Colleges are businesses like any other. They need to compete in a market that is grandfathered against them. A college that hasn’t yet made a name for itself has to try to outshine some of the many higher education institutions that have been advertising themselves for decades. It can be a significant uphill battle.
That’s why a college can’t hope that word of mouth alone is enough to compete. High school graduates and parents do their research, and they look to make sure that they are going to an impressive college that calls to them. They want to know they will get a quality education.
Throwing a Website Together Isn’t Enough
Unfortunately, most small and new colleges fail to take advantage of one tool that can level the playing field – the Internet. Many have a few basic pages with some information thrown together, failing to give the impression that they are a place of higher learning.
You need a web presence that draws people into your school. That means:
- Pages that sell the students on your college.
- Pages that show up in relevant searches in top search engines.
- Pages that indicate that you’re a university with learning opportunities.
Your reputation alone is not enough, and many colleges don’t yet have the reputation necessary to draw in visitors. Google already values .edu websites, so right away you have a decent place to start, but you need to do more. That’s where content writing comes in.
Content writing isn’t something that most colleges are used to investing in. But part of the reason for that is that most colleges have been developing their websites for years. They already have thousands of pages, and natural marketing from years of link generation. Websites that haven’t yet developed that content can’t wait 10 years for it to build up naturally. You need to start adding content now, and reach a level of pages and optimization that helps you compete against other colleges.
If you’re curious about how adding content to your college website – or high school website, or elementary school website, for that matter – contact us today, so that we can explain to you the value of content and why your school can benefit.