The Importance of a Scholarship Website

If you have been one of the fortunate individuals to be awarded a scholarship abroad, you probably have some unique experiences that you can share with others. Hundreds of international scholarships are handed out each year, but many students are not even aware that they are available. As a recipient, you can help raise awareness of the possibilities open to thousands of young students for the opportunity of a lifetime. Many people would be interested in reading the blog of a graduate student on scholarship in a foreign country. Here are a few tips to help get you started:

1. Design: You can start off with a WordPress website as the basis for your blog. WordPress is the leading blog software, used by hundreds of thousands of websites because it is easy to use and very flexible. You apply a theme (free or commercial) to customize your site and give it the look and feel that you want. You can set up separate topical pages in addition to your blog. You can even set up a forum where others can exchange comments and opinions.
2. Content: You should try to post a new blog once or twice a week, more if you have many interesting experiences to convey. This keeps you website fresh and attracts new and return readers. Take the time to write flawlessly – no problems with grammar, spelling or punctuation, and proper use of English. This is important because a poorly written blog will not generate traffic nor reflect well upon you. If you need help editing your material, hire a freelance writer – they are easy to find via a Google search. Make sure to select a few keywords and use them consistently throughout your website. This will make it easier for search engines to correctly index your site, and thus help you generate a wide readership.
3. Backlinks: You can improve your site's search engine results by arranging to have a number of quality backlinks set up. These are text links from authoritative websites that hyperlink to your site. Only quality backlinks will improve your sites performance:
   1. The source site should be authoritative – have a high Page Rank. This kind of site affords "link juice" to you website, which improves your own Page Rank and hence search engine performance.
   2. The anchor text on the source site should be a keyword on your website.
   3. The source site should cover the same general topics as your own.
   4. The links should come from the main body of the source site page, never from footers or sidebars.
   You can check backlinks using an online tool to find out who is linking to your site.

Take the time to inspire a young person by telling your own story. It’s a nice way to give back to the community.