EAB Organic Growth Opportunities
1. Readiness Assessment
1. Readiness Assessment
2. Competitive Analysis
2. Competitive Analysis
3. Opportunity Kickstarters
3. Opportunity Kickstarters
4. Appendix
4. Appendix
Readiness Assessment
Current Performance
- You’re generating ~84k monthly organic visits from ~28k ranking keywords (traffic value ~$226k/month), making you the organic leader vs. Ellucian/RNL/Civitas (Ellucian is next at ~33k visits).
- Your backlink profile is strong with an Authority Score of 47 (solid trust/competitiveness), supported by ~3.0m backlinks from ~7.1k referring domains.
- Organic traffic is heavily concentrated on product + brand intent: top keywords include “navigate”, “eab”, “navigate360”, and “starfish”; your top pages are /solutions/navigate360/ (~36k; ~43% of traffic), the homepage (~14k; ~17%), and /solutions/starfish/ (~9k; ~11%), plus many university “campus” login subdomains.
Growth Opportunity
- Reduce reliance on branded/login demand by scaling non-branded, high-intent topics (e.g., student success platforms, advising software, enrollment management, higher-ed analytics) using your existing solution areas as hubs.
- Your sitemap shows massive content supply (~3.0k resources and ~1.1k events) but only a small share appears to drive meaningful traffic—systematic refreshes (on-page SEO, consolidation, internal linking, SERP intent alignment) can unlock long-tail growth.
- Campus subdomains capture meaningful navigational traffic; standardizing templates, metadata, and indexation strategy across those properties can improve CTR and capture more “login/support/how-to” demand without cannibalization.
Assessment
You already win the category on visibility, but the mix is skewed toward branded and product-navigation queries, which caps incremental upside. The biggest “so-what” is expanding non-branded demand capture across your large content library to grow total addressable organic traffic. AirOps can help you execute this systematically at scale while keeping quality and internal linking consistent.
Competition at a Glance
Across 3 direct competitors (Ellucian, Ruffalo Noel Levitz, and Civitas Learning), EAB is the clear organic search leader. eab.com ranks #1 for both monthly organic traffic (83,692 visits) and ranking keywords (27,720) among the sites analyzed.
Opportunity Kickstarters
Here are your content opportunities, tailored to your domain's strengths. These are starting points for strategic plays that can grow into major traffic drivers in your market. Connect with our team to see the full traffic potential and activate these plays.
Create a massive library of programmatic software comparison pages and alternative guides tailored specifically for higher education procurement. These pages capture high-intent buyers evaluating technology shifts in student success, SIS, and CRM categories.
Example Keywords
- "[Vendor] vs [Vendor] for universities"
- "Alternatives to [Vendor] for community colleges"
- "Best student success software for R1 institutions"
- "[Category] software evaluation criteria for higher ed"
Rationale
Procurement-intent searches are currently underserved by neutral, expert-led content in the higher-ed space. By providing detailed feature matrices and "who it's best for" guides, eab.com can capture buyers at the critical evaluation stage.
Topical Authority
EAB's existing solution footprint (Navigate360, Starfish) and high domain authority (AS 47) provide the necessary credibility to rank for competitive vendor-comparison queries.
Internal Data Sources
Use internal product battlecards, security one-pagers, implementation guides, and partner stories to provide differentiated, expert-level insights that generic AI cannot replicate.
Estimated Number of Pages
5,000+ (Covering top vendor pairs, category alternatives, and institution-type variants)
Develop a comprehensive library of downloadable RFP templates, scoring rubrics, and technical requirements checklists for every major higher-ed technology category. This strategy targets buyers in the early-to-mid procurement cycle who are seeking structured evaluation tools.
Example Keywords
- "RFP template for student advising software"
- "higher ed CRM requirements checklist"
- "vendor evaluation rubric for colleges"
- "questions to ask when buying an SIS"
Rationale
Decision-makers often search for templates to save time during the procurement process. Providing these assets as static, indexable pages drives high-intent traffic and establishes EAB as a partner in the selection process.
Topical Authority
EAB's history in consulting and advisory services makes them a natural authority for procurement standards and institutional requirements.
Internal Data Sources
Leverage internal implementation playbooks, success plans, and anonymized "common pitfalls" from partner support tickets to build robust requirements lists.
Estimated Number of Pages
2,000+ (Covering 40+ categories across various institutional profiles)
Generate programmatic implementation kits for complex higher-ed and K-12 regulations, localized by state and institution type. These kits provide checklists, sample policy language, and training outlines to help administrators navigate shifting legal requirements.
Example Keywords
- "[State] Title IX policy template for schools"
- "Clery Act annual security report checklist"
- "ADA digital accessibility audit for universities"
- "[State] hazing prevention policy requirements"
Rationale
Regulatory changes drive massive search volume as administrators scramble to update local policies. State-specific variants allow EAB to capture long-tail, localized search intent that national competitors miss.
Topical Authority
EAB's extensive research library and existing compliance-focused webinars provide a strong foundation for ranking in trust-sensitive regulatory clusters.
Internal Data Sources
Utilize existing policy builder tools, webinar transcripts from EAB experts, and internal research briefs on regulatory shifts.
Estimated Number of Pages
10,000+ (Covering 12+ major regulations across 50 states and multiple institution types)
Build a massive library of modular communication templates for every stage of the student journey, from inquiry to re-enrollment. This play provides practitioners with ready-to-use SMS, email, and chatbot scripts tailored to specific student segments.
Example Keywords
- "summer melt text message templates"
- "FAFSA completion email wording for first-gen students"
- "stop-out outreach email scripts"
- "academic probation intervention templates"
Rationale
Operational staff at colleges and districts constantly search for proven messaging to improve student outcomes. This high-utility content creates a massive long-tail moat and drives repeat traffic from practitioners.
Topical Authority
EAB's leadership in enrollment services and student success technology (Navigate360) makes them the most credible source for effective student communication strategies.
Internal Data Sources
Incorporate anonymized campaign performance data from EAB's digital agency, SME transcripts on student engagement, and internal inclusive language guidelines.
Estimated Number of Pages
15,000+ (Covering 25+ lifecycle moments across 10+ segments and 4+ channels)
Create a technical library of KPI definitions, data dictionary entries, and dashboard wireframes for higher-ed leadership. This targets data and IT buyers looking to standardize their institutional reporting and analytics layers.
Example Keywords
- "student retention dashboard data model"
- "how to calculate student melt rate"
- "course success rate SQL logic"
- "higher education KPI dictionary for provosts"
Rationale
As institutions become more data-driven, there is a high volume of search for standardized metrics and technical implementation logic. This play positions EAB as the authority on institutional intelligence.
Topical Authority
EAB's Edify product and IT strategy advisory services provide the technical and strategic credibility required to own the "higher-ed data" niche.
Internal Data Sources
Use internal data dictionaries, diagnostic frameworks, and dashboard templates from EAB's strategy and IT advisory deliverables.
Estimated Number of Pages
3,000+ (Covering 150+ metrics across various source systems and audiences)
Improvements Summary
Refocus the Navigate360 cluster by separating buyer intent from login intent, then rebuild the /solutions/navigate360/ page to answer “what is Navigate360” and “navigate software” with clearer sections, FAQs, and schema. Add 3–6 tightly related supporting pages and strengthen internal links from high-authority student-success/enrollment pages to push page-2 terms into page 1.
Improvements Details
Update /solutions/navigate360/ with a 150–200 word definition above the fold, an H2 “What is Navigate360?”, capability sections (appointment scheduling, engagement/communications, retention workflows, reporting/early alerts, integrations/security/implementation), and an FAQ block with FAQPage + Product/SoftwareApplication schema. Map “navigate 360 student login”, “navigate sign in”, and “navigate home login” to /log-in/ with indexable help copy, institution finder, and FAQ schema; link back from the pillar FAQ to /log-in/. Create/expand supporting pages for “higher education by appointment solutions”, “navigate software” (category-style page), an implementation guide, and expand the community college CRM page to target “community college crm” with deeper workflows and FAQs; add contextual internal links (e.g., from /student-success-and-retention/ using anchors like “Navigate360 student success platform”).
Improvements Rationale
Current rankings show strong demand for “navigate360” but weak traffic share on high-intent terms like “navigate software” and “what is navigate360,” suggesting relevance gaps and page-2 placement. Separating login queries from the buyer page reduces intent mismatch that can hurt engagement and conversions, while deeper topical sections, supporting pages, and internal links strengthen relevance signals and help capture long-tail and rich results via schema.
Appendix
| Keyword | Volume | Traffic % |
|---|---|---|
| best seo tools | 5.0k | 3 |
| seo strategy | 4.0k | 5 |
| keyword research | 3.5k | 2 |
| backlink analysis | 3.0k | 4 |
| on-page optimization | 2.5k | 1 |
| local seo | 2.0k | 6 |
| Page | Traffic | Traffic % |
|---|---|---|
| /seo-tools | 5.0k | 100 |
| /keyword-research | 4.0k | 100 |
| /backlink-checker | 3.5k | 80 |
| /site-audit | 3.0k | 60 |
| /rank-tracker | 2.5k | 50 |
| /content-optimization | 2.0k | 40 |
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