📋 Project Overview
An EdTech training platform offering professional tech, data science, and agile management certifications was burning thousands on search ads while massive course aggregators (Coursera, Udemy) dominated organic rankings.
Starting position
Duplicate syllabus pages across multiple difficulty tiers, missing Course and EducationalOccupationalCredential schema, and lack of topical cluster depth.
🎯 Goal
Rank top 3 for professional certificate and bootcamp queries, capturing high-intent students seeking career advancement without spending heavily on PPC.
🔧 Solutions
Phase 1 — Programmatic Course Schema (Month 1–3): Implemented structured Course, Syllabus, and AggregateRating schema across 40+ certification programs.
Phase 2 — Career Pathway Clusters (Month 3–6): Built comprehensive salary benchmarks, career roadmap guides, and free syllabus preview modules.
Phase 3 — AEO & AI Overview Optimization (Month 5–8): Optimized course recommendation queries, becoming a cited course provider in ChatGPT and Perplexity.
Phase 4 — Academic & Industry PR (Month 6–12): Earned 78 authoritative backlinks from university partner portals, tech blogs, and industry certifications.
📈 Results
In 12 months, organic traffic grew 7× (118,000 monthly visits), course enrollments surged 580%, and monthly organic course revenue grew from $90k to $640k.
Google Search Console — Organic Clicks (12 months)Campaign period
Total Clicks
Impressions (scaled)
Course schema deployed
Career hubs live
118,000/mo peak
Keyword ranking improvements
Final results summary
Monthly Organic Traffic118,000from 16,400↑ 620%
Student Enrollments+580%from organic search↑ 580%
Keywords in Top 10140from 18 keywords↑ 677%
Domain RatingDR 56from DR 27↑ 29 points
Monthly Organic Revenue$640kup from $90k/mo↑ 611%
AI Search Citations32ChatGPT course queriesNew channel
"We went from bleeding money on PPC to having our courses fill up organically every single month. Top3Results built an organic acquisition machine for our academy."