Case Study: SEO Promotion of an Educational Website

The complexity of collecting semantics for the project lay in the high informativeness of the niche – search results were filled with numerous non-commercial informational resources and blogs. We conducted an analysis of the main competitors (both commercial and informational) of the site in the Google search engine's top results and searched for demand in priority directions for webinars. Our semantic collection included not only commercial essential keywords but also informational queries, as it was challenging to reach the top in the site's niche without them. For informational queries, we created and optimized extensive articles. We also used an approach to build the site's authority in a specific theme: we selected the most relevant and demanded theme (in our case, for example, one of them was Leadership Qualities and their Formation) and produced and optimized numerous articles on it with thematic authors. To achieve the goal of increasing traffic, we immediately started optimizing the "Blog": - Created subcategories for articles. - Configured proper filtration functionality (allowing the generation and optimization of new tag pages). - Optimized meta tags for article pages. During semantic collection, we also developed a new extended category structure for webinars. Many training and webinar pages were missing on the site for our "commercial" queries, such as "Coaching Skills Training," "Career Development Webinars," etc. As a result, all necessary categories (around 10) were created and optimized.

During an audit involving 150+ indicators, we identified and fixed key technical errors that hindered successful site ranking, such as: - Configuring proper indexing (the site had several hidden menus, content partially closed with noindex, etc.). - Fixing markup errors: addressing duplicate h1 tags and missing h1 tags, styling block headers, etc. - Fixing broken links and replacing them with direct redirect links. - Improving the site's loading speed. The site was initially implemented on Shopify, which limited certain enhancements. After a year of promotion, a redesign was carried out, and the site was migrated to WordPress, allowing us to address all technical shortcomings to the maximum and implement the site structure (especially the "Blog" section) more accurately.

Work was done to improve E-A-T factors, such as: - Adding an expert block to each webinar and article page, featuring the expert who will conduct the webinar. The block includes full name, photo, skills, education, and awards of the expert, along with links to the author's most significant works, social media contacts, etc. - Adding an additional form for contact and clarifying questions. - Informational articles had source blocks added, listing the sources used in writing. - Adding the ability to leave reviews and comments on webinars. Work was also done to improve the quality of category and webinar pages, strengthening commercial factors: - Webinars on the category page were divided into "upcoming" and "past," allowing users to better navigate the page and see all upcoming events. - Anchor texts on buttons linking to webinar pages were changed. New anchors included keywords and calls to action (e.g., "Watch webinar now"). - A block with a reminder of the amount of time remaining until the webinar was implemented. - A link to the page with upcoming events was added to the site header and footer, etc.

We conducted a detailed analysis of the link profile of the promoted site and its main competitors. Our site lagged behind competitors and had a very small number of external links and donors. Examples of link-building activities carried out: - Guest post placements. - Placing articles in blog format on reputable informational resources through subdomain creation, with links to the site. - Obtaining links from thematic forums, especially from domains with .edu extensions. - Acquiring local links from local donors (USA): directories, links with Google Maps markers, etc. - Distributing press releases with links to the site. As a result: a threefold increase in the number of external donors, a 5-point increase in DR, and a 19-point increase in UR.