We often get contacted by schools asking why they cannot see their site on the first page when they search Google for terms like "boys schools near X" or "independent girls schools in Y".
In this post I'll run though a few basic principles of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) which, if obeyed, will help maximise your online visibility.
Search engines are not psychic, it's all about content
In fact, search engines hardly read more of a web page than humans - mostly just surface content, i.e. what ordinary surfers see when they visit a site. Like humans, search engines are heavily influenced by first impressions - the content of your home page is thus particularly important when determining where you site belongs within their vast indexes. Not all your site's pages are treated equally and the placement of key points in obscure subsections will not get your message across to services like Google, Yahoo or even Bing.
Not all content is treated equal either - content you put in page titles or headings within pages will be treated as more important than regular body copy.
If you're wondering why your new site doesn't appear in results for specific criteria, e.g. boys/girls, location, etc, you probably haven't put the important words where they matter most. Most searchers will query specific criteria including:
- location
- boys/girls/co-ed
- day/boarding
- age level
- independent/state
- religious affiliation
Therefore, putting such information where it's easy to see will help match the right search queries to your site. If you run an independent CofE day secondary school for girls near Balmoral, say so on the front page!
Make sure your homepage includes all the important keywords.
Referral links = Online credibility (according to Google)
In the world of search engines, referral links are king. It's pretty straightforward - anybody can craft a web page cunningly including various desirable keywords intended to dupe search engines, but only the genuinely good ones will get linked to on lots of other sites.
So Google pioneered this idea that the popularity of a page on third party sites could be used to filter the good search results from the bad. The fact is, search engines like Google usually have dozens of schools associated with keywords similar to yours', so ensuring that your site is linked to more widely than your competitors' is one effective way to push your school's homepage closer to the top of those results pages.
But remember: not all sites are equal. A link to your school on the homepage of every friend/family relative available may seem an easy solution, but this wouldn't carry the same weight, in Google's books at least, as just one link on the web site of a major teaching association or even better, a popular news publication.
Try to get your site linked to as widely as you can - the more prestigious the referrer, the better.
Meta keywords are so 2002.
Anybody involved with web sites for a while will remember when meta keywords tags was considered a must-have for effective listing on search engines. Unsurprisingly, the feature became widely abused by webmasters who flooded code with mostly irrelevant tags. Nowadays most search engines, including Google, will completely ignore this tag altogether - we suggest you don't bother putting one in.
So what about the Meta description tag?
In short, the meta description tag won't do anything to your site's ranking in search results, but that doesn't mean it's completely useless. A brief but informative blurb within one of these tags will make your search listing that bit neater when surfers do find it, since it will replace the default clipping of words that Google rolls out instead. You can set your meta description in Firefly by clicking "Modify Page", choosing the Metadata tab, and entering your description into the "Abstract" box.
Leave out meta keywords, though a meta description will add a neat touch.
Good things come to those who wait
It's worth noting that SEO cannot be done overnight, for one thing because the search engines will only crawl your site periodically (anything from every few days to up to a year). Any changes you make to your site will not be reflected in search results immediately, or even soon. Unfortunately, there is no way to accelerate the rate at which search engines return to your site, so it's best to just have your site ready at its best and then just wait. However, search engines do crawl sites more regularly if they sense they are updated often, so keeping your site fresh with news stories, etc. should help!
