From primary/elementary school to secondary/high school it’s pretty much accepted that most students take their…
Writing Educational Blog Articles to Drive Traffic To a School’s Website
September 22, 2022 / blog / Comments (0)
Introduction to why educational blog articles work; when families are looking for a school in their area, they’ll usually turn to the internet to help them make their decision. That’s why it’s so important for schools to have a strong online presence—and having a high-quality educational blog articles is a big part of that. Google loves to promote websites that are full of original content that’s both relevant and comprehensive. And that’s exactly what a blog can provide—provided you fill it with high-quality articles and posts.
In this article, the School Agency team will show you how to do just that. We’ll be sharing some tips and tricks that we use to when helping schools write better education articles for their blogs.
Here are our top tips:
- Cover topics that are relevant to your target audience.
- Think about search intent when targeting keywords.
- Write for your audience, not for search engines.
- Make your articles more comprehensive than the competition.
- Use imagery and videos.
- Optimize your headlines.
- Pay attention to SEO fundamentals and best practices.
- Use social media to promote your content.
Now, let’s dive a bit deeper into each of these points.
1. Cover topics that are relevant to your target audience.
The first step in writing any blog post is to figure out who your target audience is. Once you know who you’re writing for, it’ll be much easier to come up with topics that are relevant to them.
If you’re not sure who your target audience is, consider conducting some market research. Once you have a good understanding of who your ideal customer is, find out what topics they’re interested in—possibly by surveying your current student and parent communities.
2. Think about search intent.
When people are searching for something online, they usually have one of four intentions:
- Informational Intent: Trying to learn more about something (e.g., “What are the best schools in Dubai?”)
- Navigational Intent: Trying to find something specific (e.g., “Dubai International Academy”)
- Commercial Intent: Trying to learn something specific before taking an action (e.g. “Dubai International Academy art program”)
- Transactional Intent: Trying to complete a specific action (e.g., “Apply to Dubai International Academy”)
It’s important to think about what someone’s intention is when they search for a particular keyword. That way, you can choose keywords that will actually help you achieve your business objectives.
For example, if your current content campaign is designed to directly increase applications to your school, then you’ll want to target transactional and commercial keywords. If your content campaign is designed to increase brand awareness, you’ll want to target informational keywords.
3. Write for your audience, not for search engines.
One of the biggest mistakes that schools make is writing their blog articles for search engines instead of their target audience. This usually results in articles that are full of keywords and lack any real substance.
Not only is this bad for SEO, but it also doesn’t do anything to engage or convert your readers. So, instead of worrying about cramming in as many keywords as possible, focus on writing articles that are interesting and informative.
4. Make your articles more comprehensive than the competition.
When it comes to blog articles, length isn’t everything. That said, Google (and most other search engines) prioritize articles that are more comprehensive. When Google’s algorithm recommends a page, the hope is that it’s the only page the searcher will need to visit.
Educational blog articles
This means that if you want your school’s articles to rank highly in search results, you need to be covering topics from all angles—or more angles than your competitors, at least.
If you’re struggling with this, there are a number of great content optimization tools on the market that may be able to help, including:
These tools scan the top search results for a given keyword and give you targeted feedback about how you can make your articles more comprehensive.
5. Use imagery and videos.
One of the best ways to make your articles more visually appealing is to use images and videos. People are visual creatures, and adding multimedia elements to your content can help keep readers engaged.
Another great thing about using videos and images is that they can help increase the amount of time people spend on your site. And, as we know, Google looks at dwell time as a key metric when determining where to rank articles in search results.
6. Optimize your headlines.
Your headline is the first—and sometimes only—thing people will see of your article. This means that if you want people to actually click through and read your articles, you need to have killer headlines.
Here are a few tips for writing headlines that will help you increase traffic to your school website:
- Be concise (60-100 characters).
- Use strong verbs and active language.
- Include numbers.
- Use your primary keyword.
7. Promote your articles.
Even the best article will struggle to get traffic if no one knows it exists. This is why promotion is such an important part of any content marketing strategy.
There are a number of ways you can promote your articles, including:
- Social media
- Email marketing
- Paid promotion
- PR and outreach
8. Analyze and adjust.
It’s also important to analyze the performance of your articles and make adjustments accordingly. Google Analytics is a great tool for this—it can help you track things like pageviews, time on site, and bounce rate.
If you see that certain articles are performing well, try to replicate that success with future articles. And if you see that certain articles aren’t getting much traction, consider changing the headline, adding more multimedia elements, or promoting the article more heavily.
9. Hire a professional.
Creating blog post and articles that not only rank well in search engines, but also inspires readers to apply to your schools is challenging. If you don’t have the time or resources to do it yourself, consider hiring a professional marketing agency.
A good agency will have a team of experienced writers, SEO specialists, and promoters who can help you create a content strategy that’s tailored to your school’s needs and goals. And, perhaps most importantly, they can take on the bulk of the work, so you can focus on other aspects of running your school.
At the School Agency, we’ve helped schools across the UAE increase their website traffic, inquiries, and enrollments with our content marketing services. To learn more about what we can do for your school, contact us today.
Tags:blog articles on private school marketing Content creation for schools , Content writing for education , content writing for organic marketing , content writing for page ranking , Organic content Writing , Ranking your School's webpage , Writing Educational Articles