Colleges and universities actively recruit students through search locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. A well rounded search engine optimization

1. Local SEO for Higher Ed Recruitment
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Local SEO for
Higher Ed Recruitment

2. Local SEO for Higher Ed Recruitment
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1) Local SEO
2) Keyword Research
3) On-Page Optimization
4) Claim Your Locations
5) Acquire Citations
6) Get Reviews on Google Places
7) Optimize Your Profiles on Social Media
Overview
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Local SEO for Higher Ed Recruitment

3. Local SEO for Higher Ed Recruitment
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 Colleges and universities actively recruit students through
search locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.
 A well rounded search engine optimization (SEO) strategy
for your website will provide a solid foundation for your
organic search engine rankings across all levels but further
refinements are required if you really want optimal
performance.
 You must get your general on-page and off-page
optimization into shape as the main priority.
 Once you have done that, you can take your SEO to a
deeper level by applying some of these tactics.
1. Local SEO
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Local SEO for Higher Ed Recruitment

4. Local SEO for Higher Ed Recruitment
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 Be sure to include local keywords in your primary keyword
research.
 For example, if you are promoting a program targeting
prospects in Toronto, or in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) or
Ontario in general, then you must include those
geographically specific words in your keyword strategy.
2. Keyword Research
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Local SEO for Higher Ed Recruitment

5. Local SEO for Higher Ed Recruitment
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 Include your city, region or province/state keywords in your
overall page optimization plan for your site.
 Put these same terms in page metatags, page titles, H1s,
content and internal site links.
 Give each separate campus location a unique page and fill it with
unique content.
 Put a standard address footer on every page of your site, indicating
its location.
 Google really likes structured content so use Schema Local Markup
and put a Keyhole Markup Language file on you site for best effect.
3. On-Page Optimization
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Local SEO for Higher Ed Recruitment

6. Local SEO for Higher Ed Recruitment
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 Claim and verify your campus locations on services like
Google + Places, Yahoo! Local and Bing Maps.
 Make sure you fill out 100% of the fields and use exactly the
same information across each.
4. Claim Your Locations
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Local SEO for Higher Ed Recruitment

7. Local SEO for Higher Ed Recruitment
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 Get listed across local directories, again using exactly the
same Name, Address and Phone number (NAP) data as you
are using in Google Places.
 Academic directories like Braintrack and Schools Training
provide an opportunity to further reinforce each campuses’
unique address.
5. Acquire Citations
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Local SEO for Higher Ed Recruitment

8. Local SEO for Higher Ed Recruitment
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 The Google algorithm definitely appears to favors positive
reviews on G+ Places.
 Develop a strategy to encourage students with very positive
comments to post them on Google Places.
 If you are not already checking Google Places start now and
monitor it for sentiment.
 Put your best “reputation management” practices in place and
manage this like any other public social media platform.
 Developing reviews is probably the most difficult tactic to
implement but is very important for good results.
6. Get Reviews on Google Places
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Local SEO for Higher Ed Recruitment

9. Local SEO for Higher Ed Recruitment
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 Make sure you are using the same location data across all of
your social media profiles.
 Register an account with location based platforms like Foursquare,
Yelp and Gowalla to claim your location and build local “geo” related
content and references.
 Add Pinterest Pins to content on your Pinterest account to highlight
campus features and location.
 The combined effect of these tactics should help your site
rank higher for local searches and drive more local traffic.
 Google Analytics should then be used to track the visitor behavior of
this local search generated “segment”.
 With better understanding of their search intent and needs
you can continue to optimize your site for better recruitment
performance on the local front.
7. Optimize Your Profiles On Social Media
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Local SEO for Higher Ed Recruitment

10. Local SEO for Higher Ed Recruitment
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