SEO for higher education: one site, a dozen audiences, and the program page doing all the work

The top of this query is held by agencies that specialise in education marketing, one university continuing education department and one professional association for online and continuing education. No galleries, no template marketplaces: the people searching this are institutions looking for help, and the results reflect that.

A prospective student searches a subject and a format: an online MBA, a nursing degree near a city, a part-time data program. What they land on is a program page, and that page is judged in under a minute.

It needs the things the applicant is actually comparing: length, format, cost, start dates, entry requirements, and what graduates go on to do. When those are buried under a mission statement, the applicant goes to the next result, which is usually a ranking site or a competitor.

One program, one page, one address. Programs that exist only as a row in a table or a PDF brochure cannot be found by the search that would have brought the applicant.

They are built by committee around the organisation chart: faculties, departments, offices. Applicants do not search by department.

They are heavy. Large content management systems, many tracking scripts and big hero images make program pages slow on a phone, and a large share of prospective students do their first research on one.

They sprawl. Old event pages, duplicate program pages from past years and department subsites compete with each other for the same searches.

We do not replace a university content system. Where we are useful is the part that brings applicants: program and landing pages that are fast, structured and found, built so the admissions team can keep them current.