Hidden Agenda?
OK, so you really want to know why we are going to all the effort. It is actually very simple. We are quite lovely and do genuinely want to give away useful stuff, however, naturally enough that wouldn't really make business sense unless there was something in it for us. So below are the business reasons for The Education Wizard.
Google Ranking
The most important reason for the development of The Education Wizard is for us is to improve our ranking on Google and other search engines. So when prospective customers Google phrases like: "A level retake college" or "Retaking A2 modules" we appear in a decent position in the rankings. This is all to do with the dark art of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). In the simplest of terms (if you'll excuse the following rather circular statement) the art of being popular is to be popular - on the web this means having lots of people visiting your website. So we need as many people as possible to visit our website.
Now although this site might appear to be separate from the main www.oxcoll.com it is in fact linked, albeit in a not via the main navigation bars on website. In due course there will be a link from Oxford International College's home to The Education Wizard, whilst we get the site up and running the link will be a little less prominent. In the short term this is a tiny bit sneaky, but in the long run the link will be a hundred per cent transparent, rather than the currently ninety-nine per cent.
Good, Popular Websites
If you think about it good, popular websites often solve a problem or problems for you. At some level or other most of the time you are searching the internet for solutions to problems. The problem may be as simple as you are bored and are looking for some entertainment, it may be as complex as getting up to date on the latest developments in search for the Higgs boson; but whatever the case much of the time people use the internet to solve a problem for them. We are in the business of solving educational problems: this may range from a one day revision course, though to two or more years at a full time college. The Education Wizard is an opportunity for us to become a prominent solver of educational problems.
Content is King!
If you read anything about SEO you will hear this phrase soon or later. Search engines love lots of content - i.e. lots of words. However, they do have to be words or phrases which are relevant to the site in question. They also have to be unique - there is no point in cutting and pasting content from other websites. The search engine's robots (the software that scours the web to work out how to rank websites) will spot plagiarism and penalised the plagiarist for it - i.e. demote you down search engine rankings. So we need lots of words and phrases relevant to education, the Education Wizard provides plenty of scope for the legitimate use of such words and phrase. Also we have to ensure the content is good, pages and pages of innate drivel will (a) not make us popular and (b) may be spotted as innate drivel by the robots and penalties may be invoked. The robots are surprisingly clever and can spot overselling - use of overenthusiastic language or too many phrases like "world leader" or "the best college ever!" will also be spotted as over egging the pudding and will be shunned by the robots.
Support Material for Our Students
Both Oxford International College and Oxford Science Studies, obviously have students, several hundred over the course of an academic year. An integral part of the programs of both these organisations is to provide study skills and other support material for their students. The Education Wizard is the ideal forum for us to provide some of this material.
We are Lovely
OK, so I am ridiculously biased, but I do have to say that we are genuinely nice and pink and fluffy. We do want to be helpful and provide useful educational stuff which is free to everyone. We also give quite a lots of money away - see our charities page for further details. Other than the warm fuzzy feeling this loveliness engenders I am a firm believer that friendly, open businesses that provide good services flourish.