Mentoring High School Students in Digital Marketing and SEO

We have been working with Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School for the past three years to run a mentoring program for a select group of Year 12 students.

This program provides great benefits for both the students and our mentors. Our 2023 mentors were Emily, Jeremy, Harvey, Sinvi, Milos, Aramis, Mark, Vandi, Abhijay, Lachlan, Andrew and Phillip.

Session 1: Introduction to the mentoring program

Jeremy, Emily and Harvey kicked off the program with a short description of search engine optimisation and the ins and outs of Megantic.

We then spent the second half of the session answering questions about the workforce and how to adequately prepare. Which university degree is best for their goals, interviewing successfully, resume writing, and how to build strong professional relationships.

Session 2: Coding & Technical SEO

In our second meeting, we focused on coding and technical SEO.

Milos went over a Day in the Life of a Digital Project Manager, which includes tasks such as UX, conception and design, account management, strategy, and development. Then, Sinvi spoke about how to Inspect elements in Chrome and what you can view and edit on external websites. Students learnt how to look at sitemaps and the Robots.txt files. Sinvi and Milos then covered no index, no follow tags, canonical tags and hreflang tags. They explained to the students how to identify these tags and when and why they should be used.

Next, Milos gave us some of his top tips and tricks:

1) How to view your password if you have forgotten it

2) Using the Search bar as a calculator, and

3) How to view the Chrome Task Manager

The session ended with students trying these activities on their own and our other mentors assisting.

Session 3: Introduction to SEO and keywords

First, Vandi discussed SEO and how it fits into the field of digital marketing. She described how a holistic approach is best to see results.

After teaching the different types of SEO, she looked at a real life example, showing the Mac.Rob website and pointing out the keywords used and how the page is performing.

Then, Aramis spoke about a day in the life of an SEO Project Manager and showed the students Google Analytics. He explained how to read the graphs and what they mean.

Mark ran an activity to finish up the session. He explained Semrush and the students researched the best keywords for a specific company and niche. Students then presented their findings to the group, explaining why they chose each keyword. Reasonings included search volume, relevance and difficulty.

Based on these answers, we have some future SEO professionals!

Session 4: Using SEO when creating a website

We kicked off this session with the students building their own websites using Blogger.

Next, Abhijay and Lachlan reviewed their prewritten blogs, making sure they hit all the right SEO points. Last month, they learnt about properly formatting headings, optimising image alt texts, and meta titles and descriptions, so they put this knowledge into practise. The students truly understood the art of crafting search engine-friendly content!

Finally, we dived into the power of analytics by integrating GA4 and Google Search Console to their websites. Although there was no data yet, they enjoyed looking at the Real Time feed when one of their teammates viewed the site.

Session 5: Thriving in the Workplace

Phillip and Andrew started by discussing the importance of winning the morning to set the tone for a successful day, highlighting both actions to avoid and recommended practices.

We then moved into how to get into a focused headspace, and addressed the unconscious forces such as distractions that hinder our ability to concentrate. One technique we explored was time boxing, a method of allocating specific time blocks for tasks to enhance productivity.

Lastly, we discussed the concept of Ikigai, a Japanese concept that explores finding purpose and fulfilment in work.

Extremely positive feedback all around for the mentoring program

“As a person who would like to study technology and eventually get a job in the sector, [I found the program] really fun and I learnt so much in the various sessions.” – Anonymous Student Mentee

“I thought it was great to hear insight from a range of position holders of different life experiences in the industry.” – Anonymous Student Mentee

“It gave such an insight into this industry as well as just general tips for achieving in life.” – Anonymous Student Mentee

“Reflecting on my own journey and the guidance I received from mentors, it has been truly fulfilling to come full circle and share my experiences with these ambitious and eager students.” – Phillip Vo, Head of Growth.

“I am thrilled to see the resounding success that the mentoring program has achieved. Working with these students and mentoring them on digital marketing skills has been a very rewarding experience.” – Emily Bencsics, Marketing & Digital Coordinator.

We hope to continue our mentoring partnership with Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School and continue to empower Women in Digital in the coming years.

See more information about the program in 2022 and 2021.