You need to increase the amount of organic traffic going to your independent school website and encourage prospective parents to enrol their kids. The only problem?
Your website is buried in the cobwebby depths of the Google search results. Boo.
If you want to make your way to the top of the rankings, effective keyword research for your school is the way forward. By knowing which words and phrases your target audience is most likely to use, you can boost your school’s online visibility and get those all-important leads.
The good news is that effective keyword research isn’t as complicated as you might think. With some planning and preparation (as well as a lot of tea and biscuits), you can conduct keyword research like an absolute pro!
Here’s our comprehensive guide to keyword research for schools. And remember, if you need a little extra guidance, just raise your hand, and our team of SEO specialists will come and help!
SEO keywords for education: which school keywords should I choose?
Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy answer to this question!
The right keywords for your school website will depend on a range of factors, including:
- Where you’re based – local SEO is extremely important!
- Who your competing schools are, and what keywords they rank for
- Who you want to target
- What people’s search intent is – we’ll talk about this in more detail later
You’ll have to do a little work to determine which keywords to use, but trust us; it’s well worth it. Here are five steps to keyword research for schools’ success!
1. Identify your target audience
Before you start choosing your keywords, it’s essential to understand who your target audience is. By getting to grips with your ideal customer, you’re better positioned to understand the words and phrases they’ll use to find you.
You might already have a target audience in place for your school; if so, you’re one step closer to keyword research nirvana! If not, think about who you would like to receive enrolment enquiries from.
- Where do these people live?
- What do they do for a living?
- How tech-savvy are they?
- What social media profiles do they use?
- What are they looking for from their perfect school?
Let’s say your ideal target audience wants to enrol their child into a school with an exceptional track record in the performing arts. This means you’ll want to prioritise keywords that focus on drama, theatre, acting, and so on.
2. Brainstorm potential keywords
The next step when it comes to keyword research for schools? Creating a list of potential words and phrases.
Start by typing all the keywords that come to mind into a spreadsheet. Don’t self-edit or think, ‘actually, that keyword is a bit rubbish’; just keep writing them down!
If you get stuck, think back to your target audience – what keywords would they use to find your site?
When you have a decent list of keywords, fill in the gaps with tools like Answer the Public and Keyword Tool. This will help you uncover words and phrases you might not have originally thought of. You can also enter keywords in Google and scroll to the bottom of the search engine results to find some brand-new ideas!
At this point, you’ll probably have a list of hundreds of keywords. Don’t worry; we’ll filter them down in the next step of the process.
3. Choose the best words and phrases
Start by removing any duplicate results as well as any keywords that are completely irrelevant to your school. We also recommend getting rid of any one or two-word keywords. Even with the best SEO in the world, you’re probably not going to rank for ‘independent school!’
Choosing the right keywords for your school website is a balancing act. You want to target keywords that people are searching for, but ones that aren’t so competitive that you’ll struggle to get on the first page of Google. The sweet spot is keywords with a high search volume and low competition.
You can use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush and Moz Keyword Explorer to uncover these metrics. While you have to pay for the full version of these tools, they all have free trials you can take advantage of.
Alternatively, if you already use Google Ads, you can use Keyword Planner to get this data.
Pop all your keywords in and see which ones you have a good chance of ranking for. It’s highly likely that this will whittle your massive list of keywords down significantly. This is a good thing – you don’t want to spend your time optimising your school site for keywords people aren’t going to use!
4. Understand search intent
Not all keywords are the same. Someone considering moving their child to an independent school will use different keywords and phrases to someone who is definitely going to move their child to an independent school.
This is what is known as ‘search intent’. Understanding the reason behind someone’s Google search makes you more likely to get the right results.
There are four different types of search intent to bear in mind:
- Informational. This is when someone has a question or is looking for information about a topic. For example, someone searching for ‘how do I help my child choose the right GCSE subjects’ isn’t probably looking to move schools at this moment in time
- Navigational. This is when people want to visit a specific website. Most branded keywords featuring the name of your school will fall into this category. You have a strong chance of ranking high for this type of search, but there is the possibility that a sneaky competitor might try and beat you to the number one result!
- Commercial investigation. This is when people want to buy a specific product or service, but need a little time to do some research. For example, someone looking for ‘independent school reviews near me’ is likely to want to enrol their child into a new school in the future and is looking for potential schools to consider. You’ll want to ensure your school is one of the top contenders
- Transactional. This is when people are ready to buy a specific product or service, or in this case, enrol their kid into your school! An example of a transactional keyword could be ‘how to enrol in XXX school’. With this type of keyword, you need to ensure your copy is convincing and your page works perfectly to encourage the web user to take action!
Put your keywords into four separate lists to identify the specific search intent of each one. You can then optimise your content to address different types of search intent, meaning you’re more likely to meet the needs of your web users.
5. Put your keywords to good use
You should now have some high-quality keywords to work with. Now it’s time to optimise your site for them! This means adding your keywords to the relevant pages of your site so Google can notice them.
Here’s what you need to consider when it comes to keyword optimisation for schools:
- Start by mapping your keywords to your site. This means getting a list of your existing web pages and identifying which words and phrases you’ll optimise them for. Aim for about two to four keywords per page and consider search intent throughout
- If you have any leftover keywords, consider creating new pages. A school blog is a great way to boost your search engine presence
- When adding your keywords to your page, do it in a way that is natural and aligned with the rest of your content. Use your keyword once or twice every 100-150 words – don’t cram them in!
- You don’t have to just use your keywords in the body of your text. Add to your headings, title tags, alt text, and page URL too
And finally, keep an eye on your search engine rankings to see where you’re ranking for your keywords of choice. This can take a few months, so don’t panic if you’re not on the first page of Google right away!
Bubblegum Search: Keyword research for schools made simple
We’re specialists in keyword research and optimisation for schools, helping educational establishments across the UK rank in the search engines.
(Don’t believe us? Check out the results we’ve achieved for schools just like yours!)
Our team of SEO experts will research your school, your target audience, and your competitors, creating a list of keywords that will attract the right people to your website. We’ll even optimise your website content for your selected keywords to maximise your chances of success.
Why not take advantage of our free SEO audit?
We’ll look at your existing search engine optimisation and make recommendations on how you can make simple tweaks to boost your Google rankings. Just answer a few easy questions about your website, and leave the keyword research for your school to us!