If you are a higher education professional, then you have been on an emotional tilt-a-whirl for one full year. Your days are spent wondering if students will still apply to your programs. At night, you dream up new ways to engage with students. You fear that your new, virtual efforts may fall flat. And it’s impossible to predict enrollment outcomes, no matter what the data says. You’ve gone round and round so many times; you are nauseous and want the ride to end.
Yes, you are tired. But, you are still determined to do your job well and meet the goals set forth by your institution. If you work in admissions or communications, maybe you decide to audit your marketing and recruitment efforts to see what’s working and what’s not. You assess inquiries obtained from virtual college fairs, requests for information from digital ads, and applications submitted as a result of email campaigns. These are all critical areas to evaluate.
But are you also considering every angle when it comes to SEO?
According to Niche.com, “search engine optimization is the process of developing a website to get traffic from organic search results. The stronger your web pages are, the higher it will rank in organic SERPS (search engine result pages).” Beyond developing a robust website with the right keywords, enhancing your social media presence can also help your SEO efforts.
You might be thinking: “Well, I already maintain my webpages and create content for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I’m doing everything I can.” Not so fast.
Does your school or department have a Wikipedia page? If not, here are five things to keep in mind as you contemplate whether you need one.
- Wikipedia pages consistently appear on the first page of Google search results. When prospective students search for your school or department, they will likely visit your website to learn more. However, they also might choose to visit Wikipedia to find basic, streamlined information about your institution. Having a Wikipedia page for your school or department is a simple way to influence what appears on the first page of search results for your future students.
- Even if students don’t visit your Wikipedia page, simply having one can increase brand awareness and drive more traffic to your website. Colorado Digital Experts explain that “creating a Wikipedia article and inserting links within it is a great way to help your page rank higher. Having external links from Wikipedia to your site also helps in boosting your page rank score.” Moreover, students may find themselves on your Wikipedia page or school website via a link from another Wikipedia page.
- There are procedures when it comes to creating content for colleges and universities. The Wikipedia: College and University Article Guideline page states that “all colleges and universities are de facto notable and should be included on Wikipedia.” In addition, pages should be written from a neutral point of view, without praise or emotion. Rankings should be precise and honest. There are also several important Terms of Use guidelines that faculty and staff, or people working at libraries and archives, must follow when making contributions to their organization’s Wikipedia page. These terms require proper disclosures about your employer and affiliation with your college or university.
- You may have heard otherwise, but the information found on Wikipedia is reliable. In 2016, Timo Staub and Thomas Hodel studied the effectiveness of quality control on Wikipedia. They found that “internet content which can be found on collaborative platforms such as Wikipedia is not only abundant, but also trustworthy… Only authors who have published a relatively large amount of quality content will get to superior hierarchical levels. As a result, the quality of Wikipedia articles is constantly being scrutinized and discussed by both readers and venerated Wikipedians alike.” When consumed critically and carefully, Wikipedia offers users legitimate resources.
- Wikipedia is one more platform that necessitates time and energy, which you might not have right now. Many higher education admissions and marcomm professionals are already running on fumes. With limited staffing and resources, creating and maintaining a Wikipedia page may not be possible at this time. There are already too many other social media platforms and webpages to update and monitor.
Creating a Wikipedia page for your department or school requires planning, content creation, institutional awareness, procedural knowledge, and time. While you can already find most colleges and universities on Wikipedia, now you may discover individual graduate units or departments in this space, too. Developing this page for your school or department can be a low-cost way to improve your SEO strategy.
Agree or disagree: Making a Wikipedia page can help higher education marketers improve SEO.