Search visibility and enrolments: How SEO is evolving for Australian universities

The new rules of SEO for Australian universities

An effective SEO strategy increases your institution’s online visibility, boosts credibility through higher search rankings, and drives targeted traffic, leading to higher enrolment and more funding opportunities.

For Australian universities, SEO presents both unique challenges and opportunities, especially when it comes to generating enrolments from search:

• A small pool of domestic students intensifies competition.
• Fierce competition for international enrolments demands strong global visibility.
• Standing out in search results can greatly influence enrolments and brand perception.

We know universities are focused on leveraging SEO to drive enrolments, and effective strategies help highlight key strengths, such as research facilities, industry partnerships, and campus life. But as the search landscape changes, so must your strategy. 

Emerging trends include:

• LLM search products
• Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode
• Voice search optimisation
• Structured data 
• Featured snippets and position zero content
• Video content optimisation
• User experience signals as ranking factors

Universities that quickly adopt these new SEO techniques are gaining an advantage in reaching prospective students and positioning themselves as leaders in higher education marketing.

Ultimately, SEO for universities goes beyond rankings – it’s about being cited and returned in answer engines, building a strong online presence, and driving meaningful outcomes like course enquiries and enrolments.

Understanding your search visibility

Right now, prominent rankings in traditional search results still matter. Top positions continue to drive clicks, trust, and visibility. But the rise of LLM-powered tools and AI Overviews signals a fundamental shift in how prospective students discover and engage with universities online. 

As Google prepares to roll out AI Mode globally, and platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity reshape informational search, the ability to be cited, summarised, and surfaced across these environments is quickly becoming just as important as ranking in the top three positions.

Universities now need to think beyond keywords and monitor how their brand shows up across both classic SERPs and emerging AI-driven surfaces.

Key areas to track include:

• Organic traffic, share of impressions, and share of clicks
• Brand share in search results
• How your university is cited or summarised on AI-powered platforms

At Searcht, I spend a lot of time buried in SERPs, spreadsheets, and visibility reports – especially when it comes to higher education. I’m particularly interested in how AI surfaces are reshaping the way universities appear in search, and what that means for enrolment strategies.

To get a clearer picture, I analysed 25 Australian universities using Semrush, capturing a snapshot of how they’re performing across both traditional search rankings and Google’s emerging AI Overview results. Here are the results.

Note: This analysis focuses specifically on each university’s main subdomain, excluding performance on other subdomains or microsites.

Top 3 keyword trends across 25 universities

Even as zero-click results rise, the top three positions in Google remain powerful drivers of organic traffic and visibility. To understand how performance is shifting, we reviewed all 25 universities in our dataset, comparing the number of top three keyword rankings in July 2023 versus June 2025.

The trends reveal a mixed picture. Some universities have seen consistent growth, others have experienced a steady decline, and several show fluctuating or plateauing visibility.

Here’s a sample of five Semrush charts to show how top 3 visibility is fluctuating – from sustained upward momentum to sharp drops.

University of New South Wales (UNSW)

Western Sydney University

Deakin University

Torrens University

Queensland University of Technology (QUT)

We’ve included a full table showing the percentage change in top 3 rankings for all 25 universities, sorted from highest to lowest growth. It benchmarks performance and highlights the top improvers and those losing ground.

Keep in mind that traffic can be influenced by macro factors or seasonal search behaviour. Rankings are not. 

University	Top 3 Terms (July 2023)	Top 3 Terms (June 2025)	% Change
CQU	897	1298	44.7%
Macquarie Uni	2044	2834	38.65%
UNSW	6849	9482	38.44%
Curtin	2183	3000	37.43%
RMIT	8506	11570	36.02%
UWA	2528	3041	20.29%
Charles Sturt	949	1124	18.44%
James Cook	1884	2054	9.02%
Adelaide	3430	3689	7.55%
Sydney	13680	14111	3.15%
Deakin	6432	6570	2.15%
Torrens	906	850	-6.18%
Monash	13465	12197	-9.42%
UTS	6167	5524	-10.43%
Griffith	4507	4001	-11.23%
ANU	2114	1872	-11.45%
Flinders	2117	1857	-12.28%
Bond	1330	1148	-13.68%
Latrobe	6134	5237	-14.62%
Melbourne	1254	1041	-16.99%
UTAS	1994	1532	-23.17%
Western Sydney	6139	4495	-26.78%
QUT	4731	3341	-29.38%
Federation	1838	1233	-32.92%
UQ	986	587	-40.47%

Note: We identified the CMS used by each university to explore any correlation with search performance. While sample sizes are small, universities using Squiz underperformed on average, whereas those on Sitecore and WordPress saw stronger gains in top 3 keyword rankings between July 2023 and June 2025. These trends are indicative only and likely reflect broader differences in strategy and implementation.

Standout performers:

• CQUniversity saw the highest growth, with a 45% increase in top 3 keyword rankings –— a strong gain from a smaller base.
• Macquarie University and UNSW both made significant gains, with UNSW jumping 38% (from 6,849 to 9,482) and doubling its estimated organic traffic.
• Curtin and RMIT recorded notable growth, each improving their top 3 visibility by over 35%.

Falling behind:

• QUT and Western Sydney University experienced the sharpest declines, with drops of 29% and 27% respectively.
• University of Queensland (UQ) lost 40% of its top 3 rankings, though its traffic held steadier, suggesting shifts in query mix.
• Federation University and UTAS also saw notable declines of 33% and 23%.

But top three rankings are no longer the whole story. As Google rolls out new formats, AI Overviews are becoming a powerful layer of visibility – reshaping how prospective students discover university brands. Unlike traditional rankings, these summaries deliver direct answers, often citing universities without requiring a single click. And that shift has big implications for both how visibility is measured and how credit is attributed, especially as AI surfaces show up more often in informational and intent-driven searches.

AI overviews in Australia

The data tells a clear story: AI Overviews are not a fringe feature. They’re fast becoming a core part of how universities are found (or missed) online.

Since March, every one of the 25 Australian universities in our dataset has seen a sharp rise in AI Overviews. In February, just 2,654 terms triggered an AI Overview. By June, that number exploded to 40,475 – a 1,425% increase – showing how AI surfaces are reshaping visibility long before they drive traffic.

The table below shows the number of queries triggering AI Overviews for each of the 25 universities and the total search volume for those queries.

University	AI Overview Count	Total Search Volume for Queries
Sydney	7136	31483
Melbourne	5920	25731
UNSW	4620	19690
RMIT	2405	12166
Monash	2682	11475
UTS	1896	8865
Western Sydney	1909	8041
Deakin	1615	7431
UWA	1390	6340
Latrobe	1182	5399
Curtin	969	4449
Adelaide	1015	4283
ANU	854	3808
Griffith	814	3380
UQ	364	1315
Flinders	458	2183
CQU	411	1871
Federation	381	1468
Charles Sturt	356	1234
James Cook	346	1165
Bond	266	1061
Macquarie	233	969
Torrens	185	871
QUT	173	764
UTAS	162	730

Our take on the data: Visibility gaps are emerging

The scatter plot below shows how visible each university is in AI Overviews. The University of Sydney, University of Melbourne, and UNSW are clearly out in front – cited in the most Overviews, triggered by the highest volume of searches.

A second tier, including Monash, RMIT, Western Sydney, and UTS, shows moderate visibility.

Meanwhile, a third group including Charles Sturt, Bond, and Torrens is struggling for visibility in AI Overviews.

Why might the University of Sydney, University of Melbourne, and UNSW be more visible in AI Overviews? It’s worth looking at an Ahrefs study which found ‘Brand web mentions show the strongest correlation (0.664) with AI Overview brand visibility‘.

Advancing the university SEO strategy

A strong university SEO strategy has always been built on core fundamentals: technical health, relevance and authority. But AI Overviews, LLMs, and answer-first search now require new layers.

Here’s where universities should focus to stay visible and competitive in search.

1. Subdomains

Most universities operate across multiple subdomains, spanning courses, research, faculties, microsites, and marketing campaigns. While this structure supports internal governance and flexibility, it can fragment SEO authority if not managed carefully.

Our analysis focused on main subdomains (e.g. www.university.edu.au). But strategy must account for the broader subdomain ecosystem, ensuring consistent branding, strong internal links, and consolidated authority.

Example: RMIT

• Operates 76 subdomains
• Main site attracts ~88% of traffic
• Organic traffic value estimated at $1.6M/month

Key subdomains include:

• online.rmit.edu.au – 100% online courses
• learninglab.rmit.edu.au – student resources
• academics.rmit.edu.au – research

Internal linking between course pages, faculty sections, and blogs helps search engines understand relationships and pass link equity.

Only Torrens, Bond, and RMIT house their blogs on the main subdomain. Others (UQ, UNSW, CQU, UWA) use separate domains, limiting SEO benefits. If blogs are meant to attract students, they should live on the primary subdomain.

2. Simplifying architecture for better indexing and discovery

A well-structured website does more than just improve user experience – it’s fundamental to how search engines crawl, understand, and index your content. And as Google continues to reduce its indexing load, universities with complex or disjointed site structures risk having key pages overlooked entirely.

This makes site architecture a strategic priority. Without a clear hierarchy and intuitive navigation, even the most valuable course or content pages can remain buried, invisible to both prospective students and search engines.

“Having a streamlined website architecture is more important than ever. It’s not just about helping Googlebot anymore, but optimising for a broader set of crawlers, many of which can’t render JavaScript and require clear, structured content to understand context.”

Jes Scholz, Growth Marketing Consultant & SEO Futurist

In other words, strong architecture isn’t just about visibility in Google—it’s about future-proofing your site for the evolving ecosystem of crawlers and AI systems shaping discovery.

A simplified, crawl-friendly architecture helps ensure that:

• Your most important content is discoverable and indexed
  
• Search engines can efficiently prioritise what to surface in results
  
• Prospective students can find the information they need with minimal friction
  

In particular, universities should focus on:

• Clear internal linking structures that help both users and crawlers understand relationships between pages
• Shallow navigation depth, keeping high-value pages within a few clicks of the homepage
• Avoiding overuse of faceted navigation or JavaScript-heavy elements that can create crawl traps or render important content invisible
• Addressing legacy issues, such as duplicate content, orphaned pages, or excessive subfolder depth
• Monitoring crawl behaviour using tools like Google Search Console to identify which pages are being missed

As AI-driven search and answer engines become more prominent, the visibility of your content will increasingly depend on how efficiently it’s structured. Your site should not only house information – it should surface it clearly, cleanly, and logically.

Ultimately, in a world where less of your site may be crawled, a lean, well-optimised architecture could be the difference between being discovered and being ignored.

3. Spotlight on international search visibility: India vs Australia

According to the Department of Education, 55% of international students in Australia come from just five countries, with India accounting for 17%, second only to China. While search performance in China is notoriously difficult to track due to platform restrictions, Indian search visibility offers a clearer picture.

To explore this, we analysed Semrush’s estimated traffic cost, a proxy for the value of a university’s organic search presence, across university websites in India.

Top-performing university websites (based on the www subdomain) in India:

• RMIT – AUD $40,000
• Monash – AUD $38,000
• Deakin – AUD $33,000

By contrast, the top-performing sites in Australia based on traffic cost were:

• RMIT – AUD $1.3 million
• Deakin – AUD $918,000
• University of Sydney – AUD $818,000

The contrast raises important strategic questions. Why is RMIT so strong in both markets? Why do others, like the University of Sydney, dominate locally but not in key international student markets like India?

Factors likely influencing this include:

• Localised SEO efforts and targeted content for Indian students
• International media coverage or digital PR in Indian publications
• Domain authority and how well course content aligns with search demand in India
• Onshore marketing efforts that spill over into search visibility

As global competition intensifies, investing in international SEO – particularly for key markets like India – is not just a nice-to-have, but a necessity for enrolment growth.

4. Understanding student search behaviour

At the core of any university SEO strategy is understanding how and why students search. Traditionally, this started with keyword research: identifying the terms prospective students use when exploring study options, courses, or campus life. That remains essential, but the context is shifting.

To build a strong foundation:

• Start by identifying both broad and long-tail queries (e.g. “psychology degree” vs “fully online bachelor of psychology in Australia”)
• Analyse keyword volume, seasonality, and competitiveness
• Prioritise terms aligned to key offerings and student decision stages

But in 2025, students aren’t just Googling – they’re asking ChatGPT, using voice search, and browsing AI-generated summaries. To stay visible, your content needs to be:

• Structured for citation in AI-generated responses
• Clear, credible, and easy for models to summarise
• Regularly monitored in tools like Perplexity, ChatGPT, and AI Overviews to see where and how your university appears

Branded vs non-branded visibility

Brand awareness still plays a major role. Some universities attract traffic from students who already know them by name (e.g., “Monash law school”), while others rely more on unbranded discovery (e.g., “best law degrees in Melbourne”).

According to Semrush:

• University of Sydney receives around 54% of traffic from branded terms
• University of Melbourne sees around 84.5% branded — reflecting stronger brand-led intent

Branded traffic is often higher converting, but non-branded visibility helps you reach students earlier in the decision-making process. A balanced strategy ensures you’re found by those who already know you – and those who don’t (yet).

5. Learning from paid and internal search

If you’re running paid search campaigns, use high-performing keywords to inform your SEO priorities. Terms with strong conversion rates and high CPCs are especially valuable to target organically.

Just as importantly, review internal site search data. These queries often reveal what visitors still need after arriving via organic – exposing gaps in navigation, content clarity, or missing pages. If students are frequently searching for “application deadlines” or “course fees” once on your site, it’s a signal to improve the discoverability of those topics in both SEO and UX.

6. Optimising key pages for students and answer engines

Course pages have long been a critical asset for attracting and converting prospective students. But now, they need to do double duty: converting users and feeding structured data to answer engines.

To perform both roles effectively, course pages should include:

• Key decision-making information (fees, duration, entry requirements, outcomes)
• Structured content (headings, bullet points, tables)
• Schema markup to improve AI and search engine understanding

Also ensure the content is crawlable: avoid hiding key details in JavaScript or tabs that limit what AI and search engines can see. While many universities use complex CMS platforms like Squiz or AEM, these SEO basics are still achievable and essential.

Video content also helps. Embedding relevant, helpful video on course pages can increase engagement and visibility in AI search features.

Important mindset shift: AI will likely reduce overall traffic but increase its quality. That makes your course pages more important than ever. Treat them like product pages – with strong CTAs, clear content, and constant optimisation.

7. Monitoring SERP presence and AI answers

As AI Overviews roll out globally and zero-click results continue to rise, understanding your university’s true search visibility has never been more important. Ranking first no longer guarantees traffic – particularly when AI summaries or SERP features answer the query directly.

A study by Ahrefs found that the presence of AI Overviews can reduce organic click-through rates by up to 34%, even when traditional rankings remain unchanged. This highlights a growing disconnect between rankings and engagement – and a need to track more than positions alone.

Search visibility now spans multiple surfaces: 

• AI Overviews
• Google Discover
• Course schema carousels
• Local Packs
• Featured snippets. 

To stay ahead, universities need to monitor how their content appears across all of these – not just the blue links.

Tools like Profound are emerging to help marketers track citations and mentions within AI-generated responses from platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity, offering a window into how your brand is being surfaced beyond traditional SERPs.

To stay competitive, universities must regularly audit their visibility across both classic search listings and evolving AI surfaces, adapting content and strategy in response to what’s actually driving discovery.

8. Reassessing structure and sources in the age of AI discovery

As AI search platforms reshape discovery, it’s not just what you publish – it’s how it’s structured and where it appears that matters. Clean architecture, internal consistency, and clearly defined entities are foundational to ensuring your university’s content is not only discoverable but cited.

Emerging data from Profound reinforces this. Their analysis of citation patterns shows that:

• ChatGPT and Perplexity both cite Wikipedia more than any other source, with Reddit the next most common. No other source exceeded 10% representation.
• Google’s AI Overviews take a broader approach, surfacing citations from Reddit, YouTube, Quora, and LinkedIn – all above the 10% threshold.

What does this mean for universities?

1. Clean, structured content performs better: sites like Wikipedia and Reddit perform well because they’re organised, highly interlinked, and topically rich.
2. A broader digital footprint increases your chances of being cited: your content should appear in diverse formats and platforms, not just your own website.

Jes Scholz explains it well:

“This content will no longer be indexed at the URL level, but broken down into content chunks from the page. This means quality in every section; paragraphs, tables, images and video matter even more. These elements are what earn citations in AI-generated summaries, not the page as a whole.”

She adds:

“Focus on what AI surfaces often cite. This could be preferring websites that offer clear course tuition fees, highlight global ranking or reviews or other important attributes.”

In other words, it’s not just your homepage or course listing that matters, it’s how each paragraph, fee breakdown, and ranking mention is structured and surfaced.

To increase visibility and inclusion in AI-curated results:

• Consolidate authority with fewer, stronger subdomains
• Structure content with clear headings, bullet points, and schema
• Build coverage across multiple platforms (e.g., YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit-friendly content)
• Define and reinforce your university as a distinct brand entity

These steps strengthen both traditional SEO and your standing in AI-generated responses, ensuring your institution remains visible in the next generation of search.

9. Content that connects: building authority and trust through value-led content

High-quality, informative content remains the cornerstone of any university SEO strategy – but its role is shifting. It’s no longer just about ranking well on Google. Content now shapes how institutions are cited in AI-generated answers, discovered in multimodal search tools, and remembered by prospective students.

The objective?
To create content that earns visibility, builds trust, and supports your brand objectives.

The universities that will succeed in this new landscape are those that focus on:

• Telling your story – Share student journeys, faculty profiles, research highlights, and community initiatives. This content builds trust and reinforces your identity.
• Thematic content hubs – building topical authority around key areas of expertise, helping position the university as a trusted source for both human users and AI systems.
• Auditing existing content – Track what content is already being surfaced in AI tools and why.
• Refreshing regularly – Evergreen doesn’t mean set-and-forget. Keep information up to date and aligned with current student intent.
• Distributing widely: Publishing is just the start. Content needs to earn links, mentions, and shares across media outlets, educational forums, and industry platforms to build authority.

Your content should do more than rank. It should differentiate, inform, and reinforce what your university stands for.

10. Building authority with Digital PR

Establishing credibility with search engines – and increasingly, with large language models – requires more than traditional link building. It demands a modern, strategic approach to digital PR, focused not just on backlinks but also on contextual brand mentions that signal authority, relevance, and trust.

Key tactics include:

• Earning high-quality backlinks from reputable, relevant sources
• Securing contextual mentions of your university in articles, thought leadership, and commentary
• Fostering partnerships through academic and industry collaborations
• Generating consistent media coverage and editorial exposure

These signals influence both traditional SEO and how AI tools surface your content. In AI environments, even unlinked mentions can boost your visibility.

Digital PR isn’t a nice-to-have – it’s foundational to maintaining long-term visibility in both organic and AI-driven discovery.

11. Strengthening brand for search and beyond

Where visibility is increasingly shaped by AI summaries, answer engines, and zero-click results – your brand has never mattered more.

Search engines and LLMs don’t just surface content – they surface entities. That means having a strong, well-defined brand isn’t just a marketing advantage; it’s an SEO advantage.

To build a brand that’s both visible and trusted, focus on:

• Visual and multimedia assets
  Use consistent, high-quality visuals, videos, and graphics that reinforce your identity.
• Content that reflects your voice
  Make sure your tone, structure, and perspective are distinct and recognisable.
• Consistent messaging
  Repeat core themes across all channels to build a strong semantic association.
• Broader brand presence
  Appear in news sites, partner pages, directories, and forums to strengthen your footprint.
• Formalising your brand entity
  Use structured data (e.g. Organization schema), establish a Wikidata profile, and ensure consistency across knowledge panels and business listings. 

SEO isn’t just about links or content anymore. It’s about recognition. The more clearly defined and consistent your brand is, the more likely it is to be surfaced – whether by Google or a generative AI.

Measuring your SEO ROI

The real measure of SEO success? Course enquiries and enrolments from organic search. But to truly understand that impact, you need more than just form submissions.

Start with solid tracking – not just for enquiries, but for behaviours that lead to them:

• Page views
• Video watches
• Scroll depth
• Prospectus downloads
• Internal site search queries

These signals help map the full student decision journey – from discovery to consideration to enquiry.

Also, monitor how AI platforms influence search behaviour. You may see a rise in homepage traffic and branded search impressions as students encounter your university in AI responses and then follow up with Google.

To stay ahead:

• Segment enquiries by domestic vs. international audiences – each group behaves differently in search.
• Track branded search trends in Google Search Console and correlate with visibility in AI tools.
• Use platforms like Semrush or SEOMonitor to benchmark visibility and monitor share of search over time.

Turn insights into action

For universities, the goal of SEO has shifted. It’s no longer just about climbing rankings – it’s about understanding how students discover your institution and ensuring your brand appears in the right place at the right time with the right message.

Need a helping hand? Discover how we work with universities to grow organic traffic and brand authority.