SEO Case Study: How NAPS Australia Achieved 60% Organic Growth

Client Overview

The National Academy of Professional Studies (NAPS) is an Australian education institution offering nationally recognized  higher education in Australia.

The objective of the SEO campaign was to increase organic visibility, improve keyword rankings, attract qualified student enquiries, and establish NAPS as a trusted educational resource in the Australian education market.

The campaign focused on keyword strategy, content opportunities, topical authority, high-authority niche-relevant link building, and continuous SEO performance analysis.

The SEO Challenges

SEO Strategy & Execution

Because of existing website and market-specific restrictions in Australia, extensive technical and on-page SEO changes could not be implemented during this phase.

Instead, the campaign focused on SEO areas where meaningful growth could be achieved.

1. Keyword Research & SEO Strategy

Comprehensive keyword research was conducted across:

• Higher Education in Australia
• Professional training
• Courses
• Qualifications
• Career-related searches
• Course-specific searches
• Informational queries
• High-intent student searches
• Long-tail keywords

Keywords were evaluated according to search intent, relevance, competition, and potential to attract qualified students.

The research helped identify content opportunities and expand NAPS’s potential organic search footprint.

2. Content Strategy & Topical Authority

The content strategy focused on expanding NAPS’s topical presence across relevant education and  higher education in Australia subjects.

The objective was to create broader topical relevance and increase the number of relevant searches for which NAPS could be discovered.

3. High-Authority, Niche-Relevant Link Building

Link building became one of the primary growth drivers of the campaign.

Instead of focusing on large quantities of generic backlinks, the strategy prioritized high-authority and niche-relevant websites related to education, training, professional development, and relevant industries.

The strategy focused on:

Authority + Relevance + Quality

rather than simply backlink volume.

Major Authority-Building Milestone

A significant achievement was successfully acquiring a Wikipedia backlink, adding a high-authority reference to NAPS’s backlink profile.

This supported:

• External authority
• Topical relevance
• Brand credibility
• Ranking potential
• Search visibility
• Referral opportunities

Wikipedia backlink acquired as part of the NAPS authority-building strategy.

4. SEO Monitoring & Data Analysis

Since extensive website-level technical and on-page implementation was restricted, continuous performance analysis became particularly important.

The data was continuously used to identify new opportunities and guide the next stage of the SEO strategy.

SEO Constraints: What Was Not Implemented

Extensive technical and on-page SEO changes were not implemented during this phase due to existing website and market-specific restrictions in Australia.

Rather than allowing these restrictions to stop SEO growth, the strategy shifted toward areas where measurable improvements could still be achieved.

Alternative Growth Approach

Keyword Strategy → Content → Topical Authority → High-Authority Backlinks → SEO Monitoring

Google Search Performance

The latest Google Search Console comparison showed strong improvement across all four major SEO metrics.

Last 6 Months vs Previous 6 Months

Google Search Console comparison showing growth in clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position.

Key Google SEO Results

137K Organic Clicks

• Organic clicks increased from 85.3K to 137K, representing approximately 60.6% growth compared with the previous six-month period.

2.13M Search Impressions

• Search impressions increased from 1.74M to 2.13M, representing approximately 22.4% growth in search visibility.

6.4% Average CTR

• Average CTR increased from 4.9% to 6.4%, representing approximately 30.6% relative improvement.

Average Position Improved to 7.4

• Average position improved from 8.9 to 7.4, moving the site’s average visibility further into first-page territory.

Google AI Search Visibility

Search visibility is increasingly expanding beyond traditional organic results. During the latest six-month period, Google Search Console recorded:

105K AI Feature Impressions

The previous comparison period recorded 0 in the available report.

Google Search Console Generative AI performance showing 105K impressions.

This represents an additional discovery channel for NAPS as search increasingly incorporates AI-generated experiences.

Bing Search Performance

The SEO strategy also monitored Microsoft’s search ecosystem.

Bing Webmaster Tools showing six-month organic search performance.

Monitoring Bing alongside Google provided a broader view of NAPS’s organic search visibility.

Bing AI Performance

NAPS also showed growth in Microsoft’s AI search ecosystem.

Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance showing growth in citations and cited pages.

The growth indicates increasing visibility of NAPS content within AI-generated search experiences.

Search & AI Visibility at a Glance

Expanded Topical Authority

The campaign expanded NAPS’s topical presence around:

This broader content ecosystem helps NAPS reach users across the student search journey:

Awareness → Research → Comparison → Course Discovery → Enquiry

What the Campaign Achieved

My Role as Internal SEO Strategist

Conclusion

The NAPS SEO campaign demonstrates how meaningful organic growth can be achieved even when extensive website-level implementation is restricted.

By focusing on keyword strategy, content opportunities, topical authority, high-authority niche-relevant backlinks, and continuous performance analysis, the campaign generated measurable growth across Google, Bing, and emerging AI search environments.

Google organic clicks increased to 137K, impressions reached 2.13M, CTR improved to 6.4%, and average position improved from 8.9 to 7.4.

NAPS also achieved 105K Google AI feature impressions, 14.9K Bing clicks, 191K Bing impressions, and 6.3K Bing AI citations.

Combined with the successful acquisition of a Wikipedia backlink, the campaign has created a stronger foundation for the next stage of organic growth.

With the new website version launching soon, there is now an opportunity to combine the authority and keyword foundation already established with broader technical and on-page SEO implementation.

The biggest SEO win isn’t just ranking higher. It’s building a brand that becomes increasingly visible, trusted, and discoverable wherever your audience is searching—including the next generation of AI-powered search.

Want to grow your organic visibility and turn search traffic into real business opportunities? Book a 15-minute consultation with me to discuss your SEO growth strategy.