Top 5 SEO Strategies for Student-Centric Education Websites

Intro

When you're building your SEO strategy, you first need to consider your target audience. Who are the people you're trying to reach, and what SEO methods will work best for them? For a student-centric education website, aiming at today's students' specific habits and behaviors is a must when doing SEO strategizing. You need to know their preferences, online routines, favorite platforms, and more.

Luckily, this guide will show you the top 5 SEO strategies for student-centric education websites. We’ve carefully selected the methods that are bound to work successfully on this target group of young, education-driven, curious, and modern people. Let’s break them down and see why they’re the perfect choice.

source: Pexels

Strategy #1: High-Quality & Informative Content

When you think about the average student visiting an education website, they're in search of some answers. Either they have doubts to remove, issues to be solved, dilemmas to be resolved, or need some information.

Either way, they’ll expect you to do all of this while maintaining an entertaining and friendly writing style. Simply put, they want high-quality, informative content built just for them. The good news is we know exactly how you can achieve this. Plus, there are online tools like an AI essay writer that can make the job even simpler.

So, what makes content high-quality, and what are you supposed to do to make sure this SEO strategy is something you’ve mastered? Here are the key aspects that students will prioritize.

Relevance

Is your content speaking to the students? Is what you’re saying something they can relate to, understand, and want to learn more about?

Your content has to be designed around the search intent and interests of the students. When they’re typing in their searches, they know exactly what they want to read about, and so should you.

Simplicity

Students want to find the desired information quickly and seamlessly. They don’t need the extra trouble of reading complex content with technical terminology or an academic style of writing.

Simplify your content by using everyday vocabulary, short paragraphs and sentences, and clarity.

Credibility

Even though they’re young and inexperienced, students are looking for someone credible to learn from or gather information from. You need to show your credibility to convince them you’re the source they need.

This is mirrored in accurately written content, free of grammar, spelling, or copywriting mistakes. It should also be based on facts, reputable sources of information, and the latest data.

Strategy #2: Nail the Visuals

You’re nailing your content, but the bounce rate is high, and the engagement is low? Students also love the visual aspect of the content, so you need to step it up in this domain.

Visual content is great for a number of reasons:

• makes the content memorable
• increases sharing
• engages more senses
• improves content comprehension
• is easily digestible

Plus, today’s students are accustomed to seeing visual content in all their online activity, especially on social media that they heavily use. So, without it, your content could come across as monotonous and dull.

Types of Visuals to Use

The visuals to create and include in your content to boost SEO are:

• videos
• images
• infographics
• charts
• graphs
• quizzes
• illustrations

The visuals should also reflect your brand and help the students make a connection with you every time they see your new social media post, blog post, or ad.

Strategy #3: Mobile Optimization

Did you know that 54.8% of web traffic is conducted via mobile phones? Most of today’s students couldn’t imagine spending a day without their smartphone and use it regularly to research, find information, shop, read, and more.

source: Pexels

If you’re aiming to provide the best user experience for students and maintain their presence on your website for as long as possible, mobile optimization is the next SEO strategy that you have to comply with.

Making your website mobile-friendly means:

• your website layout works perfectly on all devices and screen sizes, including tablets and smartphones
• fast page load
• clear fonts and typography
• easy-to-click buttons and links
• images and videos that adapt to all screens

Simply put, no matter what mobile device the students use to access your website and consume your content, it needs to be impeccable. There can be no delays in loading, unclear layouts, or images and videos that are placed funnily.

This way, their interaction with your brand will be convenient, and your content will be able to shine in its full capacity.

Strategy #4: Long-Tail Keywords

As an educational institution, you have much to offer regarding education-related content, topics, and resources. When students are looking for this kind of content, they usually know exactly what they want, so they tend to make very specific Google searches.

Specific Google searches mean they tend to use more long-tail keywords that contain more relevant information about what they're looking for. There are two aspects to consider when intending to use long-tail keywords:

• they’re harder to pin down and define than generic ones
• they’re easier to rank for than generic ones

To be more specific, these keywords typically have fewer competitors trying to rank the highest for them. So, more brands will try to rank for ''student mental health'' rather than ''best strategies to cope with stress in high school''.

How To Find The Right Keywords

To find the long-tail keywords that will get you to your target audience, you need to combine different strategies, including:

• using different keyword research tools
• working on several student-oriented topics
• performing social listening to see what the students are talking about
• including local search keywords

Plus, it’s crucial that you continually monitor the performance of the keywords you choose. You can learn a lot from your own mistakes, so make sure you analyze how well each keyword is performing.

It may take some time, but soon you’ll be able to find the type of keywords that work the best for your target audience and the content you’re offering.

Strategy #5: Influencer Marketing

Finally, one more SEO strategy works wonders with the younger population, including students. Influencer marketing is pushing the boundaries of modern-day marketing and showing exceptional results when it comes to lead generation, engagement, customer retention, and more.

Pick Right Candidates

Still, to succeed at it, you must be careful about who you’re choosing and what kind of content you’re promoting together. As an educational website, you can think about people like:

• education experts and bloggers
• experts in different fields and subject matter
• student counselors
• student leaders
• mental health experts
• motivational speakers
• professors
• educational podcasters

Before making your final choice, be sure to review everything this person is doing online. Look into their social media activity, interviews, videos, comments, and presence in the media. Pay attention to their standpoints, philosophy, and opinions. Make sure they know how to communicate and are going to be nothing but a positive influence on the students.

Also, try finding someone who shares the same values as your brand and will make your intended message stronger. It needs to be someone the students trust, look up to, and believe in terms of judgment and recommendation.

Content Types To Try

Once you make your choice of influencer, get to work together to create content the students will love:

• tutorials
• how-to guides
• Q&As
• interviews
• book reviews
• educational content
• academic resource recommendations

You can get as creative as you want and diversify to see what your audience will respond to the best. Follow their activity on different posts you create and promote with the selected influencer to see what causes the most positive reactions.

source: Pexels

Final Thoughts

SEO is a complex job for any student-centric business or brand. Creating content for students and promoting it the right way requires in-depth knowledge about their online behavior and activity, as well as their needs and interests. Once you get that out of the way, you can implement the best SEO strategies for students.

The 5 strategies we’ve selected and described above should be a priority for you when reaching out to students. They are the best but not the only ones. So, continue working on your SEO beyond the top 5 strategies you’ve learned about today.