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As a higher-ed marketer, we all want to be on the top of SERP (Search Engine Result Pages) as it drives visibility and attracts target prospects to our website. The higher a website ranks on SERP, the more the number of prospects who land on the website.
But the biggest challenge is – page one on Google is not steady. One day you will see your webpage on the top for a specific set of keywords, and after few days it may perish from there.
The organic search results now compete for users’ attention with knowledge panels, videos, maps, featured snippets, paid ads, and the like.
Ranking for education-related keywords on the SERP has become more competitive than ever. Different media elements such as videos, infographics, etc., have started to rank higher. Top Positions on Google has been taken by paid media, featured snippets, and other media elements.
These elements are often called Position Zero as they outrank the top results.
Additionally, Zero-click searches remain the most competitive version of SERPs. But what are these Zero-click searches?
These are the searches where the search intent of the user is satisfied without actually clicking on the link.
So, a zero-click search is where the answer gets displayed directly on the SERP, satisfying user intent.
Now, the question is – how can higher education marketers stay proactive when ranking on SERP is becoming a hassle?
Using On-SERP SEO, higher ed marketers can optimize your institution’s website for the first page in the SERP.
The ultimate goal is to take as much of real estate on the page as possible, contributing to an increase in CTR and generating organic traffic.
On-SERP SEO is a paradigm shift for SEO experts. It’s an integrated strategy to increase brand awareness and search presence on page 1. It is like taking the ownership of Google traffic, no matter which SERP element triggers the traffic.
To stay ahead and competitive at position Zero, higher ed SEO experts should utilize all media sources to dominate every aspect of Page 1. Be it the knowledge graph, paid ads, or other media elements.
You need a traffic potential mindset if you wish to be successful in SEO. Defining your target pages and selecting the right keywords is important to build a future-proof SEO strategy for your institution.
While doing traditional SEO analysis, the experts used to review-
This can be easily researched by using online tools e.g. SEMRush
However, they need to upgrade themselves and focus on other efforts like:
Considering CTR in your keyword research and decision-making is something you should do. Most SEO tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs show potential traffic on different search terms. These tools even suggest new search terms basis your keywords.
As an example, check the screenshot from SEMRush as under:
Look for the keywords that have a good click potential rather than looking for keywords with high monthly search volume. Only then will your CTR increase, and you will be able to convert more target prospects.
Higher Education a is massive market with a broad perspective and several institutions offering similar courses. And on top of everything else, there are college aggregators, and there are bloggers, there are websites that will rank higher than your institution’s website on most of your keywords.
How will you be able to stand out and maximize your reach to your target persona? The only way to do this is by taking over the SERP elements, including the knowledge graph, paid ads, and images.
Here is how you optimize your institution’s website for the competitive SERP-
Google pulls up the data from the top 10 ranking websites to populate the featured snippets. Optimizing keywords to win a featured snippet is not science. It’s an art that everybody can’t master.
So, your first step should be checking your organic rankings and determining the keywords that already display the featured snippets. Tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs can help you identify target keywords and target pages to optimize for featured snippets.
The featured snippet gives a direct answer to the user without having them click or search further. Here are four types of featured snippets depending on the user query intent:
Your second step must be identifying the type of featured snippet displayed for your target keywords. Featured snippets are generally displayed for long-tail queries or question-based queries.
To optimize featured snippet on SERP, add questions or keywords as subheadline in your content. Create a good, precise answer beneath the subheadline. It can be a short paragraph of up to 50 words or a table, depending on what Google prefers for that keyword.
Be more precise and factual, as Google likes pulling lists or data directly into the search results. You can even utilize schema markup.
Sitelinks can help you increase the visual space of your search results by showing the most significant pages of your institution’s website in the search results.
The weird thing is that you cannot force Google to display sitelinks. Though you can create a navigational structure with strong internal links to the core pages as well as anchors and alt tags, it will only increase your chances of showing sitelinks on Google. But there is no surety.
Scheme markup helps Google to understand what your content is all about. Visit schema.org to find different types of schemas and implement them on your pages. The review schema markup can be used to display start rating in your organic search results that improves your credibility and CTR.
If you haven’t verified your business yet, you need to do it now on Google. Optimizing your Google Business Profile can win a lot of space on SERP for local searches. It will also help you in building your presence on Google Maps.
Ensure that all campus address and other essential details should be listed on your Google My Business Profile to make your profile listing stay longer. You can even collect the review for listing, which can then be used in review schema markup.
You must collect questions and answers in your listing so that the length of listing increases and you get a bigger space on SERP.
Even if you are a hardcore SEO enthusiast and organic search is the primary driver of your traffic and PPC is very expensive for your niche, you should still run ads on branded search terms. The users looking out for your brand terms have the highest chance of a conversion.
Don’t let any other company occupy your valuable ad space. It would be best if you always considered running Google Search ads for your brand terms unlike shown in the image below. Add relevant extensions to get maximum visual impact.
-can-Help.jpg "Paid Media (PPC) can Help")
The ultimate goal of a knowledge panel is to display all the information about your business in a condensed spot. However, the knowledge panel is only available to display for companies, influential people, nonprofit organizations, media, local businesses, nutritional information, and products. If your organization falls in any of these categories, you will be benefitted from optimizing the knowledge panel.
Review your target keywords and check if images are also included in their SERPs. A lot of SERPs feature images. If you put a little effort into image SEO, the chances of ranking images will increase. Ensure to add images on the page where the headline and URL match the target keywords.
Here are a few things that you should consider while optimizing images –
So, these strategies will help you dominate the SERP and enhance your brand visibility.
SEO is an art that you need to master. Its key strength lies in the analysis, with higher education institutions experiencing the lowest CTR ever, its their turn to level up their game on SERP. Only SEO might not help, but clubbing everything together will be a different ball game.
Analyze your competition, analyze the target keywords, know your audience, and apply these 7 actionable strategies to rule the SERP.