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The coronavirus has affected students everywhere and is having a big impact on student accommodation in 2020. Now more than ever, the focus on digital marketing is key to help the industry survive.
Therefore, we’ve jumped in deep with student accommodation sellers to see who’s well housed and who’s without a roof when it comes to their SEO strategy and online visibility.
In this student accommodation market report, we’ve dug deep into the foundations of these brands, providing a complete review of their visibility and other metrics that determine what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong.
A range of digital marketing metrics and measurements are analysed, including visibility, keyword opportunities, and page speed. Metrics such as brand reach score and social score are also measured, which aren’t typically found in any other report.
Download this extensive report on the student housing market now and successfully identity how to outpace your competition and achieve better search rankings to increase both profits and brand awareness.
Despite the unwashed dishes and out-of-date food, the student accommodation industry is looking positive with the 3 top brands experiencing slight increases in visibility year on year. In fact, the entire industry has had an uplift of 9%. However, despite the optimism, there have been some deficits as well with some of the top brands losing as much as 40% according to the student accommodation report.
Here is a quick rundown of the top 10 sites:
For the high competition keywords, accommodationforstudents.com is smashing it, taking P3 for the most competitive keyword in the industry – student accommodations. Interestingly, they also have P4. They appear to be ranking for both their generic homepage and their local page as well for certain locations (Chester being one of them!).
Accommodationforstudents.com also get P2 for the second most competitive term – student accommodation in Manchester. A lot of the brands in the analysis do well with the third most competitive term ‘student accommodation in Edinburgh’, with unitestudents.com and mystudenthalls.com all taking first page positions. These keywords all have monthly search volumes of 4K plus, so they’re definitely ones to aim for!
As well as high competition keywords, our in-depth analysis of the UK student accommodation market also looks into the opportunities that these brands have let fly under the radar. Keywords such as ‘student accommodation plymouth’ have good search volume but only one brand is ranking for it (accommodationforstudents.com).
So, the real question is this: how can brands achieve higher visibility and utilise these digital marketing opportunities to their full potential? Here are a few things we noticed about the SERPs when analysing the keywords.
For some of the top results, there is enhanced copy on the category pages which contains keywords and semantically rich information to tell Google more about the page. Enhanced content is a fantastic way to get more keywords into the page and influence rankings.
Related – How to Write Enhanced Copy For Category Pages
Adding an extra 700 words of content to a category page gives it a lot more clout in the SERPs, so brands and sites should look to start focusing on this factor if they are to achieve better visibility.
Because a lot of the searches in regard to student accommodation are local, the map pack often appears in the majority of searches. It would be a good idea for brands to start optimising their GMB profiles to get better positions in the map pack to make sure they are staying visible to their ideal consumers.
Maintaining a strong social presence is vital if you are to survive the ever-changing environment of the digital world. With constantly changing algorithms, it is important to stay ahead of the curve with your social strategy.
Some brands know how to rock it and others are still learning…. But how are the sites in the student accommodation industry doing? After all, students spend countless hours on social media, so the demographic is definitely using it.
Student.com seems to be topping the charts with a social score of 333 and a brand reach score of 22200 – they’re definitely doing something right in the student housing market. A quick flick through their social profiles reveals a lot. They have a combined follower count of 174,400, which is the second higher of all the brands analysed.
Related – How to create a wildfire of social shares (and sometimes links)
Their Instagram is filled out with essential information in the form of saved stories, with stories about the company, tips and tricks, and places to live. They have a lot of high-quality imagery and lots of informative content – there isn’t a lot of selling, which is good! Their Facebook is not much different; they post high-quality videos, partnerships, and blog content to educate their audience, boosting their expertise and authority in the process.
However, Student.com aren’t the only ones smashing the socials. Uniplaces.com has the highest follower count, with 296,082 across multiple platforms and a total social score of 578. They’re Facebook is filled with useful, practical posts from their blog, and engaging videos. Their Instagram is filled with super high-quality images, including a lot of content surrounding their abroad opportunities. Each post gets around 60 likes, which is good for this industry.
If you’re looking to renovate your social strategy, these sites are the ones to watch. If you want a more detailed analysis of these metrics, download the student accommodation report now!
People are in a rush… So make them wait for your site to load? If you’ve got a slow loading site, you’re not only killing your conversions but you’re hurting your SEO capabilities in the process.
Having a fast website is crucial if you want a good chance of ranking against your competitors. We put each site through PageSpeed Insights to see exactly how they’re performing.
Here are the top 5 sites that are performing the best for page speed:
Related –Why is Pagespeed so important?
Nope, this student accommodation report is completely free. We analyse and review a range of industries that we would love to work. The information we collect shouldn’t be hidden from public view or be placed behind a paywall. Our reports will be free forever.
We have specific markers and thresholds that need to be met if you are to be featured in one of our comprehensive reports. However, from time to time, things get missed. If you’re brand or company is not featured in our report, get in contact and we can give a personalised copy of the data.
If you want to know anything about the report or are curious about how we can create a bespoke SEO strategy for your brand, get in touch today.
If you like what you see, you can download the report (for free) by adding your information into the form at the top of the page. Once you’ve filled in all the necessary boxes, your report will be packaged and sent straight to your inbox.
There are lots of different sites and brands that offer student accommodation. However, here are the top 10 in the industry in 2020:
<ol>
<li>Knight Frank</li>
<li>Accommodation for Students</li>
<li>Unite Students</li>
<li>Student.com</li>
<li>City Lets</li>
<li>Scrape.com</li>
<li>Pads for Students</li>
<li>Student Pad</li>
<li>IP Student Accommodation</li>
<li>Student Cribs</li>
</ol>
These are the brands that have done very well and increased their visibility this year. Check them out, they’re clearly doing something right with their SEO.
<ol>
<li>Unilodgers.com (3519%)</li>
<li>Studentcrowd.com (49%)</li>
<li>Unitestudents.com (167%)</li>
<li>Wearehomeforstudents.com (175%)</li>
<li>Knightfrank.co.uk (33%)</li>
</ol>
These brands saw the biggest decrease in their site’s visibility in 2018. Hopefully, they can turn things around in the coming year.
<ol>
<li>Mystudenthalls.com (-61%)</li>
<li>Crm-Students.com (-30%)</li>
<li>Hellostudent.co.uk (-51%)</li>
<li>Iqstudentaccommodation.com (-47%)</li>
<li>Freshstudentliving.co.uk (-34%)</li>
</ol>
If you are not already included in the industry report it might be because you haven’t met our required threshold for visibility. However, if you believe we’ve made a mistake in this regard and think your brand needs featuring, don’t be afraid to reach out!
