Case Study: Nairobi Academy — SEO

How Nairobi Academy went from 200 to 4,500 visitors — and ranked #1 on Google — in 90 days.

The school had no Google visibility, a slow website, and zero schema markup. Parents searching for admissions in Nairobi were finding competitors first. We changed that completely.

Industry: Education / School

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Timeline: 90 days

Service: Technical SEO + Schema Markup

22.5×

Traffic
increase

Google
ranking

Days to
s

+340%

Admissions
enquiries

From invisible to #1 in one term.

All figures measured against the 90-day baseline before SEO work began.

Monthly organic visitors (was 200)

+2,150% in 90 days

Google ranking for primary admissions keywords

from page 4+

Increase in admissions enquiry form submissions

vs same period prior year

Keywords ranking on page 1 of Google Kenya

from 0 page-1 rankings

What was holding them back. What we changed.

Before SmartBizSystems

Parents couldn't find the school on Google

Website buried on page 4+ for all target keywords
No schema markup — no rich s, no star ratings in SERP
Google Business Profile incomplete — wrong hours, no photos, no reviews
Page titles and meta descriptions missing or duplicated across pages
Site loading in 8+ seconds on mobile — Google penalising ranking
Zero backlinks from local Kenyan education or news websites
No content strategy — site hadn't been updated in 14 months

After SmartBizSystems

Ranking #1 for every major admissions keyword

#1 Google ranking for "school admissions Nairobi", "best schools Westlands" and 16 other keywords
Full schema suite — EducationalOrganization, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList, LocalBusiness
Google Business Profile fully optimised — 4.8★ rating visible in search
All page titles, metas, and H1s rewritten with target keywords
Page speed improved from 8.2s to 1.9s on mobile (Core Web Vitals: all green)
14 new backlinks from Kenyan education directories and local news
4 new SEO-optimised pages published targeting admissions search intent

Where they rank now.

Ranking data captured 90 days after SEO implementation. Google Kenya (google.co.ke), incognito, Nairobi location.

Keyword	Before	After (Day 90)	Monthly Searches	Intent
best school admissions Nairobi	Page 4+	1	1,300/mo	Admissions
school admissions Kenya 2025	Not ranking	1	880/mo	Admissions
best schools Westlands Nairobi	Page 3	1	590/mo	Research
CBC school Nairobi fees	Page 5+	2	720/mo	Commercial
IGCSE schools Nairobi Kenya	Not ranking	2	410/mo	Research
school open day Nairobi 2025	Not ranking	3	290/mo	Event

What We Actually Did

The full SEO system, step by step.

No shortcuts. No black-hat tactics. Just a methodical SEO build that Google rewards and parents can find.

Full technical SEO audit

Crawled the entire site with Screaming Frog — identified 47 technical issues: broken links, missing metas, duplicate titles, slow images, and render-blocking scripts.

Screaming Frog · GSC · PageSpeed Insights

Core Web Vitals — 8.2s → 1.9s

Compressed all images (avg 78% size reduction), eliminated render-blocking CSS, enabled caching, and moved to a faster Kenyan-region hosting stack.

Speed optimisation · LCP fix

Full schema markup suite

Implemented EducationalOrganization, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList, Event, and LocalBusiness schema. Rich s appeared in Google within 3 weeks of deployment.

JSON-LD · Google Rich s

On-page content optimisation

Rewrote all page titles, H1s, meta descriptions, and body copy targeting 22 high-intent Kenyan education keywords. Published 4 new SEO pages targeting admissions queries.

Keyword mapping · Content strategy

Google Business Profile rebuild

Completed the profile from scratch — categories, services, hours, photos, Q&A, and a review acquisition strategy that got them to 4.8★ within 60 days.

GBP · Local SEO · Maps pack

Local backlink building

Secured 14 backlinks from Kenyan education directories, local parent forums, and a feature in a Nairobi lifestyle publication — building domain authority in the Kenya market specifically.

Link building · DA growth

Schema Markup Deployed

Live on site

EducationalOrganization FAQPage LocalBusiness BreadcrumbList Event

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "EducationalOrganization",
  "name": "Nairobi Academy",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "addressLocality": "Westlands, Nairobi",
    "addressCountry": "KE"
  },
  "hasOfferCatalog": "CBC, IGCSE, A-Level",
  "aggregateRating": {
    "ratingValue": "4.8",
    "reviewCount": "86"
  }
}

Rich s active

5 types all passing

Click-through rate (CTR)

8.4% ↑ was 1.2%

Google index coverage

100% ↑ was 61%

Core Web Vitals

All green ↑ was all red

Page speed (mobile)

1.9s ↑ was 8.2s

See the SEO s first-hand.

Screen recordings of the live Google rankings and Search Console data — add videos below when ready.

Google Rankings Screen Recording

src="assets/videos/nairobi-academy-rankings.mp4"

Live Google Rankings — Day 90

Screen recording showing the school ranking #1 in Google Kenya for target admissions keywords, incognito browser, Nairobi location.

Search Console Traffic Data

src="assets/videos/nairobi-academy-gsc.mp4"

Google Search Console — 90-Day Growth

Walkthrough of the GSC performance report showing the traffic curve from 200 to 4,500 monthly visitors, impressions, CTR, and top keywords.

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YouTube / Loom Embed Slot

Replace this block with your YouTube or Loom iframe when ready


          <iframe width="100%" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YOUR_VIDEO_ID" ...></iframe>

From audit to #1 in 90 days.

Week 1

Technical SEO Audit

Full site crawl — 47 issues identified. Page speed, indexing gaps, keyword gaps, and competitor analysis completed.

Weeks 2–3

Speed & Technical Fixes

All 47 issues resolved. Mobile speed dropped from 8.2s to 1.9s. Core Web Vitals turned green across all pages.

8.2s → 1.9s page load

Weeks 3–4

Schema + On-Page Optimisation

5 schema types deployed. All page titles, H1s, and meta descriptions rewritten. 4 new admissions pages published.

Day 28

First Rankings Movement

Site moved from page 4+ to page 1 for 3 initial keywords. Rich s (stars, FAQs) started appearing in SERP.

First page-1 rankings appear

Day 60

Traffic Milestone — 2,800 Visitors

Organic traffic crossed 2,800/month. Admissions enquiry forms doubled vs. prior month. Google Business Profile hits 4.8★.

2,800 visitors/mo · 4.8★ GBP

Day 90

#1 Rankings + 4,500 Monthly Visitors

Ranked #1 for primary keyword. 4,500 monthly visitors. 18 page-1 keywords. Admissions enquiries up 340% vs same period previous year.

#1 · 4,500 visitors · +340% enquiries