90,000 NEW MONTHLY VISITORS WITH SEO OPTIMIZATION
Doane University invested $300,000 in a website that wasn’t producing. With no large budget for a new site, they thought they were stuck. Our SEO optimization services brought them 90,000 new monthly visitors. And they didn’t even need a new website. Keep reading to discover how we made it happen.
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The Problem, Challenge, and Solution
See how we broke down the issues and planned a great solution.
PROBLEM ANALYSIS
Doane had a great looking website with content tailored for their core audience. But it wasn’t producing the leads they needed. Declining college enrollment rates presented a critical threat to Doane. The University needed more enrollments as soon as possible. The University also needed to compete with larger public schools nearby.
CHALLENGE ANALYSIS
Budget was Doane’s major limitation. Their new site launched under a year ago. It should have been the difference maker for their enrollment needs. However, the agency who built the site had done no SEO optimization. The website now had to compete against large regional schools with minimal changes. We needed to provide maximum results at minimal cost – and fast.
SOLUTION ANALYSIS
SEO optimization was the clear answer. We could maximize the existing structure of the site with almost no changes. By adding SEO keywords into the site’s copy, we could significantly boost performance. The site’s copy was already relevant and unique – it just needed to be seen by Google. Best of all, SEO could deliver new leads and traffic at a fraction of the cost of a new website.
Market Research
Before starting SEO optimization, we needed to understand Doane University. We conducted research to understand Doane’s unique benefits. We also analyzed their competitors. Schools like the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Kansas State University, and other Midwest public schools stood in the way of Doane getting more students. A key part of our strategy was identifying gaps in these larger institutions’ marketing efforts.
UNDERSTAND
To learn about the local education market, we conducted in-depth research using SEO and business analysis tools. We identified the competitors with the greatest regional market share.
EVALUATE
To ensure the new digital marketing strategies would be effective, we analyzed Doane University’s key competitors and their digital marketing strategies. Essential gaps were identified which we could use to capture their market share.
APPLY
We performed SEO keyword research focused on Doane’s key services. We also used identified gaps in competitor’s marketing strategies to find more keywords. By the end of this phase, we had a strong list of keywords to use in optimization. Additionally, we identified opportunities for structural improvement on the website.
Developing the Strategy
A great marketing strategy starts by addressing a business’ unique problems and the challenges causing those problems. We established the target market and ensured the strategies we used would target that market where they spend time on the web.
TARGET AUDIENCES
- High school students seeking enrollment at a University
- Parents of high school students searching for Universities
- Bachelors graduates seeking enrollment in a Masters program
- Masters graduates seeking enrollment in a Doctorate program
- Students at regional Universities looking to change programs
- Students at community colleges looking to enroll at a University
- Doane’s alumni and donors
THE APPROACH
Hands-Off SEO Optimiziation Service
Doane lacked the time and internal resources to deploy the new SEO strategy. We trained on their website platform and then took care of all the changes. Our team updated over 170 pages in less than two weeks. This included page title tags, meta descriptions, headers, and body content. Every critical aspect of content SEO was handled by our team. Doane was able to rest easy knowing we handled every detail. Learn more about our SEO optimization services.
Website Structure Strategy Development
During the research phase, we discovered several opportunities to improve Doane’s site structure. We provided detailed recommendations for changes to improve the user experience. These included prioritizing the most-searched-for content, re-organizing the main navigation, and combining pages which contained similar or related information. Additionally, we helped clarify the site’s call to action. We helped Doane make it obvious what they wanted visitors to do. These changes helped new visitors find what they were looking for faster. More importantly, it helped improve conversion rates. Learn more about our website services.
Results for Doane University
The numbers tell the story! Take a look at these powerful results and hear directly from Doane University:
Data is from first five months after SEO optimization completed: February 1-June 30, 2024 vs previous year.
Client Testimonial:
“I continue to seek the Strategy team’s guidance, insights and support. Our recent collaboration on a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) project has resulted in impressive statistics. Strategy is playing a key role in shaping our approach, crafting our brand message, developing promotional and social media content, implementing our website, and much more.
I strongly suggest partnering with the Strategy team for any of your needs.”
– Crystal Holman, Director of Marketing at Doane University
ORGANIC SESSIONS UP 18.8%
Doane ranks higher and for more keywords on Google than ever before. The site now performs better than they ever hoped.
ENGAGEMENT RATE UP 60.8%
Doane isn’t getting junk traffic. The new visitors are the right audience, landing on the right pages, and converting the right way.
90,000+ NEW VISITORS
Improved SEO now generates an additional 90,000 visitors per month. This is a 26.7% improvement from previous performance.
EVENTS PER SESSION UP 14.2%
Users visiting the site are performing more actions than ever before. They are engaged and follow refined customer journey pathways.
60+ IMPROVED KEYWORDS
Doane reached position 1 for 8 previously unranked terms in the first month. 50 additional terms soared in rankings to generate the new traffic volume.
Interested in results like these for your business? Book a call to see if you’re the right fit for our marketing program.