24 Really Quick SEO Improvements for Schools

Schools seem to very concerned about SEO and how ‘difficult’ it is. There is actually a lot that you can achieve very easily without any SEO knowledge at all. 

Below we have listed some very simple and quick things to do to improve your site’s SEO:

Research

  1. Review your brand on Google, Bing and Yahoo! Type your school name into search engines. Review the copy - does it fit your brand?
  2. Research non-branded searches for your school. E.g. “boarding school in Watford”.
  3. Search for your most popular keywords “harrow school term dates”, “bedford girl’s school fees” etc. What comes up?

Build Relationships

  1. Connect with your local influencers on social media. 
  2. Who are the most influential bloggers for schools? Connect with them. 

Content

  1. Brainstorm content ideas for a blog.
  2. Create a Google Calendar to map out your content plan.
  3. Launch a contest. 
  4. Organise a Google+ Hangout.

Local

  1. Make sure you’re on local directories such as Thomson Local, Yelp, Yell etc.
  2. Make sure you’re on all relevant school based directories, including your local council’s.

On-Page Optimisation

  1. Update your homepage’s title tag and description. 
  2. Submit an XML Sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools.
  3. Check your 'Health’ on Google Webmaster Tools
  4. Change the description for your most popular pages - think about click through rates. 

Competitor Analysis

  1. Review your competitors on search engines. Perform a branded search. 
  2. Navigate through your competitor’s websites as if you were a prospect.  

Technical SEO

  1. Build an a creative 404 error page. Users love these, and will often share them. Great link building technique
  2. Sign up to Google Webmaster Tools
  3. How does your website display on mobile and tablet? Not great? Look into responsive web design. 
  4. Can you access your site using www. and non-www? 
  5. Does your website have both www. or non-www? Or does it redirect? If it doesn’t redirect, it needs to. 

Analytics 

  1. Identify your most popular posts and keywords. 
  2. Take a look at the highest bouncing pages on your website. Make them more attractive and sticky. 

This should act as a good starting point for you and hopefully you will realise how broad SEO actually is. It is not always necessarily about tags, HTML, links or optimising primarily for search engines.

Have you tried these tips? Do you have any more to share? Share your experiences in the comments section. 

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