A leading online education provider, our client offers a wide range of academic and professional certification courses. With thousands of resource pages, blogs, and course listings hosted on a Drupal-powered platform, their site had the content, but lacked visibility. As competition in edtech soared and students increasingly turned to Google for answers, the client sought to turn their portal into a search-optimized knowledge hub with Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) at its core.
Client’s Objectives
- Improve organic visibility and search rankings for course and resource pages
- Capture featured snippets, “People Also Ask,” and voice search traffic
- Restructure content to serve as direct answers for prospective learners
- Increase traffic from non-branded queries and informational searches
- Enhance site structure for scalable AEO implementation across departments.
Client’s Challenge:
Despite strong content depth, the portal was underperforming in organic search. Key limitations included:
- Unstructured content: Course pages and blogs lacked hierarchy, schema, or structured data
- Low snippet eligibility: Most pages weren’t optimized for featured snippet formats like lists, tables, or definitions
- Fragmented metadata strategy: Title tags, descriptions, and canonical URLs were inconsistently applied
- Limited editorial flexibility: Content creators couldn’t easily structure content for search without dev support
- Internal linking gaps: Related content wasn’t connected contextually, impacting crawl depth and relevance
The Solution We Implemented:
To boost AEO, we focused on a dual-track solution: content intelligence + Drupal flexibility. Here's how we brought it to life:
- Performed a semantic audit to identify high-potential pages and content gaps in Q&A format
- Applied structured schema markup across course pages, FAQs, and blogs (Course, FAQPage, HowTo, Article)
- Redesigned templates using Layout Builder for modular, answer-friendly content blocks (definitions, lists, tables, etc.)
- Trained editors and SMEs on writing snippet-ready content with headers, subheaders, and keyword-rich intros
- Implemented AI-based search with semantic filtering and intent recognition to improve on-site navigation
- Enhanced internal linking through taxonomy-based recommendations and programmatic content association
- Optimized meta tags and content summaries to align with Google's featured snippet guidelines
- Deployed analytics dashboards to track snippet appearances, rankings, and AEO-specific KPIs
Impact on Client’s Business:
Within four months of implementation, the education portal saw measurable, high-value SEO and engagement improvements:
- 45% increase in organic visibility, including significant gains in featured snippet placements
- 30% rise in non-branded traffic, with a spike in voice and zero-click queries
- Search session success rate improved by 70%, reducing bounce and increasing session duration
- Snippet eligibility rose by 3x, especially for how-to, glossary, and explainer content
- Editor publishing time dropped by 40%, thanks to easy-to-use AEO-ready templates
- Better engagement from mobile users, driven by faster load speeds and answer-first layouts
Closing thoughts
AEO isn't just about search rankings—it's about becoming the source of truth. By combining structured content strategy with Drupal's editorial flexibility, our client transformed into a go-to knowledge hub for learners worldwide.
If your education site is buried in SERPs while your competitors claim the spotlight, it’s time to reengineer for AEO.
→ Speak to our AEO + Drupal experts at DrupalPartners.com