Digital Wave

09/01/2026

43% of admitted graduate students now use AI search tools during their search — and a staggering 67% trust those findings just as much as advice from admissions staff or family, according to Hanover Research's 2026 National Admitted Student Survey.

AI agents build these recommendations by scanning websites for structured, machine-readable data. That’s where schema markup comes in; the behind-the-scenes code that labels your content so AI engines understand your programs and surface them in results.

Our blog – If You Want AI to Understand Your Website, You Need Schema – explains how to incorporate schema for AI optimization.

🔗 https://www.digitalwave.com/2026/02/if-you-want-ai-to-understand-your-website-you-need-schema/

Learn how to use Schema to make your higher ed website visible to AI. A plain-English guide to GEO strategy and structured data for 2026.

08/28/2026

✨ Our Feature Friday spotlight is Michael Mastroianni!

As one of our project managers, Mike blends strategic coordination with creative perspective — helping projects stay focused, aligned, and human-centered from kickoff to launch. With a background in UX research, writing, design, and accessibility, he keeps teams moving forward while always keeping the user at the center.

Beyond work, he is passionate about distance running, travel, language learning, and social justice. In his downtime, you’ll find him writing, reading, sketching, or spending time outdoors to recharge. He also shares his life with Stan, a snowshoe cat who followed him home one day.

Mike embodies our core values every day and approaches our clients’ missions with the same care and dedication he brings to everything he does. We’re incredibly grateful to have him on our team! 💙

08/25/2026

Students shouldn't have to decode the cost of college.

Higher education institutions that clearly communicate tuition, financial aid, and out-of-pocket costs will:
🤝 Build trust
🚀 Reduce enrollment friction
🎯 Better serve prospective students

Discover how leading universities are making college costs easier to understand — and why transparency is becoming a competitive advantage.

🔗 Read the full article: https://www.digitalwave.com/2026/08/cost-transparency-prospective-student-experience/

Learn how higher education cost transparency, clear financial aid communication, and instant net price estimators help students make informed college decisions.

08/20/2026

If an image carries meaning, screen readers and AI agents can't read it unless you tell them what's there.

✅ Add descriptive alternative text that conveys the purpose or intent of all meaningful non-text content. Provide long descriptions for complex visuals when needed, and mark decorative or redundant images with empty alt (alt="").

❗Why it matters: It ensures humans and AI agents can understand the information on a page.

📘Follow the W3's decision tree for writing alt text: https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/images/decision-tree/

08/18/2026

Bruce Cronlund will be joined by Brandon Stanley for an engaging panel at the 2026 AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education this November.

As Assistant Vice President of University Marketing and Communication at Northwest Missouri State University, Brandon brings more than 16 years of higher education marketing leadership. From brand strategy and digital communications to leading cross-functional teams that fuel institutional growth, his experience and insights make this a session you won't want to miss.

If you're looking for fresh ideas, practical strategies, and an engaging conversation with two experienced higher education marketing leaders, be sure to add this session to your agenda.

📅 November 8–11, 2026
🎟️ Register today: https://www.ama.org/2026-ama-symposium-for-the-marketing-of-higher-education-individual-ticket/

Who's planning to attend? We'd love to see you there!

08/14/2026

Today's prospective students are not waiting by the mailbox.

They're researching colleges online long before a brochure arrives.

If you want to reach today's students, meet them where they are: with a seamless, intentional, digital experience that guides them from curious visitor to confident applicant.

We build websites that do more than look good. We create digital experiences that support your mission, simplify the student journey, and drive enrollment.
Stop hoping. Start optimizing.

🤝 Together, let's build a digital foundation designed to last.

08/11/2026

How different could writing eLearning for the military really be from teaching 3rd graders?🤔

When Rachel Huber made the leap from elementary educator to content strategist at Digital Wave, she expected a totally different world.

She quickly realized that while the core rules of learning stay the same, one huge shift on the web changes everything.

On the blog, Rachel breaks down that major shift—plus the 7 classroom strategies that guide her web writing today.

👉 Discover all 7 principles: https://www.digitalwave.com/2026/08/from-teacher-to-content-strategist/

Discover how a former elementary teacher uses classroom principles to write effective eLearning content with a user-first, accessible web strategy.

08/08/2026

Happy National Cat Day! 🐾

Whether they're recently adopted, family for years, or fondly remembered, we love our fur babies.

Swipe through to meet the adorable kitties behind our team! 👇🐱

08/06/2026

The recent ® SMART Play sets announcement holds a great lesson for digital strategy.

Instead of throwing away the classic bricks people have loved for decades, LEGO simply added modern tech to bring those same familiar pieces to life.

Your website deserves that same approach. When traffic or enrollment drops, you don’t need to rebuild it from scratch. Your foundation usually isn’t broken — it’s just outdated or hidden under digital clutter.

Take your content, for example:
🧹 Cut the bloat: Clean up what isn't working and reorganize the rest around how students actually navigate today.
💬 Update, don't replace: Rewrite existing content using plain language, search terms, and questions prospective students are actually asking right now.

Sometimes the biggest impact doesn't come from starting over — it comes from taking the great content you already have and giving it a modern upgrade.

08/04/2026

🎉 Big news!

Bruce Cronlund will lead a panel of higher education professionals at the American Marketing Association Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education this November.

Together, they'll explore how colleges and universities are adapting their websites for the AI era, what it means to be AI-ready, and why it matters for the future of student engagement.

Stay tuned for more details!

🔗 Register here: https://www.ama.org/2026-ama-symposium-for-the-marketing-of-higher-education-individual-ticket/