SEO Survey for Grad Schools

About This Survey:

This survey is a joint research project of NAGAP and DD Agency to assess the current state of performance and knowledge of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for graduate enrollment management professionals. The questions are meant to help us understand the following points:

1. Evaluate the level of understanding of SEO among GEM professionals
2. Identify the most common pain points for GEM professionals around the topic of SEO
3. Measure the SEO capabilities that graduate institutions currently have

NOTE: Some of the questions are technical in nature and we are aware that many GEM professionals will not know the answers - that's okay! Please do your best to answer each question honestly, including letting us know which ones you do not have the answers to. This will greatly help our assessment and the ultimate research report that will come out in the near future.

Question Title

* Rate your current level of understanding of Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

1 = very little to no experience

2 = somewhat knowledgeable

3 = fair

4 = high proficiency

5 = expert

Question Title

* Approximately how many total keywords (branded and unbranded) does your specific school’s website (your graduate school’s pages only) currently rank for in the top 100 search positions?

I have no idea

1-49

50-99

100-199

200-499

500-999

1,000+

Question Title

* Does your institution have an internal resource person or key expert who is responsible for internal SEO research?

Yes

I don't know

Question Title

* If yes to the above question, does this staff member work within the Enrollment or Marketing department?

Enrollment department

Marketing department

Both

Neither

Question Title

* Is SEO Keyword Research a standard component of your enrollment marketing campaigns, website updates, and/or the delivery of new content on your website or social media feeds?

Yes

I don't know

Question Title

* How frequently does your school/department adapt or repurpose content to better optimize your SEO rankings?

Multiple times per year

Annually

Every few years

Never

Question Title

* Does your institution regularly run ad campaigns to generate awareness and traffic around topics and terms (for example "online MBAs"), as opposed to trying to generate that traffic through SEO?

Yes

I don't know

Question Title

* Regarding the technical side of SEO, what elements of your website architecture have been audited and/or updated for optimization within the last year (select all that apply):

Mobile user experience

HTTPS-security protocol

Link checks - to ensure links work

Duplicate content

Sitemap inclusion

Structured data or schema markup

Checking site speed

None of the above

I have no idea

Question Title

* How many of your specific school’s website pages (not the entire institution’s domain) appear on the first page of Google?

1-5

6-10

11-20

21-50

51+

I don’t know

Question Title

* Do most of your leads come from Organic Search (unpaid) or from other channels? Most of my traffic comes from:

Organic Search

Paid Search (e.g. google adword campaigns)

Paid Social (e.g. facebook campaigns)

Purchasing lead names (e.g. GRE, GMAT, etc)

I don’t know

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* Do you consistently publish keyword-rich content as part of your SEO strategy?

Yes

Question Title

* Are you intentional about building backlinks to increase your organic search rankings?

Yes

What are backlinks?

Question Title

* Are you satisfied with how much time the average visitor spends on your website? (Side note: The top four SEO ranking factors are direct website visits, time on site, pages per session, and bounce rate)

Yes

I don’t know how much time the average visitor spends on my website.

Question Title

* How often do you republish or revamp old articles and website pages with new content and images?

Every 6 months

Every year

Every two years

Never

I don’t know

Question Title

* How often do you find and fix crawl errors (when a search engine tries to reach a page on your website but can’t find it)?

Every quarter

Every six months

Every year

Never

I don’t know

Question Title

* How often do you find and fix keyword cannibalization?

Every 6 months

Every year

Never

Keyword canni-what?

Question Title

* As a GEM professional, which of the following is your greatest SEO challenge? (select one)

I know SEO is important for enrollment marketing, but it’s not within my scope of responsibility and I have a hard time getting traction from those who can impact our rankings.

I don’t have the resources (time and/or budget) to invest in improving the organic search rankings for my graduate school/program.

SEO is so complex. I'm not sure where to start or if our efforts would make much of a difference in attracting our target audience.

Other (please specify)