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Abroad101 begins its 10th year of serving the American study abroad market and we\u2019re pleased to give you this latest guide to getting more out of THE Study Abroad Review website.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s All About the Reviews<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Reviews, it\u2019s what we do. \u00a0We just surpassed 30,000 published reviews on Abroad101.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0We congratulate other web sites for their community spirit, journalistic flair and general promotion of going abroad, that\u2019s not us.\u00a0 We\u2019re a niche within our niche, we just do reviews.\u00a0 Since 2007, nobody does it better.\u00a0 Google agrees; put the word \u201creviews\u201d and any relevant keywords in the search engine and you\u2019ll see where we get most of our traffic.<\/span><\/p>\n Reviews are About the Students<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Our survey isn\u2019t 5 questions, like Yelp, or a place to \u201clike\u201d and \u201cthumbs-up\u201d a program. Each review on Abroad101 is a sincere effort to tell one individual story.\u00a0 Each review answers\u00a038 core questions, designed to walk a student through their whole experience. \u00a0Questions include star ratings and narrative sections to describe who they were before they went, how they grew and where their world view is now.\u00a0 On average, a good review takes a student 15-20 minutes to complete.\u00a0 Each review becomes its own webpage that students can share and link to as a point-of pride.\u00a0 Students add photos, and some even include them in cover letters and CV\u2019s as a career-focused writing sample and showcase.<\/span><\/p>\n This student-center approach is why a number of colleges use Abroad101 as their official program evaluation tool and why the reviews keep coming.\u00a0 Home colleges even get to add extra questions to help in their data collection and reporting about study abroad. \u00a0Providers and host institutions can also add extra questions.<\/span><\/p>\n Reviews Engage Parents<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Among those searching for insight on study abroad are parents.\u00a0 Based on Google Analytics data, we estimate that 20-25% of the visitors to Abroad101 are parents.\u00a0 \u00a0Most parents aren\u2019t looking to discover a program, they are looking to validate their child\u2019s choice, or an advisor\u2019s recommendation.\u00a0 Parents look at reviews in a different way and may be exploring cost, safety or program administration while the student looks at academics, housing, social integration or food.<\/span><\/p>\n We recommend you use reviews in discussions with students and parents as a well-informed student makes for a more successful student.\u00a0 Reading reviews will help parents become more comfortable with study abroad and\u00a0help them set expectations for what lies ahead.\u00a0 A number of program providers will actually link their website to matching program pages on Abroad101.\u00a0 You can also link using the Program Widget<\/span>\u00a0or Provider Widget<\/span> that add\u00a0a badge-like graphic to the link.<\/span><\/p>\n Reviews Draw Quality Inquiries<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Our traffic and user profile has stayed consistent over the years: vast majority American, nearly half of all coming from colleges and universities.\u00a0 For students, coming to Abroad101 is a part of their research and we serve as a resource in their decision making.\u00a0 The site is set-up as a place to compare programs and become well-informed.\u00a0 We are not a lead generation site and only a small percentage of our visitors actually use our site to inquire about a program; however, those that inquire are very likely to study abroad<\/b>.\u00a0 The providers and foreign universities that actively engage with Abroad101 find that the inquiries they get from Abroad101 are significantly higher in quality and are more likely to turn into participants than leads that come from lead generation sites.<\/span><\/p>\n Reviews Bring Conversions<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n If you follow the logic so far, you will understand that visitors to Abroad101 may well be known to you and may already be in your CRM system.\u00a0 Students start searching elsewhere for general information, form initial impressions and then come to\u00a0Abroad101 to do further research.\u00a0 Parents weight in, advisors endorse and this can all come while they are on our review website.\u00a0 To capture this sentiment, the inquiry form on your Abroad101 program listing has a check box that says \u201cI want to apply to this program.\u201d\u00a0 These inquiries come to you with the label = \u201capp.\u201d\u00a0 When you get these, believe it!\u00a0 They are ready to apply.\u00a0 If the student is known to you, even better, as in the ad business we call this a \u201clead conversion\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Secret to Success on Abroad101<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n THE number one thing you can do to raise the volume and the quality of inquiries from Abroad101 is to have plenty of reviews on Abroad101.\u00a0 As we have said, people come to Abroad101 looking for reviews and to honor that, we display programs in our directory based on a formula that favors recent reviews.\u00a0 Every time you see a listing of programs on Abroad101, the order of display is driven by this algorithm.\u00a0 This includes the directories (city<\/span>, country<\/span> and study subject<\/span>), your provider summary<\/span> and even home school\u2019s preferred provider lists.<\/span><\/p>\n To get to the top of these lists takes review volume.\u00a0 There are other adjustments to recognize<\/span><\/p>\n review quality, but recent review volume is the biggest factor by far.\u00a0 Being on top means visibility and visibility means results.\u00a0 We display the number of recent reviews on the program summary, and the total number of reviews on the program listing.\u00a0 As an example, the most popular program on Abroad101 is DIS\u2019s Copenhagen Semester with 392 recent reviews and 799 total reviews.\u00a0 You can see this reflected in one of our most popular subject directories<\/span>\u00a0and in this university\u2019s approved program list<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n The secret to being on top with Abroad101 is volume, not high score.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Not-So-Secret Path to Success<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Abroad101 is supported by advertising and sponsorship from the people who run study abroad programs.\u00a0 \u00a0Ads are placed in key locations and will increase exposure, inquiry volume and overall awareness of your program.\u00a0 It is no magic wand, but advertising works and you will see results for your investment.\u00a0 You can improve the results of your advertising with more reviews as the two work well in tandem.\u00a0 Contact us<\/span><\/a> to learn more about this option.<\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s to the Next 10!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n A special thanks goes to those who have helped Abroad101 reach the 10 year\u00a0milestone.\u00a0 Our commitment to the field remains strong, our software and systems are reliable and there is good value for those that invest in Abroad101 as their review platform and part of their advertising mix.\u00a0 As your partner, we look forward to the next 10 years of study abroad reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Abroad101 begins its 10th year of serving the American study abroad market and we\u2019re pleased to give you this latest guide to getting more out of THE Study Abroad Review website. It\u2019s All About the Reviews Reviews, it\u2019s what we do. \u00a0We just surpassed 30,000 published reviews on Abroad101. \u00a0We congratulate other web sites […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[530],"tags":[633],"ppma_author":[691],"class_list":["post-14016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-study-abroad-providers","tag-providers-newsletter-winter-2017","author-mark-shay"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t