Internet college recruiting and marketing: Web promotion, techniques and law

Journal of College Admission, Fall 2003 by Mentz, George, Whiteside, Richard

* Pay for Inclusion or Pay Per Performance Engines and Programs: Yahoo, Google, AdWords, and Overture are increasingly important to Web site performance and targeted visitors. Many search engines such as Looksmart19 (which provides results for MSN) and Overture20 (which sponsors results for AOL and Yahoo) give you a bid-for placement advantage over Webmasters because you pay for per-click marketing placement where your visitor sees a sponsored listing on the first page of results. Recently, Yahoo bought Inktomi, another relevant consideration for listings.

* Your College Domain Name and Web Address: A fair percentage of your Web visitors will locate your home page by simply typing the name of the college into the browser coupled with dot edu.

Universities and Search Engine Listings for Education Institutions

Because you are a non-profit or education and research institution, search directories like Google may list all of your Web pages for free. Placing all of your forms in html versions online increases your visibility and link popularity. However, universities and colleges can be banned for spam (over-submitting Web sites to search engines). You may want your site's links, forms, and other documents in hyperlink text format so search engines you submit to can catalog (spider) them.

Admitting Your Best Prospects Online and In Person: Use of Superlatives

Search engines frown upon the use of superlatives in Internet marketing. So be careful using statements like, "The top school in the region... " Insert aggressive marketing copy on Web sites Utilize credentials, benefits, accolades, testimonials, and all other positive points. University Web sites do their jobs if they produce leads and applications. In the end, it is the enrollment department's job to enlist extraordinary students who are undecided, in need of financial aid, seeking competition, and looking for a personal touch. Many students want to be convinced of the opportunity and prestige that comes from attending your university.

Links Back to Your Home Page

Consult your IT department and administration about college departmental Web sites linking back to admission. This increases your exposure.

These links are critical in leading the prospective student to a Web location that logically presents information with regard to the admission and financial aid processes. Many prospective students arrive at a departmental Web site by executing a discipline field search. The search engine they use may return Web addresses for particular departments within the institution-useful for providing program-specific information, but useless for linking the student to the admission process.

Link Popularity

Many search engines rank sites according to the amount of links other sites have to yours. Some sites pick up all links, but many search engines only observe hyperlinks to your college that are attached to text. Ask people affiliated with the university to add a university link to their Web site.

Ranking and Recruitment