In my recent Field Notes, I have talked a lot about AI search, because I think it is a crucial development at this point.
It’s such a big change that we all have to go back to the drawing board to some extent. Including for me. Am I a “GEO expert” now?
Here’s what I’ll focus on from now on:
What I specialise in: Online search
Helping education providers get found when prospective students search for them.
Over the past 2 decades, Google was a near-monopolist in this field. So this meant my focus was on SEO and Google Ads.
While Google is still a dominant player, students now use a lot more tools for research (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, you name it). And that’s why I now talk a lot more about GEO and AI visibility.
But while things change quickly, Google Ads and “old-fashioned” SEO still matter and still work. With so much changing around us, it’s only more important to keep doing what works.
For example, at this moment I am running a Google Ads training cohort with a group of language schools and I coach a US-based tertiary institution on Google Ads, SEO and AI visibility.
Who I serve: education providers
With a narrow focus on search and AI visibility, I realise I can actually be a lot more broad in the types of organisations I serve. Much of my messaging has been focused on universities, but I also work well with language schools, tertiary education providers, summer schools, independent schools, recruitment agencies and study choice websites.
So I plan to do more outreach in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and UK – close enough for me to also meet up in person occasionally.
How IÂ serve: audits, training, coaching, consulting, speaking
Some education providers have an in-house team (or want to develop one), others work with an agency or freelancers. I don’t want or need to compete with that.
Instead, I can audit your current website and campaign setup and chart a course of action from that – or run a training workshop (in-person or online) so you can decide and align on how to go about improving your school’s online visibility, whether that means technical improvements to your website, putting out different content or perhaps making some changes to the job scope of your student ambassadors.
That’s all for this Field Note
This article first appeared as a Field Note
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