Redefining the Meaning of SEO in an AI world
AI-powered generative search is disrupting the organic search landscape. Is your institution’s SEO strategy still working? To reach today’s prospective students and boost enrollment, higher ed marketers must rethink how they leverage their websites, shifting from algorithmic optimization to an experience-driven strategy. Search Experience Optimization is a human-first approach that prioritizes users over the “engine” to build meaningful connections and enhance organic visibility in AI-driven search results.
Table of Contents
- Is SEO Dying?
- Search “Engine” Optimization vs. Search “Experience” Optimization
- Understanding the Impact of AI on Organic Search
- How Does AI Transform Student Search Behavior?
- 5 Tips to Optimize for Search Experience
- Repurpose Content to Expand Search Impact
Is SEO Dying?
You may have heard the phrases “SEO is dying” or “SEO is dead.” The sad news is that this may be true. If you optimize your website content only for search engine bots and neglect the human users’ experience, then SEO will not be a successful strategy.
SEO is more than traffic and rankings. Engagement and conversions have a greater impact, and prospective students are the source of those. Your content should prioritize people over bots.
It’s time to redefine the meaning of SEO and think of the “E” as representing “Experience” instead of “Engine”.
Search “Engine” Optimization vs. Search “Experience” Optimization
How does Search “Engine” Optimization differ from Search “Experience” Optimization? SEO once revolved around ranking tricks, such as stuffing keywords, duplicating pages, and optimizing for head terms. These outdated practices can hurt your site’s performance because they serve the algorithm first and don’t prioritize prospective students’ search experience.
With AI generative search growing in popularity, prospective students have high expectations of content quality. Websites that meet their needs, understand their concerns, and deliver helpful solutions will perform better in traffic, engagement, and conversions. To succeed, colleges and universities must optimize for the full search experience: user intent, usability, and value.
| Traditional Search “Engine” Optimization | Search “Experience” Optimization |
|---|---|
| Stuff keywords on web pages | Understand user intent and target question-based search terms |
| Prioritize content quantity over quality | Prioritize content quality over quantity |
| Create duplicate content | Create unique pages with clear purposes |
| Produce thin and low-value content | Produce comprehensive and in-depth content |
| Target only top-of-the-funnel keywords | Use a full-funnel strategy |
| Optimize text content only | Leverage multimedia |
Understanding the Impact of AI on Organic Search
Search experience optimization increases in importance daily as AI becomes more and more a part of students’ organic search behavior. For example, the introduction of Google’s AI Overview marked a major shift in how users interact with search results. Covering the first fold of the Search Engine Result Page (SERP), the AI Overview generates answers drawn from trusted websites with citation links on the side (see an example below).
In addition to Google AI Overview, many other generative search engines have entered the market, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and Perplexity. Google also just released a transformative search feature called AI Mode that empowers users to ask follow-up questions. Students and other higher education audiences now have more options to find the information they need. By leveraging machine learning and natural language processing, generative search engines provide a more advanced experience:
- Contextual comprehension: understand complex questions and requests.
- Personalized responses: can hold memories of search histories and past conversations to provide more relevant information.
- Synthesis from multiple sources: pull information from various platforms, including social media, databases, and websites.
- Chatbot-style search results: interactive conversations instead of simple links.
AI Is Transforming Student Search Behavior
With the new AI search experience, students’ search behavior is also evolving. Before AI-driven search, students typed in a keyword, scanned the top-listed results on the SERP, and clicked through websites one by one to find the information they needed. Now, they engage in conversations with search bots, asking longer and more complex questions and expecting instant answers.
Search is no longer like walking into a library and browsing a list of books. Today’s search experience is more like having a one-on-one conversation with someone who’s read all the books and can give you exactly what you need—instantly and with context. And better yet, AI recommends reliable sources to you if you want to get more in-depth information.
If you wonder how many students are using AI in their college search journey, the growth rate of website traffic from generative search engines might surprise you. While still a smaller share of total website traffic, the rapid increase signals a turning point.
