In today's digital world, any student looking forward to higher education is likely to check their phones and do a quick Google search. They'll probably search with the course name they're aspiring to undertake and click on the first few links that show up on the result page. Given that this is the tendency for the general public, all colleges and universities must make conscious efforts to rank higher on the Google results page so that more students can discover their institution and work. But how do they do that? The answer is simple - Search Engine Optimization.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is the process of modifying and refining a website and its content to rank higher on a search engine's result page. The websites that rank highest for a search on Google are well optimized for that search engine. Since it's common practice to only go through the first few links, these higher-ranked websites have a remarkable chance of making a sale or converting a potential lead.

In the educational spectrum, this can be of high importance. If your website is up-to-date with Google Analytics criteria when a student searches the name of a particular course, the name of your college is bound to show up on the first few links on the results screen.

But how do you maintain an SEO friendly website?

Keywords

Keywords are perhaps the most crucial factor that goes into making your website and content SEO friendly. Using the right keywords throughout your website can help your website immensely. For example, if a user searches a specific keyword, and that keyword has been used in your website several times, your chances of landing higher on the Google results page increase remarkably.

Interlinking

Creating links throughout your website and redirecting the users to other web pages can also help increase your 'SEO score' considerably. Interlinking helps establish a specific connection between the web pages of your site with respect to other pages on the internet. Appropriate linking helps Google Analytics decide which web pages are 'high-value, thus resulting in a higher rank for your website.

Interlinking also helps in off-page Search Engine Optimization. Off-page SEO implies anything done to increase the visibility of your website apart from your on-page content. To explain, if many hyperlinks take users to a page on your website, then Google will assume that the content on your website is valuable. From the view of colleges and universities, you can always create backlinks with the help of published research done by your institution or even using testimonials and reviews.

SEO Services

Creating an SEO friendly platform may require the help of an experienced SEO specialist. That is where SEO services come in. Nowadays, tailor-made SEO services are available specifically for colleges and universities, which promise organic growth of traffic through SEO friendly practices. If you want to expand your college's influence and student base, investing in such a service can be a brilliant idea.

The SEO service will then modify your website and make it rank higher on the results page using appropriate practices. Not only that, but some services also offer to optimize your social media or digital marketing campaigns to the tune of SEO.