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Large institutions, like those in Higher Education, are often criticized for their rigidity and lack of innovation. Especially in terms of marketing.
But Western Governors University (WGU) is not one of those institutions.
In fact, the university was founded in 1997 with a clear mission: to use the emerging internet to make higher education more accessible. Its motto, then and now, is “anytime, anywhere” education.
That digital-first mentality is paying dividends during a particularly disruptive time in the education sector. While other institutions are just starting to expand their digital reach, WGU has built an impressive moat of content that ties directly to their programming.
WGU brings in 1.3 million visits to its website every month through organic search traffic. That same visibility would cost over $4.5 million to replicate with paid advertising.
And a significant portion of that traffic comes from one specific strategy WGU has doubled down on: career guides.
Today we’re going to look at how a specific organic strategy represents a key component of WGU’s enrollment funnel, bringing in hundreds of thousands of visitors to their website every month.
But first…
Why Higher Ed Needs a Bigger Funnel in 2025
Colleges and Universities have faced some challenging times so far this decade, particularly with the mass disruption of COVID on learning experiences. And things are only getting more complicated.
We’re coming up to another demographic cliff in the number of students available for recruitment. There was already a 15% decline in college and university enrollment from 2010 to 2021, and now analysts are projecting another 13% decline by the time we reach 2041.
A fragmented decision-making process represents another challenge for Higher Ed in the coming months. In light of this, Foundation has partnered with Carnegie to help them bring content marketing services to colleges and universities.
This video breaks down what that partnership looks like and how it’s helping schools grow their digital presence, reach new students, and strengthen their enrollment funnel:
In the past, students often chose a school based on traditional recruiting, family input, or campus visits. Today, many make that decision long before setting foot on campus, thanks to what they see online.
With more competition for fewer students, schools are under pressure to stand out. Prospective students are no longer swayed by prestige or traditional recruitment alone. They’re forming opinions based on what shows up in search results, Reddit threads, and on TikTok. Old playbooks aren’t cutting it anymore.
That’s why these institutions are turning to digital marketing to drastically expand their enrollment funnel. Organic search, social media, and increasingly AI, are all channels that provide that initial brand exposure. They catch the institution-unaware web searches and turn them into prospects that can then be nurtured into applicants and enrollments.
One of the reasons organic search makes such a good extension of the enrollment funnel is that colleges and universities have a natural edge in this department.
They have the .edu top-level domain. For example, wgu.edu.
Like .gov and .mil, .edu is a sponsored top-level domain, which means it’s restricted to specific organizations and requires approval to use. These domains give organizations and institutions a built-in advantage in search engines thanks to EEAT: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness—Google’s framework for evaluating content quality.
The .edu domain extension provides automatic credibility signals:
- Expertise: Academic institutions are recognized subject matter authorities
- Authoritativeness: .edu domains require verification and approval to obtain
- Trustworthiness: Educational institutions are inherently seen as credible sources
Put simply, WGU’s content on topics like healthcare careers outranks similar .com content because of the authority baked into its .edu domain.
Now let’s see how WGU uses this organic edge to their advantage.
How WGU Uses Organic Search to Fill Their Enrollment Funnel
While the number of enrollments in traditional Higher Ed institutions has been on the decline, WGU has seen significant increases over the past 5 years.
According to their 2023 annual report, the number of enrolled students jumped from 110,497 in 2018 to 169,379 in 2023.
A big part of that growth comes from WGU’s focus on affordability and flexibility, qualities that resonate with adult learners looking to switch careers. The average age of WGU’s full-time bachelor’s students is 34, and for master’s students, it’s nearly 38. These learners are less focused on “finding their passion” and more interested in financial stability and employment.
And many of these students first find out about WGU through organic search.
According to Ahrefs, 1.1 million people reach the Western Governors University website every month through search engine results pages (SERPs). That’s traffic that would cost nearly $4.6M to bring in through paid ads.
When we say WGU’s website generates “$4.6M worth of monthly traffic,” we’re referring to what it would cost to achieve the same visibility through paid advertising.
Here’s how it works:
Every keyword that appears in search results has a cost-per-click (CPC)—the amount advertisers pay each time someone clicks on their ad for that search term. For example, when someone searches “healthcare administrator,” universities bidding on that keyword might pay $7.72 per click.
Traffic value calculation:
- WGU’s healthcare administrator page gets 2,142 monthly visits
- The CPC for “healthcare administrator” is $7.72
- Traffic value = 2,142 visits × $7.72 = $16,536 per month
Multiply this across thousands of keywords, and you get the total monthly traffic value of the WGU website. This metric helps institutions understand the true value of their organic search presence—traffic they’re earning “for free” instead of paying for through ads.
In terms of where these visitors land on the WGU site, about a third land on the homepage through branded keywords. The next two subfolders responsible for the most traffic are their Career Guides and Blog subfolders at 132k and 106k monthly visits, respectively.
When we discuss WGU’s “career guides subfolder,” we’re referring to how they organize content within their website structure. Think of it like organizing files in folders on your computer:
Main website: wgu.edu
Subfolder: wgu.edu/career-guide/
Individual pages: wgu.edu/career-guide/healthcare/healthcare-administrator
This organization strategy offers several benefits:
- Topical Authority: Search engines understand that all content in the subfolder relates to career guidance
- Internal Link Equity: Links between pages in the same subfolder pass more SEO value
- User Experience: Visitors can easily navigate related content
- Scalability: New career guides can be added systematically without disrupting site structure
WGU has built a deep library of 416 career guides within a single subfolder, creating a centralized content hub that search engines consistently reward with stronger rankings. As we’ll see shortly, they even break down these guides into another level of folders to further maximize those benefits.
While the career guides and blog posts generate a large amount of TOFU traffic, WGU also brings in plenty of high-value organic traffic directly to their Online Degree subfolders, particularly their four pillars of business, IT, nursing and health, and teaching.
These are the highest intent pages on the WGU site and that’s reflected in the high monthly traffic value of these subfolders:
- Online business degrees: $1.1 million
- Online IT degrees: $579,000
- Online nursing and health degrees: $646,000
- Online teaching degrees: $450,000
The reason for the value is obvious: these are all pages containing the keyword “degree,” making them very high-intent searches in the Higher Ed universe. But before students and professionals consider the degrees they need, they look into the careers they’re considering using occupation titles as keywords.
This is where the career guides subfolder comes into play.
They rank in a top 3 SERP position for over 20,200 non-branded keywords. That’s tens of thousands of search engine results pages where searchers are exposed to WGU, potentially for the first time. And it’s not just visibility. These pages are structured to convert that attention into real interest, guiding readers from career exploration to degree consideration.
How WGU Drives $315k in Monthly Traffic with Career Guides
The career guides subfolder has been a long-term investment for WGU. It consisted of between 50-70 pages during the 2020s before they smartly ramped up production over the course of 2021 when in-person education was on pause.
Fast forward to today and the career guide subfolder consists of just 416 pages but drives nearly 12% of WGU’s monthly traffic, 131,000 visits, at a value of $315.8k.
The real power of this subfolder is that it brings in students who are still in the career exploration phase, not necessarily searching for a degree yet. These pages are optimized for searchers who simply want more information about specific occupations, many of whom have likely never considered an online degree or even heard of Western Governors University.
These pages sit in top-3 SERP positions for over 4,700 search terms. WGU is able to achieve this kind of reach because they target a wide range of careers across their core 4 disciplines:
- Business: 131 career guides
- Healthcare: 110 career guides
- IT: 105 career guides
- Education: 66 career guides
Of all the career guides subfolders, healthcare is doing the heaviest lifting, bringing in more than 60,000 monthly visits, or nearly half the subfolder’s traffic. Business-related careers are next at 36,700 visits, followed by IT (23,000) and education (11,000).
But not all traffic is created equal. While IT career guides attract only a third as many visitors as healthcare, they generate higher-value traffic worth around $84,000 per month based on keyword CPCs.
So how does WGU turn this career-focused traffic into prospective students? It starts with how they structure each guide…
Connecting Careers to WGU Curriculum with Comprehensive Guides
One of the big reasons younger generations have a less romantic view of higher education are the stories from Millennial and Gen Z graduates who followed their passion or their peers into college and university degrees for careers that are no longer in demand.
Gen Alphas with Higher Ed aspirations have paid attention and are thinking more pragmatically about their education. The same goes double for adult students who want to join a more employable industry or improve their earning potential.
Recognizing this mindset shift has allowed WGU to grow its SEO moat in a way that mirrors how today’s students research their careers: starting with questions about jobs, not degrees.
Just take a look at their top organic keywords:
For each of these occupations, the WGU team creates a dedicated career guide that covers all the high-level information a student needs to know about a career—from responsibilities and required skills to salary figures and required education.
This type of content marketing is gold for Higher Ed institutions because it’s optimized to rank, provides a strong overview of the profession students are interested in, and ties it directly to programs offered by WGU.
Let’s take a closer look at their most successful career guide: healthcare administrator.
1) Optimizing Each Page Section for Search with Strategic Headers
The WGU career guide pages are set up so they answer the key questions that a student or career-transitioning professional may have about a career in healthcare administration. The sections also line up perfectly with a number of high volume search terms.
The header section targets “healthcare administration” which has a monthly search volume of 11,000 in the United States.
As readers move through the guide, each section begins with a long-tail variant of “healthcare administrator” that typically shows up in People Also Ask or FAQ sections. In this case, the questions include:
- “What is a healthcare administrator?”
- “What do healthcare administrators do?”
- “What education does a healthcare administrator need?”
- “Best degrees for a healthcare administrator”
- “How much does a healthcare administrator make?”
- “What skills does a healthcare administrator need?”
Each section is answered clearly and concisely, giving readers the answer they need before moving them to the next section of the page. This structure also increases WGU’s chances of appearing in featured snippets and AI-generated overviews, keeping the university visible as zero-click search continues to grow.
Placing all of these long-tail keywords as subheaders throughout the content is not only an essential part of on-page SEO, but it also provides readers with the key information they need to decide whether it’s worth exploring this career option and, more importantly, enrolling in a program that sets them on that trajectory.
2) Connecting Career Trajectory to Specific WGU Courses
Occupation overview pages are great for generating web traffic, but that’s really just the first step of the process. For anyone looking to become a healthcare administrator, they need to know more about the necessary skills and educational requirements that provide them.
This is where WGU connects career guides to their relevant department and program pages.
In the 150 word “What Education Does a Healthcare Administrator Need?” section, the WGU team places 4 in-line links to different program-related pages on their site.
After outlining the education and experience requirements (along with soft CTAs) WGU includes a follow-up section that spotlights the specific degrees students can pursue to become a healthcare administrator. This section features clickable modules that provide more detail and offer clear calls to action, encouraging readers to take the next step. These degrees include:
- Bachelor’s Degree in Healthcare Administration
- MBA in Healthcare Management
- Master’s Degree in Healthcare Administration
Each of these degrees is explored more fully in the next section, where visitors can click through to dedicated program pages for detailed information on curriculum, costs, and career outcomes.
The site even includes a feature that allows visitors to compare multiple WGU degrees against one another:
Each module gives readers 4 options:
- They can click “view degree” and go directly to the degree information page that includes the program guide, specific figures on required courses, program duration, tuition costs, and career impact
- A “more details” dropdown that provides a condensed version of the above, listing program length, cost, and number of courses
- An “Apply Now” CTA that brings visitors to an email lead capture page where they can register and initiate the application process
- A “compare” option that takes readers to a side-by-side comparison page of different degrees based on time to completion, tuition, average salary increase, and career opportunities
It’s a great example of using formatting to improve the on-page experience by providing multiple paths for readers to move further down the enrollment funnel.
3) Tying Degrees to Financial Security and Job Security
One of the smartest parts of WGU’s career guide pages is how they address the biggest concern most students have about investing in higher education:
Will this degree actually help me make a living after I graduate?
WGU quickly addresses this concern by including a module with information about the average salary of healthcare administrators ($104,830) and the projected total job growth by 2032 (28%). This information is backed up with external links to reputable sources like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau.
These figures are formatted so they both pop off the page and grab the reader’s attention, making it one of the most compelling sections of the page.
After all, who doesn’t want a career where the average salary is over six figures?
This type of messaging—that higher education is the path to a lucrative, stable career—goes a long way to combating the sentiment that college and university no longer teach employable skills.
Given that 37% of Americans who aren’t confident in higher education cite a lack of career preparation, more institutions need to embrace this kind of messaging.
4) Varied CTAs to Match Journey
Throughout each guide, WGU blends direct calls to action (like “Apply Now”) with more subtle links to degree pages and comparison tools that move visitors further down the enrollment funnel.
Because WGU operates entirely online, it can offer flexible start dates instead of rigid academic calendars. That means prospective students don’t have to wait months to begin. Instead, they can move from interest to enrollment quickly.
Each guide reinforces this by highlighting the next available start date, creating a consistent sense of urgency for career-focused learners ready to take the next step.
The strength of these career guides is that they’re easy to replicate. WGU can create them at scale for new occupations as programs are added, turning search traffic into qualified prospects.
This approach is similar to the enterprise content marketing strategies used by companies like NerdWallet, Miro, and Toast. Find a content type that works and repeat as needed.
Start Expanding Your Enrollment Funnel Today
WGU’s career guide strategy demonstrates how higher education institutions can adapt to today’s digital-first enrollment landscape. Through SEO-optimized content that connects specific careers to their degree programs, WGU has built a scalable system that generates hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors and converts them into qualified prospects.
It’s a strategy that lets WGU move fast and respond to market demand with content that directly supports enrollment goals. For institutions looking to expand their digital footprint and compete in an increasingly crowded market, this content-to-conversion strategy offers a proven blueprint for sustainable growth.
Ready to expand your digital footprint and boost enrollment? Get in touch with Carnegie’s partner digital marketing agency for higher education today.
