Search, data and website strategy for colleges and universities.
HIGHER EDUCATION
For web directors and marketing leaders who need to know how students find their school, what's really working and what to fix next. I've done this work inside a university and with more than 120 schools since.
WHAT I’VE LEARNED
Your website is the source, even when it isn't the destination.
I've watched my own kids search for colleges. They met schools on social media, in rankings, through friends and, more and more, in AI answers. Many never started on a homepage.
But almost everything they read traced back to a college's website. Rankings, AI tools and search results all pull from it. So your site has to be right, current and easy to read, for students and for the machines that summarize you to them.
HOW I HELP
The problems higher-ed teams bring me most
“We don’t know what AI says about us.”
I show you how ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews describe your school and your programs next to your competitors, and what to fix on your program pages so they get it right.
“Nobody trusts our GA4 data”
I rebuild tracking so inquiries, visit requests and applications are counted once and correctly, even across multiple domains and application platforms.
“Our dashboards don’t answer anything”
I build dashboards around the questions your cabinet and enrollment team actually ask, with web, search, social and email in one view.
Analytics & Data →
Planning a redesign? Website strategy covers audits, information architecture and RFP support for sites with many departments and editors.
2-3x
Google referral traffic to redesigned program landing pages
"We were facing a major challenge marketing many vastly different professional programs to a very diverse set of audiences. Since working with Patrick and redesigning our pages, our referral traffic from Google has doubled (and even tripled in some cases!) for our program landing pages."
-Anna Whinnery
EXPERIENCE
Schools I’ve worked with
Research universities, liberal arts colleges, community colleges, graduate schools and independent schools.
Colleges and Universities
Aurora University
Hamilton College
Scripps College
Chesterfield Montessori School
St. Dominic High School
Brightpoint Community College
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Swarthmore College
Independent Schools
Devon Prep
Studio School NYC
Drexel University
Mills College
University of Denver
Jackson Academy
Fordham University
Northwestern University
Vanderbilt University
Loyola School (New York)
WHY ME
I’ve sat in your chair
Eight years in-house
I led digital marketing at Webster University, including a full website redesign. I know governance, budgets and the department that wants its own homepage.
Agency experience
At mStoner, I advised institutions including Johns Hopkins and Saint Louis University on strategy, redesigns and SEO.
120+ schools
From community colleges to research universities, I've seen what works across very different institutions, and why the same fix rarely fits two schools.
FREE FOR YOUR TEAM • HIGHER-ED EDITION
Understanding AI Search: a briefing for college marketing teams
A one-hour, plain-language session on how AI tools are changing the way students research and compare schools, and what your team can do about it.
Questions higher-ed teams ask
What kinds of schools do you work with?
All kinds: research universities, liberal arts colleges, community and technical colleges, individual graduate and professional schools, and independent K–12 schools.
Our site has hundreds of editors and departments. Can you still help?
Yes. Most college websites are decentralized. I focus first on the pages that matter most to prospective students, like programs, admissions and cost, and recommend governance your team can maintain.
How do AI tools decide what to say about our school?
They draw on your website, rankings, directories, news and other sources. An AI visibility study shows which sources they rely on for your school and where the information is wrong or missing.
Can you work alongside our agency of record?
Yes. I often work with a school's agency, handling search and analytics while they lead brand and creative.
Let's talk about how students are finding you.
A 30-minute call, no pitch deck. Bring your questions about AI search, GA4 or your dashboards.