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PH1 core capbility
YEARS EXPERIENCE
9 to 10 years
TYPICAL CLIENT
VP Marketing & Communications, Director of Digital, Director of Web Strategy, CIO
NECESSARY TIMELINE
4 to 6 months
BUDGET NECESSARY
Quoted individually
Our POV
The architecture of most university and college websites was designed once — usually around the institution's org chart — and then inherited by every web team that came after. Faculty of Arts publishes under one subdomain. The registrar owns another. Admissions has its own section. Student services has its own section. The applicant, who has none of this context and is asking a simple question — can I afford this program, can I get in, what will my life be like — must navigate a site organized for the institution's convenience, not their own.
This is not a new problem. Web teams across higher education have known it for years. The reason it has not been fixed is not a lack of awareness. It is a lack of the evidence and governance architecture needed to make the change without triggering a faculty-by-faculty political battle over who owns what.
PH1 builds the case and the governance model that makes the change possible. We rebuild the sitemap and information architecture against real applicant search behavior — then design the governance framework that lets departments continue to publish independently without recreating the same silos. The result is a site where the answer to an applicant's question is one or two clicks away, and where that state can be maintained over time.
What We Do
We begin with an audit of the current sitemap against applicant search intent — identifying the gap between how applicants search for information and how that information is currently organized. We combine applicant behavioral research with a structured content audit across faculties, registrar, admissions, and student affairs.
From the audit we design the new information architecture: a sitemap organized around applicant questions and decision stages rather than faculty and department structure, a content consolidation plan that resolves duplication and contradiction, a search strategy that surfaces the right answer for both traditional search and AI-powered query resolution, and a governance model that defines who owns what and how new content enters and exits the site without recreating the old chaos.
What We'll Deliver
Current-state sitemap audit against applicant search intent, with gap analysis
Proposed information architecture organized around applicant questions and decision stages
Content consolidation recommendations: what to merge, what to retire, what to promote
Search strategy for both on-site search and AI-indexed content (optimized for how AI assistants now surface institutional information)
Governance model defining ownership, publication workflow, and content lifecycle across faculties and departments
Implementation roadmap sequencing the highest-impact changes first
Stakeholder alignment workshop facilitation to build cross-faculty and cross-departmental buy-in
When This is Essential
Before beginning a website redesign or CMS migration — getting the architecture right first prevents the new site from inheriting the old organizational logic
When applicants or students consistently report that information is hard to find or contradictory
When on-site search is returning poor results and applicants are leaving the site to find answers elsewhere
When AI assistants are surfacing outdated or incorrect information about the institution's programs, costs, or admissions process
When the site is organized around faculties and departments and leadership wants to reorganize around the student lifecycle
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does information architecture matter for AI search?
AI assistants — including ChatGPT, Gemini, and AI-powered search — index your website the same way search engines do, but they synthesize and serve the answer rather than listing the URL. Sites with clear, well-structured, non-contradictory content produce accurate AI summaries. Sites with duplicated, fragmented, or outdated content produce inaccurate summaries — which is how ChatGPT ends up telling an applicant the wrong tuition figure or the wrong admission requirement.
How do you handle faculties that resist changes to their content?
We design the governance model to give faculties control over their own program and discipline content while removing their ownership of cross-institutional content — tuition, admissions, campus life, financial aid — that should be centrally managed. Most faculty resistance is about losing authority over their programs, not about the cross-institutional content that creates the biggest problems for applicants. We address the legitimate concern and resolve the illegitimate one at the governance layer.
Do we need to rebuild the CMS to implement this?
No. The architecture and governance strategy can typically be implemented within your existing CMS through content reorganization, URL restructuring, and template changes — without a platform replacement. If a platform replacement is already planned, the architecture work should happen before it, not during it.
How long does the information architecture stay current?
A well-governed architecture with clear ownership rules typically remains current for three to five years with regular maintenance. The governance model we deliver is designed to be maintained by your existing web team — it does not require ongoing external support to hold.
How is this different from a content strategy?
A content strategy defines what to publish and for whom. An information architecture strategy defines where it lives, how it is structured, and how it can be found. PH1 delivers both layers: the architecture and the consolidation and governance decisions that determine how content flows into and out of it.
Combine With These Services
Applicant & Student Journey Mapping Research — use applicant behavioral evidence as the foundation for rebuilding the architecture
Website Improvement Prototyping & Testing — test the new architecture with real applicants before build
AI Strategy for Universities and Colleges — design the architecture to be AI-optimized from the start
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Submissions