8 Effective Organic Education Marketing Strategies with SEO

The increasing use of the internet makes the application of education marketing strategies increasingly necessary.

Formal and non-formal education services are currently increasingly competing to attract new students. To win this competition, the right promotion technique is needed.

Currently, the search for information is no longer dependent on print media alone. Most Indonesians rely on online searches for new information.

In 2021 alone, internet penetration in Indonesia will have reached 70%. Indonesia is one of the largest online markets in the world, with internet users increasing every year.

This should be a consideration for those of you who are providers of formal and non-formal education services to move to promotional activities with digital marketing.

The education marketing strategies that can be used here is SEO. But before entering into this discussion, first get to know the concept of digital marketing and the techniques below.

The Concept of Digital Education Marketing

Every business needs a reliable marketing strategy to ensure its continuity.

In the education sector itself, this promotional activity requires attention because of the form of service or product needed to meet consumer needs.

Educational services can be promoted by taking into account the following:

• Educational needs at a level and in an area
• Anticipate educational problems
• Improvement of education services

Marketing activities in the education sector need to focus on highlighting educational goals, values, and services to students, staff, parents, and the community.

Education marketing strategies are quite different when compared to commercial business promotion, where the main focus tends to be increasing conversions.

Promoting education is a social and managerial process that needs to be professionally planned for optimal results and in accordance with the image of the institution.

Conventional Education Promotion Techniques

As previously mentioned, the products offered by businesses in the education sector are services.

Therefore, the marketing approach taken needs to emphasize the way to promote education service itself.

The important points in education promotion techniques that need to be known are:

1. External Promotion

Education marketing strategies need to be implemented by taking into account the target consumers or customers.

Here, the marketing target is the student's guardian or parents of prospective students who will use educational services.

In this stage, make sure to prepare the product or service that will be offered and set the price before reaching the target consumer.

2. Internal Promotion

The education marketing strategy will not work optimally if the teachers and employees themselves are not appreciated.

Therefore, be sure to carry out internal promotions by giving awards or rewards to outstanding teachers or employees to increase their motivation.

In this way, teachers and employees will be more motivated to provide the best service to students who register at these educational institutions. 

3. Interactive Promotion

In addition to external and internal promotion, interactive techniques need to be carried out to convince parents of students.

Interaction between parents and teachers or employees will help expedite the conversion process.

To add to that, directions from the principal of the school or institution will provide the necessary encouragement for decision-making by parents of students.

8 Education Marketing Strategies with SEO

 In addition to the methods to promote educational institutions listed above, the managers can also use online marketing strategies with SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

SEO is a website optimization technique that focuses on increasing online visibility on search results pages (SERPs) organically.

In other words, educational marketing strategies do not rely on paid advertising. This technique focuses on website maintenance to ensure the online presence of educational institutions on search engines like Google.

When internet users do online searches about education services, your educational website will appear in the top search results.

That is the objective of education marketing strategies using SEO. So, what are the tips that can be applied to the application of this technique? Here's the explanation:

1. Preparing an Operational Website

The first stage in implementing education marketing strategies with SEO is building a website that operates properly.

Make sure all pages include the information that prospective applicants and parents need to have.

Of course, you'll need a team of developers to make sure the pages are accessible smoothly, the links within them work properly, and the loading times are fast.

Also, make sure that the website design and layout are easy to navigate and responsive on various devices, especially mobile.

A mobile-friendly website will be more easily accessed by internet users in Indonesia, who mostly search for information via smartphones.

2. Conducting Keyword Research

Along with website preparation, do keyword research to find online search queries that are relevant and popular in the education industry.

Identify keywords related to the services or topics that your agency offers.

The keywords obtained can be used to optimize website pages, such as home and product pages.

In addition, keywords with informative search intent can be used to create quality educational content to improve a website's performance in the SERPs.

To carry out this step, use keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to look for keywords that have high search volume and a level of competition that matches website authority.

3. Create High-Quality Content

High-quality and relevant content can help improve website search rankings.

Create content that is informative and relevant to search queries based on educational topics that match your website niche.

Make sure that the content can answer the user's question referred to by the search query.

Use naturally relevant keywords in the body of the article you are creating. Well-readable content will help organically increase your website's visibility and authority.

4. Doing Technical SEO

After the website is operational and the content is available, the next marketing strategy that needs to be implemented is technical optimization.

One of the things that can be done here is to ensure URL structure, use relevant meta tags, improve internal linking, and provide image alts.

On the other hand, pay attention to the technical aspects of the website, such as loading speed, indexing, and mobile friendliness.

5. Applying Local SEO

One of the education marketing strategies in the digital era that needs attention is optimizing websites specifically for local or regional areas with local SEO strategies.

Here, you can register a business on your Google Business Profile and enter contact information, an address, and hours of operation.

Also add local keywords, including the name of the city or area in the title or description of your educational institution on the website.

If students are involved, also ask students or parents for positive reviews to strengthen the credibility of your institution on online search platforms.

6. Improving User Experience (UX)

An operational website certainly needs to be properly managed on a regular basis. Make sure to keep an eye on its performance to improve the user experience.

Easy navigation, an attractive layout, and content that is easy to read and understand will make visitors feel at home on the website.

In addition, pay attention to page loading speed, website security, and backlink quality to support website performance in a relevant manner.

7. Submit Sitemap to Google

A sitemap is a file that contains a list of pages on a website. Submitting a sitemap to Google via Google Search Console helps search engines index those pages more efficiently.

Make sure this sitemap is updated every time there is a change on the website to help crawlers identify new pages that have not been crawled before.

8. Evaluating Website Performance

After implementing the education marketing strategy with SEO above, it is important to evaluate website performance regularly.

Here, you can use Google Search Console and GA4 to see graphs of website performance developments over time.

Apart from that, pay attention to the loading speed with free tools such as the Page Speed Test from cmlabs and the mobile friendliness with the Mobile Friendly Test from cmlabs.

So, that's all about education marketing strategies in the digital era that you can do with SEO. All that you can do organically without paid ads.

To make it easier for you to create a well-optimized website, use SEO services from cmlabs.

The SEO specialists at cmlabs will help you build an optimization strategy that can bring organic traffic to your website and ensure your brand's online visibility on the SERPs.

That way, your educational institution will be widely known and can reach the target audience of the planned education promotion.