SUCCESS STORIES

Yarra Valley Grammar: Top Marks in Local Search

Yarra Valley Grammar has been part of the Ringwood community since 1966. In 2021, the school set out to discover what SEO could do for a school, with a clear goal: to be the top organic result for families in Ringwood looking for their next school.

Few schools were investing in SEO at the time, which gave Yarra Valley Grammar the chance to lead the way.

Want results like this?

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257%

goal conversion rate

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48%

new organic users to the site

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99%

keyword growth

The Need

Families choose schools around intake periods, and many start their search on Google. Yarra Valley Grammar wanted to be there for those searches at every stage of schooling, and to build a strong foundation for the rest of its marketing.

The key objectives:

Become Ringwood's top-ranking school
- Rank first for the searches parents use when comparing schools nearby.
Be found at every stage
- Lift visibility for the Early Learning Centre, Junior, Middle and Senior School.
Strengthen local presence
- Grow Google Business Profile visibility across Melbourne and Ringwood.
Build SEO know-how in the school team
- Help staff and stakeholders understand and use SEO day to day.

The Plan

We set out the marks we wanted to hit, and a plan to reach each one.

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Education-focused links

A targeted backlink strategy built around the education sector.

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Local SEO

Stronger Google Business Profile signals across Melbourne and Ringwood, aiming for page one on priority keywords.

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School landing pages

Clear page narratives for each school stage, written to help parents take the next step.

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Structure and schema

Refine structured data so Google recognises Yarra Valley Grammar as a school, and work with the web developers on site navigation.

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Building on great content

Added headings and supporting information to the curriculum pages for the ELC, Junior, Middle and Senior School, plus FAQ schema on the school pages.

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A local profile to match

Audited and enriched the Google Business Profile with descriptions for each school service, building on the strong local presence of the school's vic.edu domain.

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Teaching the SEO

Trained the Yarra Valley team and stakeholders, gave them access to Hawk Academy, and worked alongside their web developers to update the schema from organisation to school.

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Showing what SEO can do for a school

SEO was new to the team, so training and clear explanations brought everyone along from the start.

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Planning around intake seasons

School searches peak around enrolment periods, so the work focused on being visible when families were deciding.

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Working alongside the web team

Close collaboration with the school's developers kept the site easy for parents to navigate while SEO improvements rolled out.

The Results

Climbing to the top of the class: Ranking keywords grew 99.4% from August 2021 to August 2022. Between December 2021 and August 2022, "middle school" climbed from position 64 to 6, "junior school" from 80 to 13 and "grammar school fees" from 68 to 9.

More families finding the school: Organic users grew 44.6% and new organic users 47.6%, with goal conversion rate up 257%.

A busy enrolment season: In August 2022, 8,352 organic users visited the site, more than half of all traffic, and the site recorded 52 enrolment enquiries and 92 application forms.

257%

Lift in goal conversion rate

48%

Increase in new organic users

99%

Growth in ranking keywords

The Conclusion

Yarra Valley Grammar set out to see what SEO could do for a school. A year later, it ranks near the top for the school stages parents search for most, its local presence is stronger, and its team is confident using SEO every day.

+99% ranking keywords. "Middle school" from position 64 to 6.
For a school that has served Ringwood since 1966, organic search is now one more way families find their way to Yarra Valley Grammar.

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In-depth AI & SEO audit

Uncover weaknesses and opportunities to overtake the competition and gain market share

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Expert traffic analysis

Discover quick wins to boost  your visibility for your most valuable search terms

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Custom AI & SEO roadmap

Get clarity and confidence with an AI & SEO strategy aligned with your goals, industry, and unique challenges

Client success:

257%

goal conversion rate

48%

new organic users to the site

99%

keyword growth

“Can a school really benefit from SEO compared to other means of discovery and traffic? See how SEO helped Yarra Valley Grammar achieve a local top grade!”