Can you really be sure that the potential customer, looking for the „best language school in Berlin” will find exactly your school? Search Engine Optimization will help you increase the visibility of your website. Learn simple tips to improve its position and increase the number of students.
1. Check, if you are on Google
The first essential step is to check whether your site is listed on Google. You can do this by typing in the search window „site: website address of your language school.” You must keep in mind that the network is being monitored by the so-called web crawlers, which are not always effective enough to index your web pages. If you do not find your website it is most likely that it’s designed in the wrong way, it is not linked to other sites or a new and Google’s special algorythms have not managed to include it yet.
2. See how you present your business
If you need some flashcards to learn English, then you type this phrase in the Google search. Think about how your potential students are looking for a language school – „the best language school in Madrid”, „Spanish language courses” or simply „language school”. After entering the latter I’ve seen around 5,000,000 results. Enter the name of your school and take note of the three elements, which are described below.
A – The page title is the most important from the point of view of SEO, because it appears in search results. Also, remember about a correct title bar. It should be short, match the content of the page and count from 10 to 70 characters, including spaces. It also may contain the name of the school, location or areas of activity.
Useful tip: Try to avoid setting titles that are not related to the content or incomprehensible such as. Page 2, Untitled. Too long titles are cut by Google, so watch out for ellipsis (…)
B – URLs should refer to what is on the individual pages of your website for example. Https: //languageschool.com/courses/for-students/. It should ensure that that they are legible and easy to link. Addresses containing unnecessary parameters can confuse users.
Useful tip: Remember that your page URLs should not contain unnecessary parameters in the style https: //languageschool.com/folder1/104367b.html
C – Page description refers to the content of the pages and contains one or two sentences. On one hand, informs about the content but on the other should encourage to click. Keep in mind that Google can choose any part of the text from the page to display, if it considers that it matches better the query.
Useful tip: The descriptions for each page should not exceed 156 characters (best when it ends with a dot).
Words that match the search query are automatically in bold font, which is a hint for the client that they will find on the page the information they need.
3. Offer useful content
Content marketing appears on every step, not without reason. Interesting blog articles, guides, e-books, video lessons – all are of interest for the student and all can be used to win a better spot in Google. The biggest impact on the position have popularity of the content and the share count.
When typed „how to learn German”, immediately I’ve located the language school that offers such courses. How? With their blog, which was in the fourth position in the search engine – the example below.
Useful tips:
Your content, whether it’s a blog post or a description of each language course, should always be legible and in any case shouldn’t contain language errors. Do not place text as an image, because this way it prevents users from copying interesting content.
- Try to prepare a unique description for each of the courses offered, under any circumstances, do not copy them from the competition – Copyrights are valuable to Google’s crawlers.
- Add keywords, thanks to which your potential customers can find your page. If you use Google AdWords, you can try the keyword suggestion tool.
- If you run a fanpage on Facebook, or on a different social media platform, be sure to place direct links to your website – links from social media increasingly influence the positioning.
4. 404, or life after life
Take care of a 404 page – a page where a user is redirected after mispelling an address or entering old subsite. Custom Page 404 allows you to redirect the client to an existing page or the most popular content contained therein. A 404 site can be designed with a sense of humor and build a positive perception of your language school.
Useful tip: Avoid displaying only the information „not found”, design a custom page that does not differ visually from your website.
5. Good reviews attract attention
Perhaps you know that the client before signing up for the course, checks opinions about your school on the Internet, forums or groups on Facebook. Make sure that you display positive reviews from your customers, because they attract users.
A satisfied customer will tell three friends about your business, dissatisfied ten.
Opinions and content that generate customers are valuable for SEO. After entering the query „language school opinions” were shown comparison websites, forums, and some schools.
6. Stay on Google My Business
You should create your business card in the Google My Business, through which you can optimize your SEO. Remember to enter the data in its entirety and very precisely. The title should include the name of the company and the industry in which you work (here „language school”). The other essential elements are your school’s logo and background, as well as phone number, address, opening hours.
The description should be concise and informative. Links should lead to individual pages, for example, a pricelist. Here you can also leave space for the comments. In the case of negative ones always try to respond to it, never delete it. Later you will benefit from Google statistics (impressions, clicks, opinions, directions). You wil have everything under control.
Remember that SEO activity should focus primarily on your audience or the people who visit your site. All of the mentioned tips will help you display your site in the search result. Do not dedicate all the funds for AdWords campaigns. First, try to order everything on your website, offer some content, think about the headlines.