People Who Keep Collegis Running: Alyssa Doebler

Let us introduce you!

Instructional designers, enrollment specialists, IT support specialists … just a few of the people who dive into each of our partners’ missions, goals and values in order to create custom student experience, technology and enrollment solutions. Every single person at Collegis Education is integral to our ability to deliver for our partners.

We sat down with Alyssa Doebler, senior SEO strategist, to learn more about who she is and how she supports our partners.

How would you describe your job to someone who is unfamiliar with the field?

I research and strategize to help our partners’ websites rank higher for valuable keywords in Google and other search engines.

Name three words that describe your role at Collegis.

Research
Strategy
Puzzle

How does your role help support our partners?

I help bring in more traffic to our partners’ websites. I do this by providing recommendations that will help get their websites noticed by Google so that they rank for keywords that prospective students are looking for. There is also a lot of behind-the-scenes work that takes place on the website to make sure it’s following best practices and is sustainable for the long haul.

What skills do you need to succeed in your role?

SEO is like a puzzle. There are so many elements that contribute to its success and there is no one-size-fits-all strategy for every school. It takes a lot of patience and determination since SEO is a long-term strategy. Results don’t happen overnight, and it requires careful planning and reporting to continue making optimizations. Creativity and analytical thinking are crucial to succeed in SEO.

What do you most enjoy about your role at Collegis?

I like all of the new opportunities I encounter on a week-to-week basis. Since SEO has so many moving pieces and I work on so many partners’ websites, there’s always something new to learn and to try.

What do you most enjoy about Collegis as a company?

It may sound cliché, but I love the people at Collegis. It’s a great company filled with amazing people.

How would you describe the Collegis culture?

Collegis is full of really smart individuals who are down-to-earth and easy to work with. While we commit ourselves to excellent work, we don’t do that at the expense of a good work-life balance or fun work relationships.

What drew you to work in the higher education field?

I actually was initially interested in Collegis because of the people. I had worked previously with two current Collegis employees, and they both talked about how great Collegis was. The fact that Collegis is in the higher education field was an added bonus for me. I’m glad I ended up in higher education because there is meaning behind what we do. Collegis works with a lot of great institutions and makes it possible for people to get a good education, which is an amazing thing to be a part of.

What is one thing you’ve learned about higher ed since you started working at Collegis?

Higher ed is complex. There are a lot of people involved in the decision-making processes and their websites need to serve many audiences (prospective students, current students, faculty, parents, etc.). We constantly need to answer the question: How do we meet our objectives while also doing our best to serve every audience?

Where did you go to college, and what degree(s) did you obtain?

I went to the University of Northwestern – St. Paul and majored in marketing. I also recently got my Master’s in Intercultural Ministry Studies at Bethany Global University.

What do you value most from your own college experience?

I loved the on-campus experience. It was such a fun atmosphere and it’s where I met some of my best friends.

When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I went through different phases. Whenever the Olympics were on, I really wanted to be an ice skater or a gymnast (depending on if it was the winter or summer Olympics). I wanted to be a teacher for a while. I also strangely had this dream of having my own cubicle. When we would visit my dad at his office, I thought his cubicle and snack/gum drawer was the coolest thing in the world. Sometimes dreams really do come true.

What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out in their career?

Don’t be afraid to try new things. We don’t typically end up with our dream job right out of college. When I started in SEO, I really didn’t know too much, but I was open to giving it a shot. I ended up loving it and have been doing it for years. The experience you get on the job is just as valuable as your degree.