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Need hassle-free Solr performance? Meet Managed Search.

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CASE STUDY

How Parker University Turned Onsite Search Into a Strategic Tool for Content Discovery

From fragmented results to a unified, AI-powered search experience that drives content strategy and student engagement

“We were able to create content people were actually looking for. Identifying gaps has been where we’ve found the most value in SearchStax.”

Michael Clark | Senior Director of Marketing Technology

Frustrated with Limited Support and Inflexible Search Tools, Parker Sought a Better Solution

Parker University, located in Dallas, Texas, stands as a premier institution in chiropractic education, renowned for its comprehensive Doctor of Chiropractic program and growing portfolio of degrees related to research and the optimization of human brain and body performance. The university champions community service through initiatives like the INVICTA Project that funds comprehensive neurological and physical care for veterans and first responders and the Patriot Pantry, which supports students facing food insecurity.

With essential resources for their many academic and community-based programs living in multiple locations on their multi-site domain, the need for a powerful, unified onsite search experience was a high priority for the Parker web team.

When Michael Clark, Senior Director of Marketing Technology at Parker University, joined the institution and inherited the university’s legacy onsite search solution, he quickly realized it wasn’t adding value to their website experience. Limited support, no follow-through from customer support representatives and a stagnant search experience left Michael’s team with an urgent need for a better solution. With renewal approaching and support nonexistent, the decision was clear: it was time for a change.

Choosing the Right Solution for Upgrading Onsite Search

The Parker team had the option of two paths—build a custom AI-powered search solution or move fast with a proven search partner. After connecting with the SearchStax team, they chose to upgrade their onsite search to have more support, more control of their search experience and enhanced AI capabilities to back their content initiatives.

Most importantly, by choosing SearchStax Site Search, they transformed no-results searches from dead ends to opportunities to fill content gaps and deliver more relevant resources to their students, across a complex system of sites and subdomains.

A Fast, Customized Rollout with Human-Centered Support

Parker University moved fast. From contract execution in late December 2024 to a live launch by mid-January 2025, the SearchStax onboarding team worked hand-in-hand with Parker’s team to configure and launch a customized search UI that matched the university’s website branding and UX needs. The collaboration stood in stark contrast to the experience with their previous vendor.

“The onboarding has been absolutely fantastic. The customer success team was great. We moved very fast—and support has been top-tier ever since.”

– Michael Clark

With multiple developers in-house, Parker was able to build and integrate quickly. Meanwhile, SearchStax’s onboarding team helped translate requirements into actionable search configuration that empowered the Parker team to have more visibility, control and overall ownership of their onsite search experience.

Smarter Search, More Engaging Content: Using Analytics to Close Content Gaps

Once live, Parker immediately began using SearchStax analytics to identify “no results” queries and take action:

Non-existent content: Students searched for housing—a service not listed online since it’s handled through off-site partnerships. Search data revealed this gap, and Parker created new content to address it.

Responding to how visitors search: Acronyms like “SHP” (Strength and Human Performance) weren’t returning results. Within a few clicks, Parker created a synonym to map SHP to Strength and Human Performance and immediately closed the loop.

“We were able to create missing content people were searching for. Identifying gaps through SearchStax reporting has allowed us to create a better experience for our users.”

– Michael Clark

These insights helped Parker make search behavior a first-party data goldmine—it’s a window into their visitors’ actual intent; this helps them better deliver on what students expect to discover on their site, which drives higher engagement.

Cross-Domain Search and Decluttered Results

One of Parker’s biggest technical wins was using SearchStax Site Search to unify their search experience across five domains and 30+ subdomains, including:

Main university site (parker.edu)
Continuing education portal
Performance clinic
Seminars site
Philanthropic arm (The INVICTA Project)

Before SearchStax, subdomain fragmentation and their legacy system, Jenzabar, cluttered results with duplicate URLs and outdated content from a deep archive of internal resources. SearchStax made it simple for Parker to exclude internal and duplicate pages and present only helpful and up-to-date external results to their visitors.

Student Engagement Up, “No Results” Down

With a unified search experience—tuned by experts, powered by AI and fueling content strategy—Parker University has seen immediate success signals:

Click-through Rate (CTR): Jumped from 27% to 51% over three months post-launch – an 89% increase

No Results Searches: Dropped from 4.1% to just 1.5% – a 63% decrease.

Promotion Usage: Enabled the team to drive engagement with upcoming seminars and events via search-triggered calls to action. Promotions aided registration for Parker University’s largest regional event in the last 10 years.

Practical AI Tuning: Thanks to proactive tuning and clean data, Smart Match Assist provides value for any remaining no results queries.

“Smart Match Assist makes things like misspellings easy to find and make that connection. But beyond just misspellings, take for example ‘biology’ and ‘anatomy.’ We don’t offer a biology degree, but we do offer an anatomy degree, so Smart Match Assist helped us make the connection between the common searched term on our site and our specific offering.”

– Michael Clark

Why Improved Onsite Search Matters for Parker University

SearchStax helped Parker University do more than fix a broken tool—it unlocked a smarter, faster and more future-ready approach to content discovery:

Unified search across multiple domains to support a decentralized structure
First-party data from search used to guide content strategy
Rapid onboarding with expert ongoing support
Practical AI tools to reduce dead ends and surface relevant content
A stable foundation for future content and AI-driven initiatives

SearchStax Site Search is now an integral part of Parker’s tech stack that has contributed to an emphasis on content for the users, resulting in a 16% increase in time on page when clicking a search result – a key success metric in the effectiveness of content execution.

“SearchStax isn’t just a search engine. It’s a tool that helps us give people what they’re actually looking for.”

– Michael Clark

Product

Site Search

Platform

WordPress

Location

North America

Industry

Higher Education

Let’s talk about how you can drive better site search experiences and gain insights with SearchStax