Earning the title of "Ultimate College Radio Station" might not sound all that impressive, but for two colleges based in the suburbs of Seattle it isn't the title that is making headlines.
(prHWY.com) September 18, 2012 - Seattle, WA -- Earning the title of "Ultimate College Radio Station" might not sound all that impressive, but for two colleges based in the suburbs of Seattle it isn't the title that is making headlines. It is how the winner was determined that is causing a buzz.
"Most competitions of this nature are based off of who has the most votes or who has the most listeners", said John Drew, owner of Stereo and Surround Sound Inc.
"I thought I would host a college competition that was a little unique. The winner of this competition is which college got the highest ranking radio website on the popular search engines after three months."
The competition required that each college radio station create a website. The colleges were left on their own to determine how to get those websites up in the search engine rankings. Anything was allowed with the exception of blacklisted techniques.
"This was basically a way for college radio stations to realize just how important SEO rankings are to their listeners", said Drew. "A top ranked website can get hundreds if not thousands of viewers just because they are ranked #1 on the search engines."
The competition was narrowed down to two schools in the Seattle area: Lynnwood University and Redmond Community College. The approach the two colleges took to this competition varied.
"We decided this type of work was beyond us", said Terry Rivers, a radio DJ at Lynnwood University. "We decided to call in the professionals and hire a
Seattle SEO company that could help us zoom ahead in the ranks."
Redmond Community College took a different approach. They decided to leave the SEO skills to current students who were studying technology and search engine optimization.
"We thought we'd make this more of a campus wide event", said Sally Summers, a student at Redmond Community College. "We thought we'd use the resources we had on campus to help get our site up there in the search engine rankings."
The competition is scheduled to continue for another two months. After which time John Drew will use various reports and search engine ranking reports to determine who is the winner. The grand prize winner will receive an ultimate college radio station makeover.
"I'm not sure who will win", said John Drew when asked who he thought would win. "I know the competition is pretty fierce and these colleges are doing what they can. It'll be fun and exciting to see who really comes out on top."
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