Your School’s Online Presence

When prospective parents search for your school online, what do they find? What happens when they use an online private school directory or a local business site? Do they find outdated or incorrect information? Old or even negative reviews?

While many marketing and admissions directors are focused on improving their school’s website, online directories and local guides are also critical to explore and enhance.

There are many online directories and search engines that provide listings of your school. As part of your marketing strategy to upgrade your online presence, you should take a look at how your school is presented online at the following sites:

• Google Place Page
• YahooLocal.com
• Yelp.com
• Citysearch.com
• Insiderpages.com
• Superpages.com
• Yellowpages.com

In addition, you will want to investigate your online presence on the following school sites devoted specifically to private schools:

• Greatschools.com (see previous blog post on the importance of this site)
• PrivateSchoolReview.com
• SchoolDigger.com

Most all of these sites will allow you to claim your listing so that you can update your school’s information and post pictures.

In addition, online reviews can be posted by parents about your school on most of these sites. One school that I worked with printed a business card listing some of these key sites. Whenever they heard a positive comment from a parent, they gave them the card and asked the parent to write a review on one of these sites. This is a great way to take some initiative to encourage your parents to write online reviews.

Your school’s online presence should be part of your comprehensive marketing strategy. Prospective families are finding your school online and it is critical to pay attention to what’s out there on the Web.