I’m looking “under the hood” of college and university websites every single day, and I’m seeing the same pattern over and over again. Doing just a little bit of SEO actually goes a really long way these days, and doing nothing is brutal.
Performance drops off faster than it used to, while even small efforts take off quicker than ever. For schools that already have the basics in place, consistent touch-ups are enough to keep them competitive. They stay in the game, showing up in Google rankings and in AI search results.
We’re also seeing that even a handful of small optimizations can move the needle in a big way. But when we come across sites that have never touched SEO, it’s usually the opposite story: whatever traction they had is gone. At that point, doing nothing isn’t neutral anymore. It’s actively harmful.
You don’t have to do everything, but you absolutely have to do something.
Search is not neutral anymore. Not long ago (last year, honestly), you could put up a solid program page or blog and ride the results for a year or more.
Now? If you’re not actively optimizing, you don’t just hold steady, you slide back. Fast. AI search and Google’s updates raised the bar for authority, relevancy, freshness, and structure. That means:
Okay, deep breath. The good news: you don’t need a massive overhaul to get results. Small, focused actions create outsized impact.
Each of these might feel small, or hey, maybe they feel big (solidarity), but compounded over time, across pages, incremental changes like these are game-changing.
Think of SEO like compound interest: steady deposits grow. But an empty account doesn’t just stay flat; it loses ground to inflation. In search, that “inflation” is your competitors moving ahead while you sit still. For schools, that means:
First thing, I’d make sure the robots can even read my site. If there are glaring technical issues (broken pages, crawl errors, painfully slow load times), it doesn’t matter how perfect the content is. Google (and AI sources) won’t see it.
If things look relatively fine, no major red flags, great. That’s a “backburner summer project” (she laughs with the audience), and we keep moving.
I don’t need to fix everything. I’d zero in on the programs that matter most. Which ones missed their enrollment headcount? Which ones are the biggest revenue drivers? Which are strategic priorities, up-and-coming programs, or the ones with stiff competition? That’s where I’d start.
I’d flag those pages in Analytics so I can measure what happens on them. Even a couple of optimized updates can move the needle. And the cool thing about SEO right now? When you optimize page A, you often see page B start to climb. Optimize B, and suddenly C, D, and E are riding the wave too. It’s a ripple effect. More than ever, a rising tide does lift all ships.
Search optimization doesn’t have to be overwhelming. You don’t need perfection; you need momentum. A little effort pays off disproportionately well, while doing nothing is one of the costliest decisions you can make.
Start small. Update one page. Answer one question. Fix one technical issue. In today’s search landscape, traditional SEO or AI-driven discovery, doing something is the difference between being found and being forgotten.