"Online university" is searched 2,400 times a month in the UK and a Google Ads click costs about £9.98 on average. "Online degree" gets 1,000 searches at £7.64, "university clearing" 3,600 at £17.03. The Open University's domain, open.ac.uk, ranks for 24,898 UK keywords with 1,412 first positions and an estimated 753,000 organic visits a month (DataForSEO data, Google UK, October 2026; CPC converted from US dollars at the Bank of England rate of 7 October 2026, $1.3220 to the pound).
Generic education searches are an auction between universities selling online degrees, but the "course + qualification + town" search is still poorly covered, and that's where a training provider or a private school can win. On the first page of "sia course london", one of the three listings in the local pack has 2 reviews, and none of the nine organic results shows a start date.
Below you'll find who holds the generic searches and with which pages, the enrolment calendar month by month and what's missing from the local results for vocational courses.
The Open University and the campus universities share generic search
The UK has no separate category of online-only universities like the one Italy's ministry recognises. Online degrees come from the Open University and from the online divisions of campus universities: University of London, Essex, Aston, Liverpool, Derby and others. In England, whether a degree is recognised depends on the Office for Students Register, as explained in the GOV.UK guide to checking a university. These are the institutions buying the generic searches, and the prices show it: about £9.98 a click for "online university", £7.64 for "online degree", £5.92 for "distance learning degree".
We read the first page for "online university" on 10 October 2026. It opens with an AI Overview that cites the Open University, University of London, Manchester, Exeter, Liverpool, Derby, Essex Online and Aston Online. There's no local pack. The organic results are the Open University home page, University of London's online learning page, Manchester, Essex Online, Aston Online, Liverpool Online, an Edinburgh postgraduate page updated on 21 September 2026, a list from DistanceLearningPortal and Sunderland.
The most interesting result is the only one that isn't a university: an article, "10 Top UK Universities Ideal for Distance Learning", that compares institutions side by side. Scale counts too. open.ac.uk ranks for 24,898 keywords with about 753,000 estimated visits, online.essex.ac.uk for 1,593 with about 11,400: both are on the page, but with home pages that rest on the brand.
For a private school or a training provider the lesson is about method, not scale. Nobody outranks the Open University on "online university". But the questions Google shows on that page ("What's the cheapest online university?", "Is an online university degree worth it?", "Can I go to university at 40?") say that people choosing a course look for comparisons and costs, and a comparison page answers exactly that. It's the principle of content marketing applied to choosing a course.
There's more than one enrolment calendar
People who sell education tend to think about September. Google Ads monthly data show at least four different calendars, and you can confirm them in a few minutes on Google Trends.
"Online university" peaks at 3,600 searches in September 2025, half as much again as its average of 2,400, with a second rise to 2,900 in January and the low at 1,900 in December. "University clearing", on the other hand, reaches 14,800 in August 2026 against 590 in December: that's the calendar of campus universities, tied to results day.
Schools follow the admissions timetable. For state schools in England, GOV.UK sets the secondary deadline at 31 October with offers on 1 March, and the primary deadline at 15 January with offers on 16 April. "School admissions" reaches 33,100 searches in September 2025, March 2026 and April 2026, against an average of 18,100. "Private schools" peaks at 22,200 in March 2026, the month secondary offers come out, and "independent schools" at 9,900 in September 2025. Searches arrive well before term starts: a private school that updates its site in the summer is late.
Vocational training has another season. "Training courses" gets 3,600 searches in September and 1,600 in July and August. "Teaching assistant course" and "health and social care course" peak in September, "first aid course" in October (18,100), and "sia course" has a second peak in January (9,900). "Level 2 food hygiene certificate" goes its own way: 8,100 in March and 2,900 in December.
| Keyword | Searches/month | CPC (£) | Peak | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| school admissions | 18,100 | 6.65 | 33,100 (Sep, Mar, Apr) | 6,600 (Aug) |
| private schools | 14,800 | 2.73 | 22,200 (Mar) | 8,100 (Jul) |
| first aid course | 12,100 | 4.46 | 18,100 (Oct) | 8,100 (Dec) |
| sia course | 8,100 | 1.42 | 9,900 (Sep, Oct, Jan) | 6,600 (Jul) |
| teaching assistant course | 6,600 | 2.38 | 9,900 (Sep) | 4,400 (Aug) |
| level 2 food hygiene certificate | 5,400 | 3.87 | 8,100 (Mar) | 2,900 (Dec) |
| independent schools | 5,400 | 1.64 | 9,900 (Sep) | 2,900 (Jul-Aug) |
| health and social care course | 3,600 | 3.80 | 6,600 (Sep) | 1,900 (Jul) |
| university clearing | 3,600 | 17.03 | 14,800 (Aug) | 590 (Dec) |
| online university | 2,400 | 9.98 | 3,600 (Sep) | 1,900 (Dec) |
| training courses | 1,900 | 3.16 | 3,600 (Sep) | 1,600 (Dec, Jul-Aug) |
| access to higher education diploma | 1,600 | 4.23 | 2,400 (Sep) | 1,300 (Dec, Apr-May) |
| online degree | 1,000 | 7.64 | 1,600 (Sep) | 880 (Dec, Jun-Aug) |
| free courses for unemployed | 140 | 1.14 | 390 (Sep) | 90 (Jun) |
The cost-per-click column splits the sector in two. Degrees sit between £7.64 and £9.98, and clearing reaches £17.03: these are the universities' markets. Vocational qualifications stay between £1.42 (SIA) and £4.46 (first aid), and "free courses for unemployed" is close to a pound. Where the cost per click goes above £7, every organic visit is worth as much as a click paid at that price.
On qualification plus town, providers with a page per location win
The first page of "sia course london" is the opposite of the online university one. We read it on a phone in London on 10 October 2026. There's no university and no directory: every result belongs to a training provider. The first organic result is London Security College's SIA course page, and the same college appears again in second and sixth place, with a page for its Southwark centre and a blog article.
Above them is the local pack: Get Licensed's Westminster centre with 2 reviews, London Security College with 137, and Get Licensed's Bloomsbury office with 777. The first listing gets in with two reviews because it's a separate Google Business Profile for a real training venue, in the right category, with the course name in the title. In a market of 8,100 monthly searches for "sia course" across the UK, one well-kept profile per venue is enough to get into the London block.
Below come Hurak with two area pages (Plaistow and Walthamstow), SWBM Academy, London Construction College with pages for Canary Wharf and North West London, and a Get Licensed article from June 2026. London Construction College puts the whole offer in the snippet: "6 Days Mon to Sun", "Total Course Fee: £370". Hurak shows "Door Supervisor Course · 6 days. From £198.00".
Hurak is the one to watch. It ranks for 5,820 UK keywords with about 55,600 estimated visits a month, and it has a page for each area where it runs courses, with the price and the review stars (4.9 from 1,302 ratings) in the snippet. The searches around this page go the same way: Google suggests "Sia course london price" and "How much is SIA training", and asks "How easy is it to get an SIA licence?".
One page per course and per venue, with the price, total hours, the date of the next start and the awarding body, answers all of these. The date has to be updated for every intake: it's the detail none of the nine organic results puts in its snippet, even though the price and the number of days are already there.
Recommended reading: how to build the local presence of a training venue, from the profile to the town pages, in our guide to local SEO.
Frequently asked questions
In September: "training courses" reaches 3,600 searches against 1,600 in July and August (DataForSEO, Google Ads, United Kingdom, 2025-2026). Some qualifications have their own calendar, such as the level 2 food hygiene certificate, which peaks in March.
About £9.98 on average, with top-of-page bids up to about £15. Online degrees and clearing are all above £7.50, while vocational qualifications such as SIA and first aid sit between about £1.40 and £4.50 (converted from US dollars at the Bank of England rate of 7 October 2026).
Before the admissions dates. In England the secondary deadline is 31 October and offers come out on 1 March. Searches for "private schools" reached 22,200 in March 2026, against an average of 14,800, and "independent schools" reached 9,900 in September 2025, against an average of 5,400.
Not on generic searches, but on "course + qualification + town" searches, yes. In the local pack for "sia course london" in October 2026, one of the three listings had 2 reviews.
Price, total hours, venue, the date of the next start and the awarding body or licence the course leads to. These are the answers to the questions Google shows around "sia course london", such as the price and how easy it is to get the licence.
Where to start
Search for the qualification you sell followed by "course" and your town, then open the first ten results and look at the dates. Count how many show the next start date. If fewer than two do, publish a page with the date of the next start, the price and the hours, and put it in the calendar for September or for your qualification's peak month in the table above.
If you want to know which courses in your catalogue still have an open results page, get in touch. We check it before proposing any work on SEO or Google Ads.
