Education SEO
SEO, AEO and GEO for Schools, Universities and Education Companies
Students and parents now ask AI engines to compare programs and get a shortlist before they fill in an enquiry form. If you are missing from it, or described by a program name you retired, the application goes elsewhere. Our education SEO work runs SEO, AEO and GEO across your program pages and the sources engines trust. We measure it in applications and enrolments against a fixed baseline.
Why students choose a program before they ever contact you
A prospective student types "best online MBA for working parents" or "is a UX bootcamp worth it" into Google or an AI engine. The answer comes back as a shortlist with reasons, pulled from ranking sites, Reddit threads, government data and the few institution pages that state cost, duration and outcomes plainly. Parents ask the same questions a week later. By the time anyone opens your enquiry form, the shortlist is usually settled, and the schools on it are the ones that answered.
What we build for education SEO, AEO and GEO
Six workstreams, run from one roadmap and ordered by what your baseline shows. Each is built around how students, parents and employers research programs, and each answers to the same numbers at the end of the month: applications, enrolments and enquiries from search and AI answers, in your own analytics.
Covered on every engine your buyers use
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Claude
- Gemini
- Google AI Overviews
- Google AI Mode
- Copilot
- Bing
ChatGPT search and Copilot draw on Bing's index, so Bing rankings feed AI answers. We work on search and AI engines as one program.
How it works
The same four steps on every engagement, with a clear view of what to expect at 30, 60 and 90 days.
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01
Understand
Map your business, buyers, competitors and the prompts and searches that decide your category.
Days 1 to 30. A fixed baseline across every engine and the prompts that matter.
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02
Prioritize
Pick the few moves that will get you recommended fastest and turn them into a focused roadmap.
Days 1 to 30. A focused roadmap agreed, with the first fixes already shipping.
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03
Execute
Do the technical, content, authority and AI visibility work ourselves.
Days 30 to 60. Content, technical and authority work shipping every week.
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04
Improve
Track AI citations, rankings and the leads they drive against the baseline and keep refining.
Days 60 to 90. A first read against the baseline, then the next quarter planned.
Case studies
Neither case study is a school. The method we used for an EOR platform competing in a crowded category, and for a Salesforce partner with too many overlapping pages, is what carries over to program pages.
Who this is for, and who it is not for
A good fit
Schools, universities and course providers with live program pages, open intakes and a way to count the applications or enrolments search brings in
- Universities, colleges and private or international schools
- Vocational schools and bootcamp providers
- Online course platforms, edtech, tutoring and test prep
- Corporate training providers
Not a fit yet
- Institutions that want outcome or salary claims published without a source
- Lead-generation sites reselling student enquiries to schools
- Businesses with no live website or nothing to sell yet
- Anyone expecting guaranteed placement in a specific answer
How we compare with the other ways schools buy visibility
| SearchAxe | Education marketing agency | Aggregator and ranking listings | In-house admissions marketing | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Understands how your buyers research | Maps student and parent prompts by intake | Knows admissions, less so AI answers | Owns the research, keeps the student | Knows students, rarely tracks AI answers |
| Works on AI answers and search together | Yes, one plan for both | Search often secondary to paid | No, they rent you visibility | Depends on team capacity |
| Ships the fixes | Yes, pages, schema and technical work | Campaigns more than site fixes | No, your site is untouched | Queued behind web and IT |
| Earns third-party mentions | Rankings, directories and publications | Press releases, sometimes | Only their own listing | Rarely in scope |
| Compliance-aware copy | Sourced outcomes, checked accreditation claims | Varies by agency | Their copy, not yours | Yes, close to your reviewers |
| Measured against a baseline | Fixed baseline, read every month | Campaign reports, rarely a baseline | Lead counts, not your visibility | Usually web analytics only |
| Published pricing | Yes, from $499 per month | Usually on request | Per lead or per listing | Salaries, tools and agency fees |
What you get each month
- Baseline report Where you stand on every engine and in search before any work starts.
- Monthly AI citation and ranking report Citations by engine, rankings and referring domains, read against the baseline.
- Applications and enrolments attributed The enquiry forms, open-day registrations and applications that search and AI answers drove that month, in your own analytics.
- Slack access A shared channel with the people doing the work.
- Rolling roadmap What shipped, what is next and why, updated every month.
- Competitor movement Which competitors gained or lost ground in AI answers and search, and why.
How we get started
From first call to work in progress in three steps.
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01
Book a free consultation
A call about your business, your market and where you stand in AI answers and search today.
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02
Get a plan and a quote
We send a plan for what we would do first, with a quote for the plan you choose.
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03
Work starts right away
Once the plan and quote are approved, the work starts immediately.
What clients say
Who's behind SearchAxe
Amit Malvi spent four and a half years at Invideo AI, rising from SEO Executive to Senior SEO Manager. He built and led a 20-person link building team and owned the company's GEO and AEO programs. Today he works hands-on with a small number of businesses across 16 industries, from SaaS and AI startups to law firms, clinics, online stores and manufacturers, that want to be the name search and AI engines recommend.
Pricing
Published prices, in US dollars per month. The plan that fits this work is below.
Full Service SEO and AI Visibility
$1,499 per month
Minimum three months
For businesses that want one partner to own search and AI visibility end to end, from the fixes to the monthly report.
- Everything in SEO Consulting
- Technical fixes, on-page work and citation-ready pages
- Link building, brand mentions and entity optimization
- Monthly reporting on citations, rankings and the leads they drive
Third-party fees, such as editorial or placement fees and paid listings, are paid by you directly.
Questions buyers ask us
How do you build program pages at scale without duplicate content?
We build one template around the questions every program must answer, cost, duration, entry requirements, delivery mode and outcomes, then fill it with the facts that differ per program. Where two pages would say the same thing, such as one degree offered in three intakes, we merge them into one page with the variations inside it. Large catalogues may suit a programmatic build. Small ones get written by hand.
Can we compete with ranking sites and aggregators?
On searches for your own programs and institution, yes, and that is where we start. Ranking sites win because they answer cost, outcomes and comparisons more plainly than most schools do. We fix that on your pages, then make sure your profiles on those sites are accurate, because engines quote them either way. Earning coverage in the publications they cite is part of our brand mentions work. Any listing or editorial fees are paid by you directly.
How do you handle is-it-worth-it questions in AI answers?
Engines answer worth-it questions with cost, time to finish, completion and what graduates do next, and they take those facts from whoever states them clearly with a source. We publish them on your program and outcome pages, dated and sourced, and make sure the same figures appear on the third-party profiles engines read. We can't control the verdict an engine gives. We can make sure it is built from your accurate numbers.
Do you work with international and multi-campus sites?
Yes. Each campus gets its own page and a matching Google Business Profile listing. Country and language versions get hreflang, and we decide which program pages are shared and which need a local version for fees, visas or entry rules. International students ask different questions, about visas, accommodation and whether their qualifications are recognised, so they get their own FAQ pages rather than a translated copy of the domestic ones.
How do you attribute applications to search and AI answers?
We tag enquiry forms, open-day registrations and application starts in your analytics, separate AI referrals from organic search and connect both to your CRM or student system where we can. Enrolment lands months after the first visit, so we report the leading numbers monthly and match enrolments back by intake. Some AI influence leaves no click at all, which is why we also track how often engines name you on a fixed prompt set.
How long before we see results?
We set the baseline in the first 30 days and give you the first full read against it at day 90. Technical fixes and rewritten program pages usually register first. Rankings and a place in AI shortlists take longer, because they depend on third-party sources too. Recruitment runs in cycles, so we plan the work around your application deadlines. We don't guarantee rankings, citations or application numbers.
What does it cost?
Plans run from $499 to $1,499 per month. Full Service SEO and AI Visibility is $1,499 per month with a three-month minimum. SEO Consulting is $999 per month, month to month, for teams with their own writers. Link Building and Brand Mentions is $499 per month. The AI Visibility Audit is a one-time $199. Listing and editorial fees are paid by you directly. Every plan is on our pricing page.
Do you need access to our systems?
We need read access to your analytics and Search Console, and editor access to your CMS or a staging site if we publish pages. Admissions and student record systems stay with you. We only need application and enrolment counts, or a report from them, to attribute results. Every page goes through your admissions, academic and compliance reviewers before it goes live.
Will the content pass our compliance review?
That is how we write it. Accreditation claims name the accrediting body and match its public record. Outcome and salary figures carry their source, cohort and date, or they stay out. We follow the advertising rules for education in each market you recruit in, and your reviewers sign off every page. Where a claim can't be sourced, we rewrite it to say only what the evidence supports.
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Read moreLet's get your business recommended.
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