UPCEA Webinar Recap: Top Higher Education SEO Trends for 2025
December 20th, 2024 by
Key Insights
- With enrollment trends shifting, target learners evolving, and search habits changing, your 2025 higher ed SEO strategy may need a refresh.
- In a webinar with UPCEA, Search Influence shared tips and tricks for accommodating new search trends such as AI Overviews and social search to ensure your institution remains visible to prospective students.
- As these trends shake up the higher ed playing field, your university must have an up-to-date SEO strategy in place to outpace the competition and reach your enrollment goals.
- Only 36% of those surveyed have a “great deal” or ”quite a lot” of confidence in higher education, down 19% from 2015. (Gallup, 2023)
- Though high school graduation rates are strong, fewer learners pursue college immediately after graduating, with the rate dropping from 70% to 62% over the past decade. (National Center for Education Statistics, 2024)
- Undergraduate and graduate program enrollment has decreased by 2.5 million since peaking at 21 million in 2010. (National Center for Education Statistics, 2024)
- In fall 2023, first-time student enrollment declined by 3.6%. Undergraduate enrollment rebounded during this time, mostly due to community college (+4.4%) and certificate growth. (National Student Clearinghouse, 2023)
- Optimize for commercial/transactional keywords: Informational-intent keywords (ex: “Why pursue an MBA?”) trigger an AIO 99.2% of the time. However, they only display 10% of the time for commercial and transactional-intent keywords (ex: “MBA program online”). Organic click-through rates are likely higher for these types of searches since they are less likely to be overshadowed by an AIO. While you shouldn’t deprioritize informational-intent keywords entirely, you should pay love to relevant commercial and transactional terms.
- Evaluate search competition and how well you rank: Knowing how competitive your search phrases are and where your content ranks helps identify the changes needed to improve your visibility. If a search term does not have considerable competition and you rank well for it already, you may just need to optimize the content to potentially grab a spot in an AIO.
- Look at search intent: Search intent informs how to develop your content. For example, if the search intent is informational, you’ll want to draft your content in the format that Google most often prefers for these types of searches (i.e., articles, videos, and guides). Step-by-step, “how-to” content generally ranks best, and thus gets pulled into an AIO, for informational content.
- Develop question-based content: Google’s primary job is to help people find answers to their questions. Your content should always be positioned toward providing answers to those questions. If you’re unsure of the questions your prospective students are asking, you can perform a search of the root keyword term and look at the People Also Ask (PAA) section.
- Make your content digestible: Your content should be clear and scannable for both prospects and search engines, using headings, bullet points, and short paragraphs. AI platforms like ChatGPT favor conversational, natural language, so optimizing for human-like speech can also boost your chances of being included in AI-generated responses.
- Repurpose your website content on social: The most efficient way to get started is to repurpose your high-performing content on your social accounts. You can do this by republishing videos from your site to your social account or publishing text-based articles on platforms like LinkedIn. Other ideas include adapting your blog content into videos or crafting video overviews of key program page information.
- Expand your definition of social: When most people think of social media, they picture Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. However, sites like YouTube, Quora, and Reddit are their own forms of social media and are often filtered into the search results, too. When you embrace all social search outlets, you can improve your visibility on social platforms themselves, potentially making you more visible in a Google search.
- Targeted, relevant keywords tailored to each program, degree, or certificate page
- Content plans for every offering, including pillar pages and cluster content
- Link-building strategies that leverage profiles, directories, PR/media, and internal linking
- Regular monitoring of technical site health to ensure peak performance
- SEO Higher Ed Research Study: Read the latest on higher ed SEO, where marketing leader priorities lie, and the work that your university must do to outpace your competitors.
- SEO Blog: Learn how to make a strong case for SEO to your higher-ups to ensure your university’s organic presence is optimized for success.
- SEO Workbook: Gain access to exercises that help you develop three months of SEO techniques to boost your online visibility, from keyword strategy to technical SEO improvements.
- SEO Roadmap: Rev up your SEO engine with snackable strategy recommendations for one top degree or program, plus dedicated time with our team to review and consult.
Search Influence and UPCEA hosted our webinar, “Top Trends for Your 2025 SEO Strategy to Attract the Modern Learner.”
As SEO and Creative Manager at Search Influence, I joined Paula French, our Director of Sales and Marketing, alongside UPCEA’s Chief Research Officer Jim Fong, and Bruce Etter, Senior Director of Research and Consulting, to discuss the state of higher ed SEO going into 2025.
In the webinar, we unpacked how the industry faces a seismic shift — one that universities must adapt to remain relevant in the eyes of prospective students.
With enrollment decline upon us and a change in how students research potential schools, many marketing leaders are left to rethink their SEO strategy. Emerging trends like Google’s AI Overviews and the rise of social search are disrupting traditional search patterns, but they’re not without the promise of new possibilities to connect with prospects.
Our webinar explored practical ways of thinking about the “new wave” of SEO and how your university can future-proof its strategy in the face of evolving search behavior.
If you missed it live, here’s a recap of the top takeaways to help you build an SEO strategy that outlasts trends and attracts the modern learner.
Higher Ed SEO Webinar: Top Takeaways
The state of higher education
The higher ed industry is reckoning with both a “demographic cliff” and changing perceptions of college’s value:
Despite justifiable concern for how this shifting student outlook may affect your institution, it opens the door to a new target demographic: the modern learner.
This type of learner, often categorized by their interest in program flexibility, is exploring alternative pathways to achieving their career goals. They take an interest in non-traditional programs, including for- and non-credit training and certificates, as well as stackable undergraduate and graduate credentials.
To stay competitive, university and marketing leaders must broaden their focus to develop and effectively promote diverse program types. Achieving this requires an SEO strategy that aligns with evolving trends in how students search for and choose schools.
SEO higher education trends for 2025
Impact of AI on SEO
Generative AI platforms like ChatGPT are changing the way people find information online. According to 2024 Hubspot research, 1 in 3 (33%) of people use gen AI to complete their searches online, compared to just 12% in 2023.
In the context of higher ed, this equates to a growing deviation from the search for programs in traditional search engines like Google or Bing. Students can learn about your institution and decide whether or not your programs are a good fit for them without ever having visited your website. (Note: ChatGPT’s paid version and Perplexity’s free version do include sources, so you may get referral traffic to your site if you are filtered into responses.)
Though the mass movement is toward AI, traditional search engines still hold high prominence in the search journey, with Google processing 5.9 million searches each minute.
However, the rise of AI-driven tools is reshaping user expectations for speed and relevance in search results. To stay ahead of these shifts, Google has responded by introducing its own AI-powered feature, AI Overviews (AIOs).
AI Overviews
Launched in May 2024, AIOs surface above organic search results to deliver quick, concise summaries of key information in response to queries. Each overview includes clickable sources, allowing users to explore the original content behind the summarized insights.
While helpful for users, AIOs push organic listings further down, reducing visibility — even for top 5 rankings — as prospects may not scroll far enough to find your site.
Research by Seer Interactive shows that the organic click-through rate (CTR) declines by roughly 70% when an AIO is present in the search engine results. For queries that do not generate an AIO, organic CTR trends around 2.94%. When an AIO is present, organic CTR declines to about 0.84%.
On the positive side, organic CTR increases to 1.08% when a site is included as an AIO source.
Adapting your strategy for AI
While gen AI, whether ChatGPT or an AI Overview, is disrupting the search landscape, it doesn’t mean you should abandon focus on your SEO strategy. Instead, refine your university’s strategy to embrace AI and use it as a different opportunity to appear in front of prospects.
To adapt your strategy to account for AI searches:
Impact of social search on SEO
After AI, the second most disruptive search trend to consider in 2025 and beyond is social search.
Social search refers to the use of social media platforms as search outlets, where users find information, recommendations, or content within platforms like TikTok, Instagram, or LinkedIn. This trend leverages the power of community-driven insights and visually engaging formats to connect users with information in a more interactive way.
For higher education, social search means prospective students are increasingly using these platforms to explore programs, read reviews, and engage with content that shapes their enrollment decisions.
To effectively reach these searchers, institutions must understand the different sides of social search and how each offers a new way of meeting prospects online.
Types of social search
There are two ways social search works. One involves prospective students searching for your content directly on social media, while the other happens when your social media content surfaces in search engine results
The first side to social search is gaining steady favorability among searchers, primarily younger generations. According to Hubspot research, in 2023, roughly 15% of people preferred to search directly on social media over traditional search engines, with about 30% of Gen Z and Millennials most likely to use this method. However, in 2024, Hubspot found that the percentage of all generations that prefer to search on social media had increased, up from 15% to 21%.
The other side of social search presents the opportunity to enhance your brand’s visibility directly within search engine results. More and more social sites, like LinkedIn and YouTube, are ranking on Google, and sometimes they even pull into AIOs. By optimizing your social profiles for search, you can increase the likelihood of appearing in these high-visibility spots, referring more prospects to your institution.
Adapting your strategy for social search
Since it offers more real estate for you to be found online, social search can have a considerable impact on your SEO strategy. When you prioritize building robust social media content, you can reach prospects both in traditional search engines and across highly trafficked social media platforms.
To successfully integrate social search into your SEO strategy:
Looking for more insights into the latest SEO trends for 2025? Check out our blog, “SEO Higher Education Trends in 2025: How to Compete,” for the full breakdown.
Strategies to attract and enroll the modern learner
Start investing in SEO now
The definition of SEO has broadened to include three mediums for meeting your audience online: traditional search engines, AI platforms, and social media. As a higher education marketer, you now have extra opportunities to nurture your prospects down the funnel, but it won’t happen without a solid investment in SEO.
While 84% of marketing departments view SEO as a core part of their marketing strategy, half (51%) do not have an established strategy in place. SEO is not additive or something to execute piecemeal when you have time or can just do the easy bits — it’s the foundation of your marketing strategy. Your website is where all your other marketing efforts lead, with SEO being the area of marketing that yields the most long-term results.
Ranking high in search continuously becomes more complex with the latest trends, and the student journey is changing. If your university fails to adopt a comprehensive SEO strategy, it could result in losing prospects to more visible competitors.
Develop the tenets of a solid SEO strategy
Since SEO is foundational, it must serve as the solid framework upon which your entire marketing strategy is built. A strong SEO strategy prioritizes impactful tactics such as:
Equally important is establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) and implementing a routine reporting process. Metrics such as organic inquiries, organic traffic, referral traffic from key sources, and rankings — including competitive comparisons — are essential for tracking success.
Despite its importance, reporting is often overlooked. Our research with UPCEA reveals that while 62% of institutional leaders want regular updates on SEO metrics, only 31% currently receive them, leaving a critical gap in strategic oversight.
If you lack the skills, time, and resources to execute a proper SEO strategy, consider working with an agency. They can help take much of the strategizing off your plate, while also granting you the confidence that your strategy is both up-to-date and optimized for success.
Key Questions From the Webinar Audience
Should we write in the first person when using question-based content since many users search using first-person wording?
Using first-person language in question-based content can be effective but isn’t mandatory. FAQs and similar website sections typically adopt a second-person perspective, as it directly addresses the reader. Both approaches can rank well in search results, so the choice ultimately depends on your university’s style and tone. However, consistency across your content should always remain a priority.
What’s the best way to find keywords to help with an SEO strategy?
Begin by identifying root keywords related to your programs and understanding what prospective students are searching for. You can also utilize keyword research tools to expand this list and analyze metrics like search volume and ranking difficulty. Once you have a refined list, evaluate search intent to ensure the keywords align with your content’s purpose. A practical approach is to search for the keyword directly and review the top-ranking results to confirm its relevance to your target audience and content strategy.
Should social media efforts focus on university accounts, personal accounts, or both?
University accounts are often the primary choice for social media efforts. However, leveraging personal accounts, such as those of professors or staff who can act as influencers or thought leaders, can significantly enhance your strategy. Using both in tandem allows for broader reach and a more personalized connection with your audience.
Guest writers tend to get better rankings within search engines. Is it wise to invest in such writers?
The value of guest writers depends on their qualifications and expertise. Writers with specialized credentials or industry authority can enhance content ranking and credibility. Additionally, consider whether their content is well-optimized for SEO and aligns with your goals. Evaluating these factors will help determine whether guest writers are a worthwhile investment for your strategy.
Is the shift to conversational content replacing keyword-centric strategies?
While conversational content is becoming increasingly important, it doesn’t replace the need for keyword-centric strategies. High-value head terms and less conversational searches will always play a crucial role in driving visibility. A smarter approach balances both, integrating conversational content alongside targeted keywords to address diverse user intents.
Discover More Higher Education SEO Best Practices
Staying ahead of the latest trends in SEO is the most effective way to reach the modern learner and meet your enrollment goals in 2025. For deeper insights into the state of the industry and how you can adapt, be sure to watch the full recording of “Top Trends for Your 2025 SEO Strategy to Attract the Modern Learner,” linked here.
Feeling stuck on implementing a strategy that moves the needle toward full-funnel success? Search Influence is here to help with higher ed resources to fuel your enrollment pipeline:
Your higher ed SEO goals are within reach. Solidify your visibility in changing times with expert support today.
