The Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK midlands universities has just been published. Learn how these 12 UK midlands universities perform across the digital space.
The latest Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK midlands universities has just been published. It covers 12 of our UK midlands universities, including University of Staffordshire, Keele University, Birmingham City University, Aston University, University College Birmingham, University of Derby, Nottingham Trent University, De Montfort University, Coventry University, University of Wolverhampton, Birmingham Newman University, and Loughborough University.
The research gives an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice online and quantifies the gaps, risks, and missed opportunities for other midlands universities to enhance their organic traffic through a successful keyword strategy and to improve their brand awareness to develop a trusting relationship with their audience and to also potentially seek new sign ups. The report highlights quick wins that will improve enquiries from your online strategy and identifies the barriers that may be reducing your site’s ability to optimise digital performance.
To see a preview and contents page of the Q1 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.
For a glance into just six of the metrics we evaluated these 12 midlands universities on, check out our quick-look table below;
To understand what the *CTM Digital Performance Index™ is click here.
Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's best and poorest-performing UK midlands universities or request a copy of the report for the full review.
The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each brand based on 50+ metrics and indicators of a successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.
Some of the leading players in the space are high spenders on paid media channels such as Google, Bing and Facebook - but have a poor or sub-optimal conversion improvement strategy. Without an optimised, sophisticated conversion strategy that maximises the conversion rate, the return on investment is unsustainable or will underperform. Scaling spend on paid media is not achievable unless the conversion rate delivers optimal performance in the sector. Some in the space have paid media spend levels from £30k+ per month but dedicate minimal resources and budgets to conversion testing. Given the cost per clicks on ad networks will continue to rise, we recommend spending at least 10% of your paid media budget on ongoing conversion optimisation testing schedules to ensure your paid media ROI maintains long-term viability, competitive advantage, and sustainability.
Pay-Per-Click marketing is constantly evolving, with more and more advertisers being forced to hand over a lot of control to Google's algorithms as the push for automation grows ever stronger. There are still key elements of control that we have though, the main one of these being budget which is ultimately something the algorithms can't take from you. That's why being smart with your budget and ad coverage is essential to achieving strong results and bettering what your competitors have to offer.
For Q1 2026, the average monthly budget wastage across these UK midlands universities was £17,004 with some of the top players in the market spending a considerable amount on areas and audiences unlikely to deliver a return. We can see this in more detail when looking at the average monthly cost per cost-per-click (CPC) amongst advertisers, with the average of this metric being £94. This highlights how competitive the market is and how important it is to control your budgets effectively.
There are varying monthly ad budgets across the competitors in the report. While this gap highlights the competitive advantage that larger budgets can provide, it's not just about spending more; it’s about spending smarter. By focusing on driving efficiency in campaign management, targeting, and budget allocation, businesses with smaller budgets can still effectively compete with larger players. Investing in data-driven strategies and refining ad performance can help close the gap and maximise the return on every pound spent, enabling growth even in a competitive landscape. Relative to their spend, University of Staffordshire reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £16, and University College Birmingham has the highest at £548.
The report highlights the importance of budget efficiency by comparing monthly ad spend with estimated CPC in relation to your competitors, see who has the highest and lowest CPC. To maximise the effectiveness of your budget, it’s essential to focus on driving CPC down while maintaining or improving campaign performance. In this report, University of Staffordshire has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £3,020, and De Montfort University has the highest at £331,000.
By optimising targeting, refining ad copy, and leveraging data to identify high-converting opportunities, you can ensure every click delivers maximum value. This approach not only stretches your budget further but also boosts your return on ad spend (ROAS), enabling you to achieve stronger results without simply increasing expenditure.
Savvy digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. UK midlands universities should ensure that their website is easy to navigate with a minimal design (especially for mobile where screens are smaller) so consumers can locate information easily.
In our previous audit, Staffordshire University received the most 404 errors (242). This quarter, University of Staffordshire has dramatically reduced their 404 errors to 11, no longer making them the university to watch. Currently, University College Birmingham received the highest 404 errors (79). Users arriving from external sources, such as search engines or social media, may encounter 404 errors if pages have been removed or URLs have changed. In these situations, the user’s first impression of the website may be an error message, which can immediately create a negative perception.
When 62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load will see a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. All universities should aim for a website that takes no longer than 3 seconds to load, helping to prevent customers from becoming frustrated with slow download speeds and potentially resorting to competitors.
In our last audit, both Keele University and University College Birmingham reported the slowest mobile site speed (29). This quarter, University College Birmingham has increased their mobile site speed to 50, and Keele University has increased theirs to 54. Currently, the mobile site speed ranges between 67 and 34, with Birmingham City University flagging the slowest speed. Users often expect instant access to content when browsing on their phones. If a website responds slowly, users may assume the site is poorly optimised or outdated. This perception can negatively affect how users view the brand behind the website.
Domain authority (DA) is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance, and helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, i.e. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. For brands in the education sector, creating connections with websites that have a similar target audience is an effective way to increase their number of backlinks and, thus, their DA rating. Reaching out to these websites is a great way to build this relationship, but, most importantly, brands should focus on delivering high-quality content that websites will want to link to.
A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however, it’s generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. In our previous report, University College Birmingham received the lowest DA score (59). This quarter, University College Birmingham continues to report the lowest DA (60) — an increase of one point. Optimising on-page SEO elements can contribute to improved domain authority over time. This includes using relevant keywords in headings, titles, and meta descriptions, as well as ensuring that content is well organised and easy for search engines to understand.
A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for core, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. Universities may see rise and fall in organic traffic depending on the time of year, so we can expect to see big fluctuations each quarter.
Ten brands reported a drop in organic traffic on desktop, with University of Staffordshire flagging the biggest loss (-33%). On mobile, six brands reported a decrease in organic traffic, with Staffordshire University seeing the biggest drop (-38%). User patience levels can differ between devices. Mobile users often expect quick answers and fast-loading pages, and they may leave a website quickly if their expectations are not met. Desktop users might be more willing to spend time navigating a site to find the information they need.
Google Universal Search Results are an evolving opportunity to make your pages visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. Given that a university’s location places a big part in a student’s choice, midlands universities should focus on ‘local pack’ to help increase their findings in SERPs.
Loughborough University continues to secure the most Universal Search appearances (8,734) — an increase from 5,227 previously. The majority of their appearances came from ‘images’ (4,000).
Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for new search terms as they enter Google’s index. Universities should adopt a longtail keyword strategy to reduce their competition and improve their conversion rates compared to shorttail keywords. All universities should focus on their location in the keywords to ensure they’re reaching their target audience.
Loughborough University continues to secure the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (1,545) — an increase from 1,516 previously. Loughborough University also continues to secure the most longtail keyword appearances for position 4–10 (3,462) — an increase from 3,370 previously. Longtail keywords can help websites capture voice search traffic. Many voice searches are phrased in a conversational way, often resembling longer questions or phrases. Optimising content with longtail keywords can increase the chances of appearing in results for these types of searches.
With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) hitting over 44 million users in 2023, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. Facebook’s UK digital advertising revenue has been estimated to have breached 2.6b GB pounds in 2019.
We’ve included screenshots of De Montfort University’s sponsored Facebook posts. This UK midlands university included visually striking images to help attract social media users’ attention.
When it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release content that has a longer shelf life. An article is considered 'evergreen' if it has maintained its relevancy to an audience for a long period of time. It's great for your engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Universities can create shareable social content that details announcements, the latest news, and information that’s relevant to their target audience.
Coventry University secured the most Facebook Likes (229,300), and Loughborough University secured the most Instagram followers (88,900). Facebook was the most popular social media platforms of all brands. Staffordshire University received the highest total engagement rate (30,235) and the highest average engagement (311).
Around 20% of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. Midlands universities should aim to limit accessibility alerts, contrast errors, and errors, to improve readability for those on a screen reader.
In our last audit, University of Wolverhampton reported the most accessibility alerts (473). This quarter, University of Wolverhampton remains the university to watch, increasing their total to 484. For users who rely on assistive technologies like screen readers, accessibility alerts often signal missing labels, poor structure, or incompatible components. These issues can make content confusing or impossible to interpret. As a result, consumers may abandon the site entirely if they cannot understand or navigate it independently.
To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Rory Tarplee.