Sometimes I try to imagine what it was like before I could Google everything I ever wanted to know. It's hard to believe that such a time existed considering our reliance on internet searches. I Google restaurants, maps, colleagues, stores, toys for my children. You name it, I've Googled it. And you can be sure if I'm traveling I conduct a series of Google searches. If I'm heading out of the country Google is my best resource for information. Google images takes it to the next level with pages of images to accompany any search I can imagine.
If "a picture says 1000 words" then some of the pictures your prospective international students are seeing on Google images are hindering your ability to recruit students. Your website is prim and polished, displaying all of the carefully chosen images of your institution you'd like prospective students and their parents to see. However, how many of you have taken the time to Google image search the city or town in which your institution is located? I bet not many. Had I not being doing a little research, using Google images of course, I never would have discovered what I did. And you can be certain that international prospective students and their parents are doing searches of their own, including through Google images.
Here is part of the Google image search result for "Youngstown, Ohio"
Burned out buildings, a stark and vacant landscape-- I don't imagine this is the image Youngstown area colleges and universities wish to portray to prospective students. Remember in the US we may be able to consider images with some amount of context, and therefore leniency, an international observer is not likely to come to the table with the same sympathies.
My reaction after searching Youngstown was to search Cleveland, my home town. If Youngstown is portrayed negatively on Google images, I had the gut feeling that Cleveland might be also.
Here is part of the Google image search result for "Cleveland, Ohio"
Okay, so Cleveland looks beautiful on Google images. Maybe it's a city size issue, I thought. So I did one last search of my childhood home of Syracuse, New York. Syracuse is suffering from many of the same economic issues as Youngstown so I imagined the images for Syracuse could be similar.
Syracuse looks as lovely as Cleveland. So it's clearly not an issue of city size or location.
Now I'm sure you're all frantically typing away, opening another window to do a Google image search for your institution's location. You might be wondering how you can even change what a Google image search will reveal. A few suggestions if you're not happy with what you've discovered.
1. Contact your local chamber of commerce, city hall or visitor's bureau to request that additional positive images of your community are posted to the web. Make sure that whoever posts the pictures has some awareness of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) so that the images are picked up by Google's search engines.
2. You can start posting more images to your institution's website and landing pages, keeping in mind SEO guidelines so that positive images will start to be seen.
3. Google is not necessarily the search engine of choice throughout the world. While it is wildly popular in many parts of the world, you should also be aware of local search engines, such as Baidu. It is important to understand how your brand appears through local search engines and how your location appears. Performing a digital audit of your brand and location is a valuable research exercise to ensure that your image is what you'd like it to be. (Full disclosure: We perform digital audits as one of our services.)
Prospective students and parents will spend considerable time researching their higher education options. When selecting an institution parents want to ensure that their children will be safe. Students want to see that the location of the insitution is desirable. Images speak volumes beyond what an institutional website can provide. Be sure that images of your location reflect the amenities, safety and community you'd best like to portray to the international community.
