You are reading an excerpt from our e-book "88 Ways to Recruit International Students" (Click here to read the entire book)
#57. Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is all about your placement on a search engine site without paying the search engine provider. The search engine reads your page and decides how relevant your content is to the respective search. Many factors go into the algorithm making that determination. That’s the secret sauce for search engines. A whole cottage industry of SEO consultants has developed to guide you in steps you can take to improve your rankings. Your marketing department should be familiar with these methods.
International recruiting throws a new challenge into the equation. Non-English searches many times rely on search engines using different algorithms and thus resulting in less predictable pulls on your website. We offer you an entire e- book on Global SEO implementation on our website: http://bit.ly/Global SEO.
#58. Paid search options
Paid search placements are available from all the major search engines around the world, led by Google, Baidu, Bing/Yahoo. You pay for each click on the link to your website or specifically designed landing page. How expensive the click will be for you depends on demand for the keyword. The pricing is established by an auction process. But keep in mind that the cost of the click is only one element; your actual return on investment (ROI) depends on the conversion from that click to a prospect, and ultimately an enrolled student. So the actual cost of the click is relevant in the context of all your other conversion metrics; you may want to buy an expensive search term if you receive more qualified leads. Analysis includes looking at the conversion rate at each step of the marketing cycle above, from the initial registration to enrollment.
