Where the plan starts

Universities own the programme. You own the candidate.

We looked at what actually appears in UK search results across four programme searches — online MBA, online DBA, online PhD, and MBA for working professionals. Thirty-three top-ten results. Here is how often an agency like CareerSkale appeared.

Programme searches · 33 results examined
0 agencies

Every winning result was a university or a large directory. Not one intermediary.

“Study abroad consultant uk” · 9 results
8 of 9 were agencies

Plus the entire local map pack. And Google served no AI summary at all — the answer was left to the agencies.

You originally asked for /mba/ /dba/ /phd/. Those pages compete with universities on the one thing universities cannot lose. So the site is built around candidacy instead — eligibility, cost, duration, entry routes, choosing an institution.

Section 1

The strategy in four ideas

01

We sell candidacy, not programmes

Every page answers four questions: can you get in, what will it cost, how long will it take, and is it recognised. A university only ever answers those about itself. You can answer them across the whole market.

02

Honesty is the differentiator

Only 1 of 7 claimed university partnerships is publicly verifiable. The plan turns that into an asset: a genuinely useful guide to how accreditation works and which registers to check.

No university writes that page — they only discuss their own status. No competitor writes it — it invites scrutiny of their own list.

03

65 pages, not 180

The original brief asked for 120–180. On a domain with no ranking history, that volume reads as thin content and holds the whole site back. We build 65 well and expand once the first wave earns its place.

65 120–180
04

The money is in the boring questions

"How long does a PhD take" is searched 1,810 times a month in the UK and carries the highest commercial value of anything we found. Cost, funding and duration together are worth more than every programme page combined.

1,810 UK searches a month
Section 2

The site, section by section

Eight sections, 65 pages. Click any section to open it and see every page and its web address.

A Core & Trust Who CareerSkale is, and proof of it 6 pages
A-01 Homepage /
A-02 About CareerSkale /about/
A-03 Partner Institution Verification /partnerships/
A-04 Contact /contact/
A-05 How We Work /how-we-work/
A-06 Editorial Policy /editorial-policy/
B Admissions Support The service itself — this is the home-turf section 6 pages
B-01 Admissions Support Hub /admissions-support/
B-02 Admissions Support UK /admissions-support/uk/
B-03 Admissions Support Ireland /admissions-support/ireland/
B-04 Admissions Support United States /admissions-support/united-states/
B-05 Doctorate Application Support /admissions-support/doctorate-application-support/
B-06 Application Documents /admissions-support/application-documents/
C Partner Institutions One honest page per institution 8 pages
C-01 Partner Institutions Hub /universities/
C-02 Dunster Business School /universities/dunster-business-school/
C-03 EIMT /universities/eimt/
C-04 LSMT /universities/lsmt/
C-05 Birchwood University /universities/birchwood-university/
C-06 American Management University /universities/american-management-university/
C-07 Euro American Education Group /universities/euro-american-education-group/
C-08 Swiss Business School /universities/sbs-swiss-business-school/
D Programme Directory Comparison pages — the only route into programme demand 7 pages
D-01 Online Doctorate Hub /online-doctorate/
D-02 Online PhD UK /online-doctorate/phd/uk/
D-03 Online DBA UK /online-doctorate/dba/uk/
D-04 Online DBA /online-doctorate/dba/
D-05 Distance Learning PhD /online-doctorate/phd/distance-learning/
D-06 Online MBA UK /executive-education/mba/uk/
D-07 Executive MBA /executive-education/executive-mba/
E Eligibility & Entry Routes "Can I actually get in?" 7 pages
E-01 Recognition & Eligibility Hub /eligibility/
E-02 PhD Entry Requirements UK /eligibility/phd-entry-requirements-uk/
E-03 PhD Without a Master’s /eligibility/phd-without-a-masters/
E-04 DBA Entry Requirements /eligibility/dba-entry-requirements/
E-05 MBA Without a Bachelor’s Degree /eligibility/mba-without-a-bachelors-degree/
E-06 How To Apply For a PhD UK /eligibility/how-to-apply-for-a-phd-uk/
E-07 Doctorate While Working Full Time /eligibility/doctorate-while-working-full-time/
F Cost, Funding & Duration The highest-value section in the plan 6 pages
F-01 Cost and Funding Hub /cost/
F-02 PhD Fees UK /cost/phd-fees-uk/
F-03 PhD Funding UK /cost/phd-funding-uk/
F-04 DBA Cost UK /cost/dba-cost-uk/
F-05 How Long Does a PhD Take /duration/how-long-does-a-phd-take/ 1,810 / mo
F-06 Part-Time PhD UK /duration/part-time-phd-uk/
G Comparison & Decision Guides Helping people choose 6 pages
G-01 DBA vs PhD /compare/dba-vs-phd/
G-02 Professional Doctorate vs PhD /compare/professional-doctorate-vs-phd/
G-03 Executive MBA vs MBA /compare/executive-mba-vs-mba/
G-04 What Is a DBA Degree /compare/what-is-a-dba-degree/
G-05 What Is a Professional Doctorate /compare/what-is-a-professional-doctorate/
G-06 Choosing an Online Doctorate /compare/choosing-an-online-doctorate/
H Honorary Doctorate Deliberately contained — information only, no sales path 4 pages
H-01 Honorary Doctorate /honorary-doctorate/
H-02 How Honorary Doctorates Are Awarded /honorary-doctorate/how-honorary-doctorates-are-awarded/
H-03 Honorary vs Earned Doctorate /honorary-doctorate/honorary-vs-earned-doctorate/
H-04 Honorary Doctorates in the US /honorary-doctorate/us/
I Existing Pages 15 pages on the current site being repaired, redirected or removed
Section 3

The demand behind the plan

What people in the UK actually type, per month.

How long does a PhD take 1,810
Part-time PhD UK 740
PhD funding UK 1,000
PhD fees UK 1,200
Distance learning PhD 320
Online PhD UK 480
PhD application documents 580
Online DBA UK 110
DBA degree 720

“How long does a PhD take” carries the highest commercial value of anything we found — and it is a duration question, not a programme question.

The DBA cluster is the easiest to win: its main search terms are among the least contested we measured anywhere.

Section 4

Build order

Phase 1 27

Foundation

Fix the existing site, build the trust and service pages.

Phase 2 24

Core build

Institutions, directories, eligibility, cost.

Phase 3 11

Depth

Comparison guides and the honorary section.

Phase 4 2

Expansion

Reassess with real data before adding more.

Section 5

What we can write today, and what needs you

Most of the plan is waiting on facts only CareerSkale holds. Nothing here is a delay we can solve on our own.

12 53
Ready to write today 12 pages
Waiting on information only you can provide 53 pages

Four answers unlock the plan

01 Are the technology programmes still offered? 21 of 65
02 What is each partner actually recognised by? 30 of 65
03 Which programmes can you place students into? 42 of 65
04 Legal identity, and how you are paid 52 of 65

Four answers move this from 12 buildable pages to 52.