Somaiya Vidyavihar University

Enhancing Enrollment and Sales for Somaiya Vidyavihar University through SEO Strategies

Challenges

Online Visibility: The university's website struggled to rank prominently in search engine results for relevant educational keywords.
Attracting Quality Applicants: Even after being a well-known and reputed college, and with a good number of applicants, the quality enrollment was comparatively less.
Competition: Mumbai's education landscape is competitive, with many renowned institutions struggling for student attention.
Multiple educational institutions: This university has a dedicated website consisting sub-domains for the multiple courses to admit the students. Subdomains are treated as separate entities by search engines, and aligning them with coordinates for their optimization is complex. Hence, link equity distribution, duplicate content, tracking and Analytics, Content Strategy coordination, and Cross-Subdomain Linking were challenges.

Introduction

In the highly competitive education industry, where institutions compete for student enrollments and brand recognition, effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies can significantly impact visibility, credibility, and enrollment numbers. This case study explores how Somaiya Vidyavihar University, one of Mumbai’s top private universities, leveraged SEO to increase online presence, attract qualified students, and improve overall enrollment figures.

Strategies Implemented

1. In-Depth Keyword Research

The university conducted thorough keyword research to identify the specific search terms and phrases that potential students used to find educational institutions and courses. The search not only had general keywords but program-specific keywords too.

2. On-Page Optimization

The university's website underwent on-page optimization to ensure that relevant keywords were strategically integrated into titles, meta descriptions, headings, and content across program pages. This ensured that search engines could accurately understand and rank the content.

3. Content Development

Somaiya Vidyavihar University invested in creating valuable and informative content related to higher education, career prospects, and industry insights. This content was not only published on the university's blog but also shared through social media platforms.

4. Backlink Acquisition

The university reached out to educational influencers, alumni, and relevant websites to secure backlinks to their website. These backlinks provided additional credibility and authority to the university's website in the eyes of search engines.

5. Mobile Optimization

Given the prevalence of mobile browsing, the university's website was mobile optimized to ensure a seamless user experience.

6. Local SEO

To attract local students, the university optimized its Google My Business listing and local directories. This enhanced its visibility for users searching for educational options in Mumbai.

Results and Benefits

1. Improved Search Rankings

With the help of SEO, the university was able to improve the ranking for a wide array of educational keywords which showcases the visibility.

2. Higher Organic Traffic

With improved ranking, organic traffic coming to the website was improved. Not only the traffic increased, but quality visitors looking for the courses availed by the university approached.

3. Quality Applicants

The increased visibility attracted a larger number of high-quality applicants, resulting in a more competitive applicant pool for the university's programs.

4. Enhanced Brand Perception

Posting valuable educational content and acquisition of authoritative backlinks allowed to showcase the credibility of the institution and the value they add to the students' lives.

5. Local Presence

Local SEO efforts led to improved visibility among students seeking educational opportunities in Mumbai, resulting in more local applicants.

6. Sustainable Growth

The initial investment in SEO continued to generate returns over time as the website maintained its improved rankings and organic traffic.

Results by Numbers

Keyword Ranking Insights:
While the website was handed 100 keywords were visible. After implementing the strategies, the results page at least consisted of 250+ keywords.
As compared to organic traffic of 2020, the result was increased by 140% in 2022
While the number of visitors per month ranged between 400-500, following the SEO practices the number of visitors per month hiked to 1000-1200.

How Somaiya Vidyavihar University Got Cited by ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews — Across Multiple Programmes

Challenges

Cited across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot for multiple programme and course searches, with visibility also extending to Google AI Overviews.
Ranked #1 in AI-generated results for generic, non-branded searches such as “MBA Marketing Communication” and “B.Com Data Analytics”, demonstrating strong visibility even when prospective students don't mention the university by name.
Google AI Overviews featured the university across multiple high-value searches, including MA China Studies, Integrated BS–MS, B.Tech Computer Science, and relevant educational blog topics.
23 AI-platform referral sessions from 19 active users were recorded in a single month across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot—an early but meaningful signal of growing visibility in an emerging search channel.
Previously unranked brand keywords moved from outside Google's Top 100 to the Top 5 within one month through focused SEO optimisation. We also strengthened citations for priority courses, improving their discoverability across search and AI-driven results.
Blog traffic increased from 372 to 604 visitors, a 62% month-on-month growth, expanding the university's reach through organic content.

The Client

Somaiya Vidyavihar University (somaiya.edu) is one of Mumbai’s most respected multidisciplinary deemed universities offering programmes across engineering, management, sciences, arts, commerce, and education through multiple constituent institutions. With a large and complex web ecosystem spanning several sub-domains, the university needed not just strong Google rankings but visibility in the AI-generated answers that students and parents are increasingly turning to first.

The Client

Somaiya Vidyavihar University had strong academic credibility and a well-established online and offline reputation, but into AI visibility was missing. As students began using ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews to research programmes, compare universities, and shortlist institutions, the university was largely absent from the answers being generated.

The core challenges were:

Multiple sub-domain websites each representing a different school or institute were operating without a unified SEO and AEO strategy, leading to inconsistent visibility across programmes
Technical issues including a test domain being indexed, meta tag errors on kitabkhana.in, and a backlink profile containing toxic links were actively undermining domain authority
AI platforms were not referencing Somaiya’s programme pages in generated answers which made university invisible at the exact moment a prospective student was searching their list using an AI tool
Several high-value keywords including “MBA admission,” “MBA colleges in Mumbai,” “engineering colleges in Mumbai,” and “admission in B.Ed” were either unranked or sitting well outside the top 100 results

The Approach

We implemented a parallel strategy that addressed technical foundations, on-page optimisation, off-page authority, and AI citation building simultaneously across six Somaiya sub-domain websites.

Technical SEO & Foundation Fixes

- We began by clearing the issues actively working against the university’s authority. This included initiating the de-indexing of the test domain (test-svmrehti.somaiya.edu.in), reviewing and finalising list of 2,000+ toxic backlinks, resolving meta tag issues on kitabkhana.in, and completing on-page optimisation across five blogs on blog.somaiya.edu covering title tags, meta descriptions, alt tags, and structural headings.

On-Page & Content Optimisation

- Keyword research was conducted for each constituent institution —KJSIM, KJSCE, SSHSS, SSBAS, SKSSCBS, and few other institutes with a focus on high-intent programme discovery searches.
- Meta tags were created and updated for new pages, content was aligned to search intent, and internal linking was strengthened across sub-domains to pass authority efficiently.
- Blogs were structured and optimised to improve their visibility and citation potential across AI-powered search results.

Off-Page Authority Building

- Off-page activity was scaled consistently across all six websites with social bookmarking submissions, guest post placements, forum contributions, and profile creation running simultaneously. This was not a burst of activity but a sustained, programme-by-programme build designed to signal topical authority to both Google and AI platforms.

AEO & GEO — AI Citation Strategy

The most distinctive element of this engagement was the deliberate effort to influence AI-generated answers not just traditional search rankings. Content across programme pages and blogs was structured to answer the specific questions students ask AI engines, “best college for MA China Studies,” “MBA marketing communication in Mumbai,” “bachelor of technology computer science and business systems” in the format AI platforms prefer to cite. This was combined with off-page authority signals that gave AI engines the confidence to reference Somaiya’s pages as credible sources in generated responses.

The Results

The focus is to majorly show up across two distinct discovery surfaces: AI platforms sending direct referral traffic to Somaiya’s blog content, and AI platforms citing or naming Somaiya’s programme pages when students ask generic, brand-free questions.

Currently the referral traffic appear on blog.somaiya.edu due to AI citation.

Tracked via referral traffic to Somaiya’s blog from AI platforms. This measures users clicking through from an AI answer to the blog itself — a different, complementary signal to the programme-page citations shown further below.

AI Platform Citations — June 2026:

AI Platform	Total Views	Active Users	Top Performing Page
ChatGPT	17	13	Library & Info Science Blog
Perplexity AI	2	2	Library & Info Science Blog
OpenAI	2	2	GITEX Dubai + GITEX Asia
Gemini	1	1	B.Com Government Jobs Guide
Microsoft Copilot	1	1	B.Com Government Jobs Guide
Total	23	19	—

Google AI Overview Influence

Strategic SEO and GEO efforts successfully influenced Google AI Overview results across multiple programme searches including MBA Marketing Communication, B.Tech Computer Science and Business Systems, B.Com Data Analytics, MA China Studies, and MA Educational Management & Leadership.

Why It Worked

The results across Somaiya Vidyavihar University’s digital ecosystem reflect something more significant than a standard SEO engagement. By combining technical foundations, on-page content optimisation, and off-page authority building with a deliberate AEO and GEO strategy, structuring content to be cited by AI platforms, not just ranked by Google, the university achieved visibility across two entirely different discovery surfaces simultaneously.
The AI citations across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Copilot represent a new layer of visibility that most educational institutions have not yet built. Students researching “best college for MA China Studies” or “MBA admission in Mumbai” on an AI platform are now encountering Somaiya’s pages as the referenced answer before they even open a browser.
That is the compounding advantage of an integrated SEO, AEO, and GEO strategy and it is what separates this engagement from a standard ranking improvement project.

Blog Content Citations in AI Overviews

The referral traffic above is backed by visible citations. Two examples, both using generic, brand-free prompts:

Prompt: “after bcom government jobs” (Google AI Overview)

Somaiya Vidyavihar University’s blog post “Top Government Jobs After B.Com You Can Prepare For” is cited as one of 5 sources in the AI Overview’s citation panel.

Prompt: “how can psychology help you in everyday life” (Google AI Overview)

Somaiya School of Music’ blog post “How a BPA in Kathak Can Open Doors to Academic & Artistic Careers?” is cited as one of 7 sources in the AI Overview’s citation panel.

Programme-Level AI Citations

Each example below uses a generic prompt with no brand name included, to test true unprompted discovery rather than recall.

MBA Marketing Communication

Prompt: “MBA Marketing Communication” (Google AI Overview) — K J Somaiya Institute of Management appears as the top citation card in the AI Overview’s source panel.

Prompt: “best MBA for Marketing Communication in Mumbai” (AI chat assistant [confirm exact platform — label shown does not match standard ChatGPT phrasing]) — K J Somaiya Institute of Management is ranked #1, with a dedicated “why K J Somaiya” writeup and an inline citation.

B.Com Data Analytics

Prompt: “B.Com Data Analytics” (Google AI Overview) — Somaiya Vidyavihar University appears as two separate citation cards in the source panel, and is named directly in the AI-generated summary text.

Prompt: “recommend best college for B.Com Data Analytics” (AI chat assistant [confirm exact platform]) — Dr. Shantilal K. Somaiya School of Commerce & Business Studies is ranked #1 with 5 stars and a dedicated “Why I would choose Somaiya” section.

MA China Studies

Prompt: “best college for master of arts china studies in maharashtra” (AI chat assistant ChatGPT) — Somaiya School of Humanities and Social Sciences is named directly as “the one clear leader,” with an inline citation mark — the strongest form of citation in this set, since the brand is named directly in the answer text rather than only in a side panel.

Integrated Bachelor of Science – Master of Science (BS–MS)

Prompt: “Integrated Bachelor of Science-Master of Science” (Google AI Overview) — Somaiya School of Basic & Applied Sciences is cited in the AI Overview’s 9-source citation panel via “Integrated BS-MS at S K Somaiya College.”

B.Tech Computer Science — Comparison Appearances

Unlike the programmes above, Somaiya does not yet appear as the primary cited source for B.Tech Computer Science searches. It currently shows up as one option inside broader AI-generated comparison tables and rankings — useful visibility, but a step behind a direct citation, and an area to keep optimising.

Prompt: “Top B.Tech Computer Science colleges in mumbai” (Google AI Overview) — K.J. Somaiya (KJSCE) appears as one of six colleges in a side-by-side comparison table; the AI Overview’s own citation footnote credits DY Patil University, not Somaiya, as its primary source.

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By implementing a comprehensive SEO strategy that included keyword research, on-page optimization, content development, backlink acquisition, mobile optimization, and local SEO, Somaiya Vidyavihar University successfully increased its online visibility and attracted more qualified student applicants. This case study underscores the role of SEO in driving enrollment growth and brand recognition in the competitive education sector.

Case Details

Client Name

Somaiya Vidyavihar University

Service Provided

SEO

Locations

Mumbai, India

Offerings

Diverse range of undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programs across various disciplines

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