6 Tips: SEO Best Practices for Optimizing Your Program Pages

Degree program pages are the heart and soul of almost any college or university website. They are the pages prospective students use most frequently to explore opportunities and compare offerings. They also tend to offer the greatest opportunities for competitive differentiation and lead generation.

Why focus on degree program pages for search optimization?

For most colleges and universities we partner with, we recommend starting with program pages to get the greatest value out of your SEO investment. According to RNL research, 70 percent of Google searches for graduate education in 2023 did not include an institution name. Rather, these searches focused on other factors of highest importance to the student: the program of interest, the level, the format, and (in many cases) being “near me”.

Optimizing degree pages can help you compete in unbranded searches and reach new audiences. For example, someone interested in pursuing an online MBA degree may start their search process with “best online MBA programs.” If you can rank for this keyword phrase in organic search, you can increase visibility for your program.

Program pages are also ideal candidates for optimization, offering the topical depth and contextual opportunities to integrate keywords and provide comprehensive and unique content that search engines reward.

How to choose program pages to optimize

Many institutions have dozens, sometimes hundreds, of degree programs. It’s not feasible to tackle all of them at once—so where do you begin?

First, consider programs with the strongest enrollment potential. Perhaps your institution is well-known for a specific program or subject area that offers unique opportunities and clear competitive differentiation. Focusing here can help you capitalize on your strengths. You might also look at programs that generate interest but are underperforming in enrollment.

Does your degree program marketing include paid digital campaigns? Combining your paid strategy with SEO can help you build a stronger brand presence online, improve search rankings, and increase conversion rates. Check out RNL’s On-Demand Webinar: Know Your Market. Know Your Students. Build Great Strategy.

RNL’s SEO strategists are experts at identifying where there is keyword search traction and opportunities to optimize. When you engage with us on an SEO project, we’ll come to the table from the beginning with recommendations to get you the greatest value from your investment.

6 SEO quick tips for program pages

Now that you know where to begin your optimization strategy, let’s dig into how to implement changes for maximum impact. Here are quick tips to keep in mind to get your program pages greater visibility in search engines:

1. Focus on quality: Quality of content is the #1 determining factor for page ranking in Google search. This means content that is comprehensive (covers a topic in detail), relevant to user questions/intent (includes keywords), and unique. While many SEO marketing firms will simply integrate keywords into your website and update metadata, RNL takes a deep dive into each page/topic we optimize to deliver compelling and relevant content that addresses the specific questions of your audience.

2. Optimize page headings. Headings help search engines understand what a page is about. They are also essential to help users navigate and scan page content to find the specific information they want. For all of these reasons, headings carry extra SEO weight. Look for ways to create compelling headings that also integrate keywords and address specific questions. Break up large blocks of text with plenty of H2 and H3 tags to make pages easier to scan. Remember to incorporate a primary keyword into your H1 heading tag and to use only one H1 tag per page.

3. Answer your audience’s questions in detail. Search engines tend to reward pages that provide comprehensive content on a particular topic. While there is no magic number for word count, we generally aim for 750-1,000 for a typical degree program page. Use headings and images to break up text and make your pages easy to read and scan. Optimizing for voice search (such as using active voice and focusing on long-tail keywords) can also improve your SEO ranking. Learn more about writing content for voice search.

4. Include quotes, testimonials, and videos. As search algorithms continue to evolve and new features such as AI overviews change how results are generated, it’s more important than ever to provide unique and compelling content. Including elements such as faculty quotes, student and alumni testimonials, and videos is a great way to enhance your program page for user experience and SEO.

5. Create a unique page for each program. To rank in organic search, it’s important to provide focused content that captures specific user intent. For example, an online degree program will likely have a different audience—and thus different keyword searches—than a traditional on-campus program. Creating an individual page for each program offering will enable you to use focused keyword research and content that addresses specific student needs.

6. Include geographic keywords. According to RNL research, most graduate students (about 82%) apply to programs within 50-100 miles from where they live. Data also shows a growing preference for in-state options among 11^th and 12^th graders who are looking at colleges. Including location-specific phrases as part of your SEO strategy will help you build visibility of your programs for local search results.

Start building a long-term SEO strategy to generate leads and drive enrollment

These on-page basics are still only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to successful SEO. Keyword strategy, HTML elements, accessibility factors, and technical aspects of your website that impact ranking are also essential ingredients. Ruffalo Noel Levitz has the team and the expertise to help you with all of this and more and deliver a long-term SEO strategy focused on generating quality leads and driving enrollment. Reach out to our experts today to start the discussion.