From Website Redesign to Enrollment-Ready Digital Presence
How Wilmington College built a high-performing digital presence
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Private Liberal Arts
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Wilmington, Ohio
Wins With EAB
20M
new organic search impressions between Aug. 2025-Aug.2026
75%
of admission page visitors continued to the application page between Aug. 2025-Aug. 2026
250%
growth in AI search visibility* since Jan. 2026
*ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, Google AI Mode, Gemini
Background
A Dated Website Constrains Enrollment Performance
When Wilmington College partnered with EAB in 2021, its 10-year-old website was static and unable to support a modern student’s enrollment journey. The college needed a modern site that reflected its brand, helped prospective students find what mattered, and could evolve with its needs. Limited by internal capacity constraints, Wilmington partnered with EAB for support.
Strategy
Redesign Focused on Student Discovery and Engagement
EAB led a full-scale website redesign that transformed Wilmington’s .edu into a dynamic user experience, making it easier for prospective students and other key audiences to, find, explore, and engage with Wilmington.
Since launch, Wilmington has expanded its work with EAB to include ongoing web support, content strategy, and SEO and AI search strategy.
Impact
A Modern Website Connects More Students to Wilmington
“As a small institution, we don’t have a team that can handle the sophisticated development or search optimization work. I think of the vast difference of where we were [before our] site [redesign], and where we are now…it’s night and day.”
ADAM LOHREY
VICE PRESIDENT FOR ENROLLMENT AND MARKETING
While other .edus suffered industry-wide traffic declines, Wilmington generated 20M new organic search impressions, 156K organic clicks, and a 250% increase in AI search mentions across platforms.
Perhaps most importantly, Wilmington’s .edu transformation supports enrollment action, with 75% of admission page visitors continuing to the application page.
A Partnership That Evolves with Digital Needs
What started as a website redesign became a broader approach to managing Wilmington’s digital presence. As student behavior and technology continued to change, Wilmington expanded its work with EAB to keep its website, content strategy, search visibility, and digital experience evolving with them.
How EAB Amplified Wilmington’s Digital Presence
Stage 1
Rebuild the Website
- Redesigned and developed Wilmington’s .edu from the ground up
- Created intentional navigation and user pathways for key audiences
- Built a flexible and dynamic WordPress site for which Wilmington’s small team could easily update, manage, and create content
Stage 2
Optimize Content Strategy
- Improved priority pages with enrollment-focused content, UX, SEO, and FAQs
- Rebuilt the program directory to distinguish degree types, certificates, and modalities
- Applied these strategies to high-priority programs like Agriculture and Occupational Therapy
Stage 3
Analyze and Enhance Performance
- Continuously monitored site and search performance through ongoing Google GA4, Search Console, and EAB proprietary analytics
- Refined priority pages, keywords, and content strategy based on performance
- Expanded modular components and CMS capabilities to improve experience over time
Stage 4
Evolve for AI-Driven Discovery
- Extended content and search strategy into GEO to strengthen AI search visibility
- Added schema and structured content to help search engines interpret key page information
- Monitored visibility, brand sentiment, and competitive position across AI platforms to guide improvements
High-Performing Programs Get the Right Visibility
Strengthening Agriculture’s Visibility and Engagement
For priority programs like Agriculture, EAB combined content strategy, UX, SEO, and GEO to help students find what differentiates the program and move toward a next step.
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75%
Engagement rate across program pages* between Aug. 2025-Aug. 2026
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71%
Engagement rate for Agriculture program page between Aug. 2025-Aug. 2026
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Competitive Presence
Consistently positioned alongside large Ohio public agriculture programs in AI answers
*Higher ed benchmark is 63%
“We’re finding the right students because we’re putting the right content out. It’s truthful. And so, what they’re seeing on the website is correlating to their experience here.”
ADAM LOHREY
VICE PRESIDENT FOR ENROLLMENT AND MARKETING
Ready to learn more?
Turn your .edu into an AI-ready digital presence that drives enrollment action.