Higher Education SEO Agency Drive Enrollment with Organic Search
Prospective students convert best when they can find you. Yet, many school websites suffer from poor rankings. At OHO, we optimize your site to generate qualified leads, driving traffic that increases inquiries and applications.
The Leading Search Engine Optimization Agency
The 4 Reasons Higher Ed Needs to Invest in SEO
Search engine optimization is one of the most powerful, yet underused, tools in higher education marketing. Here’s why SEO should be a key part of your strategy:
Higher Conversion Rates: Organic traffic converts at higher rates than paid channels, bringing in high intent prospective students who are actively seeking your programs.
Build Your School's Brand: SEO strengthens your institution’s presence in search, making your programs and brand more visible to prospective students and their families.
Save Money: SEO is a cost-effective, long-term strategy that delivers sustained results, reducing reliance on paid advertising.
Build a Moat Around Your Marketing: By optimizing your website, you create a defensible position in search results, keeping your institution top of mind and ahead of competitors.
The SEO Playbook for Higher Education
At OHO, we specialize in driving qualified traffic to college and university websites, with a clear focus on prospective students actively exploring programs and degrees. Our tailored SEO strategies generate measurable outcomes by increasing inquiries and applications, directly contributing to your institution’s enrollment growth.
Comprehensive SEO Audit – We conduct a thorough technical, content, and strategic analysis to identify and resolve barriers that prevent your site from achieving top search engine rankings.
Branded Search Optimization — To capture prospective students who are further along in their decision-making journey, we optimize high-conversion pages, including admissions and application portals, ensuring you capture every potential lead.
Program & Degree Visibility — We focus on elevating the visibility of your academic programs, degrees, and certificate offerings by ensuring these pages rank prominently for highly searched generic terms.
SEO-Driven Content Marketing — Our inbound marketing strategy brings qualified traffic at the top of the funnel by targeting students at the research stage of their journey.
Example Higher Ed SEO Engagements
Our consultants bring extensive marketing experience working in marketing leadership within colleges and as consultants to higher education. Over the past 20 years, OHO has partnered with over 120 colleges and universities on marketing initiatives.
SEO audit and keyword research to elevate rankings of specific programs
Increased leads from Organic Search from 35 to 350 in 12 months
Increased conversions from organic search by 50% from program pages and blog content
Addressed technical elements, content structure, and user experience, to help Princeton reach its audience more effectively while advancing its mission as a leader in theological education
Provided detailed SEO memos to support the W&M team’s efforts, covering on-page SEO enhancements, addressing content gaps, and optimizing for search intent
Higher Ed SEO Services
SEO Audit – A comprehensive review of your website’s technical structure, content, and strategy to identify barriers that may be preventing your site from ranking effectively in search engines. This includes auditing server performance, broken links, and missing pages that impact your visibility.
Program Page Optimization – We ensure your academic programs, degrees, and certificate pages are optimized to rank highly for relevant search terms. This drives qualified traffic directly to the pages that matter most to prospective students.
SEO Memo & Keyword Research – Our team provides regular SEO memos that include insights from extensive keyword research. We uncover new opportunities to rank for high-value terms and offer recommendations to improve your content’s visibility.
AI & Search Generative Experiences (SGE) – With the rise of AI-powered search experiences, we position your institution to adapt and thrive. Our strategies incorporate the latest trends in AI-driven search results, keeping your website competitive and visible.
YouTube Optimization – We optimize your school’s YouTube content to ensure it appears in search results, driving organic traffic from the second-largest search engine in the world. This includes keyword optimization, metadata enhancement, and strategic video placement.
SEO for Inbound & Content Marketing – We integrate SEO best practices with your inbound marketing strategy, helping to create and optimize content that attracts prospective students at the top of the funnel and guides them through the enrollment process.
Google Presence – Over 40% of organic traffic never reaches your website but is addressed through Google properties like knowledge panels, maps, and image search. We optimize your institution's Google presence to ensure your information is accurate, visible, and protected.
Measurement & ROI – We track your website’s performance through ongoing monitoring and reporting, providing detailed insights into rankings, traffic growth, and conversions. Our goal is to deliver measurable results that tie directly to your enrollment and revenue objectives.
Ready to Improve Your Search Rankings? Let's Elevate Your Organic Traffic
We'd love to walk you through our SEO playbook so that you can understand how SEO can help you increase traffic, leads, inquiries and applications.
Is SEO Really Worth the Investment?
The best offense is a good defense. Earned high SEO rankings for product and business-driven keywords makes your services, locations and brand easier to find. And, SEO builds a moat around your digital marketing efforts. It's very hard for a competitor to swoop in and over take your organic position.
Higher Education
We create web and digital marketing solutions that drive enrollment and elevate your school's prestige.