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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!