Best of CASE District IV Award
 

Institution: University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Title of entry: UTRGV Website

About this entry: The new UTRGV website is designed with a focus on student recruitment. The aim is to provide an elevated and customized user experience for our target audience with up-to-date information relevant to prospective undergraduate students, prospective graduate students, and current students.
The website's mission is to highlight UTRGV and its continued growth, with a focus on academic programs, showcasing essential information, and making program discovery and comparison seamless.
We used a data-driven approach to design and develop the website, which involved conducting extensive research to identify areas for improvement. The result is a website that provides an intuitive user experience that is personalized and promotes conversion and engagement. Some of these research efforts include:

● More than 300 prospective students engaged in a 12-month focus group on design and information pathways.
● Internal survey of current UTRGV users.
● Peer institution comparison analysis.

The outcomes and results of the project were measured through website analytics: We achieved a 88% increase in website pageviews from people ages 18-24 from its launch date in September 2022 to January 2023. Additionally, organic search engine traffic and rankings have significantly improved, generating an SEO lift of 86% (approximately +14,000 more organic search pageviews). This resulted in a 105.1% increase in total inquiry form submissions on the website.

Overall, the new UTRGV website redesign has had a significant impact on student recruitment and utilizes intelligent and customized technology to provide a personalized experience for prospective students.