University and Education SEO Agency That Grows Applications

Google stopped showing the course info rich result and removed its documentation in September 2025, so markup built for it no longer earns an enhanced listing. The course list carousel is still documented: it needs Course markup on at least three courses, each with a name and a description, plus ItemList carousel markup on a summary or all-in-one page. We implement what Google still supports, keep markup matching the visible page and put entry requirements, modules, fees and outcomes in plain text that search engines and AI assistants can read.

For 2027 entry, the UCAS equal consideration date for most undergraduate courses is 13 January 2027 at 18:00, with an earlier 15 October date for Oxford, Cambridge and most medicine, dentistry and veterinary courses. In 2026, Clearing ran from 2 July to 19 October, and on results day the UCAS Hub updated at 08:00. We keep one permanent Clearing URL that gains authority year on year, refresh it and its vacancy content before July, and schedule course page work well ahead of the January date.

International applicants search in their own markets, languages and timings. We build country and language pages with hreflang, following Google's guidance that it works out a page's language from visible content rather than lang attributes, and that Googlebot usually crawls from the USA, so content swapped by visitor location may never be seen. Policy changes need fast updates too: the Graduate visa falls from two years to 18 months for applications made from 1 January 2027, and outdated pages feed outdated AI answers.

University sites often combine faculty microsites, subdomains, staff profiles, event listings, news archives and years of PDF prospectuses. Google's crawl budget guidance is written for sites of over a million unique pages, or over 10,000 that change daily, and where a site is that large, crawl waste delays new course pages being found. We find what wastes crawling, consolidate duplicate course pages, keep superseded PDFs out of the index with X-Robots-Tag headers and agree publishing rules with your web team, so fixes survive devolved editing.

We audit crawling, indexing, rendering and internal links across the main site, subdomains and faculty microsites, then rank fixes by the courses they affect. That covers duplicate course URLs created by entry year or study mode, retired courses that should redirect to a live alternative, staff and research pages competing with course pages, and redirect plans for CMS migrations so course pages keep their rankings through the move. Our notes on website migration SEO explain the method.

Course pages carry the recruitment load, so we rebuild the template around the questions applicants search: entry requirements, modules, assessment, fees, placements, accreditation and career outcomes. The CMA's consumer law advice treats a course web page as an invitation to purchase, with material information such as total tuition fees and additional costs presented up front rather than revealed in stages. A template that does this well serves applicants, compliance teams and search engines at once.

We build a content calendar around the UCAS dates, open days, results day and Clearing, so pages are indexed and ranking before demand arrives rather than published on the day. Clearing pages get a permanent URL, vacancy content your team can update quickly on results day and a fallback for courses that fill. Where paid search runs alongside, we plan it with our pay per click team so budgets cover the gaps organic search cannot fill in time.

We structure country and language versions with hreflang, choose between subdirectories and country domains with your IT team, and write country pages that answer the questions each market asks: recognised qualifications, English language requirements, visas, fees and scholarships. Pages are checked against policy changes such as the shorter Graduate visa from January 2027, because applicants and AI assistants both read whatever is published, including the parts that are out of date.

League table and satisfaction claims attract scrutiny. ASA guidance says comparative claims by universities must make the basis and source clear, naming and dating the league table or report, and must reflect what the data actually says rather than a favourable reworking of it. We write and review content against that guidance and the CMA's advice on material information, so pages earn rankings without creating complaints or compliance rework for your team.

EdTech companies sell to schools, universities, parents and learners, often all at once. We build product, feature, use case and comparison pages for each buyer, and add SoftwareApplication markup where Google's requirements can be met: a name, an offers price (zero for free apps) and either a rating or reviews. For subscription platforms, we run this alongside our SaaS SEO work on sign-ups, trials and demo requests.

Independent schools, sixth forms and further education colleges compete on local searches, admissions questions and open day dates. We structure admissions, fees, bursary and open day pages so they rank for searches from nearby families, keep Google Business Profiles accurate for every campus and build links from local and education press. Groups with several campuses get the same structure as our multi-location SEO work.

Applicants can now ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity which universities to consider and what a course involves. We track the prompts that matter to your recruitment, check what AI assistants say about your courses, fees and rankings, and fix the sources behind wrong answers. An AI visibility audit is a sensible first step, and our Digital PR team, which includes a former Reach PLC journalist, turns academic research into coverage that gets cited.