What is a SERP - and why you should be checking it WEEKLY
Do you regularly Google your school? Do you wonder why your school appears lower down the list than other schools in the area? It’s easy to get lost and be scared of acronyms such as SERP or SEO, but there are some simple steps you could take RIGHT NOW to be on the road to better search rankings.
Let’s start with SERP
SERP is just a fancy acronym for Search Engine Results Page. When you input a keyword or a phrase into a search engine (e.g. Google), the engine searches for the most relevant content that is created just for you, based on your browser history, social setting and location. You will notice two types of content come up; organic and paid results, along with a variety of features such as shopping results, knowledge graphs or reviews.
‘Organic’ results are pages that are shown to you due to the search engine’s algorithm based on your query. On the other hand, paid results are basically advertisements that the website owners have paid for that will only show up if their chosen keywords match your query. The sad reality is that if your school website does not come up on the first page of Google Search, you will receive fewer visitors.
Anatomy of the perfect SERP:
Checklist for the perfect SERP:
Does your school logo appear?
Is the location correct?
Have you added contact details?
Do you 'own' every link on the first page?
Is your website link correct?
Have you added photos?
Do you have reviews? (If not, reach out to parents/alumni to leave reviews)
Do your social channels appear?
Does all of this information pull through to your knowledge panel? (NOTE: much of this information comes from your Google My Business account).
Is your Wikipedia description correct?
As you can see from the checklist above, your Google My Business account and Wikipedia page have a direct role in making up the anatomy of the perfect SERP. However, there are also some simple steps you can take to improve your website content to rank higher up.
Here are our five simple steps:
1 - Start with the foundation
The first step to ranking higher on Google is making sure your website is user friendly. Remove anything that slows your website down and ensure that your site is optimised for mobile devices.
2 - Write for humans, not for search engines
Back in the day, you could improve your SEO simply by using keywords, but, today, that is no longer the case. We encourage you to focus on writing engaging content for the end user, rather than the search engine. Do your keyword research before you start creating the content! If you need any further assistance, get in touch with our #DigitalJedi team.
3 - Create engaging content
Try to create and publish unique and engaging content as often as you can!
4 - Write unique meta descriptions for every page
Meta descriptions are the short descriptions users will see when searching for a website on Google or another search engine. For best SEO practices, we recommend writing individual descriptions for each one of your pages.
5 - Use descriptive links
Instead of just ‘click here,’ try writing out the title of the destination as the link text. For example, ‘X School Open Day Admissions.’ This will allow the user to know exactly what they can expect by clicking on that link! Plus, it tells the engine that the page is relevant to keywords like ‘school,’ ‘open day,’ and ‘admissions,’ which makes your page much more likely to show up when these words are searched for.
Having trouble achieving the perfect SERP? Get in touch with our social team (social@interactiveschools.com) and our team of #DigitalJedi can show you the way!