Use International SEO to Recruit Students Abroad

Mastering International SEO to Recruit Students Abroad

Presented by: Higher Education Marketing

1.  Why SEO Matters for International Student Recruitment 2.  Auditing Your School’s Current International Reach 3.  Popular Search Engines for International Recruitment

4.  Conducting International Keyword Research

5.  Localising Your Recruitment Content 6.  On Page SEO Architecture for your School’s Website

7.  Off Page SEO: Building Links with International Student Communities

Overview

1. Why SEO Matters for International Student Recruitment

Source: HEM – Recruiting Students Abroad with International SEO

The international market is bringing thousands of bright, eligible prospective students to schools in different countries each year.

� In the 2014/15 academic year, the USA alone had 304,040 Chinese students, 132,888 Indian students, and 63,710 South Korean students!

�  A good SEO strategy could be a crucial factor in your school’s growth .

Research has shown that almost two-thirds of international students search for schools abroad through internet searches

- Big Choice Group

Before developing your plan of action for international SEO, do an audit of your current organic reach in other countries: �  ‘Geo’ reports in Google Analytics will show the traffic to your

website by country

�  Filter search queries reports by location in Webmaster tools �  Compile data on your organic visibility, CTR and conversions

This process will help you decide which countries to prioritise to maximise your chances of success!


2. Auditing Your School’s Current International Reach

Depending on the region you’re targeting, Google might not be the main search engine you should be focusing your SEO efforts on. Other popular search engines in different regions include: �  Baidu in China

�  Yandex in Russia and some parts of Eastern Europe �  Naver in South Korea

Google, as well as many popular Western sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are banned or restricted in parts of certain key markets such as China and the Middle East.

3. Popular Search Engines for International Recruitment


Baidu at a glance for online student recruitment professionals-



Ø  Accounts for about 63% of all search traffic in China

Ø  Favours sites with local IP Addresses

Ø  Prefers use of Chinese characters

Ø  Site loading speed is a ranking factor

Ø  Unable to effectively crawl Javascript and Flash

What education marketing professionals need to know about Yandex-



Ø  62% of the market share in Russia

Ø  Also popular in other Eastern European countries

Ø  Similar SEO practices to Google Ø  Only indexes content a few

times a day Ø  Counts outbound links to

authority sites in its indexing

Why Naver is the preferred choice for international student recruitment in South Korea-



Ø  70% share of the Korean market

Ø  SERP layout is split into different sections

Ø  Categories include Naver Cafe, a social media platform

Ø  Other SERP sections include Naver Knowledge and Naver Encyclopedia

Conducting international keyword research is possibly the most difficult part of international SEO. Some options for schools include- �  Hiring professionals familiar with your targeted region to find relevant

keywords in the local language

�  Conducting keyword research with Google Keyword Planner

�  Using Bing and Yandex’s keyword tools in regions where Google isn’t popular

�  Tools like UberSuggest to identify longtail keywords �  SimilarWeb to identify your competitors in the region and their practices

4. Conducting International Keyword Research


Providing international students with content in their own language lets them know they are a priority for your school. If you’re translating your existing content, here’s some important things to keep in mind- �  Use professional translation services to avoid grammatical and

contextual errors �  Organise your content using Hreflang tags, which show search engines

the relationship between the different language versions of the same webpage.

�  Duplicates of the same page cause crawlers to waste time. Hreflang tags send a clear signal about the purpose of the page, allowing them to index it correctly.

5. Localising Your Recruitment Content


Recruiters need to ensure that their content is not only translated but localised, as each region will have its own lingual idiosyncrasies- �  Hreflang tags are also extremely useful for this purpose, as

they can provide search engines with indications of the regions a specific page is intended for, as well as the language.

Example-

A Hreflang tag for English speakers in the UK might look like this: <link rel=”alternate” hreflang= “en-GB” href=http://www.university.com/uk/>

Whereas one which serves users in Canada would look more like this: <link rel=”alternate” hreflang= “en-CA” href=http://www.university.com/ca/>



You can also make your international recruitment campaigns stand apart from your competition by creating region-specific content, which can include - �  Landing Pages

�  Blog posts �  Admissions information that speaks directly to a specific region you’re

targeting

Region-specific content will improve your search rankings. Since search engines prioritize relevant content, any page from your website which specifically mentions the end user’s location will rank higher in that region.



To conduct a successful international SEO initiative, you need to carefully consider the architecture of your regional webpages. There are three possible options for the international version of your site- �  A country code top level domain (ccTLD) site �  A Generic Top-Level-Domain (gTLD) address with subdirectory pages

�  A gTLD site with subdomains

Each of these options has its own specific advantages and disadvantages, and schools need to carefully consider which one best suits their student recruitment needs.

6. On Page SEO Architecture for your School’s Website




� Building authority for new ccTLDs can take time

� Essentially requires a separate site to be built from scratch

� Can be more difficult to link with your original site

A ccTLD is a domain which is associated with a specific country, such as .ca for Canada or .fr for France

�  Can help ensure that your international site ranks higher in your targeted country

�  Users view ccTLD domains as more trustworthy

�  Ideal for schools focusing on specific countries

ccTLD Pros- ccTLD Cons-



� Don’t have their own specific IP addresses

� Weak geolocalisation signals for search engines

� Can be very difficult to increase popularity in specific countries

If you already have a gTLD (.com, .org) address, using sub-directories might be a better alternative. Sub directories are separate folders within your school’s existing website which contain your alternate pages-

�  Inherit the popularity of your existing site

�  Much simpler to set up and maintain than a separate domain

�  Option to create pages that target by both region and language

Subdirectory Pros- Subdirectory Cons-

Example- The University of Ottawa use a subdirectory for the French language version of their site



Subdirectories are by far the simplest way to organise the alternate language version of your site to generate more leads!



� Users trust ccTLDs more

� Separate IP addresses require a separate SEO strategy for your subdomain

� Can be time-consuming to build

� The other option is to create the international site on a sub-domain of your current site e.g. es.university.com. This is treated as a separate site that’s affiliated to your URL -

�  Inherits the popularity of your existing site

�  Makes it easier for search engines to index your content

�  Allows you to have a separate IP in your target region

Subdomain Pros- Subdomain Cons-

Example- � Peking University use a sub-domain for the English version of their

website.



Subdomains are a good compromise between ccTLDs and subdirectory pages for student recruitment.

Building strong inbound links to boost your site’s International SEO authority can be difficult when you’re attempting to break into an unfamiliar region. Here’s some useful tips- �  Creating original, relevant content for international students

�  Build inbound links organically using social bookmarking sites such as Reddit and Stumbleupon

�  Drive traffic to your site using social media �  Keep in mind students in different regions use different social networks

e.g. VK in Russia, WeChat in China etc.

Above all else, don’t underestimate the human side of SEO! Aim to capture the mindset of international students, what they are looking for from a school, and their particular concerns about studying abroad, and success will follow!

7. Off Page SEO: Building Links with International Student Communities
