SEO Case Study:
OPM Microsite Migration

Higher Education Marketing

Tulane School of Professional Advancement, a private continuing education school in New Orleans geared toward adult learners, boasts a reputation for flexible and accessible online programs for working professionals and current degree holders. A third party (OPM) had built a microsite to promote one of their programs and it was underperforming. Search Influence was tasked with an OPM Microsite Migration to help regain control of this critical digital asset.

Goal

Increase Web Traffic via OPM Microsite & Blog Migration

Result

OPM Microsite Migration Goal & Situation:

Tulane School of Professional Advancement hosted information about its Information Technology and Cybersecurity degrees on a microsite apart from its main website, as directed by the client’s former Online Program Management (OPM) partner.

The client expressed these concerns about the microsite being separate from the main site:

• Look and feel (user experience) was inconsistent across the two properties
• The OPM did not allow the client to apply edits to the microsite, adding another layer of complication that made it difficult to capitalize on the IT undergrad program
• It was difficult to analyze data and performance holistically
• The former OPM partner owned Tulane SoPA’s microsite, which meant that a vendor change would prompt the loss of any SEO authority gained from the microsite

Our SEO knowledge primed us to recognize a separate set of challenges:

• Hosting these two programs on separate websites was a lose-lose. The web presence for the two affected programs could not benefit from the depth of other education content on the main website, and the main website lacked depth of content on these programs and their offerings.
• Both sites were at risk for being flagged for duplicate content. Important information about tuition, the admissions process, and financial aid were present on each website and crawlable by search engines. Neither site was bound to rank well organically for IT or cybersecurity keywords or truly nurture prospects interested in these programs to apply.

Search Influence’s Approach:

We migrated the OPM microsite pages with an SEO-first approach into Tulane SoPA’s main site, sunsetting the microsite completely at the end of October 2019.

SoPA’s website and blog:

• Gained additional depth to its existing content through front & back end content optimization and expansion
• Maintained the search engine value of the microsite with a proper technical transition
• Further established itself as a lead driver through conversion optimization and additional inquiry forms

Result:

This drove a drastic increase in organic blog traffic. One year after the migration, the growth rate continues to increase each month. More and more prospective students are entering the website through degree-related blog posts they found via search engines.

Comparing August-October 2020 to August-October 2019 (the 3 months prior to the migration):

• 890% increase in organic blog traffic—and still growing!
• 895% increase in new users to the blog
• 456% increase in visits to the site through blog posts found via organic search engines (“organic blog entrances”)
• 90% increase in organic traffic to the client’s website
• 54% of organic website traffic is attributed to the blog in this time period, compared to just 10% prior.