teachers-day-google-doodleWhen people want to solve a problem today the first place they look is Google (or the search engine of their choice). Before buying or signing up for almost anything people research possibilities with the Internet to find solutions and learn what is available, and where, and for how much.

By optimizing your program’s web presence, Google and other search engines can direct those curious searchers directly to your program’s online product or course catalog. Here are some tips to try today…

  1. Do you know what potential customers are searching for to find you? Using Google Adwords Keywords tool, you can start to investigate what the “keywords” are that people use, and how popular they are. Here's the Adwords tool. Start by searching for the words you would use to search for your organization or classes, and explore the results that are related to those searches for insight, and inspiration, into your audience and how they search. 
  2. Once you’ve identified these different keywords, do you see them reflected in the language on your site? Do you have content that allows visitors to discover the benefits and opportunity that a class could be for them?  Continuing Educators and Marketers are an intelligent and worldly bunch, but it’s important to remember that not every visitor to your site will use the same language you use. If you don’t use the terms visitors use to find you, the search engines won’t know to offer you up as a good option for them when they’re searching.
  3. Do you make a point of posting on other relevant sites, forums, blogs and social networks with attached links back to your website? This is a basic and essential step for letting the search engines know you’re a credible site that is providing real value to the Internet at large.
  4. Is your content on the site (meaning web copy, blog posts, videos and more) fresh and frequently changing? Does the information on the web page grab visitors, and keep them glued to the page? These factors are very important to Google when they decide how high to rank your site in search.

Check out the previous topic on continuing education program marketing on the topic of budgets and measurement.  You may also be interested in exploring an article we wrote on the world of search in light of Google's major algorithm changes to understand more how things have changed in the last 15 months.  It's called:  SEO Basics After Panda and Penguin.

Most of all, let us know what questions that you have - leave a comment below.