SEO Case Studies for Growing Undergraduate, Graduate, Adult, Online and International Enrollment

High-performance search engine optimization (SEO) is the greatest equalizer amongst higher education marketing tactics. Using smarts, underdogs become wonder dogs and Davids defeat Goliaths. All our college and university clients have ambitions for increasing and growing their undergraduate, graduate, adult, online and international students. Following are a sampling of seven success stories of our SEO clients:

1. Underdog Wins: William Woods University

Located in mid-Missouri, two hours from Saint Louis and three from Kansas City, William Woods boasts a combination of me-too and distinctive programs. Just by dominating Google page one in all four corners of Missouri for its commodity programs, we doubled their online enrollment and grew their graduate enrollment by 25 percent over a 3-year period. For its distinctive equestrian science and ASL programs, we secured national Google page one rankings which began attracting students from across the US. They never looked back.

2. Small Giant Leaps: St. Edward’s University

Located in eclectic Austin, Texas, surrounded by big publics, this little gem of a Catholic college aspired to grow their out-of-state enrollment from 7% to 20%. By securing national and international Google page one rankings for reputation keywords like “best Catholic colleges”, we helped them realize their ambition. Mission accomplished.

3. Diamond in the Rough Gets Polished: Carnegie Mellon University

The tech giant, Carnegie Mellon, suffered from the belief that “if you build it, they will come.” Twice, they did not come. First time, it was for the masters in information systems management and the second time, it was for their pioneering masters in product management. Both times, we replaced their staid websites with high-fidelity SEO-optimized microsites and blogs that became a keyword magnet for the Google bot to elevate the programs attracting national and international students. One program grew applications by 118% in one year and the enrollment in the other program grew 12-folds in four years. Prosperity cast a radiant glow.

4. Niche Player Finds Riches: Capitol Technology University

This “little engine that could” offered an inch-wide, mile-deep, and an ever-growing niche portfolio of STEM programs. It took an SEO-optimized website redesign and reconstituted vibrant blog for it to become known as THE leader in cybersecurity and THE STEM college in the government and defense contractor rich Washington, D.C. market. In the past 4 years, organic traffic has grown by 5 folds while blog traffic has grown 3 folds. More than 14 million brand impressions are served up annually via search engines. Ongoing growth marks the institution’s trajectory.

5. The Unlikely Emerges: Carlow University

Living in the shadows of elite educational institutions of Pittsburgh, this little humble player invested in SEO, dominated regional rankings for its academic programs and over a 3-year period enjoyed the highest enrollment in a decade. Who would have thought little Carlow would gallop to Google page one and get its fair share of students.

6. Runner Breaks Into a Sprint: Saint Leo University

Parlaying its success in providing education at military bases into educating online students, we helped this road runner break into a sprint by achieving national rankings for 28 of its most fiercely competitive online programs, including “online MBA programs”. The leads generated fed the hungry call-centers, and turned into a force multiplier that generated a 3X ROI.

7. Out of the Red, Into the Black: Concordia University in Irvine

When we encountered this gem, they had been enduring losses for several years. We examined their portfolio of commodity programs and discovered a particularly unique program in online athletic training and administration, led by an accomplished program director with an extensive network of athletic directors and coaches. We recommended they invest 80% of the marketing budget in promoting this one program. They agreed. We situated them on Google page one for a cluster of high-value keywords. The enrollment in the online program grew 10 folds within a year. Not only did this put them in the black, but now they had real budgets that they could invest in marketing all their other programs.

If you are seeking an higher education SEO agency to grow your enrollment, endowment and reputation, consider partnering with us.