From the Nominator

"The University of Chicago’s faculty have helped shape and define many fields. However, our institution is not always recognized in broader circles for this pioneering work. Our Explainer content focuses on scientific and scholarly topics that were born or developed at the university and have had a great deal of influence on the world. Especially in a time of growing distrust in online information, we anticipated interest from the general public in learning about these topics directly from experts at the institution that created these breakthroughs.    

In surveying areas of the university’s expertise, we saw an opportunity to publish optimized content that would inform people searching online for answers, while asserting the University of Chicago’s authority on these topics. In addition to building out a keyword strategy, the office of communications applied several other SEO tactics to assure strong search performance. The “explainers” were built within a question-and-answer framework using a neutral, informative voice—similar to that of an encyclopedia—allowing quotes and insights from university experts tell the story.    

Since launch in 2021, the Explainer series content has consistently been among the university’s most-visited pages, with high Google page ranks for popular queries (e.g., “what is behavioral economics” and “where is the doomsday clock”). Several explainers have been excerpted by Google for their top-of-page info boxes (e.g., “ecological succession”). As the topics covered are evergreen, we anticipate this increased site traffic to sustain and grow over time."

From the Judges

This is a really strong series. It breaks down concepts and issues and presents them in easily digestible ways, but also highlights the history and prescience of the institution.