optimizing your website for prospective...

The higher education guide to website best

practices, do’s and don’t’s.

OPTIMIZING YOUR WEBSITE

FOR PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS

PRESENTER INFORMATION

RYAN FRAZIER

Associate Director of Inbound

Marketing

Learning House

JEFF CREECH

SEO Manager

Learning House

There are two relevant audiences to consider when

discussing website best practices.

• Humans (UX Factors)

• Robots (SEO Factors)

CREATING THE OPTIMAL .EDU

USER EXPERIENCE (UX)

FACTORS

UX design is the process of designing (digital or

physical) products that are:

• useful

• easy to use

• and delightful to interact with

WHAT IS USER EXPERIENCE (UX)?

42% 33%

32%

IMPROVE CUSTOMERRETENTION

IMPROVE CUSTOMERSATISFACTION

INCREASE CROSS-SELLING &UPSELLING

WHY IMPROVE UX? The top three reasons businesses

proactively manage and invest in

user experience are to:

WHY UX MATTERS?

UNDERSTAND

YOUR STUDENTS’

PRIORITIES.

DON’T BURY

INFO ON THESE

PRIORITIES.

Cost Academic

Programs Scholarships Financial Aid

Course

Details Housing

Enrollment &

Admissions

Campus &

Student Life

Designing for Young Adults (Ages 18-25), Nielsen Norman Group

COLLEGE STUDENTS (18-25) & PARENTS

ONLINE LEARNERS

Online

Programs Tuition Financial Aid Admissions About

Online College Students Report 2016, Learning House

Princeton About Academics Admissions

& Aid Arts

Internation

al Library Research

About Admissions

& Aid Schools

On

Campus Harvard

Becoming

a Student Programs Tuition Military

Current

Students

Liberty

Online

Degrees &

Programs Admissions

Tuition &

Financial

Aid

About

WGU

The WGU

Experience

WGU

Online

Student

Priorities Cost Academics

Scholarshi

ps

Financial

Aid

Course

Details Housing

Enrollment

&

Admissions

Campus &

Student

Life

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Contact

BUILD NAVIGATION TO ALIGN WITH

USER INTENTIONS AND EXPECTATIONS.

USE WEBSITE ANALYTICS

TO LEARN AND ITERATE

ON STUDENT PRIORITIES.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS INTERFACE

NAVIGATION

User Experience Factors

UTILIZE MULTIPLE NAVIGATION

TYPES TO STREAMLINE

THE USER JOURNEY.

DON’T OVERWHELM USERS

WITH CLUTTERED LISTS.

IF THERE’S NO OTHER OPTION,

BREAK LISTS UP VISUALLY

WITH CATEGORY HEADERS.

Content Based

About, Admissions, Academics

Audience Based

Faculty, Students, Staff, Alumni

Utility Based

Moodle, Blackboard, Academic Calendar

TYPES OF NAVIGATION

Main Menu / Primary Navigation

Secondary Navigation

Footer Navigation

Internal Navigation

CTA’s

HOMEPAGE

User Experience Factors

KEEP CONTENT

“ABOVE THE FOLD.”

DON’T GATE ENTRY

BEHIND CAROUSELS

OR MEDIA.

WHAT IS A CAROUSEL?

Branding Thought

Leadership

Service Promotion

Homepage

Views

4,584 33,494 729,882

Carousel Clicks 32 76 1,179

Click

Percentage

0.65% 0.22% 0.16%

WHY ARE CAROUSELS BAD?

Purpose of Website

Homepage Sliders: Bad for SEO, Bad for Usability, Search Engine Land

ACADEMIC/PROGRAM

PAGES

User Experience Factors

PLACE VALUE PROPOSITIONS

AT OR NEAR

THE TOP OF THE PAGE.

MAINTAIN A

CONSISTENT TEMPLATE

ACROSS PROGRAM PAGES.

CREATE SIMPLE

TRANSITION POINTS

THROUGHOUT.

CONVERSION ELEMENTS

User Experience Factors

SETUP GOAL

CONVERSIONS TO

TRACK DESIRED

USER ACTIONS.

User Actions you might want to track:

• A user fills out your lead form

• A user exits the process before completing your

lead form

• A user views your homepage video

• A user spends a specified amount of time on

your site

WHAT IS A GOAL CONVERSION?

WHAT IS A/B TESTING?

MOBILE

User Experience Factors

CREATE STREAMLINED

EXPERIENCES FOR

MOBILE USERS.

DON’T UPLOAD IMAGES

WITHOUT RESIZING

AND OPTIMIZING

THEM FOR THE WEB.

SEARCH ENGINE

OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

FACTORS

How many people here would like for their

university to show up as the #1 search result for:

Best University in the US Best Universities in USA

Best University in the US

Best Universities in USA

35.7% of users that

visited our clients’ websites were referred from a search engine.

The goal of a search engine is to provide the most RELEVANT and

AUTHORITATIVE results for any search that a user queries.

THE MISSION OF SEARCH ENGINES

HOW SEO WORKS

Relevance Authority

Determined by on-page factors

• Keyword Usage

• Meta Titles

• Internal Linking

• Usability Metrics

Determined by off-page factors

• Number of links to your website

• Quality of links to your website

• Number of unique websites linking to you

70%

30%

KEYWORDS

SEO Factors

MAKE CONSCIOUS AND

STRATEGIC DECISIONS

ABOUT KEYWORDS TO

HELP WRITE CONTENT

THAT IS OPTIMIZED FOR

THE SEARCH ENGINES.

Keyword Research Tools

Keyword

Monthly

Volume

Master of Business

Administration 851-1.7k

MBA 30.3k-

70.8k

BSN 4.3k-6.5k

BS in nursing 101-200

Keyword Research

KEYWORD RESEARCH BASICS

When possible, try and

incorporate the keyword in

the following locations:

URL

Page Title

Meta Title

Within the first paragraph

Headers (h1’s and h2’s)

Image Alt Text

Between 6-10 times in total

KEYWORD USAGE

EXPLOIT THE LONG-TAIL TO

IDENTIFY LESS COMPETITIVE

OPPORTUNITIES.

Business Administration Programs

Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration

Bachelor’s in Business Administration Programs in KY

CONSUMER

PURCHASE

AWARENESS

INTEREST

DESIRE

ACTION

Business Degrees

KEYWORD INTENT

URL CONVENTIONS

SEO Factors

STRUCTURE

URLS THAT

ARE SEMANTIC,

CANONICAL AND

SEO-FRIENDLY.

SEMANTIC

Is immediately and intuitively meaningful to non-expert users

CANONICAL

Exists only once, or which specifies the “preferred” version of content that may be duplicative

SEO-FRIENDLY

Utilizes keywords when possible

WHAT MAKES A GOOD URL?

Bad URL(s)

http://www.website.edu/progdetail.aspx?menu=173&id=2683

http://website.edu/progdetail.aspx?menu=173&id=2683

Good URL https://www.website.edu/online-degrees/business/bachelors-

accounting

WHAT MAKES A BAD URL?

REDIRECTS

SEO Factors

MAP REDIRECTS

DURING A REDESIGN

TO MAINTAIN TRAFFIC

AND AUTHORITY.

R

E

D

E

S

I

G

N

2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011

http://example.edu/mba

http://example.edu/degrees/mba

URLs have history. A 301 redirect is the preferred

way to change a URL, but maintain the history.

WHAT IS A 301 REDIRECT?

SITE ARCHITECTURE

SEO Factors

AVOID AN INFORMATION

ARCHITECTURE THAT IS

TOO FLAT OR TOO DEEP.

Level 2

Level 1

Home Home

Section

Page Page

Section

Page

Section

Page Page

Section

Page

Section Section

Page

FLAT HIERARCHY

Websites with flat architectures have many pages at the highest tiers, and

organize pages using a minimal amount of levels.

www.university.com/section1/page1

www.university.com/section2

www.university.com/section3

…

Level 4

Level 3

Level 2

Level 1

Home Home

Section

Subsection

Page

Subpage Subpage

Page

Subsection

Page

Subpage

Section

Subsection

Page

Subpage Subpage

DEEP HIERARCHY

Websites with deep architectures organize pages with more levels and fewer

pages within levels.

www.university.com/section1/subsection1/page1/subpage1/

FOR WEBSITES WITH

DEEPER HIERARCHIES,

PROVIDE SHORTCUTS TO

LOWER CONTENT.

Level 4

Level 3

Level 2

Level 1

Home Home

Section

Subsection

Page

Subpage Subpage

Page

Subsection

Page

Subpage

Section

Subsection

Page

Subpage Subpage

LINKS

SEO Factors

WHEN LINKING

INTERNALLY, USE

ANCHOR TEXT THAT

RELATES TO YOUR

KEYWORD STRATEGY.

DON’T USE

CLICK HERE.

EVER.

Bad Link

• Click here to schedule a campus tour.

Good Links

• Let’s meet! Schedule your campus tour.

• Develop your skills with the RN to BSN program

at Example U.

EXAMPLE INTERNAL LINKS

TRAIN YOUR

PR/MARKETING TEAM

TO ASK FOR LINKS.

SHARE YOUR

KEYWORD STRATEGY

WITH ALL SITE EDITORS.

Thanks!

Enjoy the remainder

of Connect 2017!