimisation on university websites, they will know what they are doing and more likely to get quicker results.
If you are interested in getting advice on SEO for universities, just fill in the form.
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