Dot IT

Extreme Competition; Getting on the First Page

The client also faced a number of challenges that we needed to take into account. For starters, the market they were operating in was very competitive and crowded with schools. Actually, a few schools had already taken over the top positions on search results for popular keywords.

And given that the client’s website didn’t have any local relevance in their keywords, nor were they targeting keywords with high commercial intent, it was going to be difficult for them to achieve visibility, especially on the first page.

Their potential target audience would have to be very familiar with the client’s brand name for them to appear on the first page, and even that wasn’t happening.

Therefore, we knew we had to develop a multi-pronged approach and do some serious work for the client to stay ahead of its competition.

Building a Strategy for Success

Here’s the plan we put in place and executed for the client to make sure they’d get above their competition.

Website Enhancement and Cleaning Up Technical Issues

First, we addressed the technical issues plaguing the client’s website. Plus, we worked on generally enhancing it to make it more attractive and professional. We upgraded their site to ensure that it was mobile-friendly, easy to navigate, and technically sound across different devices.

The purpose was to make the site more easily indexable and crawlable by Google and help the client’s SEO strategy. By enhancing the website’s design and layout, we also made it more appealing to prospective families and fixed any aspects that might’ve been negatively affecting the user experience.

SEO Campaign: Ramping Up Rankings

Now that the website was in tiptop shape, we built an SEO campaign that’d effectively push the client’s website to the top of search results. Here’s how we made it happen.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO is a crucial element in any SEO strategy, entailing the necessary optimizations to make the website accessible, fast to load, and error-free so that it’s appealing to search engines. That’s precisely what we ensured for our client.

We conducted a full technical analysis and audited the website before starting any campaigns. Then, we fixed all errors such as broken links, 404 errors, and other technical roadblocks that could keep the client from climbing up in SERPs.

For instance, we worked on increasing site speed by fine-tuning factors such as page caching, optimizing images, minimizing redirects, and similar. We also implemented a proper XML sitemap to help search engines find pages and resources on the client’s website faster.

The bottom line is that we fixed all factors hindering crawling and indexing by search engines to eliminate the risk of rankings dropping due to bad user experience.

Keyword Research

Now, since the client wanted to target specific keywords, we had to figure out which keywords were worth their time. The goal was to understand what’s popular in school-related searches to craft an SEO strategy that’d help the client achieve top rankings, even for competitive terms.

So, we conducted a thorough keyword research process to determine which keywords would be most effective for our client’s business.

To do so, we first had to figure out what the competition was doing and study the popular ranking web pages so that we’d know how to take advantage of their strategy. We then examined the search behavior on Google concerning searches related to our client’s business to determine which keywords were the most common.

In doing so, we ended up with a list of keywords that we were going to target. We also combined them with more general keywords to make sure that we’d rank highly for all of them to establish a strong brand presence.

Competitor Analysis

To further enhance our strategy, we analyzed our client’s competitors to figure out their strengths and how they were standing out in terms of search rankings. We also analyzed the user experience on competitor websites and how it stacked against our client’s website.

By studying their campaigns, keywords, content structure, and other aspects of their SEO strategy, we were able to establish a thorough competitor analysis that’d help us find out what our client needed to do to stay ahead of them.

This allowed us to find out where our client could improve so that they would rank higher than their competitors and provide a better experience for visitors. Eventually, this would result in gaining more loyal customers.

On-Page Optimization

Once we had all our data in place, it was time to start crafting an on-page optimization campaign that’d produce top rankings for the client’s specific keywords.

This included all the necessary steps such as creating optimized page titles, title tags, and meta descriptions, using header tags, crafting high-quality content, embedding images, building links, and setting up various elements correctly so that users would find the website more easily.

These elements are crucial to making a website as SEO-friendly as possible, as they provide the foundation for building the right user experience. In fact, they give search engines important information about what a page is about and how it should be ranked in SERPs. So, we made sure to use them correctly and to their fullest potential.

That way, we could enhance the chances of all pages ranking higher in search results. All this took place while following Google’s latest best practices for SEO so that the strategy would be as effective as possible.

Content Marketing / Blog Posts

Of course, we didn’t stop there. With the list of relevant keywords compiled, we shifted our focus to creating an engaging inbound marketing strategy around those keywords that’d drive prospective families (or any prospective student) to the client’s site.

We wanted people to find their website organically through targeted keywords, which is why we prioritized producing blog posts that were informative and easy to understand.

The purpose was to provide high-quality information instead of just focusing on SEO keywords too. We advised the client to write about topics that people would actually be interested in, making sure they’d trust our content, which is crucial for user experience.

Since content marketing is one of the most influential aspects of SEO, these blog posts would continue to send traffic to the client’s website over time. That way, the client would be able to keep building their brand awareness and nurture their website’s authority in relevant keyword searches.

Therefore, to establish a strong online presence, we ensured that the client would produce content that’s optimized for both readers and search engines alike. By doing that, they’d be able to sustain their brand awareness. Simultaneously, they’d be establishing themselves as an authority in their industry.

Off-Page Optimization / Link Building

Next, we went forward with a series of link-building initiatives to increase the website’s authority and boost its rankings. We had one goal in mind: generating quality backlinks from reputable sources.

This would help us get on the radar of Google and other search engines while simultaneously improving the client’s visibility. To do that, we created a list of websites with high authority, audiences, and domain names that would be a perfect match for our client’s website.

From there, we designed a creative approach with our client so that each link from the list would have maximum impact on their web presence. For example, we sent emails to several education websites to share our client’s blog pieces.

We also socialized them on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms to make sure the content would resonate with a wider range of audiences. And, of course, we followed Google’s guidelines on what constitutes better backlinks.

The right content, timing, and outreach efforts allowed us to build targeted backlinks from authority websites. Overall, this helped the client increase their domain authority and their page’s ranking power.

Local SEO (Google My Business/Google Business Profile)

For this particular client, local SEO played a crucial role in their website’s success. They knew that to be successful with online marketing, they’d need to ensure that their local audience easily found their website and brand. Our goal was to provide the same level of optimization and success in local SEO as we produced in our other initiatives.

With this in mind, we decided it was best to set up a Google My Business profile for them. We wanted to make sure that all the necessary information was provided so that users looking for the company could find their website organically.

Having a Google Business profile, plus all the right citations (like their name, address, informative business description, website link, and phone number), helped our client get indexed quickly and listed on Google Maps.

With this approach, we helped them become more visible online. At the same time, we created an easy way for people to connect with them. As a result, our client started getting quality leads from potential customers who were located close to them when doing searches in their city or neighborhood.

Monthly Reports With KPIs

To keep our client informed about the performance of our optimizations, we created monthly reports for particular KPIs. These included all the necessary data and KPIs (like total site visits, total leads generated, organic search traffic, and conversions).

These reports allowed us to track the success of each optimization initiative, helping us identify what works best for their website so we can further fine-tune our approach during the next month.

We used this approach to ensure that we constantly deliver useful and actionable insights about their web presence and keep them up-to-date on our progress. On top of that, we made sure these reports were easy to digest with simple language and visuals so that they’d be able to understand the data at a glance.

Every month, we helped our client allocate funds where they were needed most. This allowed them to increase visibility and turn site visits into sales for their business.

Client testimonial: We have started with them in October 2019 with the 58th SERP with branded search keywords now we are in 1st SERP with 90+ non-branded keywords.