Case study · Online education
Course pages that answer the question before the prospectus does
An online course provider relied on paid adverts for almost every enrolment. This is how we rebuilt its course pages and built a library of career guides, so that people choosing a course find it through search and enrol with fewer steps.
Project overview
Content planned around intake dates.
- Industry
- Online education
- Client
- Confidential
- Solution
- Content and SEO
- Platform
- WordPress + learning platform
- Timeline
- 6–9 months
- Team
- 4 people
- Courses
- A catalogue of professional courses
- Calendar
- Tied to intake dates
- Measurement
- Enquiries and enrolments
Expected business outcomes
What the client set out to achieve
Measured per course, because each one has its own demand and its own intake.
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40–80%
More organic enquiries
Course pages rank for the course and career searches people make.
Target range over nine months; compared intake by intake
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20–35%
Lower cost per enrolment
Organic enrolments reduce the average cost across channels.
Target range; blended across paid and organic
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15–25%
Higher enquiry-to-enrolment rate
Pages answer fees, time and outcomes before the enquiry.
Measured in the admissions system
Business challenges
Where the client started
The courses were good. The pages describing them were brochures.
Course pages
Short descriptions with a download link to a PDF prospectus.
Questions
Fees, time commitment and outcomes were hard to find.
Guides
No content for people still deciding on a career.
Paid spend
Advertising costs rose before every intake.
Tracking
Enrolments were not linked back to the page that started them.
Proposed solution
What the content and SEO work covered
Answer the questions a prospectus hides, on a page search engines can read.
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Course page template
Outcomes, syllabus, fees, time and entry requirements on the page.
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Career guides
Guides to roles, salaries and routes, each linked to the relevant courses.
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Course structured data
Course markup with dates and provider details.
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Intake calendar
Content scheduled to peak before each intake.
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Enquiry follow-up
Email sequences for people who enquire and do not enrol.
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Enrolment tracking
Enrolments traced to their first page.
Project requirements
What the client asked us for
The request was a lower cost per enrolment. The largest gain was on the course pages themselves, where people were leaving to find answers elsewhere.
Tutors and admissions staff supplied the real questions applicants ask, which became the structure of every page.
What the project had to deliver
- 01Course pages that rank and convert
- 02Guides for people still deciding
- 03A calendar tied to intakes
- 04Enrolments traced to content
Key challenges & considerations
What made it harder, and what we did
-
Rules on how outcomes and salaries can be described
What we did
Outcome and salary statements used published sources and the wording approved by the regulator.
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Course details that change each intake
What we did
Course pages drew dates and fees from the learning platform, so they could not go out of date.
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Tutors with little time for reviews
What we did
Tutors reviewed a guide in one short session, from a checklist.
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Large comparison sites ranking for course terms
What we did
Pages aimed at specific course and career searches, where the provider's own detail beats a comparison listing.
What we watched for
- Put fees and time on the page
- Use the questions admissions already hear
- Time content to the intake
- Compare intake with intake, not month with month
Development process
Fix the course pages, then build the guides
The pages closest to enrolment were improved first.
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Research
Applicant questions from admissions, plus search data.
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Course template
New template built and applied to the top courses.
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Career guides
Two guides a month, reviewed by tutors.
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Structured data and tracking
Course markup and enrolment attribution.
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Intake campaigns
Content and email timed to each intake.
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Review
Results reviewed after every intake.
Technology stack
A content site connected to admissions
The reporting reaches all the way to enrolment.
Website
- WordPress
- Course page templates
- Course structured data
Search
- Google Search Console
- Ahrefs
- Rank tracking
- Enquiry sequences
- Intake reminders
- Segments by course
Measurement
- Google Analytics 4
- Admissions system data
- Looker Studio
Quality assurance & deployment
Checked before it went live, measured after
Marketing work is only as good as its measurement. Tracking was verified before anything launched, technical changes were tested on staging, and every result was reconciled with the client's own sales or booking data.
- Conversion tracking tested end to end before launch
- Technical changes checked on staging with a full crawl
- Redirects, links and structured data validated
- Copy and claims reviewed by the client's experts
- Reported figures reconciled with the client's own system
Deployment
- 01Intake campaignsContent and email timed to each intake.
- 02ReviewResults reviewed after every intake.
- 03Staged releasesChanges went live in small batches, each one watched in the first days.
- 04Reporting and handoverA monthly review against the agreed targets, and documentation the client's team can work from.
Final deliverables
Applicants arrive already informed
People choosing a course now find the provider's own pages and guides, and enquire knowing the fees, the time and the outcome.
The admissions team has a page template and an intake calendar it can run each term without rebuilding anything.
- Course pages with real answers
- A library of career guides
- Content timed to intakes
- Enrolments traced to pages
Handed over to the client
- 01Audit and roadmapFindings ranked by their effect
- 02Implemented changesIn the client's own site, accounts and tools
- 03Tracking and dashboardResults in the client's own figures
- 04Content and campaign assetsTemplates, pages and creative
- 05Documentation and trainingSo the client's team can carry on
Success metrics
How success is measured
| Measure | Outcome | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|
| More organic enquiries | 40–80% | Target range over nine months; compared intake by intake |
| Lower cost per enrolment | 20–35% | Target range; blended across paid and organic |
| Higher enquiry-to-enrolment rate | 15–25% | Measured in the admissions system |
Verified reviews
What clients say about working with us
Verified reviews from our clients, published on Clutch.
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Web Development
Custom Web Development for a Software Solutions Company
We can rely on them to handle almost any task with confidence, as they consistently deliver good results.
Casper Hougaard Jensen
CEO & Co-Founder, Iterator IT Jul 2021 – Sep 2022
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Web Development
Web & Mobile App Development for a Software Development Company
They efficiently organized tasks and deliverables while promptly addressing questions.
Damien Retzinger
Founder, Graycore Jun 2021 – Feb 2023
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Web Development
Website Development for a Software Engineering Company
They have a broad understanding of different technologies.
Eugene Bosikov CEO, Ezibeline LLC Mar 2022 – Ongoing Verified review on Clutch (Eugene Bosikov, opens in a new tab)
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