The Q1 2025 benchmarking report for UK online learning providers has just been published. Learn how the top 11 UK online learning providers perform across the digital space.
The Q1 2025 benchmarking report for UK online learning providers has just been published. It covers the largest 11 national online learning providers, including Open Study College, Oxbridge, Online Learning College, ICS Learn, Learndirect, Udemy, FutureLearn, Stonebridge College, NCC, Avado, and LearnPac - it highlights year-on-year digital performance, plus winner and loser comparisons in 20+ online performance metrics.
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 UK online learning companies to develop their brand’s voice, assess and up-level their domain authority score, track their organic traffic performance, and more. This report highlights the areas where brands are succeeding and categories where they could make improvements.
To see a preview and contents page of the Q1 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key take-aways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.
For a glance into just 6 of the metrics we evaluated these top 11 online learning providers on, check out our quick-look table below;
Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's top and poorest-performing online learning providers, 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 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 & 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 under-perform. 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.
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 online learning companies should aim to make their website as error-free as possible to improve the trust consumers have in their brand as well as enhance their SEO performance.
In our previous report, learndirect received 23 4xx errors. Learndirect has since increased their 4xx errors to 111. It’s important that all brands aim to reduce these errors to ensure they’re not directing users to a dead end, which could cause them to lose trust in the brand. Properly maintaining a linking structure and providing replacement links for broken pages.
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 makes a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. It’s important that a website doesn’t take any longer than 3 seconds to load, as any longer can cause a consumer to grow impatient and leave. Choosing a mobile-friendly theme is an effective way of boosting a brand’s site speed.
In our previous audit, Stonebridge Associated Colleges reported the slowest mobile site speed (12). This quarter, they’ve increased this number to 45. Currently, the online learning provider to watch is Udemy, which scored 25 for mobile site speed. Upon closer inspection, Udemy should reduce their page weight to increase download speeds for visitors.
Domain authority 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 is not gained through sponsored ads. UK online learning companies should focus on building their domain authority by building relationships with websites that have a similar target audience to increase the number of high-quality backlinks.
A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however it is generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. The DA score for this quarter ranged between 91 and 27, with LearnPac reporting the lowest DA score. This online learning provider also received they fewest backlinks, and they should consider reaching out to websites with a similar target audience to form a relationship.
A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for key, 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. UK online learning companies should track and assess their organic performance and pay close attention to the difference in results based on devices. Due to the nature of this industry, it’s expected that they’ll receive more traffic from users on a desktop.
Six of the online learning providers received a decrease in organic traffic on desktop, with Online Learning College reporting the biggest loss (-61%). Meanwhile, 6 of the providers saw a decrease on mobile, with LearnPac reporting the biggest loss (-92%). On desktop, LearnPac reported a -21% decrease. With this in mind, all providers should ensure they’re website is mobile-friendly to avoid losing out on mobile traffic.
Google Universal Search Results is 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. Universal Search results refer to rankings on a SERP, and a site can appear for Universal Search results without being strong in standard rankings. UK online learning companies will want to ensure they have a strong performance for 'reviews' and ‘people also ask to help increase their online rankings.
FutureLearn continues to secure the most Universal Search appearances (9,651) — a decline from 11,654 in the previous quarter. ‘People also ask’ received the most appearances overall for all providers, and this is a good opportunity for brands to incorporate ‘people also ask’ popular phrases throughout their website.
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 brand new search terms as they enter Google’s index. UK online learning companies can optimise their keyword strategy by incorporating phrases of 3+ words, such as ‘online learning company’ or ‘home learning provider.’
FutureLearn saw the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (2,216) and positions 4–10 (5,918). Brands should regularly assess the performance of their chosen longtail keywords and update them accordingly to expand their online reach.
With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) forecast to hit over 42 million users by 2022, 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. For any online learning provider, Facebook ads are an opportunity to drive traffic to specific courses. If they haven’t already done so, they should be identifying under-subscribed courses to promote to improve numbers or using organic search term volumes as a guide for where general consumer interest lies.
We’ve included an example of Udemy’s sponsored posts. They included a maximum of 2 lines of text on each post, which is within the recommended amount to catch social media users’ attention as they’re scrolling through their feed.
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 longer. It's great for your brand engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. UK online learning companies will need to have a strong online presence so that consumers have the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the brand first before making a purchase. Social media is also a great opportunity to reach new audiences and build its customer base.
Udemy has the most Facebook Likes (8.4 million) and the most Instagram followers (3.4 million). Their following is more than 26 times more than the runner-up provider, suggesting that they’ll still be the one to beat in the next quarter.
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. When websites are not designed to meet these needs, retailers lose customer interest as they turn elsewhere. Brands should focus on reducing accessibility alerts, errors, and contrast errors to improve readability for those using a screen reader.
Udemy has the most Facebook Likes (8.4 million) and the most Instagram followers (3.4 million). Their following is more than 26 times more than the runner-up provider, suggesting that they’ll still be the one to beat in the next quarter.
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 Mike Movassaghi.
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