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School Blogging for Better Independent School SEO Results

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The new school year is edging ever closer, and you’ve not got as many enrolments as you would have liked through the website.

Don’t panic and throw your laptop out of the window just yet! If you need to give your independent school website a boost in the search engines, have you considered blogging?

Posting articles on your website helps you rank for additional keywords and can make your school stand out from all the other education providers in your area.

If you’re new to school blogging, we’ve put this guide together to help you create high-quality, SEO-optimised articles that people want to read. 

So grab your notebook, and let’s go!

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Why school blogging is great for SEO

At this point you might be thinking: ‘School blogging? I’ve got enough marketing to manage; I can’t take on any more work!’

However, hear us out. If you want to get the edge over your competitors, drive organic traffic, and increase enrolments, blogging needs to become an indispensable part of your marketing strategy.

Here are just some of the reasons why school blogging will give you the advantage:

  • You can target specific keywords. If you can’t add a keyword to an existing page on your website, a blog makes it easy. Just create a new post, add your content, optimise for your keywords and phrases of choice, and you’re set!
  • You become a voice of authority. Blogging can establish you as an experienced and valued source of information, which can give you a leg-up in the rankings
  • People stay longer on your website. When you have a collection of articles for visitors to read, your bounce rate decreases, and your site dwell time increases. This sends a signal to Google that your website offers a great user experience
  • You increase your chances of backlinks. When someone links to your articles, it shows the search engines that your content is trusted by your peers

Still on the fence? Organisations with blogs generate 67% more leads a month than those that don’t. This makes blogging a great way to make parents and students aware of who you are.

Our top tips for optimising blog posts for search engines

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So you now know that school blogging is awesome for SEO. However, there is a knack to it. You can’t just write about anything, click ‘publish,’ cross your fingers, and hope for the best!

A well-optimised article will lead to high amounts of organic traffic from the search engines and lots of leads and enquiries. Here’s how to make this happen.

Do your keyword research

Before you start ranking in the search engines, you need to know what words and phrases people use to find you. If you haven’t already done this, it’s time to do some investigating!

We’ve put together a comprehensive guide to keyword research to help you find the perfect keywords. Think like prospective parents and students and what their intent is. If you want more enrolments, you want to target people considering their options or are close to making a decision.

When you’ve got your target keywords, group them into ‘clusters’ – words that work well together. Keep these clusters between two to four keywords long; any more than this, and you’ll struggle to squeeze them all into your pages!

Plan your blog titles

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When you have your keyword clusters, you can start thinking of blog post ideas to write. An excellent place to start is to choose one ‘main’ keyword in your cluster, and plan your blog title around that.

For example, if your keyword cluster consists of:

  • Sixth-form interview questions and answers
  • What do you wear to a sixth-form interview?
  • How to answer sixth-form interview
  • How to prepare for 6th form interview

Your blog title could be: ‘How to prepare for your sixth-form interview: 10 top tips’. Make sure your heading includes your keywords and grabs people’s attention! It can often be worth writing five headlines and seeing which one works best.

It’s crucial for any content you write to be engaging and high-quality – search engines like Google don’t think much of low-quality or ‘thin’ content. So if you feel that a blog post idea won’t work, don’t be afraid to leave it behind.

Need a little extra help generating blog post ideas? Our blog planning article will help you create months of titles.

Make sure your blog post is well-structured and organised

Tweaking your blog post in your content management system of choice increases the chances of it ranking in the search engines. Not only do you make it easier for visitors to read and understand it, but it also makes it easier for the search engines to crawl it.

Here’s what to look out for before launching your blog post:

  • Ensure your keywords are included throughout your post, in the main body of text and in the headings. Stick to a keyword density of 1% and 2% – so using each keyword once or twice per 100 words
  • Optimise your page title and meta description. These appear in the search engine results, so can play a big part in encouraging people to visit your article
  • Use headings, bullet points, and white space to make your article easy to read and navigate
  • Add internal and external links. External links add credibility, while internal links signpost visitors to more information they may find interesting
  • Use images and videos to make your content more appealing. Using your keywords in your file names can give you a small SEO boost
  • Add a call-to-action at the end. What do you want people to do after reading your blog post? This can be downloading your brochure, contacting your admissions office, or visiting another part of your website

Post regularly and consistently

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This is a frequent trap many schools that are new to blogging fall into. They’ll post non-stop for a few weeks, lose interest, and not post again for six months.

Consistency is vital for SEO and school blogging. If Google can see you’re updating your site regularly, you’re more likely to be regarded as a trustworthy source of information, meaning an improved search engine presence.

How often should you post? HubSpot conducted a research and found that businesses that blog 16 times a month get the optimal amount of traffic. However, we appreciate that posting four times a week is a lot for most schools!

In our experience, posting once a month is enough to boost SEO. It’s better to post one high-quality, keyword-optimised blog every month than to publish 16 low-value pieces of content.

Not sure how to stay motivated enough to be consistent in blog writing? Keep reading to learn how to keep up with your content creation plans!

Check your articles

It’s essential to regularly revisit your articles to see how they perform, using tools like Google Analytics and SEMrush. If they’re not doing as well as you thought, you can then make tweaks.

For example, if the bounce rate is high, it might be that the content isn’t attracting the right people. Amending the page title and meta description or adding extra content can help.

If a page gets lots of visits but has a low conversion rate, revisiting your call-to-action can make a big difference.

Got two blog pages fighting over the same keywords? Merge them into one long post or optimise one of the pages for another keyword.

If your pages go from ranking highly to taking a dive in the search engine results, you might have a manual or algorithmic penalty in place.

The number one thing you need to do to stay consistent when writing blogs

Person in yellow jumper writing a blog on a laptop

No, it’s not a never-ending supply of coffee, although that is probably a close second!

To get your blog on track, it’s essential to develop a blog editorial calendar.

Creating a blog editorial calendar for independent schools is important. You can use it to detail which blog article needs writing, who is writing it, and when it will be published. This lets you keep track of deadlines and who in the marketing team is responsible.

A simple blog editorial calendar could look a little like this.

TitleWritten byDeadlineEdited byDeadlinePublished byDeadline
How to prepare for upcoming examsHelen17/03/23Amy22/03/23Steven24/03/23
Delicious Easter recipes to enjoy at homeHelen24/03/23David29/03/23Amy31/03/23
Why maths is important to teenagersLucas31/03/23Amy05/04/23Steven11/04/23


Pop your editorial calendar in a place where everyone can access and update it, like Google Spreadsheets. You can even use project management tools like Trello or Monday if that works well for your team.

An editorial calendar means everyone knows what they need to do and when it needs to be done. And most crucially, it helps you stick to a routine!

5 important strategies for promoting your blog to increase visibility

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So you’ve written your blog, optimised it to perfection, and hit the ‘publish’ button. What next?

While your blog will rank in the search engines, it can take a little time. So anything you can do to give it a nudge and increase traffic will give you a significant advantage!

Here are five ways you can use your other digital marketing channels to improve your school blogging efforts:

  1. Social media: share your blog posts on any social media accounts you use. 
  2. Repurpose your blogs into other forms of content: for example, can you turn a blog post into an infographic, a short video, or a presentation? 
  3. Email marketing: if you have an email marketing list, share your latest blog post with your subscribers
  4. Share your blog with relevant bloggers and news sites: if they like it, they may share it, meaning you get an all-important backlink
  5. Use online forums like Quora and Reddit to promote your articles: if someone asks a question in your niche, you can give them the link to your blog

School blogging? Sorted!

Creating a blog for your independent school website is fantastic if you want to boost your search engine presence. Plus, it’s a fun way for prospective parents and students to learn more about your school! 

Struggling to get your brand-new blog off the ground? Bubblegum Search can help. 

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We specialise in digital marketing and SEO for schools. We not only help you choose the right keywords, but create fantastic SEO-optimised content that your readers will love.

Get in touch with us today and see how we can make your school blog shine.

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