Case Studies July 16, 2025

Strategic SEO Delivers Results for Rollins College

Facing common higher-ed SEO hurdles, Crummer College partnered with Blacksmith. We delivered a +14.89% Domain Authority increase (to 54), achieved a fully passing Core Web Vitals score, and grew backlinks by 18.24%, significantly improving their online presence. Read the full SEO case study.

About Crummer Rollins

BSA implemented strategic SEO to make Crummer more visible and engaging for users.

The Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College is ranked high for its excellent MBA programs and executive education. Despite the prestige, Crummer saw that it needed greater visibility on search results to attract more prospective students to the institution. Understanding this, Crummer partnered with Blacksmith Agency to implement a strategic SEO program to improve their online presence, authority, and technical performance.

Services Rendered

To ensure potential customers could easily find our client on Google, we provided a complete SEO solution.

Technical SEO

We audit your website to make sure search engines can easily find, read, and understand your website. By fixing technical issues and optimizing for speed and mobile-friendliness, we ensure your site is built to rank well and provide a great user experience.

Local SEO

For businesses that serve a specific community, we help you show up in local searches and on Google Maps. We make sure your business information is correct and consistent everywhere online, so customers in your neighborhood can find and visit you easily.

Content Optimization

We take the great content you have (or help you create it) and make sure it’s exactly what people are searching for. By aligning your message with the right keywords, we help you answer your customers’ questions and turn your website into a go-to resource.

Poor Internal Linking and Navigation Structure

The page offers several content sections, but they’re largely disconnected. There are no clear contextual links guiding users (and search engines) to relevant subpages. The few existing links are generic, providing no keyword-rich anchor text or semantic cues. From an SEO standpoint, this limits crawl depth, weakens topical relevance, and reduces link equity distribution across key pages.

Weak On-Page Optimization

The on-page content lacks keyword targeting and semantic structure. The hero copy is emotionally appealing but offers no search relevance. Additionally, headings appear visually styled but not semantically optimized. Search engines likely see fragmented content rather than a clear topic hierarchy.

crummer interface with deficient performance optimization

Technical SEO & Performance Gaps

The page appears heavy with embedded media but lacks evident performance optimization. On mobile, slow loading and layout shifts affect both user experience and Core Web Vitals. The design also had an outdated HTML structure and with absence of structured data markup for events or courses. Without such a schema, valuable content remains invisible to rich search results.

The Solution

Technical and On-Page Audit

Our team conducted a deep technical SEO audit to identify and resolve all issues impacting performance, including those affecting Core Web Vitals. This was followed by comprehensive on-page optimization of all key program and admissions pages to ensure they were perfectly structured for search engines and users.

Authority-Building Content Strategy

We developed a content strategy focused on producing and promoting high-value, authoritative content. This included thought leadership articles, faculty research insights, and detailed program highlights designed to serve as a valuable resource for the business community and attract natural interest.

Link-Building Campaign

To directly address the underdeveloped backlink profile and build domain authority, we executed a strategic link acquisition campaign. Our focus was on earning high-quality, relevant backlinks from respected educational, business, and news websites to clearly signal Crummer’s authority and prestige to search engines.