Lightning strikes twice: Building content strategy around an unexpected success

What do you do when a single blog post unexpectedly becomes one of your institution’s top organic-traffic drivers year after year?

At Purdue University Northwest, the marketing and communications team treated that success as a blueprint and set out to replicate it.

In this session, you’ll learn how the team transformed one high-performing article into a repeatable content strategy that now drives consistent, high-value organic traffic. By combining SEO best practices with student-centered language and insights into real search behavior, the team created a series of explainer posts that resonate with prospective students and general audiences.

The approach is simple but powerful:

• Start with a strong, student-focused content model.
• Translate academic jargon into accessible, FAQ-style language that supports AI search.
• Collaborate with faculty and subject matter experts.
• Use analytics to refine, maintain and scale the strategy.

The result: Eight new program-focused posts that each became top-50 performers. Together, they were associated with more than 100 accepted offers, 13,000 users and 69% of traffic arriving organically.

You’ll leave with a clear, actionable framework for turning academic program information into engaging, high-performing content that supports recruitment goals and strengthens institutional visibility.

Presenter

Jessica Creech — Purdue University Northwest