I'll bet you never thought you would need to understand dense and complex federal law working at a school. Well, here we are! Web accessibility is the law and it applies to your school.

It’s not as overwhelming as it seems!

What follows is a simple introduction and a check-list of steps to make your site accessible.

Let’s begin with the question you’re likely asking: What is website accessibility anyway?

The answer is simple. Federal law requires that people with disabilities be able to access your website. That means they must be able to navigate the site with ease, access its content, and engage with all its elements.

Now this is the million dollar question! There is a whole industry built around making sure websites are listing on Google’s first page and for very good reason. 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results.

For schools, ranking on the first page for branded searches (i.e. your school name) is usually pretty easy if you are following the basic rules of SEO however you also want to rank highly for more generic non branded searches eg “Top private schools in London”, “Independent schools near me”, “girls schools in Surrey”. 

Here’s how you can do that…

Do you regularly Google your school? Do you wonder why your school appears lower down the list than other schools in the area? It’s easy to get lost and be scared of acronyms such as SERP or SEO, but there are some simple steps you could take RIGHT NOW to be on the road to better search rankings.

Let’s start with SERP

SERP is just a fancy acronym for Search Engine Results Page. When you input a keyword or a phrase into a search engine (e.g. Google), the engine searches for the most relevant content that is created just for you, based on your browser history, social setting and location. You will notice two types of content come up; organic and paid results, along with a variety of features such as shopping results, knowledge graphs or reviews.

‘Organic’ results are pages that are shown to you due to the search engine’s algorithm based on your query. On the other hand, paid results are basically advertisements that the website owners have paid for that will only show up if their chosen keywords match your query. The sad reality is that if your school website does not come up on the first page of Google Search, you will receive fewer visitors.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) are likely to be two terms you have heard a lot of when it comes down to digital marketing. They are both methods you can employ within your content and marketing strategies to drive better reach for your website and online presence.

SEO is how you can get more traffic to your website from “natural” search results on search engines. It requires an understanding of how you can optimise your website, and the content on it, as well as the algorithms popular search engines use, to help your website rank higher on search results. The ultimate goal is for your site to rank number one on Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.

PPC is how you can get more traffic to your website by running ads, which show on search engines, but only pay for if they are clicked. It requires an understanding of keywords (the words and terms people are likely to use when searching for your school, or schools in your area) and how to set up and optimise your adverts.

Both SEO and PPC have an incredibly relevant place within your school marketing, but which one is better? Which one yields a greater return of your investment in both time and money? Let’s review.

SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is an important consideration to take when working on websites. It is the way we optimise how websites are set up and the content that populates them to rank them better on search engines.

If someone searches for your school on Google (or another search engine), you want your school to be the top result! SEO is important for your school website; we want you to have a strong presence online in our digitally-led world.

Well into 2018, we have seen the algorithms and techniques for SEO change. To keep on top of things, here are 10 SEO tips for schools:

Website SEO tips

[1] Optimised homepage: ensuring that your homepage meets SEO best practice is a vital step in boosting your site's ranking. The main aim is to ensure that keywords and page title is correct.

Keywords should only be used once per page, otherwise you will be competing against other pages for ranking. For the homepage, you will want to look at keywords like:

• school name (i.e. Interactive & School)

• type of school (i.e. Independent & Preparatory / Senior / Secondary / Primary etc.)

Page title should be the name of your school.

[2] URLs

In a similar vein, using good practice across your URLs will help with SEO. The page's title should match (or at least make up the core of the URL) as it moves through the different levels of your sitemap.