How to Market a New Program: Make SEO the Foundation of Your Higher Ed Marketing
January 17th, 2025 by
Key Insights
- Alternative credentials and other innovative program offerings are reshaping higher education. To successfully launch these programs, your institution needs a strategic approach tailored to its unique structure, appeal, and audience.
- SEO ensures your program is visible to prospective students at the start of their search, putting your institution on their radar early and making it a critical component of your launch strategy.
- A well-executed higher ed SEO strategy drives sustained traffic, boosts enrollment, and amplifies the impact of your other marketing efforts, all while saving time and resources down the road.
- Our SEO Roadmap provides a step-by-step plan to help you market your new program effectively. It ensures maximum visibility through proper keyword research, content strategy, technical SEO, and link building.
Higher education institutions are adapting to meet workforce demands and shifting learner interests. This evolution introduces entirely new offerings, including microcredentials — short-term programs designed to provide flexibility, affordability, and career-aligned skills.
Despite their growing popularity, many universities lack a clear, institution-wide strategy for effectively marketing these programs. Unlike traditional degrees, marketing credentials require a different approach — one that reflects their shorter duration, lower cost, and the fact that they are often purchased directly rather than requiring an application.
To successfully promote any new academic offering, whether it’s a four-year degree or an alternative credential, search engine optimization (SEO) must be the foundation. This ensures the program gains visibility where today’s learners begin their search: online.
If you’re launching a new program, here’s how to market it using SEO as the framework.
Why Use SEO to Promote New Academic Programs
SEO is your marketing foundation
SEO isn’t an optional tactic; it’s the cornerstone of a successful higher education marketing strategy. As highlighted in our UPCEA webinar, “Top Trends for Your 2025 SEO Strategy to Attract the Modern Learner,” universities must change their view of SEO and integrate it from the start.
At its core, higher ed SEO focuses on improving your website, which is the central hub for all marketing activities. The student journey always leads back to your site, whether students arrive through paid search, social media, or email campaigns. A strong SEO foundation aligns your website with institutional goals, helps prospects find the information they’re looking for, and delivers measurable outcomes.
Adding SEO later or tackling it piecemeal limits your program’s reach and engagement potential.
When you prioritize SEO from the outset, you save time and resources, eliminating the need to retrofit a more expensive website later.
SEO reaches learners at the beginning of their search
Search engines are a prime starting point for most learners exploring education opportunities. For example, according to EducationDynamics research, 70% of online college students rely on search engines as their first source of information when researching higher education institutions.
Failing to invest in strategic SEO for your new program means missing out on early-stage prospects, leaving your competitors to dominate the organic search results.
SEO puts your institution on your prospect’s radar during the awareness stage. In the consideration stage, it fills a critical gap in being present when your prospects are actively searching for educational offerings.
SEO supports long-term growth
SEO is one of the most sustainable strategies for promoting new programs.
Unlike paid advertising, which stops driving traffic when campaigns end, SEO continues to deliver long-term advantages. Strong search engine rankings drive consistent website traffic and leads, even after the initial optimization work is complete.
SEO also enhances the success of your advertising campaigns. Your paid advertising efforts drive traffic to your website, where strong SEO ensures users find valuable, well-optimized content that encourages them to take the next step.
Combine SEO with other marketing efforts to create a synergistic strategy that boosts enrollment and maximizes your ROI.
For instance, a prospective student may see your ad, conduct a follow-up Google search for your program, and land on your well-optimized page. Without SEO, they might struggle to find your program in search results, reducing the return on your ad spend.
SEO sets the stage for site-wide success
Optimizing your new program page benefits your entire website.
SEO improvements made for one program can inform strategies for other pages, creating a ripple effect of improved rankings and organic traffic. For example, a student researching a credential in digital marketing might discover related offerings like a certificate in data analytics, increasing the likelihood of enrollment in multiple programs.
Start by optimizing your new program page and testing the results. Then, use the valuable insights gained to refine your approach and apply successful strategies to other program pages.
Over time, your collective SEO efforts will compound, leading to exponential growth in visibility and enrollment.
How to Market a New Program FAQs
SEO is the core of your new program launch, but getting started may lead to more questions than initially accounted for. If you’re finding it troubling to develop a marketing strategy that reaches prospective students, these FAQs may help.
What marketing strategies do colleges use?
Digital marketing for universities involves a myriad of strategies to attract students and guide them toward enrollment. Your new program marketing strategy should include:
- SEO: Optimize your website so students can easily find programs through search engines.
- Paid Search Advertising: Place targeted ads to reach prospective students actively searching for programs.
- Social Media Marketing: Connect with students on the social media platforms they already use, such as Instagram and LinkedIn.
- Email Campaigns: Share personalized updates about programs, deadlines, and events directly with prospects.
- Content Marketing: Create blog posts, videos, and other resources that build trust and answer student questions.
These strategies work best when combined with a cohesive marketing plan tailored to your audience and overall goals.
How do I plan a marketing campaign for a single degree?
Planning a campaign for one degree starts with understanding your audience. Who are you trying to reach, and what matters most to them?
For example, if you’re marketing microcredentials, focus on professionals and career changers who prioritize flexibility, affordability, and specific skills over prestige. Create program pages that cover key details like career outcomes, professional development opportunities, ROI, and other unique benefits.
Make sure your new program page is optimized for SEO so prospective students can find it online.
From there, build a funnel that matches the student’s journey and decision-making process. Include relevant marketing channels like digital advertising, social media, and email to build awareness and drive traffic. Your campaign should lead back to your program page or dedicated landing page, where students can take the next step.
Then, ensure a nurture strategy is in place (with an automated email nurture strategy at a minimum), and ideally include texts and personal outreach.
How can my higher education institution optimize my website for SEO?
Proper site optimization relies on a solid site structure.
Is it mobile-friendly, fast-loading, and free of broken links? Once the foundation is strong, focus on creating informative content that speaks directly to what students are searching for. Research relevant keywords they use and incorporate them naturally into your pages. Make navigation easy so students can find what they need without frustration, and build credibility by earning backlinks from trusted sources.
With these steps, your website becomes a resource students can count on — and a tool that drives enrollment.
How can I create high-performing program pages?
Think of a program page as more than just an information source. It’s ultimately where students decide if your program is right for them.
Start with the basics: Include program outcomes, costs, and timelines, but present them clearly and engagingly. If you’re marketing microcredentials, lean on testimonials and success stories that emphasize quick, tangible results (e.g., “Gain advanced coding skills in just 4 weeks!”)
Remember to use action-oriented CTAs to guide students down the funnel, whether that’s requesting more information or applying. For microcredentials, skip the long admissions cycle and simplify your sales funnel with direct CTAs like “Enroll Now.”
Aligning your messaging with your audience’s specific needs ensures your program page converts interest into action.
How can I measure the success of my new program marketing?
Measuring your program’s marketing success is about seeing how well you connect with prospective students.
Do students find your program when they search online? Tools like Google Analytics can show you how much traffic your program page gets and what keywords drive it. Next, look at how students engage — do they spend time on the page, exploring other areas of your site, or clicking on CTAs? Most importantly, check if they take action, like filling out an inquiry form.
By monitoring these higher education metrics, you will see what’s working and what isn’t and make adjustments that bring you closer to your goals.
SEO Roadmap for Marketing New University Programs
Marketing a new program requires a strategic plan, but many institutions struggle to find the time or resources to develop one. Our SEO Research Study revealed that 51% of higher education institutions don’t have an established strategy — severely limiting their ability to compete online.
At Search Influence, our SEO Roadmap provides a clear and practical solution designed to address how to market a new college program. This three-month plan includes easy-to-implement recommendations for one top program, allowing you to build an SEO basis for your new launch.
With your SEO Roadmap, you’ll receive an actionable higher ed SEO strategy from our team of seasoned strategists, covering:
- Keyword Research: A comprehensive analysis of the terms prospective students use to find programs like yours.
- Content Strategy: A framework for building a program page that resonates with your target audience.
- Technical SEO: An assessment of site speed, mobile usability, and technical factors affecting search rankings.
- Authority & Link Building: Recommendations for improving credibility and search visibility through high-quality backlinks.
This Roadmap provides a focused starting point for improving your program’s visibility and impact online. Use it to test the waters, refine your approach, and expand the marketing tactics to your other program pages.
Ready to market your new program in a way that effectively converts? Request your personalized Roadmap today to master SEO for college programs!
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