April 28, 2025
Jeff Dillon
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If you asked most higher ed marketers whether their institution’s website plays a role in student success, the answer would be a resounding yes.
After all, today’s prospective students don’t just visit your website — they rely on it. It’s where they form first impressions, explore programs, get questions answered and decide whether your school feels like the right fit.
That’s why one stat from our recent research with The Chronicle of Higher Education stood out:
93% of survey respondents said that improvements to their institution’s website experience would positively impact student recruitment, retention and engagement.
But here’s the twist — only 19% of those same professionals believe they’re currently delivering a great website experience.
That’s a massive disconnect.
Everyone Agrees It Matters — So What’s the Holdup?
The gap between belief and execution isn’t due to lack of care or effort. Higher ed teams want to provide a better experience — they just don’t always have the tools or time to make it happen.
Many marketing and web teams are stuck in reactive cycles, relying on IT support to make even minor updates. With those delays, the website experience suffers. Content is hard to find. Search bars go untuned. And when website visitors run into friction and bounce out to Google, there’s rarely enough data to understand why — let alone act on it quickly.
So even when institutions know that website improvements would move the needle for enrollment or student engagement, they feel boxed in by legacy systems and slow processes.
What a Great Higher Ed Website Experience Actually Looks Like
Delivering a truly great website experience isn’t about flashy redesigns or five-minute chatbots. It’s about helping students — and all your website visitors — find what they need quickly, intuitively and confidently.
That includes:
- Search bars that actually work, surfacing relevant and timely content
- Clear content pathways tailored to the audience’s intent (prospective students vs. current students vs. faculty)
- Actionable data that helps teams understand what users are searching for — and whether they’re finding it
The good news? Improving the experience doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Small changes — like tuning your site search and making high-value content easier to find — can have a huge impact on how people perceive your institution.
Simple moves made with the right strategy and tools can help close the gap between the 93% who strongly believe in the impact of website experience improvements and the 19% who believe their website is currently delivering a great experience.
There’s More Where That Came From
These stats are just a few of many uncovered in our new report: Untapped Insights: The State of Site Search in Higher Education
We partnered with The Chronicle of Higher Education to survey over 225 higher ed professionals to understand:
- What makes a great website experience — and what’s missing today
- How teams are creating and updating content (and the bottlenecks they face)
- How site search and content discovery shape digital strategy
- Where institutions are placing their bets when it comes to AI
Read the full report and see what your peers are saying and how your institution compares.
