It’s important for colleges and post-educational schools to implement an effective online strategy in order to leverage today’s technology and be found by their key audience – students and parents. Your school needs a great SEO strategy that can represent the best your institution has to offer, and you can achieve this by working with Fluid Advertising.

The following are some suggestions to have in the loop when you establish your goals.

1. How SEO can generate potential leads: Data acquisition from potential audience.

Based on Google Trends in 2016, 75% of students use search engines like Google to help them gather a list of potential colleges or universities. 

When building your own online strategy, consider these tactics:

• Selecting Keywords: Keyword research is vital to start any strategy when launching a site, campaign or product. We suggest you collect data from platforms such as Google Trends, Google Keyword Strategy, Search Console, SEMRush or AHREfS. It makes it simple to populate on search engines when the keywords are usually long tailed, i.e. “development schools in Salt Lake City, Utah” or “Universities in Salt Lake City.” Based on these examples, it makes sense to include your specific location in your keywords and even to get listed in local directories.

• Google Maps: Set up a Google My Business account. If you don’t have one, create it, claim your listing, then edit your listing through the platform.

There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google. However, I’ve noticed a few commonly missed opportunities to improve Business information on listing.

Make sure you:

1. Enter complete data: 82% of consumers use search engines to find information about local businesses. Make sure you’ve entered all of your business information in Google My Business and you’re keeping it up-to-date.
2. Manage and respond to reviews: Responding to reviews shows that you value your customers and the feedback they leave about your business. High-quality, positive reviews from your customers will also help improve your ranking.
3. Add photos: Accurate and appealing pictures can show potential customers that your business offers what they’re searching for. Businesses with current photos typically receive more clicks to their website.
4. Give your listing time: Local result rankings take into account the prominence of a business on the web. So allow your listing more time to accrue impressions. Don’t forget to view insights on your business’ online presence via your Google My Business Account.

Just as a good school forbids cheating, plagiarism and other forms of intellectual dishonesty, good SEO doesn’t use shortcuts that go against Google guidelines. With a little hard work and studying, you can pass the SEO test with flying colors.

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