Better search and exploring features

An analysis of the user behaviour on our websites shows that students are using StudyPortals quite differently than performing a search on Google for example. Whereas Google is optimised to answer one specific question, many StudyPortals users have a rather broad idea about their dream studies. They prefer to browse and explore different options. This is also reflected in our visitor data as shown in the graph below. Many users are clicking from study programme to study programme or filtering by countries and/or disciplines. Only 10% of our users reach a study programme page by typing in a specific keyword on our website.

To accommodate the needs of this target group, we are currently rolling out several new features. I would like to present you two particularly exciting ones: new disciplines and search recommendations.

Adding more disciplines

Selecting disciplines is a great way to explore study programmes in a certain field. With an increasing amount of study programmes listed on our websites, the amount of results within a discipline can be however overwhelming. Based on thorough research and feedback from students and universities we are therefore more than doubling the amount of disciplines on our portals (from 90 to 200). After weeks of preparation we are very excited to launch this update this summer and we are expecting great benefits for both students and clients:

Increased relevance

The number of listed programmes on our website is growing; having more specific disciplines makes it easier to show students only the most relevant programmes fitting their interest. The potential fit between students and listed programmes increases and prospective students are more likely to be interested, fit eligibility requirements and eventually get enrolled.

Better findability on search engines

Customised landing pages ensure that students find us on Google when they are looking for study opportunities in a specific discipline and/or country, like “study journalism in the UK” for example. By adding new disciplines, we are increasing the amount of keywords through which prospective students can find suitable universities and study programmes on our portals.

Better targeting options

Banners and emails can be targeted more precisely, increasing the relevancy and cost effectiveness of campaigns

Better differentiation between competing programmes

More specific, less populated disciplines make it easier to stand out of the crowd and increase the impact of marketing campaigns.

Search recommendations (beta)

In order to learn more about how users use our website, we analysed the keywords users are typing into the search bar. We noticed that more than 90% of these keywords actually match one of our existing disciplines, countries or universities in our database.

With our new search recommendations feature, we can improve the user experience for these users considerably. The search recommender does not only reduce typing (which is especially useful on mobile devices), but it also makes the search more precise. This feature is still under development and we are looking forward to release new features and improvements in the upcoming weeks. Besides disciplines, the search recommendations can also include universities and countries.