SEO for Schools
An international school struggled to get their website noticed and get more students. They were tired of not ranking high on search engines and missing out on potential students and parents collaborations. However, Dot IT had the solution for them.
Our SEO for Schools service can help your school’s website climb the ranks and reach more people than ever before. In this case study, we’ll look at how we helped a local school improve their online presence and attract more students.
The Problem: Struggling to Rank
Our client, the international school, had a website that wasn’t getting much traffic for a long time. Despite having a lot of valuable information and resources for students and parents, their website wasn’t showing up in search engine results pages (SERPs).
This meant that potential students and parents were having a hard time finding the school online, which was causing them to miss out on potential enrollments.
The Solution: SEO for Schools
Our team at Dot IT knew that the key to helping this school was to improve their website’s search engine optimization (SEO). We started by conducting an SEO audit of their website, which allowed us to identify areas for improvement.
We found that their website had a lot of valuable content, but it wasn’t optimized for search engines. We then created a custom SEO strategy for the school that included on-page optimization, off-page optimization, and content marketing.
Website enhancement and cleaning up technical issues
First, we addressed the technical issues plaguing the client’s website. Plus, we worked on generally enhancing it to make it more attractive and professional. We upgraded their site to ensure that it was mobile-friendly, easy to navigate, and technically sound across different devices.
The purpose was to make the site more easily indexable and crawlable by Google and help the client’s SEO strategy. By enhancing the website’s design and layout, we also made it more appealing to prospective families and fixed any aspects that might’ve been negatively affecting the user experience.
SEO campaign: Ramping up rankings
Now that the website was in tiptop shape, we built an SEO campaign that’d effectively push the client’s website to the top of search results. Here’s how we made it happen.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO remains an essential element in any SEO strategy, entailing the necessary optimizations to make the website accessible, fast to load, and error-free such that it appeals to search engines. That’s precisely what we ensured for our client.
We conducted a full technical analysis and audited the website before starting any campaigns. Then, we rectified all errors such as broken links, 404 errors, and other technical roadblocks that could keep the client from climbing up in SERPs.
For instance, we worked on increasing site speed by fine-tuning factors such as page caching, optimizing images, minimizing redirects, and similar. We also implemented a proper XML sitemap to help search engines find pages and resources on the client’s website faster.
The bottom line here is that we fixed all factors hindering crawling and indexing by search engines to eliminate the risk of rankings dropping due to bad user experience.
Keyword Research
The first step in optimizing a client’s website is to research keywords. This means identifying the key phrases that potential customers are searching for and including those keywords on your website. Now, since the client wanted to target specific keywords, we had to figure out which keywords were worth their time. The goal was to understand what’s popular in school-related searches to craft an SEO strategy that’d help the client achieve top rankings, even for competitive terms.
So, we conducted a thorough keyword research process to determine which keywords would be most effective for our client’s business.
To do so, we first had to figure out how competitive the keywords were and study the popular ranking web pages so that we’d know how to take advantage of their strategy. We then examined the search behavior on Google concerning searches related to our client’s business to determine which keywords were the most common.
In doing so, we ended up with a list of keywords that we were going to target. We also combined them with more general keywords to make sure that we’d rank highly for all of them, in order to establish a strong brand presence.
Competitor Analysis
To further enhance our strategy, we analyzed our client’s competitors in terms of SEO to figure out their strengths and how they were standing out in terms of search rankings. We analyzed the user experience on competitor websites, how it stacked against our client’s website in addition with who they are targeting with their campaigns and what content they’re producing that resonates with their target audience
By studying their campaigns, keywords, content structure, and other aspects of their SEO strategy, we were able to establish a thorough competitor analysis that’d help us find out what our client needed to do to stay ahead of them. This allowed us to find out where our client could improve so that they would rank higher than their competitors and provide a better experience for visitors. Eventually, this would result in gaining more potential customers and increase their visibility.
For this particular client, local SEO played a crucial role in their website’s success. They knew that to be successful with online marketing, they’d need to ensure that their local audience easily found their website and brand. Our goal was to provide the same level of optimization and success in local SEO as we produced in our other initiatives.
With this in mind, we decided it was best to set up a Google My Business profile for them. We wanted to make sure that all the necessary information was provided so that users looking for the company could find their website organically. Having a Google Business profile, plus all the right citations (like their name, address, informative business description, website link, and phone number), helped our client get indexed quickly and listed on Google Maps.
With this approach, they become more visible online. At the same time, we created an easy way for people to connect with them. As a result, our client saw a rapid increase in quality leads from potential customers who were located close to them when doing searches in their city or neighborhood.
On-Page Optimization
With all our data in place, it was time to start crafting an on-page optimization campaign that would produce top rankings for the client’s specific keywords. This is an important step towards ensuring that the school’s website has strong visibility on the web and appears in the organic search results.
This included all the necessary steps such as creating optimized page titles, title tags, and meta descriptions, using header tags, crafting high-quality content, embedding images, building links, and setting up various elements correctly so that users would find the website more easily.
These elements are crucial to making a website as SEO-friendly as possible, as they provide the foundation for building the right user experience. In fact, they give search engines important information about what a page is about and how it should be ranked in SERPs. So, we made sure to use them correctly and to their fullest potential.
That way, we could enhance the chances of all pages ranking higher in search results. All this took place while following Google’s latest best practices for SEO so that the strategy would be as effective as possible.
Content Marketing / Blog Posts
Of course, we didn’t stop there. With the list of relevant keywords compiled, we shifted our focus to creating an engaging inbound marketing strategy around those keywords that’d drive prospective families (or any prospective student) to the client’s site.
We wanted people to find their website organically through targeted keywords, which is why we prioritized producing blog posts, infographics and other resources that were well-researched, beneficial, informative, and easy to understand for potential students and parents so that they continue to engage with the school overtime. Content marketing is important in developing the school’s website, as it helps them establish trust with potential students as well as maintain relationships with existing ones.
The purpose was to provide high-quality information instead of just focusing on SEO keywords tool. We advised the client to write about topics that people would actually be interested in, making sure they would trust our content, which is crucial for user experience.
Since content marketing is one of the most influential aspects of SEO, these blog posts would continue to send traffic to the client’s website over time. That way, the client would be able to keep building their brand awareness and nurture their website’s authority in relevant keyword searches.
Therefore, to establish a strong online presence, we ensured that the client would produce content that’s optimized for both readers and search engines alike. By doing that, they would be able to sustain their brand awareness. Simultaneously, they would be establishing themselves as an authority in their industry.
Off-Page Optimization / Link Building
In addition to creating blog articles, we went forward with a series of link-building initiatives to increase the website’s authority and boost its rankings. We had one goal in mind: generating quality backlinks from reputable sources to the school’s website from other high-quality websites.
This would help us get on the radar of Google and other search engines while simultaneously improving the client’s visibility. To do that, we created a list of websites with high authority, audiences, and domain names that would be a perfect match for our client’s website.
Subsequently, we designed a creative approach with our client so that each link from the list would have maximum impact on their web presence. For example, we sent emails to several education websites to share our client’s blog pieces; we also built relationships with other websites in the education industry and created content that they would be interested in sharing with their audiences.
We further enhanced their visibility on social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms to make sure the content would resonate with a wider range of audiences. And, of course, we followed Google’s guidelines on what constitutes better backlinks.
The right content, timing, and outreach efforts allowed us to build targeted backlinks from authority websites. Overall, this helped the client increase their domain authority and their page’s ranking power.
Local SEO (Google My Business / Google Business Profile)
For this client, local SEO played a crucial role in their website’s success. They knew that to be successful with online marketing, they’d need to ensure that their local audience easily found their website and brand. Our goal was to provide the same level of optimization and success in local SEO as we produced in our other initiatives.
With this in mind, we decided it was best to set up a Google My Business profile for the school. We wanted to make sure that all the necessary information was provided so that parents and potential school students for enrollment could find their website organically.
Having a Google Business profile, plus all the right citations (like their name, address, informative business description, website link, and phone number), helped our client get indexed quickly and listed on Google Maps.
With this approach, we helped them become more visible online. At the same time, we created an easy way for people to connect with them. As a result, our client started getting quality leads from potential customers who were located close to them when doing searches in their city or neighborhood.
Monthly Reports with KPIs
To keep our client informed about the performance of our optimizations, we created monthly reports for particular KPIs. These included all the necessary data and KPIs (like total site visits, total leads generated, organic search traffic, and conversions).
These reports allowed us to track the success of each optimization initiative, helping us identify what works best for their website, so we can further fine-tune our approach during the next month. We used this approach to ensure that we constantly deliver useful and actionable insights about their web presence and keep them up-to-date on our progress.
On top of that, we made sure these reports were easy to digest with simple language and visuals so that they’d be able to understand the data at a glance.
Every month, we helped our client allocate funds where they were needed most. This allowed them to increase visibility and turn site visits into sales for their business.
Three Years Later
The Results: Increased Visibility and Enrollments
After implementing our SEO for schools strategy, our client saw a significant improvement in their website’s visibility. They started ranking on the first page of Google for relevant keywords, which helped to attract more potential students and parents to their website.
They also saw an increase in enrollments, which they attributed to the improved online presence that our SEO strategy had helped them achieve.
Traffic / Clicks
Due to effective and consistent application of SEO campaigns, the school’s web presence and visibility have tremendously improved in three years. There has been a staggering increase in the total number of impressions and clicks, signaling that the website became more successful at getting noticed by users. That was also reflected by the CTR, which grew to 5.4%, the total clicks reached 205,000, and the impressions hit 3.81 million!
As for organic traffic, there is a clear indication that the client’s investment in SEO was paying off big time! It has increased by 1000%, This meant that more people were finding the site organically, leading to better engagement rates and conversions.
And ultimately, this led to more students enrolling in the school, which is what the client wanted all along!
Visibility Score and Target Keyword Rankings
Because we worked on our client’s website using a data-driven approach, we optimized their site for keywords that actually mattered.
And as you can see, the number of organic keywords in the first 100 pages of the SERPs increased from 138 to 1,374. And target keywords 113 divide to 38 keywords in the top 3, 59 keywords in the top 10, 82 keywords in the top 20, and 112 keywords in the top 100.
This means that not only did we drive relevant traffic with the most efficient keywords, but we also created an entirely new set of organic keywords that the client had never before targeted.
This, in turn, translated into more potential students and parents finding the website. After all, the more organic keywords you rank for, the more people can find your site!
Backlinks Portfolio
Building backlinks to the school’s website also significantly contributed to its success, with virtually every link resulting in an increase in their organic visibility.
During our SEO campaign, the school’s website became more credible because of the increased number of backlinks.
This, in turn, helped it rise on the SERPs on Google for numerous keywords that mattered most.
In numbers, the portfolio of backlinks went from 1,200 to 45,500. That’s a staggering 3.75% increase in just over three years. That’s especially significant given that backlinks are considered one of the most important metrics when ranking websites on Google’s SERPs.
Website Authority
Another metric we couldn’t stop tracking for our client was their website’s authority. Google calculates a site’s ‘authority’ by looking at many different factors that affect its position on SERPs.
These include the number of backlinks, the age of the domain, the authority of the linking pages, and the quality and frequency of the website’s content. And of course, the higher the website’s authority, the more people can find it organically.
We successfully achieved the goal of boosting our client’s authority score, raising it to 38. This is a clear indicator that the site improved in the overall ranking for numerous keywords and became more relevant in Google’s eyes.
Local SEO in the Biggest 4 Cities (Riyadh– Dammam – Dhahran – Jeddah)
When it came to local SEO, among the most important cities the client was targeting were Riyadh, Dammam, Dhahran, and Jeddah. And that’s where we were able to achieve some of our greatest results – local visibility!
Before implementing our SEO strategy, the school’s website only ranked for branded keywords relating to the school. But after our optimizations and the fact that we created a solid content strategy that built dozens of unique pages with quality content, that was no longer the case. The site started to rank for numerous keywords related to education and schooling at large, especially when associated with the names of the cities.
And as a result, the school’s website became visible to more people throughout Saudi Arabia looking for schools in their cities.
Arabic SEO
Lastly, we were able to optimize the school’s website for Arabic keywords, given that the school was based in Saudi Arabia, which has Arabic as a mother tongue.
Accordingly, we targeted Arabic speakers who use the language in their local searches. Therefore, we carefully choose keywords that would appeal to Arabic-speaking parents and potential students looking for international schools in their region.
Our optimization efforts were effective because today, the school ranks on the first pages of the SERPs for numerous Arabic keywords related to education and schools across the country.
You Can’t Afford Not to Rank
In today’s digital age, having a strong online presence is crucial for any business or organization, including schools. If your school isn’t ranking on search engines, you’re missing out on hundreds of potential students and parents who are looking for schools in your area. Dot IT’s SEO for Schools service can help you improve your online visibility and attract more enrollments.
However, this service is not limited to schools only; any business or organization can benefit from SEO, including e-commerce websites, professional services, and local businesses.
According to recent statistics from HubSpot, 75% of people never scroll past the first page of search engine results, and 61% of marketers say improving SEO and growing their organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority. In addition, Search Engine Journal reports that 53.3% of all website traffic comes from organic search, making it a critical channel for businesses to attract potential customers.
At Dot IT, we understand and prioritize the importance of a strong SEO strategy. Our SEO for Schools service is designed to help educational institutions improve their online visibility, attract more enrollments, and grow their business. We use a combination of on-page optimization, off-page optimization, content marketing, competitor analysis and target audience to help schools rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). This allows them to reach more potential students and parents who are actively searching for schools.
In addition, building relationships with high-quality websites in the education industry can help build backlinks and improve online visibility. This, in turn, can improve a school’s search engine rankings, leading to more potential enrollments.
SEO is an ongoing process, and schools need to continually optimize their websites to maintain their visibility and attract more potential students and parents. Dot IT’s SEO for Schools service can help schools achieve their SEO goals and stand out from the competition.
To learn more about our SEO for Schools service or our other SEO services for different industries, contact us today. We’ll work with you to develop a customized SEO strategy that fits your business needs and helps you achieve your goals.
How Is SEO Important for International and Private Schools?
By optimizing their website through each of the strategies we mentioned above, our client was able to get more out of their digital marketing efforts. Not only did the percentage of organic traffic increase significantly, but the school also became more visible for local SEO.
And finally, because of our optimization efforts which included both English and Arabic keywords, parents and students could now find the school organically even though it was an international school. That’s why ranking high on Google is so important for schools because that’s where most of their prospective families and students search for and find them. It’s basically school marketing!
As you see, SEO for schools is essential because that’s how they become visible to students and their families, especially in specific cities. Schools need to rank on Google for the most relevant keywords to them, be it local SEO or international keywords. Without that visibility, parents and students simply won’t find them.
Today, our client is a step closer to achieving their goals and attracting the best students to their school. Thanks to our SEO efforts and education digital marketing strategies, they’re now one of the top schools in Saudi Arabia that international parents from across the world recommend for children! And that’s why we can say with confidence that investing time and resources into SEO is always worth it!
Here’s what the client had to say about the outcome and experience:
Client Satisfaction
“We have started with them in October 2019 with the 58th SERP with branded search keywords now we are in 1st SERP with 90+ non-branded keywords.”
So, if you own an international or private school, don’t waste another day without ranking on Google, where more than 90% of your prospective families and students will look for you.
