Ep 73: Quicktake: Why Your College Website Search Isn’t Working and How AI Can Fix It

Website search is one of the most-used tools on a college website, but for many institutions, it’s also one of the most frustrating. Prospective students often type a question into the search bar only to get outdated meeting minutes, random PDFs, or irrelevant pages. In this Quick Take episode, GradComm CEO Cheryl Broom is joined by Joel Goodman, VP of Growth Strategy at Squiz, to unpack why this happens and what colleges can do about it. They discuss the limitations of common search tools, especially free solutions like Google Programmable Search, and why they often fail to deliver helpful results on college websites.

Also, Goodman shares how institutions can improve the experience by focusing on two key areas: better content strategy and smarter search technology. When colleges organize their content clearly and pair it with modern search tools, they can make it dramatically easier for students to find what they need.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why Google-based search tools often fail on college websites
• The impact that poor search experiences have on prospective students
• How AI is changing the way users search for information online
• Why content strategy plays a critical role in search performance
• Practical ways colleges can improve website search and user experience

Thanks for listening!

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Higher Ed Conversations is hosted by Cheryl Broom, CEO of GradComm, a marketing and branding agency specializing in community colleges and public education.