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Higher education landscape faces an enrollment crisis, but one demographic represents a massive untapped opportunity:
The 43 million Americans with some college experience but no credential.
These “Some College, No Credential” (SCNC) learners stopped their education because of financial pressures, family obligations, or life circumstances. Most universities chase traditional 18-22 year olds, leaving this enormous market segment largely ignored…
… but Southern New Hampshire University takes a different approach.
Rather than competing for shrinking, traditional enrollees, they built a content strategy specifically designed to recapture SCNC learners who are willing to give Higher Ed another shot but need flexibility and credit recognition.
The results speak for themselves: nearly 950,000 monthly organic visitors generating over $5.8 million in equivalent paid traffic value. More importantly, over 66% of SNHU students transfer in with prior credits—proof their strategy successfully converts this overlooked audience.
Here’s exactly how they built a content moat around America’s largest underserved education market.
The Fractured Higher Ed Learning Experience: Some College, No Credential
Ready or not, Higher-Ed is in the midst of a drastic overhaul.
The number of students available to enroll in colleges and universities is on a steep downward trend. The traditional recruitment process has fractured, with students turning to social media and forums instead of campus visits to make their decision.
What’s changed?
A growing number of students fall into the “Some College, No Credential” category. These are the students who, for one reason or another, started Higher Ed but didn’t finish. There are over 43,000,000 Americans who fit this description, based on a report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
These are people who struggle to balance education with work, family, and challenging life circumstances.
But the silver lining is there are nearly 5 million that fall under the recent stopout or potential completer category: those who have left college in the last few years and those who have more than two years of full-time enrollment in the last ten years. Both are more likely than the average SCNC to return and complete their degree.
To help these students, Higher Ed institutions need to adopt everything from new enrollment strategies to flexible learning options. The former is especially important considering these students are often skeptical of Higher Ed and are difficult to reengage.
Southern New Hampshire University, a private, non-profit university that prioritizes affordable, flexible education, is perfectly positioned to reach students with some college but no credential. This advantage is due, in large part, to their credit transfer program.
According to SNHU, more than 66% of their students transfer in with prior credits, meaning that a significant number of SNHU’s incoming students are SCNC learners who are returning to complete their education.
The question is, how do they reach recent stopouts and potential completers to present their programs?
According to the Higher Ed experts at Carnegie, there are five key strategies for re-engaging with these SCNC learners in a meaningful way:
- Align Messaging with Student Realities: Segment by educational history and create transparent messaging that acknowledges past progress while addressing practical concerns.
- Meet Learners on Their Terms: Prioritize email communication and monitor website engagement to deliver timely, personalized outreach when learners show interest.
- Prioritize with Purpose: Use predictive analytics to identify which learners are most likely to re-enroll and focus resources accordingly.
- Evolve Your Digital Strategy: Ensure content is discoverable and responsive across search, social, and display channels throughout the decision journey.
- Rebuild Trust Through Brand and Storytelling: Tell authentic stories of flexibility and career outcomes to reconnect with learners who’ve disconnected from higher education.
Now let’s take a look at exactly how SNHU re-engages this target audience using these strategies.
How SNHU is Set Up to Re-Engage Students Throughout the Funnel
According to Ahrefs, nearly 950,000 people in the US reach the SNHU website every month through organic search.
Many of these are high-value visits too: based on the search queries they use to reach the site, this web traffic would cost SNHU over $5.8 million to procure through paid ads.
Interestingly, the SNHU homepage only brings in about 20% of the university’s monthly organic visitors. Over 75% of the visitors come from two key subfolders:
- /about-us/ brings in 441k monthly visits (47%)
- /online-degrees/ brings in 267k monthly visits (28.5%)
The /about-us/ subfolder serves as their TOFU traffic generator, specifically the newsroom posts that cover a range of timely and evergreen topics.
The 957 newsroom pages drive over 441k monthly visitors, which seems surprising until you realize that this isn’t a typical news subfolder. While it does include some recent content, like the President’s and Dean’s lists of 2025, the top ranking posts are all evergreen posts that you might expect to find in a blog.
These pages target a range of TOFU terms related to:
- The programs and degrees offered at SNHU
- Career paths related to SNHU programs
- The Higher Ed learning experience
- Personal growth
Essentially, the /newsroom/ subfolder acts as SNHU’s blog.
All in all, these /newsroom/ pages help SNHU show up on the first search engine results page for over 40k non-branded keywords. This means that people who aren’t actively searching for this specific university, whether because they haven’t narrowed down their search yet or because they haven’t even decided on whether they want to go back to school at all, are now aware of SNHU as an authoritative source.
To help solidify their position as a transfer-friendly school for SCNC learners, SNHU’s content team has a ‘related resources’ sidebar that includes information about transferring credits. It also contains relevant information for anyone interested in studying at SNHU, from STEM resources to Bachelor’s and Master’s programs and admission applications.
Here’s how it appears on one of their top-ranking pages on different types of engineering.
Some pages, like SNHU’s post on how long it takes to get an associate degree, are even more directly targeted towards the Recent Stopout and Potential Complete audiences we discussed earlier.
Since these learners have already started and stopped their higher ed journey, they are often looking for a way to maximize how much they get out of their past credits. The SNHU team makes sure that the term transfer credits is mentioned early and often throughout the piece. In addition to the sidebar, the term “transfer” is mentioned 8 other times and “credit(s)” 25 more times.
That’s how you align your messaging with student realities.
These online degree pages are the Higher Ed version of SaaS money pages. People who land on these pages are clearly looking for a more flexible option for education, whether it’s an Associates degree, Bachelors, or Masters.
These pages target anyone interested in online learning, but SNHU also includes relevant information for those SCNC learners that may be interested in applying their previous credits towards one of SNHU degrees.
For instance, the top of their online associate’s degree page includes a section on how “transfer-friendly programs” are a top benefit of the school. Reiterating how students with previous learning experience can transfer up to 90 credits towards receiving a Bachelor’s as soon as they’ve earned an Associates degree.
Considering this page receives over 20,000 monthly visits and is one of the most visited pages on the site in terms of organic search, it’s a smart play to make “Transfer” content as visible as possible for the increasing number of SCNC learners out there.
The page for SNHU’s online Masters degree also has a section highlighting how flexible the institution is with transferring credits. Not only does it explain how many credits students can apply towards a potential masters degree, but it then explains how SNHU is a national leader in affordable tuition.
This is another perfect example of how colleges and universities can align their messaging with the realities facing SCNC learners.
SNHU is very interested in recruiting from the growing pool of students who have earned post-secondary credits without completing a degree. The messaging is clear.
Now the question is, how do they ensure that their pages stand out from the rest of their competitors in an extremely competitive Higher Ed space.
How SNHU Uses EEAT to Win in the New Era of Search
AI has fundamentally transformed search from both a technological and behavioral standpoint.
Google is transforming search engine results pages with the AI overview and their new AI mode, while users increasingly turn to ChatGPT, Perplexity, and web-search-enabled LLMs for a more personalized experience.
To keep potential students flowing into the enrollment pipeline, colleges and universities need to adapt their content marketing strategies. According to Carnegie, one of the most important aspects of search experience optimization for Higher Ed is creating human-first content.
In other words, they need to double down on Google’s guidelines for creating quality, helpful content: prioritizing experience, expertise, authority, and trust (EEAT).
Here’s how SNHU incorporates EEAT into their two leading subfolders.
Online Degree Pages
Investing in a post-secondary education is a big decision—especially for those students who have already started and stopped their journey once.
That’s why even institutions like SNHU, that offer more affordable tuition and flexible learning options, need to demonstrate their expertise and authority, showcase student experiences, and build trust.
The four key landing pages for SNHU’s online degrees (associates, bachelor’s, master’s, and certificate) are great examples of how higher ed institutions can incorporate their faculty, alumni, and institutional legacy to build EEAT.
Here are a few key examples:
- Highlighting the long legacy of the school’s business program, tracing back to its origins in 1932 as the New Hampshire School of Accounting and Secretarial Science
- Dedicated sections for job market statistics that contains authoritative employment stats from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (and a trust-building caveat about how to interpret the figures)
- Alumni quotes and stories that showcase the experience of recent SNHU grads, alongside headshots, full names, program, and year of graduation
- Featured faculty profiles that provide an introductory overview of SNHU professors and faculty members, with links to more indepth Q&A sessions with them
- Embedded YouTube videos that provide an overview of the online learning experience and how it benefits students that want more flexibility
With the landing pages for SNHU’s online Associates (20,254 monthly visits), Bachelor’s (13,901 monthly visits), and Master’s (23,026 monthly visits) degrees all sitting in the top 10 in terms of driving organic traffic to the site, it’s not surprising that the their marketing team optimizes them for EEAT.
Newsroom Pages
Although the /newsroom/ pages sit closer to the top of the SNHU marketing funnel, it’s never too early to showcase authority and build trust.
Taking another look at some of the top-ranking pages in this subfolder, we see that the SNHU team uses similar EEAT-boosting tactics here.
For instance, the types of engineering page:
Right off the bat, this page builds trust and exudes expertise and authority.
First, by providing a disclaimer that some of their pages provide information about academic programs that they may not offer “to make sure you have the information you need to make decisions about your education and future—no matter where you choose to go to school.” The latter part helps uphold the integrity of SNHU’s newsroom as an educational resource first and a marketing asset second (though it is most certainly both).
Right after this comes the introduction to the article, complete with a headshot, introduction, and link to the faculty page of SNHU’s aeronautical engineering professor, Dr Mohammad Sadraey.
When describing the 4 main types of engineering the students typically study, SNHU again turns to high-authority, high-trust sources like the BLS for salary and job growth statistics.
Not only does this information further boost EEAT, but it’s also a great way to re-engage that SCNC audience. According to Carnegie, this type of transparent, outcome-oriented communication helps build trust and drive action within this audience.
If we go to another one of their top pages on digital marketing (15.6k monthly visits), you see the same tactics applied.
Just after the introduction, the SNHU team kicks off the post with a high EEAT section. A senior faculty member, in this case Dr. Jessica Rogers, weighs in with her expertise on the topic, complete with a headshot and link to her faculty Q&A page.
Like the other blog-style newsroom pages we looked at earlier, the SNHU team uses a number of other tactics to make sure their content is full of EEAT, including:
- Employment and salary figures from reputable sources like the BLS and Statista
- External links to leading marketing companies like HubSpot, Salesforce, Adobe, and Moz
- References to domain-specific authorities like the the American Marketing Association
- Embedded YouTube videos showcasing the experience of SNHU marketing students
This comprehensive approach to EEAT serves multiple purposes. First, it helps SNHU’s content rank higher in search results by demonstrating clear expertise and authority. Second, it builds trust with SCNC learners who may be skeptical about returning to education after previous experiences. Finally, it positions SNHU as a credible educational resource, not just a marketing-focused institution.
Bonus: How YouTube Helps SNHU Retain Traffic
During the research for this piece, I came across an interesting little tid-bit on SimilarWeb. The most popular website visited by users who are leaving the SNHU website via an external link (or referral) is YouTube.
In the month of May, a full 32% of all people leaving their site. One in every three visitors.
While reading through the top newsroom and online degree pages on the SNHU site, I noticed that a significant number of pages include embeds to relevant videos from their 47.5k subscriber channel, @SNHU.
With over 1,600 videos on their main channel (and 5 other niche ones), they’ve essentially matched the size of their website with a massive online video catalog.
For example, the landing page for their /online-degrees/ subfolder includes 4 embedded YouTube videos promoting and explaining the benefits of studying at SNHU.
This strategy serves multiple purposes:
- Keeps visitors on-site longer by providing engaging video content
- Builds trust and showcases real student experiences through testimonials and campus life videos
- Provides another content channel for reaching SCNC learners who prefer video over text
- Creates a seamless experience where interested visitors can dive deeper into SNHU’s offerings without leaving the ecosystem
Unlock Your Enrollment Funnel: Start Building Your High-EEAT Moat Today
SNHU’s success with SCNC learners demonstrates that the biggest opportunities often lie in overlooked market segments. By aligning content strategy with audience realities—emphasizing credit transfer, affordability, and flexibility—they’ve captured a $5.8 million organic traffic stream while competitors fight over traditional students.
The lesson for higher education institutions is clear: stop chasing the same shrinking demographics everyone else targets. Instead, identify underserved audiences with specific needs, create content that directly addresses their concerns, and build trust through expertise and transparency.
With 43 million SCNC learners still seeking degrees, and online learning growing in popularity, the institutions that adapt their content strategy first will dominate this massive market.
Get in touch with a Higher Ed content marketing agency today and kickstart your strategy.
