Program Manager, Search Strategy and Digital Conversion

Eastern Kentucky University

Title: Program Manager, Search Strategy and Digital Conversion

Position Type: Fulltime Staff

Search Type: External - minimum 7 days

Department: 30R003
-Student Success,Outreach&Opportunity

Division: 5R0000 - Student Success, Engage &Oppor

Position Location: Richmond Campus

Driver Classification: Non-Driver

FLSA: Exempt

Schedule Type: Full Time (37.5 hrs per week ormore)

Hours Per Week:

Additional Schedule Details: May require occasional evening or weekend work for enrollment events or majordigital campaigns.

Posted Salary Grade: Exempt - G26

Retirement: KTRS

Contact Person: Dan Hendrickson

The Program Manager of Search Strategy and Digital Conversion ownsthe performance of Eastern Kentucky University's digital environment as a conversion system, from the first search result aprospective student sees through the submitted application.

This position owns the full conversion path across both the University website and CRM-hosted student-facing surfaces. Inquiryforms, application portals, status pages, and event registrationpages are conversion environments with measurable performance, andthey sit on a different domain and templating system than the marketing website. The Program Manager is responsible for ensuringthese operate as one continuous experience rather than as a handoffwhere prospective students and tracking data are lost.

This position serves as the University's internal technical authority on search, web conversion, and digital measurement. The Program Manager briefs and evaluates external agency partners,validates their recommendations against institutional academicportfolio priorities, and ensures that agency campaign strategy andEKU digital strategy operate as one system.

The Program Manager partners closely with Enrollment Operations,Web Content, Information Technology, Admissions, and academic colleges. Success is measured in cost per enrolled student, organicconversion volume, application completion rate, and the reliability of institutional digital reporting.

Education: Bachelor's degree in Marketing,Communications, Information Systems, Analytics, or a related fieldis required. Experience may be substituted for the specific degreebut not the educational level.

Experience: Three years of progressive experience in search engine optimization, web analytics, AI search, orconversion optimization, including direct responsibility fororganic search performance on a large website and hands-onconfiguration of web analytics and conversion tracking.

Licensure &

Certifications:

Preferred Qualifications:

• 30% - Own EKU's organic search strategy across academic programpages, admissions content, and high-intent conversion paths.
  
  Conduct keyword, intent, and competitive research to identifyvisibility gaps against regional and national competitorinstitutions, including online-first competitors. Establish and maintain technical search standards covering site architecture,page speed, metadata, structured data, internal linking, and mobileperformance. Prioritize optimization work and partner with Web Services and academic content owners to implement it. Identifyacademic programs with demonstrated search demand but no adequatedestination page, and drive creation of that content.
  
  Monitorindexation, ranking movement, and organic conversion, and report ontrends and required interventions.
  
  - (Essential)
• 30% - Own the mapping between search intent and destinationpage across both organic and paid search, and maintain the keywordto landing page assignment used by agency partners. Hold the standard for whether a page is adequate to receive paid traffic,and diagnose and remediate low landing page experience conditionsidentified in agency reporting, prioritizing high-spend terms wherepoor page quality is inflating cost per click.
  
  Design, build, andtest landing pages, inquiry forms, and student-facing CRM portalpages, including the application portal and status pages. Write andrevise search ad copy and ad assets in partnership with agency and internal creative staff where relevance to the destination page isthe determining factor in performance. Build and deploy testvariants, with test methodology and results evaluation provided bythe Marketing and Engagement Analyst.
  
  Reduce friction across thefull inquiry to application path through form field reduction,clearer page structure, improved mobile experience, and eliminationof…