SEO vs. Paid Search for OPMs: Finding Your Perfect Marketing Mix

Online Program Management companies like yours face a tricky balancing act.

You need to deliver immediate enrollment results to your university partners. But you’re also battling rising acquisition costs that eat into your margins. Sound familiar?

Leaning heavily on paid search (PPC) might sound like your best choice since it delivers predictable, immediate results. Click the button, pay the money, get the leads. However, this approach is becoming increasingly expensive and unsustainable.

Meanwhile, SEO offers a more cost-effective, long-term solution but requires patience and strategic investment.

So what’s the right answer? Finding the perfect marketing mix that leverages the strengths of both channels or choosing one over the other?

Why Most OPMs Over-Rely on Paid Search

There are plenty of good reasons why OPMs gravitate toward paid advertising:

These advantages make paid search incredibly attractive, especially when university partners are pressing for enrollment numbers.

But there’s a catch! Actually, several catches:

One OPM we worked with was spending over $400,000 monthly on Google Ads alone, with acquisition costs steadily climbing year over year. That’s not a sustainable growth model.

The SEO Alternative

SEO offers a fundamentally different approach to student acquisition:

The challenge? SEO takes time. You won’t see results overnight, which can make it a harder sell when partners need immediate enrollment numbers.

But the long-term math is compelling. Our analysis of one OPM’s marketing spend showed that after 12 months, their cost per enrollment from organic search was significantly lower than from paid channels.

When to Use Each Channel

Rather than thinking of SEO and paid search as competing strategies, smart OPMs view them as complementary tools for different situations.

Best uses for paid search:

Best uses for SEO:

5 Strategies to Balance SEO and Paid Search for Maximum Impact

1. Use the PPC bridge strategy

Instead of viewing PPC as a permanent solution, think of it as a bridge while you build SEO authority:

One OPM we worked with used this approach to reduce their PPC budget by 38% while maintaining the same enrollment numbers, freeing up significant resources for other marketing initiatives.

2. Create an integrated keyword strategy

Too often, PPC and SEO operate in silos. Smart OPMs align their keyword approach across both channels:

Pro tip: Share conversion data between teams. If certain program features convert well in PPC ads, make sure they’re prominently featured in your SEO-focused content.

3. Implement the “Dual Visibility” approach

Research shows that appearing in both paid and organic results significantly increases click-through rates and credibility:

4. Develop a full-funnel content strategy

Different channels excel at different stages of the student journey:

Research phase: Build SEO-focused content addressing early-stage questions

Consideration phase: Use both SEO and targeted PPC

Decision phase: Leverage remarketing and high-intent organic

5. Implement progressive budget shifting

As organic results improve, implement a systematic approach to resource allocation:

This prevents the common mistake of pulling PPC budget too quickly before SEO has fully matured.

Real-World Success: A Hybrid Approach Case Study

One of our OPM clients managed a portfolio of 22 online graduate programs across three university partners. Their challenge? Rising acquisition costs were threatening their revenue-share model.

Their starting point:

We implemented a 12-month hybrid strategy:

The results after 12 months:

Building the Perfect OPM Marketing Mix

SEO vs. Paid Search for OPMs

Ready to optimize your OPM’s approach to student acquisition? Here’s your roadmap:

Take the Next Step

Finding the right balance between SEO and paid search isn’t just about saving money—it’s about creating a sustainable, scalable student acquisition model for your OPM business.

At Manaferra, we specialize in helping OPMs optimize their marketing mix to drive enrollment growth while controlling costs. Our team understands the unique challenges of marketing online programs and how to overcome them.

Why SEO Matters More Than Ever in Higher Ed in 2025

Remember the days when college brochures and campus tours were the primary ways students discovered your institution? Today’s prospective students are taking a different path – one that usually starts with a Google search.

We’ve seen a dramatic shift in how students research their educational options. They’re typing queries like “best business schools near me” or “top online nursing programs” into search engines, making split-second decisions about which institutions deserve their attention based on what appears in those results.

This is exactly why Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become a critical tool in higher education marketing. But here’s the thing – it’s not just about showing up in search results. It’s about showing up at the right time, with the right information, for the right students.

What is Higher Education SEO?

Let’s break this down in simple terms. Higher education SEO is the process of optimizing your institution’s website to appear prominently in search results when prospective students look for:

Think of it as making sure your digital front door is wide open and welcoming when students come knocking.

Why Traditional Marketing Isn’t Enough Anymore

Here’s a reality check: while traditional marketing methods still have their place, they’re no longer sufficient on their own. Here’s why:

Changed Student Behavior

Today’s Gen Z students conduct extensive online research before even considering reaching out to an institution. They want to find information on their own terms, at their own pace.

Cost-Effective Lead Generation

Our data shows that SEO-driven leads often cost 60-70% less than those from paid advertising channels. Once you rank well for key terms, you’re essentially getting free, ongoing exposure to qualified prospects.

Trust and Credibility

When your institution appears organically in search results, it builds credibility. Students trust organic search results more than paid advertisements.

Understanding Your Audience

Before getting into technical details, let’s talk about who we’re really trying to reach. Our experience working with universities has shown that prospective students generally fall into these key segments:

Each group searches differently, uses different keywords, and has different concerns. Understanding these patterns is crucial for your SEO strategy.

Speaking Your Students’ Language

Here’s something we’ve learned after years of higher ed SEO work: the terms universities use to describe their programs often differ from what students actually type into Google.

Let’s look at a real example:

See the difference? Successful higher ed SEO bridges this gap.

Types of Keywords That Matter in Higher Education

1. Program-Specific Keywords

2. Location-Based Keywords

3. Comparison Keywords

Creating Content That Converts

The key to effective higher ed content? Meeting students where they are in their decision journey. Here’s how we structure content strategies for our university partners:

Awareness Stage Content

Create content that answers broad questions students have when starting their search:

Consideration Stage Content

Develop deeper content for students evaluating specific programs:

Decision Stage Content

Provide content that helps students take the next step:

Technical SEO

Let’s talk about the technical aspects of SEO in a way that won’t make your eyes glaze over. Here are the key areas your website needs to nail:

Site Structure

Your website should be as easy to navigate as your physical campus. We recommend organizing content like this:

Homepage
├── Academic Programs
│   ├── Undergraduate
│   ├── Graduate
│   └── Online Programs
├── Admissions
├── Student Life
└── Research

Mobile Optimization

With over 70% of prospective students researching colleges on their phones, mobile optimization isn’t optional. Your site should:

Page Speed

Every second counts. Our data shows that prospective students typically leave if a page takes more than 3 seconds to load. We recommend:

Measuring Success

How do you know if your SEO efforts are paying off? Here are the key metrics we track for our higher ed partners:

Organic Traffic Growth

Engagement Metrics

Conversion Metrics

Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Challenge 1: Decentralized Content Management

Many universities struggle with multiple departments managing their own content. Solution: Create clear SEO guidelines and templates that ensure consistency across all departments.

Challenge 2: Limited Resources

Not every institution has a dedicated SEO team. Solution: Focus on high-impact activities first:

Challenge 3: Slow Implementation

Higher ed institutions often move slowly. Solution: Create a phased approach that delivers quick wins while building toward longer-term goals.

Taking Action: Your Next Steps

Ready to transform your institution’s digital presence? Here’s your action plan:

Audit Your Current Position

Define Your Goals

Create Your Strategy

The Bottom Line

Today, a strong SEO strategy isn’t just nice to have – it’s essential for enrollment growth. The good news? You don’t have to figure it out alone.

We’ve helped universities increase their organic search visibility by an average of 200% through strategic SEO implementation. Ready to see how we can help your institution attract and enroll more qualified students?

? Take the Next Step: Schedule a free consultation to learn how we can create a customized SEO strategy for your institution. We’ll analyze your current position and identify your biggest opportunities for growth.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to see results from SEO?

While you might see initial improvements within 3-6 months, significant results typically take 6-12 months. The good news? Once achieved, these results tend to be long-lasting and compound over time.

How much should we budget for SEO?

Your budget should align with your goals and institutional size. While we can’t give exact numbers here (every institution is different), we can provide detailed recommendations during a consultation.

What makes higher ed SEO different from regular SEO?

Higher ed SEO requires specialized knowledge of the student journey, complex institutional websites, and enrollment marketing. It’s not just about rankings – it’s about attracting the right students to the right programs.

The Complete Guide to Optimizing Program Pages for Better SEO Performance

As competition in higher education intensifies and student search behavior evolves, having well-optimized program pages isn’t just a nice-to-have – it’s essential for enrollment growth. Our research shows that organic search is the #2 traffic source for higher education websites, second only to direct traffic. However, most institutions aren’t maximizing this channel’s potential.

SEO is the #2 traffic source for Higher Ed. websites (after Direct traffic)

In this guide, we’ll explore proven higher ed SEO strategies to optimize your program pages for better SEO performance, based on our analysis of top-performing institutions and years of experience in higher education marketing.

Why SEO Matters for Higher Education

Let’s start with some eye-opening statistics from our research of the top 100 .edu websites:

Take Arizona State University Online as an example. Their program pages generate over 430,000 clicks monthly from Google, with 368,000 of those coming from non-branded searches. The estimated value of this organic traffic? Over $102 million annually if they had to pay for these clicks through advertising.

The Real Opportunity: Non-Branded Traffic

While branded traffic is valuable, the real opportunity lies in capturing prospective students who are just starting their search. These are the students who don’t know your institution yet but are actively looking for programs you offer.

Understanding Search Intent for Program Pages

Before diving into technical optimization, we need to understand search intent – the “why” behind a prospective student’s search query. We’ve identified four main types:

Keyword Research for Program Pages

Effective keyword research is the foundation of any successful SEO strategy. Here’s our proven approach:

Step 1: Choose the Right Tools

Several platforms can help with keyword research:

Step 2: Analyze Search Intent

Let’s look at a real example we covered in our recent webinar:

For an online Bachelor’s in Data Science program, we compared two potential target keywords:

1 – “data science degree”

2 – “online data science degree”

    Despite lower search volume, “online data science degree” is often the better choice because:

    Essential Elements of an Optimized Program Page

    Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

    Title Tag Best Practices:

    Meta Description Best Practices:

    Example of SEO-optimized title, meta description & headings

    URL Structure

    Compare these two approaches:

    ❌ Poor URL Structure:

    brandexample.edu/academics/colleges-schools-departments/college-of-humanities/psychology/graduate-programs

    ✅ Optimal URL Structure:

    brandexample.edu/online-degrees/masters/psychology

    The optimal structure is:

    Program Page Content Outline

    Our research shows that richer content correlates strongly with better rankings. Essential sections include:

    Content Component What to Include Why It Matters
    Program Overview
    • Program delivery method and format
    • Key program features
    • Unique value proposition
    • Program length and structure
    		 Your “first impression” section – needs to quickly communicate value and differentiate your program from competitors
    Curriculum Information
    • Required courses
    • Elective options
    • Learning outcomes
    • Specializations/concentrations
    • Credit requirements
    		 Helps prospective students envision their academic journey and ensures you’re attracting the right fit students
    Admission Requirements
    • Academic prerequisites
    • Application deadlines
    • Required documents
    • Transfer credit policies
    • Application process steps
    		 Removes uncertainty and helps qualified candidates self-select into your funnel
    Career Outcomes
    • Job placement rates
    • Common career paths
    • Alumni success stories
    • Industry partnerships
    • Salary data
    		 Shows ROI and helps prospects connect your program to their career goals
    Faculty Profiles
    • Academic credentials
    • Research interests
    • Industry experience
    • Recent publications/projects
    • Areas of expertise
    		 Builds credibility and helps prospects understand who they’ll learn from
    Cost & Financial Aid
    • Tuition breakdown
    • Available scholarships
    • Financial aid options
    • Payment plans
    • ROI metrics
    		 Addresses a top concern early and helps prospects understand the investment
    Accreditation & Rankings
    • Program-specific accreditations
    • University rankings
    • Industry recognition
    • Quality assurance measures
    		 Validates your program’s quality and helps with both SEO and conversion

    ? Pro Tip:

    While all these components are important, our research shows that programs with detailed curriculum and career outcomes sections tend to perform better in search results. Make these sections especially robust, and keep them updated with fresh content and statistics.

    Technical SEO Considerations

    Mobile Optimization

    Our analysis shows that over 60% of prospective students first interact with program pages on mobile devices. Key considerations:

    Above-the-fold Content

    Page Speed

    Structured Data

    Implement relevant schema markup:

    Internal Linking

    Build a strong internal linking structure:

    Measuring Success

    Track these key metrics:

    Next Steps

    Want to see how your program pages measure up? We offer free SEO audits for higher education institutions. Our team will analyze your current performance and provide actionable recommendations for improvement.

    Ready to optimize your program pages for better visibility and enrollment results? Contact our team for a personalized consultation.

    This article is based on our analysis of top-performing higher education websites and years of experience helping institutions improve their organic search presence. For more insights and resources, visit our Higher Education SEO Hub.

    A Complete SEO Strategy for Online Degree Programs: What Actually Works in 2025

    Let’s be honest – getting online degree pages to rank in search isn’t what it used to be. With more universities launching online degree programs and ed-tech companies grabbing market share, standing out requires more than just basic SEO. But here’s the good news: we’ve cracked the code on what actually works in higher ed SEO, and we’re sharing our playbook with you.

    Why SEO Should Be Your Enrollment Growth Engine

    Picture this: A prospective student sits down at their computer after a long workday, types “online MBA programs that work with full-time jobs” into Google, and starts their journey toward enrollment. That’s happening thousands of times every day. The question is: will they find your program or your competitor’s?

    We’ve found that institutions focusing on organic search typically see 3-4x better ROI compared to those relying primarily on paid advertising. Why? Because while paid ads stop the moment your budget runs dry, SEO keeps working for you 24/7.

    The New Rules of Online Education Marketing

    The landscape has shifted dramatically since 2020:

    Success today isn’t about who has the biggest budget – it’s about who best understands and serves prospective students’ needs through search.

    Target the Right Keywords for Your Online Degree Programs

    Here’s something interesting we’ve noticed: while most universities fight over obvious terms like “online MBA” or “online master’s degree,” the real opportunities lie in understanding how students actually search.

    Think about these scenarios:

    These longer, more specific searches often convert better because they match real student concerns and intentions.

    Smart Competitor Research That Gets Results

    Instead of just guessing what works, we use tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to:

    Building Your SEO-Powered Enrollment Machine

    Program Pages That Actually Convert

    Your program pages shouldn’t just rank well – they need to turn visitors into applicants. Here’s what works:

    Creating Content That Ranks AND Converts

    We’ve found that the topic cluster model works incredibly well in higher ed content marketing. Here’s a real example we used for a cybersecurity program:

    Main pillar: “The Ultimate Guide to Online Cybersecurity Degrees” Supporting content cluster:

    This approach helped one of our partners increase their organic traffic by 143% in just six months.

    Technical SEO That Makes a Difference

    Site Structure That Google Loves

    Keep it simple but strategic:

    Mobile Optimization That Matters

    Fun fact: over 70% of prospective students research programs on their phones. Here’s what you need to nail:

    Smart Use of Structured Data

    We’ve seen dramatic improvements in click-through rates using strategic schema markup. Here’s a simplified example:

    jsonCopy{
  "@type": "Course",
  "name": "Online MBA",
  "description": "...",
  "provider": {
    "@type": "CollegeOrUniversity",
    "name": "Your University"
  }
}

    Preparing for AI-Driven Search

    Let’s face it – search is changing fast with AI, and higher ed marketers need to adapt. We’re seeing AI reshape how prospective students find and evaluate online degree programs. The good news? A few smart adjustments to your SEO strategy can keep you ahead of the curve.

    First, focus on answering questions directly. AI loves clear, straightforward responses to student queries. Think less about keyword density and more about providing genuine value in your content.

    Next, make your content easy for AI to understand. Simple steps like using proper headings and schema markup go a long way. When we structure content clearly, both search engines and students win.

    Finally, remember that voice search is growing. Students are asking their devices questions like “Can I get an MBA while working?” Your content should speak to these natural, conversational queries.

    Measuring What Actually Matters

    Skip the vanity metrics and focus on what counts:

    Ready to Transform Your Online Degree Program’s Visibility?

    SEO for online degree programs isn’t just about rankings – it’s about creating a sustainable engine for enrollment growth. We’ve helped universities achieve remarkable results:

    Want to see how these strategies could work for your institution? Let’s talk about your specific goals and challenges.

    Schedule a Free Strategy Session →

    We’ll analyze your current SEO performance and show you exactly how to improve it.

    Higher Education SEO Case Studies: From 9k to 100k+ Monthly Visits

    Anyone can read about SEO strategies and best practices for higher education. But what really helps us understand what works is seeing the actual challenges universities face and how they overcome them. That’s why we’re sharing three detailed case studies that take you behind the scenes of successful higher education SEO campaigns.

    We’ll walk through how we helped a top 3 Ivy League institution improve their program pages’ visibility, how we recovered a university’s traffic after a challenging website redesign, and how we used strategic content to grow another institution’s organic traffic by over 600%. Each case offers unique insights into what it takes to achieve meaningful results in higher education SEO.

    #1 Program Page SEO for a Leading Ivy League School

    Client Overview

    Working with one of the world’s most prestigious universities presented an interesting challenge. Despite their renowned academic reputation, their program pages weren’t performing as well as they could in search results. For prospective students searching for graduate programs online, finding this institution’s offerings was surprisingly difficult.

    The Challenge

    The core issue was straightforward but significant: their program pages had low visibility for the key search terms prospective students were using. While the institution’s brand carried tremendous weight, they were missing out on connecting with potential students who were searching for programs without using the university’s name.

    Our Approach

    We developed a focused strategy to address this visibility gap:

    1. Created detailed optimization recommendations for 20 distinct programs
    2. Implemented comprehensive tracking to monitor ranking improvements
    3. Worked closely with their team to execute changes effectively
    4. Prioritized increasing visibility for non-branded, program-related keywords

    The Results

    The improvements were substantial across multiple programs.

    One of the many examples for this campaign, we ranked them in top rankings for some highly relevant and competitive keywords

    Computer Science Ph.D. Program:

    Electrical Engineering Ph.D. Program:

    Applied Mathematics Programs:

    Bioengineering Undergraduate Program:

    #2 UOTP’s Recovery After a Challenging Website Redesign

    Client Overview

    The University of the Potomac (UOTP) operates campuses in Washington DC, Virginia, and Chicago. When they came to us, they were seeing around 9,000 organic sessions monthly – a number significantly impacted by a recent website redesign that had created several technical issues.

    The Challenge

    The situation required immediate attention because:

    Our Approach

    We implemented a comprehensive strategy focusing on three key areas:

    Technical SEO Improvements:

    Content Strategy:

    Link Building:

    The Results

    The improvement was clear and measurable:

    #3 OLLU’s Journey to 100K+ Monthly Organic Visitors

    Client Overview

    Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU), founded in 1895, came to us with clear goals: they wanted to triple their organic traffic from 12,000 to 36,000 monthly visitors within a year. What they achieved went well beyond these initial targets.

    The Challenge

    Several key issues needed addressing:

    Our Approach

    We developed a strategic plan with three main components:

    Technical Optimization:

    Content Development:

    Program Page Enhancement:

    The Results

    The outcomes exceeded all expectations:

    You can notice when OLLU started working on the graph 🙂

    Key Insights

    These case studies demonstrate that significant improvements in higher education SEO come from:

    1. Addressing technical fundamentals properly
    2. Creating valuable content that serves student needs
    3. Balancing quick wins with long-term growth strategies
    4. Using comprehensive tracking to measure and improve results

    Most importantly, success comes from developing strategies that fit each institution’s unique situation, challenges, and goals. Whether you’re looking to recover lost traffic, improve program visibility, or build sustainable organic growth, the key is having a clear understanding of your current position and a well-executed plan to reach your goals.

    Interested in exploring how we can help your institution achieve similar results? Let’s discuss your specific challenges and objectives.

    Building an SEO-Optimized University Blog That Drives Growth

    Imagine generating over a million organic website visits every month. That’s not a typo – institutions like SNHU and WGU are doing exactly that through their blogs. While their success might seem extraordinary, it reveals something powerful: prospective students are hungry for information, and they’re searching for it online in massive numbers.

    The truth is, for every person searching for your specific program, there are 10 to 100 more searching for answers about the field, career prospects, and whether the degree is worth it. These questions represent an enormous opportunity to connect with potential students long before they’re ready to submit an application. Through SEO blogging, you can become their trusted source of information – and eventually, their chosen institution.

    This guide will show you how to tap into this potential, walking you through proven strategies that can transform your university’s blog from a simple news feed into a powerful engine for enrollment growth.

    Why Your University Should Start a Blog Today

    Most universities invest heavily in their program pages – but that’s just the final step in a student’s decision journey. Leading institutions are thinking bigger. They’re building strategic blog presences that connect with prospective students months or even years before they’re ready to apply. Let’s explore how this approach is transforming enrollment marketing and why it’s becoming essential for growth.

    Search Demand

    Here’s a surprising fact: the search volume for questions about a program or field of study can be 10 to 100 times larger than searches for the program itself. Think about it – for every person searching “data science master’s program,” there might be dozens more asking questions like:

    Your blog is your opportunity to answer these questions and introduce your institution to potential students early in their decision-making journey.

    Backlinks

    Educational content naturally attracts backlinks from other websites. When you publish research findings, expert insights, or comprehensive guides about specific fields, other institutions, and industry websites are more likely to reference and link to your content. These natural backlinks strengthen your domain authority, which in turn helps all your pages – including program pages – rank better in search results.

    Let’s look at a real example: A series of in-depth articles we created for Bay Atlantic University’s blog attracted backlinks from industry giants like Ubisoft, Fortune, and BetterHelp, along with hundreds of other authoritative websites.

    These weren’t just any links – they came from websites that are notoriously difficult to earn backlinks from. The impact? The university’s domain authority jumped significantly, leading to higher rankings across their entire website, including critical program pages. This demonstrates how well-researched, original content can transform your website’s authority in Google’s eyes.

    Internal Linking

    Every blog post creates a new opportunity to link to your program pages. These internal links act similarly to backlinks from other websites, but with a crucial advantage: you control them. You decide where to place them and what anchor text to use, making them a powerful tool for boosting your program pages’ rankings.

    Topical Authority

    Having a program page alone won’t set you apart when hundreds of other institutions offer similar programs. Your blog gives you the opportunity to demonstrate deeper expertise in your field. Google recognizes and rewards institutions that provide comprehensive information about their subjects – when you consistently publish quality content about data science, for example, you signal to search engines that you’re a genuine authority in the field.

    Repurposing Content

    The value of blog content extends far beyond SEO and website traffic.

    Each piece of content you create becomes a versatile asset that can be repurposed across your marketing channels. A single well-researched blog post can be transformed into social media updates that spark discussion, provide compelling statistics for your email newsletters, and generate insights for your promotional materials.

    This approach not only maximizes your content investment but also ensures consistent messaging across all touchpoints in your marketing ecosystem. Instead of constantly creating new content for each channel, your blog becomes a central repository of valuable information that can be adapted and redistributed to reach prospective students wherever they are.

    How to Create a High-Performance University Blog

    Creating a successful university blog requires careful planning and strategic implementation. Your blog should serve both your audience’s needs and your institution’s goals. Let’s explore the key elements that will set your blog up for success.

    Structure and Design

    Your blog needs its own dedicated space, separate from news or announcements sections. Create a clean, readable design that matches your main website’s aesthetic while implementing a clear category structure aligned with your programs. For institutions publishing frequently, a tag system can help organize content more granularly and improve the user experience.

    BAU’s blog is well structured and provides a great UX

    Conversion Strategy

    Strategic placement of calls-to-action throughout your blog is crucial for turning readers into prospects. Guide interested visitors to relevant program pages or RFI forms, while offering lighter conversion options like newsletter subscriptions for those earlier in their journey. Each piece of content should have a clear next step for the reader.

    Tracking and Analytics

    Understanding your blog’s performance goes beyond basic pageviews. Implement tracking for content engagement metrics like scroll depth and time on page. More importantly, track how blog visitors convert – both immediately and over time. Set up proper attribution to identify leads that first discovered you through the blog, even if they convert later through other channels. Install retargeting pixels to maintain visibility with these early-stage prospects through advertising.

    Author Attribution

    While not always possible, especially with agency-created content, adding author attribution to your blog posts can significantly boost credibility. The ideal scenario is engaging your faculty members to share their expertise – their academic credentials and real-world experience add authenticity that generic content can’t match. Even occasional faculty contributions can elevate your blog’s authority and provide unique insights that set your content apart.

    🎯 SEO for Higher Education
    A Newsletter by Manaferra
    ✅ How-tos & templates for higher ed marketers
    📊 Exclusive higher ed SEO data & research
    📄 Checklists & actionable insights to increase enrollments

    Technical SEO Implementation

    Proper semantic markup helps search engines better understand and display your content. Implement Author schema to highlight your content creators, Article schema for articles, Course list and Course info schema, and FAQ schema for question-based content.

    This structured data approach ensures your content is properly indexed and can appear in enhanced search results, increasing visibility and click-through rates.

    Consistency is Key

    Regular publishing is crucial, but don’t get discouraged if every post isn’t a hit. The Pareto principle applies here – roughly 20% of your content will drive 80% of your results. Those successful pieces can bring substantial traffic, remember the 10x-100x multiplier for informational searches versus program searches.

    The Impact of AI on Search and Content Strategy

    The rise of AI in search is changing how people interact with search results, with some studies suggesting up to a 40% reduction in click-through rates. However, this shift isn’t diminishing the strategic value of blog content – it’s actually helping surface higher-quality traffic. The visitors who do click through are typically more engaged and interested in deeper learning, making them more likely to convert than those seeking quick answers.

    Moreover, the fundamental benefits of blogging remain unchanged and perhaps more valuable than ever. Your blog continues to provide internal linking opportunities that strengthen your program pages, builds topical authority in your field, and creates versatile content that can be repurposed across marketing channels. Most importantly, it remains a powerful tool for brand awareness and trust building in an increasingly competitive educational landscape.

    Getting Started with Your University Blog

    Begin by focusing on your core programs and understanding what potential students want to know about them. Use keyword research tools to identify high-value questions and topics, paying attention to both search volume and competition level. This research will form the foundation of your content strategy.

    With your topics identified, create a content calendar that aligns with your academic year. Consider admission cycles when planning content timing, and ensure you’re maintaining a balanced mix of content across different programs. This strategic approach helps you maintain consistency while serving all your key audiences.

    Finally, determine whether you’ll create content in-house or partner with an agency. Regardless of your choice, establish clear workflows and approval processes from the start. Set up proper tracking and reporting systems to measure your progress and demonstrate ROI as your blog grows.

    Time to Take Action

    Success stories like Southern New Hampshire University and Western Governors University show what’s possible with a well-executed blog strategy. Generating over 1 million monthly sessions isn’t just impressive – it’s evidence of how blog content directly strengthens program page performance and drives enrollment growth.

    While these numbers might seem ambitious, every university can achieve meaningful results through strategic blogging. Your blog will become more than just an SEO tool – it will emerge as a powerful marketing asset that answers prospective students’ questions, builds your authority, supports your program pages, and fuels your broader marketing initiatives.

    The opportunity is clear. Start small, focus on quality, maintain consistency, and watch your content become a crucial driver of enrollment growth.

    Advanced SEO Metrics every Higher Ed marketer should track

    Tracking SEO performance is essential for higher ed marketers, but relying on vanity metrics like traffic and rankings often leads to incomplete insights. The challenge lies in identifying the right metrics, those that provide actionable insights, align with institutional goals, and directly impact student enrollment and engagement.

    This article goes beyond listing advanced metrics. It offers a practical framework for higher ed marketers to measure what truly matters, leverage the right tools, and transform their data into strategies that deliver measurable results. Whether your focus is driving enrollment, improving stakeholder engagement, or strengthening your institution’s visibility, this guide will help you connect the dots between SEO efforts and real impact.

    Aligning Metrics with Institutional Goals

    One of the biggest mistakes higher education marketers make is focusing on metrics without connecting them to broader institutional objectives. Traffic and keyword rankings, while important, tell only part of the story. 

    For instance, a spike in traffic may look impressive, but unless it leads to actions like applications or inquiries, its value remains unclear.

    To truly measure success, SEO metrics must be mapped directly to institutional priorities:

    By identifying these connections upfront, marketers can ensure that SEO efforts aren’t just improving numbers; they’re driving meaningful outcomes.

    How to choose the right metrics: Metrics vs. KPIs

    One of the most common challenges higher ed marketers face is selecting metrics that truly reflect the success of their SEO strategies. This starts with understanding the difference between Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

    By focusing on KPIs over Metrics, marketers can ensure that their efforts are aligned with outcomes that matter to their institution’s success.

    Examples of KPIs for Higher Ed Marketing

    Here’s how you can define meaningful KPIs based on common institutional goals:

    Enrollment Growth

    Alumni Engagement

    Brand Visibility

    Organic Growth

    Aligning Metrics and KPIs with your Institution’s goals

    It’s important to remember that every KPI should serve a larger institutional goal. For example, tracking Organic Traffic to Program Pages might seem useful, but unless it ties to an objective like increasing applications, it remains just another useless data point. Begin by defining your goals, and then map the metrics and KPIs that will help you evaluate progress.

    This approach ensures that your SEO strategy isn’t just improving numbers but is actively contributing to your institution’s mission.

    Going beyond basic metrics

    Traditional SEO metrics like Organic Traffic and Keyword Rankings are often the easiest to measure, but they don’t provide the depth of understanding needed to refine strategies or showcase impact. When you use advanced metrics that are linked to end goals, you end up with a more nuanced view of user behavior and content performance.

    Engagement Metrics

    Engagement metrics such as scroll depth, time on page, and exit rates are critical for assessing how well content resonates with your audience. For instance:

    Branded vs. Non-Branded Traffic Metrics

    Tracking both branded and non-branded SEO traffic is crucial for higher education marketers because it provides a comprehensive view of how potential students discover and interact with your institution online.

    Branded Traffic includes search queries that include your institution’s name (e.g., “X University MBA program”). It reflects brand awareness, often driven by offline campaigns and previous engagement with your website/brand or alumni. It also indicates a higher level of intent, as these prospective students are already aware of your university and chances are, they are further along in the decision-making process, making them more likely to convert into applicants or enrolled students.

    Non-Branded Traffic includes queries without your institution’s name (e.g., “best online MBA programs”). This traffic captures a broader audience that may be in the early stages of exploring their educational options. These prospective students might not yet be familiar with your institution, presenting an opportunity to introduce your programs and unique offerings to a diverse pool of prospective students.

    Why It Matters

    Branded Traffic measures the strength of your reputation and brand reach.

    Non-branded traffic helps assess your ability to expand your audience and capture prospective students unfamiliar with your institution. In our analysis, over 80% of organic traffic to the top 100 .edu websites comes from branded keywords. This shows how important it is for your institution to optimize your website to rank for keywords that include your institution’s name. However, focusing only on getting traffic from the ones that are already familiar with your brand may reduce your ability to reach a new audience that is unaware of your brand.

    How to Use This Insight

    Segment Traffic – Use Google Analytics or Google Search Console to track branded vs. non-branded queries.

    Optimize for Balance – If non-branded traffic is low, create content targeting broader keywords. For branded traffic, ensure you maintain visibility for key institutional terms.

    Set KPIs – Track branded traffic for brand health and non-branded traffic for audience growth.

    Conversion-Related Metrics

    Advanced conversion metrics, like assisted conversions and multi-touch attribution, uncover the paths users take before completing key actions.

    Content Performance Metrics

    Content-specific metrics, like click-through rates (CTR) and Repeat Visitor rates, provide insights into how well your content serves the needs of prospective students and other stakeholders.

    Analytics tools you can use

    Without the right tools and systems in place, tracking SEO metrics can be daunting. Higher education marketers should invest in platforms and processes that make it easy to collect, analyze, and act on data. Here are some tools we recommend every marketer should use:

    Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

    GA4 represents a shift of the previous Google Analytics version toward an event-driven data model that enables marketers to track each user interaction as an individual event, rather than grouping them together by session. With its ability to create custom dimensions, you can track specific event attributes such as program interests, enrollment status, or campus locations that aren’t included by default when an event is registered into GA4. This tailored data provides deeper insights into prospective student behaviors and preferences, enabling more targeted and effective marketing strategies.

    Pro Tip: Set up event-based goals, such as clicking on the “Start Application” button to understand what pages, CTAs, and button placements are driving your applications

    Google Search Console

    Google Search Console is a powerful, free tool that provides insights into how your institution’s website appears in search results. It helps higher ed marketers monitor and improve performance by focusing on key metrics such as:

    Pro Tip: Use the Performance Report in Search Console to identify high-impression, low-CTR pages. Optimize their meta titles and descriptions to make them more compelling and aligned with user intent.

    SEO Analytics Platforms

    Platforms like SEMrush and Ahrefs offer tools for monitoring keyword rankings, share of voice, and backlink quality. These insights are critical for benchmarking your institution’s performance against competitors, especially for high-value keywords like “best online MBA programs.”

    Pro Tip: Use Ahrefs’ content gap tool to identify keywords your competitors rank for that you don’t, and develop content to close those gaps.

    Custom Dashboards

    Google Looker Studio allows marketers to consolidate data from multiple sources into intuitive dashboards. This helps simplify reporting and enables cross-departmental teams to access the data they need without navigating complex tools.

    Pro Tip: Build dashboards tailored to specific goals. For example, create one focused on enrollment metrics and another on alumni engagement.

    🎯 SEO for Higher Education
    A Newsletter by Manaferra
    ✅ How-tos & templates for higher ed marketers
    📊 Exclusive higher ed SEO data & research
    📄 Checklists & actionable insights to increase enrollments

    Turning Metrics into Action

    Having the right metrics is only half the battle; success lies in how you use them. To turn your data into actionable insights, follow these practical steps to ensure your SEO efforts are driving measurable results that align with your institution’s goals.

    Set Benchmarks

    Benchmarks provide a baseline for evaluating your current performance and measuring progress over time. They also offer context for interpreting metrics in relation to industry standards or institutional goals.

    How to set benchmarks:

    Pro Tip: Regularly revisit and adjust benchmarks to reflect new goals, updated strategies, or external factors like algorithm changes.

    Identify Trends

    Trends reveal the bigger picture behind your metrics, helping you spot opportunities and address potential challenges before they escalate.

    How to identify trends:

    Pro Tip: Use visualization tools like Google Looker Studio to spot trends at a glance and share insights with stakeholders.

    Take Action on Insights

    Metrics are only valuable if they inform decisions and lead to improvements. Connect the dots between your data and specific optimizations to enhance your SEO strategy.

    Examples of actionable steps you can take from analyzing insights:

    Pro Tip: Tie every action back to a measurable outcome. For example, “Optimizing our program pages led to a 20% increase in completed applications.”

    Monitor and adjust regularly

    SEO is an ongoing process. Regularly review your metrics to ensure you’re on track to meet your goals and adapt as needed.

    How often should you monitor your SEO performance?

    Pro Tip: Schedule regular check-ins with cross-departmental teams (admissions, marketing, etc.) to align metrics and actions with their objectives.

    By setting benchmarks, analyzing trends, and taking targeted action, you can transform their metrics into meaningful insights. This approach ensures your SEO strategy not only drives traffic but also delivers measurable results that align with institutional priorities.

    Conclusion

    Success in Higher Education SEO requires more than just monitoring traffic and rankings; it demands a focus on the metrics that truly matter. The SEO metrics shared here provide the data to measure what impacts institutional goals, from driving applications and enrollments to engaging alumni and boosting brand visibility.

    By combining these metrics with a clear understanding of tools like GA4 and Google Search Console, and focusing on actionable KPIs, you can go beyond vanity metrics to make data-driven decisions that deliver measurable results. Setting benchmarks, tracking trends, and aligning metrics with institutional priorities ensures that every effort contributes to meaningful outcomes.

    When advanced metrics are aligned with broader goals, they become more than just numbers; they become a roadmap for growth and impact. Use these insights to refine your strategies, prove your ROI, and elevate your institution’s marketing to the next level. Let the results speak for themselves.

    Ready to take your institution’s SEO to the next level? Let’s talk about how our strategies can deliver measurable results for your institution.

    FAQ

    1. Why should higher education institutions focus on more advanced SEO metrics?
    Advanced SEO metrics provide deeper insights into user behavior, content performance, and conversion pathways, enabling institutions to align their SEO strategies with key goals like enrollment, brand visibility, and alumni engagement. Unlike basic metrics such as traffic or rankings, advanced metrics help quantify SEO ROI and guide data-driven decisions.

    2. How do I know which SEO metrics to track for my institution?
    Start by identifying your institution’s strategic priorities. For example:

    The key is to select metrics that directly tie to your institutional objectives.

    3. What tools are essential for tracking advanced SEO metrics?
    Some of the most effective tools for higher education include:

    4. How can these SEO metrics help improve my content strategy?
    SEO metrics like click-through rates (CTR), scroll depth, and time on page can reveal which content resonates with your audience. For example, a low CTR might suggest your meta descriptions need improvement, while high engagement on specific pages could signal opportunities to expand those topics further.

    5. How do I explain the value of SEO metrics to non-technical stakeholders?
    Frame the conversation around outcomes that stakeholders care about. For instance, rather than discussing engagement rates, highlight how an increase in engagement rates led to a measurable increase in completed applications. Use visual dashboards and storytelling to connect metrics with institutional priorities and ROI.

    6. How often should I review my SEO metrics?
    Regular reviews are essential to stay proactive.

    7. What’s the biggest mistake institutions make when analyzing SEO metrics?
    One common pitfall is focusing solely on vanity metrics, like total traffic or keyword rankings, without considering their relevance to institutional goals. Always prioritize actionable metrics that reflect real-world outcomes, such as completed applications, increased donations, or improved engagement.

    8. What’s the first step to implementing an advanced SEO metrics strategy?
    Start with a clear understanding of your goals and select tools that align with those objectives. Define the key metrics that matter for each goal, set up your analytics platform for accurate tracking, and begin monitoring data to identify actionable insights.

    AI Overviews SEO Impact: Higher Ed. Research Study

    AI Overviews is a new search feature launched by Google on May 14th, 2024. It was first introduced to us through Google’s Search Generative Experience in May 2023 and was only available if you had signed up for Google’s Search Labs. AI Overviews (until recently known as SGE results) were tested on users who had enabled SGE through Search Labs for a year to gather training data before the rollout.

    We analyzed the top 1,000 keywords in the Higher Ed. space to understand the impact of this new feature on the visibility and traffic of the results. Here’s what we learned:

    Methodology

    AI Overviews are visible for only 4% of the keywords where the intent is to ‘Find a program’

    This was surprising to us. We were expecting a higher % of keywords that would show an AI Overview, but it looks like Google is being more conservative with these keywords. What this means is that if your institution was getting a lot of traffic to its program pages from non-branded program-related keywords, it’s very unlikely you’ll see any impact for the time being.

    One reason this could be the case is that Google is just trying to be careful with the AI recommendations and answers in the Higher Ed. space. As we have seen in the past few weeks, there’s been a lot of noise online from users who are not happy with the AI results, and it’s totally understandable considering the very wrong answers sometimes Google provides.

    AI Overviews are visible for 18.6% of the keywords where the intent is to “Get informed”

    This is more in line with what we expected. AI Overviews are well suited for keywords where the intent is informational (you’re looking for information, asking questions, doing comparisons, etc.). They are designed to provide comprehensive and structured answers, making them a good fit for such queries.

    Our Lady of the Lake University (a client of ours) ranks for “qualities of a good leader” in the 1st position with an informational blog post. Google is showing an AI Overview, which when you open, you’ll see OLLU isn’t linked as a result in the AI-generated answer and doesn’t have any visibility in this search feature. But their blog article still ranks in 1st position as a traditional result.

    When we look at the Google Search Console data (a week before AI Overviews were launched vs. a week after its launch), we see that the total clicks declined by 51%, but the number of searches (impressions) for that keyword during the last week also declined by 34%. This is why the CTR, which declined by 25%, is a more important metric here because it tells us the real impact in the loss/win of clicks.

    Based on the above data, we believe that the negative impact on informational keywords in the Higher Ed. space to be in the range of 20-25% which makes sense, considering that the nature of this content and the audiences that it attracts (not necessarily students looking for programs, but a more general audience).

    Still, we’re big believers in creating this kind of content for multiple reasons, from building topical authority in areas where you have programs (it benefits your program pages and their rankings/performance), brand strengthening (even with the potential decline, you still going to get a lot of free traffic from Google), website authority (this content attracts backlinks which are very important in SEO) and lead generation (some of this traffic will funnel down to your program pages and convert).

    Even with AI Overviews launched in the US, this article got over 7,300 clicks in the last seven days alone. That’s about 30,000 clicks/mo from this article alone.

    Again, it’s still early to draw final conclusions, and we’re monitoring the search results daily, but from multiple tests, we got the same result, and are comfortable to say that we don’t expect significant changes in the % of the traffic you’ll get in Education search results from the new AI Overview feature.

    🎯 SEO for Higher Education
    A Newsletter by Manaferra
    ✅ How-tos & templates for higher ed marketers
    📊 Exclusive higher ed SEO data & research
    📄 Checklists & actionable insights to increase enrollments

    AI Overviews are visible for 14.4% of the keywords where the intent is ‘Mixed’

    These are more general keywords for which Google shows you different types of search results, such as blog posts with information on what you can do with a specific degree, websites that list the best schools to get that degree, universities offering that degree, etc.

    Even the AI Overview provides you with bits of information for both intents; if you’re looking to learn more about a program, they’ll provide a snippet of information, and then, just in case you’re also looking for options, they’ll list 2-3 schools. Here’s one example:

    Final thoughts

    We don’t expect a negative impact on the ROI of SEO for Higher Ed. for one simple reason: someone interested in finding the right school will not be satisfied with just the AI Overview answer and will want to research more (click on results) to learn all the information it needs to make the right decision.

    AI Overviews will negatively impact traffic on the keywords where the user was searching for information that could be provided in 1-2 sentences, like the example below.

    If you aim to rank for program-related keywords, you’ll still get the traffic that converts the best because you’re answering the search intent by providing the information that prospects are looking for.

    P.S. We’re still working on this analysis, this was just the first post of a series we plan on publishing. If you’re interested to learn more about AI Overviews impact in Higher Ed. search results, subscribe below and we’ll keep you updated.

    How to Grow College Enrollment with SEO

    Choosing a higher education institution is a pivotal decision, and a growing number of students in the US are starting to research their options months—sometimes years—before enrolling. Every time prospective students go online to research, higher education marketers have a massive opportunity to show up with relevant digital content and help them make a well-informed decision.

    Students now research almost entirely online

    Finding the right institution used to involve campus visits and flipping through stacks of brochures, but students today increasingly choose to spend their time researching online, bouncing between devices. In fact, 97% of students in a study done by Google researched their options online. Search was a crucial resource for most of these students, with 65% using a search engine at some point during their path to purchase.

    Interestingly, students were more certain about their choice of coursework than about their choice of institution when they started their research—72% of students started with a specific course in mind, while only 36% were sure of their provider of choice. When they’re ready to learn about an institution, students get the bulk of their information from providers’ websites. A site full of helpful information is paramount, but an institution’s search performance is still a top factor: 45% of prospective students reported that they have a better opinion of universities that appear on the first page of search results.

    Your higher education institution might offer excellent study programs, with some of the best professors in the field and superb facilities to accommodate students. But, if the school’s site doesn’t appear in the first few rankings of relevant search results, it’s less likely that students will ever see it while searching for suitable programs and, therefore, not be aware of all you have to offer.

    Google is by far the dominant search engine, with an impressive 87.72% of all searches in the U.S. happening on it. So, higher education institutions can significantly benefit from the increased visibility of their website in Google searches by employing the proper Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies. 

    From targeting the right keywords to optimizing your website’s on-page elements, by using SEO as a marketing channel, you can increase the quantity and quality of leads and applications coming from your website. 

    Organic search (SEO) has the second highest lead to application to student conversion rate, beaten only by Direct traffic, and it’s way ahead of other channels like Paid Search, Social, and others. 

    So, read on and learn more about how you can grow college enrollment with SEO for higher education, or directly take action and contact our agency that specializes in higher education SEO services.

    The importance of SEO for college enrollments growth

    There are currently 4,360 higher ed. institutions in the U.S., so this is undoubtedly a fiercely competitive market. Most are familiar with Google Ads and spend hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars on it yearly. The education vertical is one of the biggest spenders in Google Ads.

    Yet, SEO which allows you to rank organically without the need to pay for every click, has a better ROI, and is more sustainable as a marketing strategy, is left out when the budgets are decided. 

    This could be your secret weapon. 

    The cost to show your ads for specific keywords has increased year over year, and the competition is brutal, but the same can’t be said about SEO. Over 70% of the clicks that happen on search results go to organic results, and only a few higher ed. institutions are capitalizing on it.

    The goal is to rank for relevant keywords. This way, when students search these keywords, they will quickly come across your institution. The organic position of your site will help you expand your reach, resulting in more qualified traffic where students visiting your site are more likely to enroll in your programs.

    Another benefit of using SEO as a marketing channel for your higher education institution is that it can help you improve the brand’s credibility. Typically, a higher search ranking is associated with credibility, as people are more likely to trust the first few results listed to provide the correct information. 

    In a chain reaction, the improved ranking that offers more credibility is then responsible for more qualified traffic, as reports show that the first organic result in Google Search has an average click-through rate of 43.32%. In addition, the second and third results have a 37.36% and 29.9% click-through rate, respectively. Therefore, SEO will not only help your site rank higher but, as a result, also make it a more trustworthy and reputable source, thus increasing student enrollment.

    SEO strategies for college enrollment growth

    Throughout the following sections, we will go into more detail about some SEO enrollment strategies where we tackle keywords, on-page SEO elements, mobile performance, website speed, and the content provided.

    The role of keywords in SEO college enrollment

    Keywords are a group of words people use in the search bar for information and are a fundamental part of SEO. By conducting keyword research, you can find out what terms people are actively searching for and how competitive each keyword is. You can then use the data gathered for marketing plans to increase your site’s organic traffic and ranking.

    Before determining your content’s keywords, you must first identify your target audience via market research and your students’ insights. This way, you can pinpoint potential students’ needs, behaviors, and concerns and therefore consider what questions they might have regarding college and study programs so you can direct your keyword research toward the information they need.

    Once you identify the keywords related to your services, you have also determined what the searchers want and, therefore, can focus your content on those topics to meet their wishes. The more instances of a keyword used in your content and meta tags, the higher the potential for better search ranking and improved visibility. But if you ignore keywords or use the wrong ones, you will not get the visitors you want because your content does not match what the audience is searching for. 

    Typically, keyword research tools identify the keyword’s monthly search volume and difficulty level. When choosing the keywords, you’ll want to find keywords that have a high monthly search volume but are also easy to use and have less competition. 

    The most important thing to remember when choosing keywords is understanding the search intent behind that keyword. When that is understood correctly, you know with what type of content (program page, info page, location page, or blog post) you can target that keyword & have a shot at ranking. 

    The importance of on-page optimization in SEO

    On-page optimization refers to the SEO strategy that helps shape various structural elements of a website with the intention of increasing its search engine visibility and rankings. This strategy covers all internal aspects of a webpage, including the title tag, meta description, header tags, URLs, internal linking, and more, as they attempt to boost the page’s ranking.

    Similar to what was previously discussed regarding keyword optimization, through on-page optimization, the implementation’s objective is to attract more qualified traffic through better visibility. 

    Your site can achieve such objectives through a series of actions. Firstly, update the title and description of pages/articles with relevant keywords and add necessary, creative, and engaging descriptions about the site and content integrated into it while maintaining a balanced ratio of targeted keywords used throughout them. Furthermore, it is best to structure the content using header tags that, once again, incorporate relevant keywords but also help present a better-organized page. Headers and subheaders offer the ideal areas to strategically include keywords without overstuffing the content. 

    Optimizing your site’s on-page content will help Google, and any other search engine gain context about the main topic and subtopics discussed on your page. This way, users can quickly determine that your site matches their search intent, click on it, and hopefully enroll at your college.

    🎯 SEO for Higher Education
    A Newsletter by Manaferra
    ✅ How-tos & templates for higher ed marketers
    📊 Exclusive higher ed SEO data & research
    📄 Checklists & actionable insights to increase enrollments

    The importance of elevating your content strategy

    Though keywords and on-site optimization help provide more visibility to your site and therefore help your site reach wider audiences, the actual test of whether you generate qualified conversions depends on the content provided once they click on your site. In short, elevating your content strategy is vital to college enrollment.

    In your quest to improve your content, there are a few things you can do. To begin, go back to the target audience we mentioned. Think about your audience, what they want, and what they are searching for online. Then, consider how your programs can benefit them and create content compelling them to take action.

    Your site will attract prospective students by providing helpful information, as the right content strategy is your ticket to establishing a positive brand image. Furthermore, having a precise content strategy that is value-based as well as audience-focused and being consistent with it will result in people constantly coming back for more content from you. As a result of all this, your audience will see your site as a trustworthy and informative source, and when the time comes to convert, they’ll remember and come to you.

    The importance of optimizing your website for mobile & page speed

    We’re seeing mobile become increasingly important to students’ research, particularly early in the process as students narrow their consideration sets. Higher education-related searches on mobile are on the rise, growing by 8% in 2017.2 And when an institution’s website or app wasn’t optimized for mobile, 36% of students said they’d be less likely to revisit it.

    With more students choosing to research on mobile, it’s also crucial that marketers ensure that their websites and apps are optimized for a smooth, easy-to-navigate mobile experience and that attribution models are updated to accurately value mobile’s role in the path to enrollment.

    Our experts point out that minimizing the use of plugins, leveraging caching, and image compression are some of the best practices that can help optimize your site’s page speed. 

    The benefits associated with page speed can be seen in one of our case studies. Before we started working with them, their site had several issues, including page speed. However, once we conducted our research, identified the problems, created the right strategies to deal with each one, and made the changes needed, the results were exceptional. Through similar approaches as the one provided above, we achieved a +550% increase in leads coming from SEO, a +2,500% increase in organic traffic, and an over $80k increase in monthly traffic value.

    How to grow enrollment with SEO in higher education (Pacific College case study)

    A sure proof of the success that can be achieved through SEO is our work together with Pacific College, which resulted in a 900% increase in organic leads. 

    The challenge:

    Pacific College changed its CMS from WordPress to Squarespace in 2018. When this migration happened, many SEO best practices weren’t implemented, and the organic traffic dropped significantly.

    They had a lot of deleted pages that used to drive tons of highly qualified organic traffic. These pages were deleted during the migration as the team managing this process wasn’t aware of their traffic contributions to the site.

    Also, when the CMS changed, the URL structure changed as well. Program pages were the ones most affected by this. Important pages with a lot of backlinks weren’t migrated to the new Squarespace site, resulting in ‘link equity’ going to 404 pages instead.

    They lacked content. A news section existed, and it was updated from time to time, but apart from that, there was no content strategy in place.

    Conversion tracking wasn’t set up. Google Analytics was implemented, but it wasn’t tracking any type of conversions. Also, when the new Squarespace website was built, a new GA view with no historical data was created & implemented, resulting in fragmented data sources.

    What did we do?

    Missing pages:
    We recreated and updated all the missing pages deleted during the migration. We did the same thing with broken pages that had backlinks. In just a few weeks, they started to drive a significant amount of qualified search traffic back to the site.

    Broken internal links:
    We fixed all broken internal links. We used this opportunity to audit all internal links, optimize anchor text on most of them, add new internal links on pages where we had this opportunity, and other optimizations.

    Website speed:
    We identified the areas slowing down the site and optimized those for better performance.

    Conversion tracking:
    We implemented best practices, and the data we were able to gather from tracking conversions helped us adjust and improve our overall SEO strategy.

    Content strategy + implementation:
    After we were done with the SEO audit, we dived deeper into understanding / analyzing the search landscape & our competitors. We found out that there is a lot of search demand around the degrees Pacific College offers, and very few institutions are talking about them.

    We realized that there is a lot of potential in creating content around informational topics like “lvn vs rn” or “what does a nurse practitioner do”. These were potential students looking to educate themselves, and the pages that were ranking weren’t doing a great job of offering the best answer.

    We had the expertise & it was in our niche, so we did an extensive keyword search, built a content calendar, and started publishing content regularly.

    Conclusion

    While students’ paths to enrollment have migrated almost entirely online, they still crave the knowledge gained by a real-life campus visit—and SEO is making it easier for schools to bridge that gap. As higher education options become more readily available, institutions can capture prospective students’ attention by showing up in search results with helpful, relevant content and creating a seamless experience for them as they bounce between devices to help inform one of the most important decisions of their lives.

    Are you interested in witnessing firsthand all the benefits of a good SEO strategy? Contact us for a free SEO gap analysis to learn more about the potential of your site and all the opportunities we can provide you with. Begin your SEO journey and take the first step toward success!

    Google Analytics 4 for Higher Education: A Comprehensive 2025 Guide

    As an agency that specializes in Higher Education SEO services, we know how important it is to stay on top of the latest trends and tools. As digital transformation continues to reshape the industry, university administrators and marketers must continually analyze user behavior, monitor ROI, and devise effective marketing strategies. One of the most widely-used tools for this type of analysis is Google Analytics.

    What’s new on Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

    Since Google Analytics’s inception in 2012, many things have changed with the rise of mobile apps, consumer behavior shifts, privacy regulations, big data, and the way we collect and analyze data. Google needed to consider and reflect on how its current Analytics tools evolved to fit market changes and demand. This must have required a 10.000-foot view of the whole spectrum, starting from how the data are collected and presented, to deliver seamless insights and data-informed decision making.

    Saying that Google Analytics 4 is an update or an upgrade from Universal Analytics would be an underestimation of reality. The best way to think about it is as a completely new product, built on a different data model, made for scalability, machine learning, privacy, and customization. 

    To understand how those two versions of Google Analytics differ from one another, we will break down some of the main differences, so you can have a clear picture of the new platform before starting to migrate to GA4.

    Data Collection

    The ability to analyze data depends highly on how those data are collected and organized in the first place. The better they are organized, the easier it will be to make further data manipulation and analysis. 

    Data collections represent a fundamental difference between Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4. 

    Universal Analytics (or GA3) organized all of its data into Sessions and Hits. All information that went to Google Analytics belonged to a Session, which belonged to a User. This data modeling doesn’t give you much space to collect and organize information around your users and their behavior, especially across multiple devices. That’s because you had numerous data layers that were not communicating with each other, and making it work required A TON of custom work.

    On the other hand, Google Analytics 4 has an entirely different data model, which is simpler yet powerful.  Any interaction on your Web or Mobile is organized under Events (Event scoped), which belongs to a User (User scoped).  A Session is an event, a Page View is an event,  a File Download is an event, an Ecommerce sale is an event, and so on, you get the idea.

    In GA4, when someone views one of your website pages, a page_view event is triggered, and that event will be saved under a specific User in GA4. Here is how previous hits translate to Events in GA4.

    This data collection model gives Google Analytics 4 an edge over its predecessor in analyzing user behavior across multiple devices and building custom reports. This is because GA4 can link all interactions to a User, and enables you to organize them the way it fits your needs. That’s why GA4 needs more customization setup than GA3, where you had a ton of pre-defined reports built with a “one size fits all” approach.

    Data Retention & Privacy

    One of the most significant changes from UA is user data retention, or “how long does Google save user interaction data”. In UA, the default option for data retention was “unlimited”; however, in GA4, the longest you can hold on to Events and User data (including conversions) is 14 months. 

    Having a maximum of 14-month-old data might freak out a lot of higher education marketers as they won’t be able to make YoY comparisons; however, there are workarounds to this, such as integrating GA4 with tools like BigQuery and reporting them via tools like Google Data Studio. BigQuery allows you to export raw data unsampled to conduct a much more granular analysis with confidence in your data, which I highly recommend before your data expires from GA4.

    This limitation in data retention does not apply to standard aggregated reports, where you will be served reports based on sample data. 

    AI + Machine Learning

    Google uses Machine learning (ML) on GA4 to fill in data gaps and make predictions by looking for patterns, feeding those data into AI algorithms, and predicting the future behavior of your users. 

    However, In a cookie-less and privacy-conscious world, tracking users’ activities is not something platforms like GA4 can ignore, and that’s where Machine Learning comes in. It fills out the data gaps and provides predictions by putting users into different cohorts and creating a composite overview of how people with certain traits move through your university website.

    This is very helpful for universities as it allows them to predict their university’s growth by making predictions on potential students (leads) you could get next semester. If you have conversion rate data from your past activities, you can easily make necessary calculations that would lead you to predict enrollment numbers.

    Machine Learning also powers up Automated Insights, which helps you observe trends and keep an eye on changing user behavior. For example, you can be alerted to changes in application numbers, which might lead you to understand that the application form isn’t working as expected.

    Recommendation:

    Do not forget to create anomaly detections when you set up GA4.

    Cross-Device Tracking

    Cross-device tracking is at the heart of GA4. The new data model enables GA4 to consistently store data from multiple sources and report them back into the same Analytics property for further analysis. 

    GA4 bases its cross-tracking mechanism on something called “Identity spaces”. It tries to identify a user using multiple data points without revealing their identity. This is done by using three different types of identifiers, which enables it to stitch them together into a single unified cross-device user journey:

    GA4 creates a single user journey from all the data associated with the same identified identity. Because this identity is used in all reports, they allow you to de-duplicate users and tell a more unified, holistic view of their relationships with your university.

    For example, suppose your university offers a login area for your students. In that case, you can assign User IDs along with the interaction data you send to GA4 when a student enrolls (you might need the help of a developer to implement this) and later map the entire journey of that student in Analytics.

    If you don’t have a User ID to assign to events, you can enable “Google signals” and all data sent to Google Analytics will be associated with that user. However, Google will only be able to assign these User ID’s to signed-in users who have consented to share this information.

    If you do not enable Google Signals, the only option left for Analytics will be to identify users based on Device ID; however, that alone might not be enough to allow cross-device identification.

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    Audiences

    GA 4 lets you build custom audience segments based on your site visitors’ behavior and interests. They are groups of users created based on dimensions, metrics, or events that you can use during your analysis and show ads to them via Google Ads.

    As your Google Analytics keeps receiving data about new users from your university website, audiences are constantly reevaluated to make sure that they meet the criteria you had defined when you created that audience.

    You can use your custom audiences in Google ads only if you have linked GA4 property with a Google Ads account (and you have also enabled Google Signals), 

    Integrations

    For the time speaking, GA4 lets you integrate your analytics data to more than ten other tools, including some tools of its suite. However, GA4 is still under massive development, and we expect to have more integrations available soon.

    These integrations mean that you can synchronize data between GA4 and another tool of your choice to make robust analyses and facilitate your decision-making process. For example, you can link GA4 with Display & Video 360 or Google Ads to see the entire student cycle, from how your future students interact with your ads to how they finally complete the Request More Information form on your site. You can also use your custom audiences for display/search advertising and synchronize conversions between two platforms. 

    To deal with the data retention limitations, you can connect GA4 with Big Query, and store all Analytics data in BIgQuery. Once you connect to Big Query, you are the sole owner of that data, which you can use to make further in-depth analysis and YoY comparisons. This is a paid tool, but its cost is super cheap. I have data assets that constantly process more than 1TB of data, and I have never spent more than $10/m. Yes! That’s how cheap it is.

    If there is one recommendation I would make about integrations, is to connect your Analytics with BigQuery ASAP so you do not start to lose important data when you reach the data retention limit (which is 2 or 14 months, depending on how you configure it)

    Pros and Cons of Switching to GA4

    As with every tool out there, GA4 has its pros and cons. It’s a constantly evolving and improving tool that will take some time for you to adapt as a higher education marketer.

    On the PROS side, this entirely new Analytics product outperforms its predecessor in many areas. Its extra layers of analytics capabilities are built for a world where data and marketing are increasingly crucial for the success of higher education institutions.

    On the CONS side, there are some things you might need to consider before taking the next step of migrating to GA4. Because GA4 is built on a data model made for scalability and Machine Learning, it’s not an out-of-the-box solution that you can meaningfully use right away after you set it up. You need to tweak it based on your needs and build custom reports (most of the reports you are used to seeing in Universal Analytics do not come out of the box in GA4). You might need to be patient as you go through the learning period (it will take some time, trust me) and let the data flow within the tool, so you benefit from AI/Machine Learning capabilities of GA4.

    Setting up GA4 for Universities

    Now that you have a bigger picture of how GA4 works let’s dive deeper into how to set it up so your university can take advantage of all the new features that the tool offers.

    If you are reading this post by the middle of 2022, the chances are that Google Analytics 4 is still not mature enough to be used as a standalone analytics tool. Hence, you should use both tools (UA and GA4) at the same time so you feed data into the GA4 ASAP, but at the same time, use the reporting you are currently using in Universal Analytics (so that you can make the transition easy for you)

    However, if you are reading this post in late 2022 or even more in the future, it will probably be mature enough for you to switch to Google Analytics 4 completely.

    UA will stop collecting new data from July 2023, so every day of not setting up GA4 means a day less with data you could use for analysis and decision-making. So make sure you are pushing data to your GA4 account ASAP. Otherwise, you will lose YoY data.

    Let’s learn how to set up the GA4 account first.

    How to set up a GA4 Account for my University?

    There are two ways you can set up a GA4 account. One option is to create a whole new property (it will be a GA4 by default), and the other option is to use GA4 Setup Assistant. This time, I’ll focus on creating a whole new property because the result will still be pretty much the same, and I can walk you through the entire process.

    Creating a new GA4 Property

    Go to the Admin section of your Google Analytics interface (by clicking the Admin at the bottom-left corner) and then (in the Property section) click Create Property.

    Then enter the name of your University, choose your University’s main campus country, reporting time zone, and the main currency your University operates in, and click “Next”, 

    Then, fill out your business information. Suppose you are a university of 11-100 employees. In that case, we recommend the following setup, as GA4 will adjust some configurations and enhancements based on the category of the business and the intent of how Analytics will be used.

    Once you click “Create”, your GA4 property will be ready. However, there are still some setups you need to make to start using it.

    Data streams

    The next step to complete is to configure your first Data Stream. This tells Google the data source from where it will get the data before sending it to your Google Analytics 4 property. You can have multiple data sources in a single property. For example, three web properties, 1 for the Web, one for an Android app, and 1 for an iOS app. However, for most universities and colleges, 1 Data Stream (web) will be enough.

    While on the property that you just created, click “Data Streams” and choose “Web”

    Once you enter your university Website URL and Stream Name (Example: My University Name – Website), you will be able to enable/disable default events that come as part of “Enhanced Measurement.” These out-of-the-box events that GA4 automatically sends to your data warehouse without requiring you to implement them via GTM or asking a developer.

    When enabled (which is the default option), Enhanced Measurement will automatically track the following events for you:

    If you prefer, you can enable/disable such events manually by clicking the gear button on the right bottom side of the gray widget

    When you are done with the above configuration, click the “Create Stream” button, and you will automatically be presented with tagging instructions.

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    GA4 Tag Installation

    Each of your Data Streams has a unique “MEASUREMENT ID” that you will need to use to send data right into your Google Analytics account. You can install the GA4 tag manually on your website or use a platform like Google Tag Manager (our recommended way).

    If you are doing this in 2022, MAKE SURE your Universal Analytics code is still running so you are collecting data for both UA and GA4 simultaneously.

    Let’s see how we install GA4 via Google Tag Manager

    Installing GA4 via Tag Manager

    While on the Data Stream details page, copy the “Measurement ID” as you will need this to add to your GTM account.

    Go to your Google Tag Manager container, click “Tags” -> New” and on the “Tag Configuration” box, choose the “Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration.” tag.

    Enter the ID ID in the Measurement ID field that you just copied in the GA4 interface. If you want GA4 to track pageviews automatically, keep the “Send a page event”  enabled. If your website is built as a Single Page App (ask your developer), you might need to disable the “page_view” event as it will not get consistently fired on the user navigates on your site.

    In the Triggering section, select “All Pages,” click “Save,” and then name the tag according to your naming convention: “GA4 Configuration – G-{your measurement id}”

    Testing GA4 Integration via GTM

    Let’s test our integration.

    While on your GTM, click the “Preview” on the upper right side of the windows, and you will be able to enable GTM Preview mode to test the integration.

    Once you type your website URL and click Continue, you should see the new GA4 tag among the fired tags.

    Once you see your fire being fired in GTM Preview, ensure the event is being sent to GA4. You can test it by going to GA4 -> Configure -> “Debug View” and waiting for events to fire (you might experience some seconds delay until the data starts to appear in Debug View). If everything has been appropriately integrated, you will see something like this:

    Once you ensure that the data is coming in and shown correctly in GA4, you should submit your GA4 changes in the GTM container and publish it. 

    Publishing GA4 Integration via GTM

    To publish changes, go to your Tag Manager container, and on the top right side of the page, click “Submit”, type a version name of the deployment (optional) and a description of changes you have done (optional), and click the “Publish” button.

    When you publish changes,  you should soon start seeing data coming in your GA4 real-time reports.

    Congratulations! You have just set up GA4 with Google Tag Manager. However, GA4 needs a lot of customizations, remember?

    Installing GA4 on your University WordPress Site

    There are two ways you can add a GA4 tag on your WordPress site. One is by placing a direct “gtag” code directly on the <head> HTML part of your website, and the other is by installing it via a plugin. Let’s cover both of them.

    Installing GA4 tag code manually on WordPress

    Go to your GA4 Property and click “Data Streams”, and choose the Website data stream you just created to get stream details. 

    On Tagging Instructions, copy the Global Site Tag and place it into the <head> section of your HTML code (you might need the help of a developer to do this)

    Get started with GA4 for your website

    Migrating from Google Universal to Google Analytics 4 is no simple task. Sure, account setup is relatively straightforward, but setting up the proper conversion tracking is much more complicated now. Google Analytics 4 has its advantages and disadvantages, but like all new forced changes, it will take time to get used to. Google Analytics 4 will actually be an improvement on your analytics data as it is based solely on events and parameters.

    Let our team of Google Analytics 4 experts do the heavy lifting for you.

    Book a call today!

    Installing GA4 tag code using a WordPress Plugin

    You can use multiple plugins to install the GA4 tag on your University Website. However, we recommend using the “GA Google Analytics” plugin as the most straightforward WP plugin to integrate Google Analytics into your WordPress website.

    Once you install the plugin, go to its Settings page, add your tracking Measurement ID under “GA Tracking ID” select “Global Site Tag” and then click “Save Changes”.

    That’s it! You have now installed GA4 on your WordPress site. Make sure you receive real-time statistics by going to your GA4 -> Home and see if your current traffic is being reported.

    Installing GA4 on your University WIX Site

    If you use WIX on your university website, you need to add your Measurement ID on your Marketing Integrations page. You can do it by following the instructions below:

    1. Copy your Measurement ID under Web stream details.
    2. Go to Marketing Integrations on your site’s dashboard. 
    3. Click Connect under Google Analytics. 
    4. Click the Show More icon in the top right corner of the page
    5. Click Edit
    6. Paste your Google Analytics 4 Measurement ID in the pop-up.
    7. Click Save.

    Congratulations! You have just installed GA4 on your WIX site. 

    Installing GA4 on your University Squarespace Site

    Squarespace has a built-in feature to connect GA4 without too much hassle.

    To install GA4 tag on your Squarespace site, follow instructions below

    1. Go to Settings
    2. Go to Advanced
    3. Click  External API Keys
    4. Paste your Measurement ID under the “Google Analytics” input

    You can paste both UA and GA4 code on the same field, separated by a comma..

    Test your installation by opening your website URL in a new window and opening the GA4 -> Home report to see your real-time statistics.

    Filters

    Filters in GA4 allow you to limit or modify the data before entering your Analytics account, and they do not work retroactively. Unlike Universal Analytics, where you could create a “raw view” account without filters and another one with certain limitations, filters on your GA4 are applied at the property level. As we are writing this post, there are no Views in GA4. That makes testing your filters in GA4 more critical than in Universal Analytics.

    Currently, there are only two types of filters in GA4:

    1. Developer Traffic
    2. Internal Traffic

    Filtering Developer Traffic

    Develop traffic is the traffic generated by your website administrators/developers while developing or debugging the website.

    This is done by adding a specific event called “debug_mode” or “debug_view” (with a value of 1) every time your GA4 code is executed during your developing/debugging sessions. You will still be able to watch that traffic coming through in Configure -> Debug View, but you will not be able to see it across other reports in GA4.

    Filtering Internal Traffic

    This is the traffic generated by people directly or indirectly connected to your university who are not your targeted audience. Those can include your faculty members, administrative staff, services providers, and vendors. As such, including their traffic in your Analytics can skew your analysis.

    Currently, you can only filter your internal traffic by IP addresses (way more limited than it used to be in UA). To do that, you should:

    1. Go to the Data Stream you previously created
    2. On “Additional Settings”, click “More Tagging Settings”
    3. Click “Define internal traffic”
    4. Click “Create” Button
    5. Add your IPs under “IP addresses” section and click “Create”

    Events

    Because of the way  Universal Analytics was built and its data structure model, there were quite some limitations regarding data you could send via events (eg. only event_cateogry, label, and value). This made it challenging for higher education marketers to collect data across the whole student journey and analyze in-depth data on the scale.

    This has changed, and Events are now the core of Google Analytics 4. But, before going further on events, let’s make sure we understand what an event is and how they work.

    What is an Event?

    An event is an interaction of the user with your Web or Mobile App. All interactions on your website/web such as clicks, visits, downloads, form submissions (leads), student applications [and more] are considered “Events”.

    The data model of GA4 offers much more flexibility when it comes to tracking events and sending additional information with it.

    In Universal Analytics, you could only send up to 4 event attributes of an event to Google Analytics: 

    As discussed earlier, everything in GA4 is considered an Event. Depending on your scenario, you can send up to 25 additional parameters with an event without limiting how you name them. For example, let’s say that a future student is reading a program page and decides to fill out a “Request More Information” form. You could send the following event:

    The last four parameters on the list above are custom events you can send along with your event, which you can later use to do performance analysis on your Analytics account.

    Apart from custom events, GA4 also comes with a set of default events and recommendations for you to follow. Let’s go through them and see how you can utilize them to structure your GA4 configuration better later on.

    Categories of Events in Google Analytics 4

    There are four categories of events in GA4:

    1. Automated Events
    2. Enhanced Measurement Events
    3. Recommended Events
    4. Custom Events

    Here is how to choose between event categories in GA4:

    Automated Events

    Automatic Events on GA4 include interactions that Google must collect to perform its fundamental analysis on the tool. Those events are automatically triggered by GA4 itself on some predefined user activities. This includes session_start, first_visit, scroll, or user_engagement and other mobile app interactions such as app_update, ad_click, etc. You can get the full list here.

    Enhanced Measurement Events

    Those are additional automatic events by GA4, with the only difference being that you can enable/disable them on your property level.

    You can enable or disable them (they come enabled by default) when you configure your web Data Stream in GA4.

    When this feature is enabled, Enhancement Measurement will automatically track the following events:

    You can enable or disable each one by clicking the gear button on the right side of the Enhanced Measurement section.  Moreover, you can also customize some of them to fit your university website needs.

    Page views:

    This event is sent to GA4 when a new page loads or the URL of the page changes without reloading the page (a.k.a. history change events). Suppose your university website is built on SPA (Single Page Application), where your entire page doesn’t refresh when pages are changed. In that case, you need to ensure that your website is changing pages/URLs and changing the browser’s history events (you might need a developer’s help here).

    Scrolls:

    GA4 can automatically send events when a visitor scrolls below 90% of the page height. If you need to track scroll on a different scale, you might need to do that via Google Tag Manager manually.

    Outbound clicks:

    This event is automatically triggered when a user clicks on a link redirecting them to another domain. This is a great feature you can use to see which of the websites you have linked on your website content are helping your students answer their questions.

    If your university operates in multiple domains, set up cross-domain tracking (via GA4 property > More Tagging Settings > Configure your domains) so clicks on your own domains are now considered outbound/referral links.

    Site search:

    This event allows you to track searches performed by your current and potential students on your university website. When enabled, it will automatically send a “view_search_results” event to GA4, if the page loads and the URL of the page contains a query parameter, such as q, s, search, query, and keyword. 

    If you are using WordPress for your website, there is nothing you need to change on the “Search Term Query Parameter” input, as the letter “s” will automatically get the job done. Otherwise, make sure you include your search query parameter on the configuration. For example: if your website search looks like https://www.my-university-webste.com/search?term=tuition-fees, you need to enter the word “term” as an option in the above configuration.

    Video engagement:

    This is built to track the user’s interaction with Youtube videos on your website. However, due to some technical reasons, this feature will not work by default unless your developer changes how those videos are served.

    File downloads:

    GA4 can automatically detect the download of files on your website and send an event when your link url contains one of the following extensions:  .pdf, .xls, .xlsx, .doc, .docx, .txt, .rtf, .csv, .exe, .key, .pps, .ppt, .pptx, .7z, .pkg, .rar, .gz, .zip, .avi, .mov, .mp4, .mpe, .mpeg, .wmv, .mid, .midi, .mp3, .wav, .wma.

    Once you’re done with all of the above configurations, click Save, and your GA4 will automatically start to track those events once you set up the GA4 tag on your website.

    Recommended Events:

    Those are events recommended by Google for different business categories but not enabled and configured by default. You will need to follow the recommended naming convention and set them manually on your web/app and Analytics to benefit from additional features Google may introduce to the platform.

    If none of these we have previously listed in Automatic and Enhancement events doesn’t fit your needs, then look at the recommended events Google has published in its documentation. For the time being, colleges and universities can use the following recommended events based on their needs:

    Google recommends that you implement their recommended events when it makes sense for you because it can use those them to better understand your web/app performance during its Machine Learning analysis. 

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    Custom Events

    If none of the previously discussed events fit your needs, you can create custom events. They work pretty much as the above events; however, they are some things you need to consider before deciding to use custom events: 

    For the time being, GA4 does NOT allow you to edit or delete your custom events. So make sure you have a thoughtful events strategy in place before reaching out to the 500 unique event limit

    Let’s see how a college or university can use custom events to measure its marketing performance.

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    Tracking Conversions on GA4

    Before going further, let’s set the table about what a Conversion is for a Higher Education Institution. 

    A conversion is a significant interaction you want your visitors to complete on your website. That can be a micro-conversion, a Conversion that puts your visitors one step closer to the main (macro) conversion (such as subscribe, download, chat discussion), or a macro conversion, a final conversion on your website (such as leads or student applications).

    By tracking these conversions (and others), you are in a better position to measure the performance of your marketing activities and make decisions based on data. 

    In GA4, you can, for example, create a segment of visitors who have read a page about a certain degree who didn’t request more information and then use custom dimensions to understand their behavior compared to the ones who converted.

    Now, In Universal Analytics, you used to track conversions by setting up Goals. You may have had a thank you page for your Request Information Forms and used that page as a trigger to create a goal. 

    In GA4, all conversions are tracked via Events. So, before a Conversion becomes “a Conversion”, it has to be an Event. You can use a pre-defined conversion event (such as “generate_lead”) or create a custom Event and mark it as a conversion by going to Configure > Events and marking a specific event as Conversion. 

    Alternatively, you can go to Configure > Conversions, then press the New conversion event button and enter the event’s name, for example, application_submitted.

    Once you do that, wait for up to 24 hours, and you will start seeing conversion data in the list of all Conversions.

    When it comes to tracking conversions for Universities and Colleges, here is a list of events that we recommend creating and marking as conversions:

    GA4 Tracking Strategy for Higher Education Institutions

    The ultimate goal of events is to take action. If you have an event or metric on Google Analytics for which you cannot answer the question, “If I have this information, I could do this” then the chances are that you are using a vanity metric, and you won’t be seeing value out of it.

    When it comes to deciding what metrics are essential for your university to track, it might be necessary to take a step back, look at it from a broad marketing and business perspective and ask questions like:

    Once you answer these questions, it might be time to start thinking about how you can translate them to concrete actions on Google Analytics. Using a framework like QIA to identify the right metrics for your school can be helpful. Start by asking these three questions:

    1. What Question do I want to answer?
    2. What Information will I need to get the answer?
    3. What Action will I take based on the answer I get?

    Let’s take an example of a scenario many higher education marketers face: What is the conversion rate of students for each channel? (Q)

    You would need to figure out what information (I) you need to answer that question. In this case, you would need:

    Is that information already stored? Do I need to track it and keep it in Google Analytics? If you don’t have funnel conversion tracking set up, for now, you might need to add it to your @todo list.

    Great! Now that we know what information we need, let’s decide about the most critical part of the framework: Action (A):

    1. How will the answer be presented? How will the report look?
      Who is the report built for? What format do they prefer?
    2. “What actions will I take if the answer is ‘X’?”
    3. “What actions will I take if the answer is ‘Y’?”

    You will need to plan actions based on answers to these questions. For example: 

    “If the conversion rate from Organic Search is 2% or higher, we’re doing well. If it’s lower than 2%, we’ll re-evaluate funnel pages, the effectiveness of the call-to-action and the SEO strategy to see how we can improve it”.

    Answers like this will help you build an action plan with specific actions on implementing this tracking strategy, from defining events to conversion, account setting, and reporting.

    Reports in Google Analytics 4

    Reporting in Google Analytics 3 takes another level due to the flexibility of its data model.

    In Universal Analytics, you have had numerous ready-to-use reports that, even though you might have found practical, were very limited in capabilities and pretty much the same for everyone. 

    While you now have much fewer ready-to-use reports in GA4, its flexibility in adapting and creating advanced custom reporting based on your needs is way beyond what we are used to seeing in the previous version of Analytics. 

    Reporting in GA4 is divided into two sections, which can be found on the main left navigation

    1. Default Reports
    2. Explore

    Default Reports

    Google offers numerous default reports on GA4 to help you kick off analysis faster. However, to fully utilize the benefits of the tool, you might need to customize such reports based on your use cases and needs. 

    For example, if you do not directly monetize your university website, you don’t need to see the monetization charts on your reports. You can go to Reports > Library > Edit Collection and then remove/add the necessary report from the main navigation.

    While on Library, you can add two types of new reports: Overview and Detail Report

    Overview report: A dashboard (comprising a set of cards) that summarizes a detailed topic report (A topic can have only one overview report.)

    Detail report: This can have up to two visualizations and a table with dimensions and metrics.

    You can also customize individual reports only to show what’s important for your university. You can do that by going to a specific report and clicking on the “Customize reports” icon on the top right side of the page. From there, you can add/remove cards (widgets) and set dimensions/metrics as per your needs.

    As you can see, there are certain limitations on the number of widgets, tables, and customizations you can make on default reports, and that’s where custom reports come in.

    Exploration reports (Custom Reports)

    Exploration is one of the best features of Google Analytics 4. It’s a collection of advanced techniques of analysis that can help your university create advanced reports and reveal deep insights about your future students and their behavior.

    You can access exploration reports by going to the main navigation and clicking on Explore. You can create a fully customizable report (if you are short on time or now sure how to start), or you can use built-in templates.

    Let’s explore some of the built-in templates, so you can have a better understanding of their benefits.

    Free form

    Use this template to find out more about your website visitors. You can visualize data in a table or graph format, use multiple dimensions, segments, and metrics, and compare.

    Funnel Exploration

    This template is pretty helpful for visualizing the steps your students took before converting to a lead or application as part of a pre-defined conversion funnel.

    Path exploration

    Use this template when you want to discover your students’ interaction toward a conversion. You can also do a reverse analysis and find out what your students do before converting.

    Segment Overlap

    This template allows you to show and compare the relationship between (up to 3) segments.

    The learning curve to creating custom reports may be long for many higher education marketers. However, once you go through built-in templates and do some trial and error, you will start discovering new insights that will lead you toward better decision-making.

    Final words

    Now that you know the main differences between GA3 and GA4, you’re better positioned to migrate your university website from Google Analytics 3 to Google Analytics 4.

    GA4 is an entirely different beast from its predecessor. It’s more flexible, more powerful, and more capable of making data-driven decisions. However, it’s not a simple migration process; you need to make sure you are making the right strategic decisions before starting the migration and have all the necessary information to set it up for success.

    If you are just starting with GA4 in general and you are not sure where to start or how to properly migrate your university website to GA4, feel free to reach us, and we will be happy to help.

    Get started with GA4 for your website

    Migrating from Google Universal to Google Analytics 4 is no simple task. Sure, account setup is relatively straightforward, but setting up the proper conversion tracking is much more complicated now. Google Analytics 4 has its advantages and disadvantages, but like all new forced changes, it will take time to get used to. Google Analytics 4 will actually be an improvement on your analytics data as it is based solely on events and parameters.

    Let our team of Google Analytics 4 experts do the heavy lifting for you.

    Book a call today!

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