How to Rank Educational Websites on Google
If you're an educational company, it's crucial to have a strong online presence to attract students and establish your brand as a reputable educational institution.
Here are some SEO strategies to help improve your educational company's visibility and attract more students. These SEO strategies apply to K-12 education companies, test preparation companies, language learning companies, online course providers, vocational training companies, tutoring companies, edtech startups, continuing education providers, international education companies, study abroad companies, early childhood education providers, literacy and reading programs, and other education companies.
1.) Technical SEO Tips for Educational Companies
Technical SEO refers to optimizing your educational facility website's infrastructure so it can be properly crawled and indexed by search engines, which includes aspects like site speed, mobile optimization, XML sitemaps, and structured data markup. This ensures search engines can easily access, understand, and rank the website's content.
We can help out with all of these items and more, or you can handle them on your own:
- Ensure your website has a responsive design that works well desktop, small laptop, tablet, and mobile devices. There are a lot of screen sizes out there to accomodate. On a desktop computer, you can resize your browser window from large to small to see how different layout elements adjust for smaller screen sizes.
- Check your website speed using a tool like Google PageSpeed Insights. Don't get caught up trying to pass Core Web Vitals. It isn't always possible on complex websites and might not be worth the investment. Instead, try to fix simple things to get a score of 60+.
- Use HTTPS encryption to secure your website, which can provide added trust and security for potential students searching for educational opportunities.
- Create and submit a sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to help search engines crawl and index your education company's website pages.
- Implement schema markup related to educational services, such as courses, programs, or tuition fees, to help search engines understand the content on your website.
- Use canonical tags to prevent duplicate content issues if you have the same content available on multiple URLs of your educational company's website.
- Regularly monitor your website crawl errors and fix them promptly. You can find such errors in Google Search Console.
2.) On-Page SEO Tips for Educational Companies
On-page SEO involves optimizing each page of your educator website to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. This often focuses on elements like keyword presence, meta tags, quality of content, user experience, page organization, and internal linking.
We can help out with all of these items and more, or you can handle them on your own:
- Create high-quality, original content related to educational services that targets students' search intent and educates them on educational opportunities and career paths. While ChatGTP is a popular content writing tool, don't rely solely on AI content. It is often generic, repetitive, and/or inaccurate. Be sure to proofread content before you post it.
- Include relevant keywords related to educational services, such as courses or programs, in your website's page titles and meta descriptions to improve your company's visibility in search engine results pages.
- Optimize your website's headings and subheadings with target keywords related to educational services to help search engines understand the structure and content of your educational company's website better.
- Include target keywords related to educational services in image alt tags to provide context for your website's images.
- Use internal linking to help search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of your educational company's website and to direct potential students to relevant pages on your website.
- Use descriptive URLs that contain relevant keywords related to educational services on your website.
- Display student reviews and testimonials prominently on your educational company's website to build credibility and social proof and encourage potential students to choose your educational services.
- Scan your website for broken links and fix them immediately. You can use this free tool from Ahrefs to scan for broken links.
3.) Off-Page SEO Tips for Educational Companies
Off-page SEO involves all the actions taken outside of your educational facility website to impact your rankings within search engine results pages (SERPs). This includes strategies like link building, social media marketing, and reputation management. Such efforts help increase your website's reputation, authority, and visibility online.
We can help out with all of these items and more, or you can handle them on your own:
- Build valuable backlinks from relevant websites, such as education directories, education blogs, or industry associations, to improve your educational company's authority and reputation in the eyes of search engines and potential students.
- Create and maintain a strong presence on social media platforms that are popular with students, such as Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, to engage with them and build brand awareness for your products or services.
- Encourage satisfied students to leave reviews on popular review sites, such as RateMyProfessors or Niche, to improve your educational company's credibility and attract more students to your educational services.
- Collaborate with other educational or industry associations to cross-promote your educational services and build backlinks to your educational company's website.
- Create listings in local and national educational directories and citation sites to increase your educational company's visibility and credibility.
- Create informative and shareable content related to educational services, such as educational news or academic advice, that can attract attention and build engagement with potential students.
- Make videos to showcase your educational products, services, or facilities. Optimize the video content with relevant keywords related to your educational services to improve search engine visibility.
- Monitor your online reputation and respond promptly to student feedback and reviews. This can help you address any issues or concerns and show potential students that you value their feedback and prioritize their educational success and satisfaction.
We can review your website and rankings, then provide a recommendation on which areas of technical, on-page, and off-page search engine optimization need the most attention. This will help establish a budget and scope for ranking you higher in search results!
Alternatively, if you don't need help improving your rankings, check out this guide on DIY SEO!
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Top Keywords for Education SEO
Looking for suggested keywords to target within the SEO campaign for your educational company? Whether you plan to hire us, or optimize the site yourself, we've got you covered!
Before starting an SEO service for an educational company, we like to scan the website and see what you've got to work with for content and link authority.
From there, we'll check to see what types of educational services you'd like to promote. Maybe you offer online courses and want to attract students looking to improve their skills. Perhaps you just don't feel like you are getting enough traffic to your website to promote your tutoring or test preparation services.
Having this information helps us determine what types of keywords to focus on for content writing and link building.
Focus Keywords for Educational Companies
- Education [city/area]
- Online courses [city/area]
- Tutoring services [city/area]
- Test preparation [city/area]
- Language classes [city/area]
- Professional development [city/area]
- Certification courses [city/area]
- STEM education [city/area]
- Art classes [city/area]
- Music lessons [city/area]
- College admissions [city/area]
- Learning management systems [city/area]
- E-learning [city/area]
- Academic tutoring [city/area]
- Summer programs [city/area]
- Educational consulting [city/area]
Keyword Tip #1: Educational companies often target keywords related to their services and location. This helps you attract potential students who are searching for educational services or specific courses in the area they live in.
Keyword Tip #2: You should consider targeting long-tail keywords, which are more specific and less competitive. For example, "online courses in data science for beginners" may be easier to rank for than just "online courses".
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