What is Search Engine Optimization and Why Is It Important?

While we’ve mentioned Search Engine Optimization (SEO) a few times, there hasn’t been a post exclusively describing what it is and how it can help your school. As an SEO guru myself, I thought it would be appropriate to write a post that would do exactly that.

SEO is a practice used to get your site to show up higher in search engine results (the three major engines are Google, Yahoo, and Bing). Some of SEO is technical, behind-the-scenes changes and some involves writing quality content and getting other sites to link to yours.

Since 90% of new traffic to sites is coming from search engines, it’s important that yours shows up in search results. If you aren’t on the first page, the odds of anyone finding you are extremely slim. They get even slimmer on the 2nd page, more so on the third page, 4th, 5th (you get where this is going). After all, how can your site gather leads, gain readership, sell a product, or provide a service if no one can find you?

That being said, if you have yet to imagine how SEO can help you, here’s a scenario:

You’re the Marketing Director for Awesome Career School in Dallas, Texas, and you’re a few weeks away from the end of the quarter. You’re looking through your goals, and, turns out, you’re a little under plan. Just one more enrollment will put you over the mark and make the whole management team extremely happy.

It’s a good thing you optimized your site a few months ago, and it’s about to pay off.

Jennifer is at home in Richardson, poking around online. She’s been putting off requesting information about massage therapy school, and she finally decides that now is the time to get serious.

She does a Google search for “massage therapy programs in Dallas”. The first two results aren’t what she’s looking for, but then she sees Awesome Career School, the third listing on the page, and clicks through. After spending a few minutes there, Jennifer likes what she sees (because you’ve also followed web design and usability best practices) and confidently requests more information about the program.
After she speaks with a member of the admissions staff, she has everything she needs and decides to enroll in the upcoming class start. She also joined your Facebook page to stay up-to-date with on-campus happenings and to connect with other students also starting classes.

And to think, all this was the result of a few changes to your site.

So whether you’re marketing a career school, hotel, ice cream stand, car dealership or dog groomer, remember the story about Jennifer. Understanding the value of SEO can help bring in business, just like it did for your school. And on top of that, learning it doesn’t require a PhD. A few simple changes could be the difference between a positive and negative quarter.

Now that you have an idea of what SEO is and how it can help your site, you might be a little more inclined to implement some tips, should I choose to share some in the future…

-Matt