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PROBLEM
A top online university program in the country couldn’t rank in top SERP results for target keywords due to a lean marketing team.
City University of Seattle (CityU) is named as a best online program in 2025 by U.S. News & World Report. The university prides itself in helping people get the degree they need, their way and genuinely serving the community with a reassuring and encouraging motto: “We’re here to get you there.”
Although CityU is among the top producers of MBAs and teachers in the state of Washington, they weren’t ranking within the first three SERP positions for “top masters program”.
Britney Taylor, the Manager of Marketing & Communications at CityU, was initially a member of the enrollment team. When she began researching and developing the marketing strategy, she noticed an opportunity to strengthen their online presence beyond paid ads. While their current paid efforts were generating leads and conversions, Britney recognized the potential for building a more sustainable and balanced marketing foundation.
Britney understood the value of a comprehensive approach — top-ranking organic search results could complement their campaigns and provide long-term visibility. Like many organizations, CityU had been focusing primarily on immediate results through paid channels, which made it challenging to allocate resources to longer-term organic SEO.
They posted a keyword-optimized article about once a month, but it just wasn’t enough content to signal to Google that CityU was a credible and trusted authority in the competitive world of higher ed. In fact, the entire content creation process, from keyword research to writing and editing, stretched the team too thin. Add in the rollout of AI Overviews last fall to the equation, and that was enough to convince leadership they needed an SEO and content solution.
Britney wanted to work with someone she could trust who could also alleviate her team, provide strategic support, and guide her in the right direction with the right tools that she simply didn’t have. More specifically, her goals were to increase organic traffic to their site and program pages, improve lead generation, and boost brand awareness. She just didn’t know Compose.ly existed yet.
SOLUTION
Compose.ly earned CityU’s trust by providing welcoming, supportive, and strategic SEO guidance that quickly delivered.
When it came to choosing the right SEO content partner, what ultimately won Britney over was the people at Compose.ly. Robert Bernsteen, CityU’s Account Manager, was incredibly patient and focused on building trust from the start with Britney — and it showed.
Britney needed to make a strong case for a multi-service solution like Compose.ly to her leadership team, and Robert and Nicole made it easy. They sent her great content samples that also generated tangible results for previous clients in the same industry.
“The team was amazing right from the first meeting! They went above and beyond, even before any agreements were signed. I felt like I was asking for too much, but there was never any hesitation on their end. Compose.ly was constantly in my inbox. I couldn’t forget about them. I was excited to work with them.” — Britney Taylor
Britney’s Compose.ly team is like a dream come true. She couldn’t have asked for more welcoming, helpful, or supportive people. The cherry on top? They’re delivering on the results they promised and more.
Compose.ly’s vetted writers have produced high-quality SEO articles that receive 4 to 5 stars (out of 5) each time. Britney has yet to meet a piece of content that she hasn’t liked or that didn’t meet the standards set within the brief.
Since becoming a customer in September of 2024, both their site and blog content have seen major improvements. In three months' time, they began seeing “explosive” SEO results coming directly from Compose.ly’s content. Their blog views and conversions have grown significantly, and perhaps more importantly, so has Britney’s trust.
She truly feels like Robert and the curated team of writers and editors have her back and act as an extension of her internal team. They’ve learned everything there is to know about CityU’s content goals and how it operates as a business. It’s made it easy for Britney to truly lean on her partners at Compose.ly, which can be challenging when you’re used to doing it yourself.
“Choosing Compose.ly was one of the best decisions I made all of last year.” — Britney Taylor
They’re like her professional best friends who meet with her regularly and provide in-depth content, performance, and search updates. And if they have the time, they catch up on what’s happening in each other’s lives, too.
RESULTS
CityU now lands in the top 3 search results for 248 keywords, contributing to a 5% increase in quality form fills.
If there was any advice Britney could give someone considering Compose.ly, it would be to “trust that they will come alongside you, jive with you, and work their SEO magic to get you the results you want”.
Now that we think about it, maybe this partnership was written in the stars. CityU and Compose.ly definitely have one thing in common: They are both here to get you there.
Since working with us, CityU has received a 63% increase in keywords, with 248 of those keywords landing in the top 3 search results and 535 in SERP features. In five months, their organic traffic increased by 37%. Additionally, their form fills (otherwise known as requests for information) are up over 5% from September 2024 to today compared to the same period last year. Whew!
Not to mention all of the time Robert and the team help Britney save. On a weekly basis, now she only has to look at SEO audits to identify the next keywords they’d like to target, and she lets Compose.ly run with it.
So, if you’d like to start working with a trustworthy SEO team that just gets you and your content goals, reach out to request a free content sample.
