Case Study: Australian Catholic University transforms site search and boosts conversions with SearchStax

ACU Goes to School with SearchStudio to Transform Search on their Sitecore Website

The Australian Catholic University (ACU) is a medium-sized public university in Australia serving more than 35,000 students across seven campuses. After replatforming to Sitecore, ACU’s three public websites (~15,000 pages) required a far better search experience than out‑of‑the‑box Solr could provide—ACU needed search analytics and marketer-friendly controls without heavy developer involvement, so they selected SearchStax and its SearchStudio product for its Sitecore integration and Solr foundation.

SearchStax deployed SearchStudio via the Sitecore module in an agile two‑phase approach with partner Espire: Phase 1 used the SearchStudio UI Accelerator to quickly re-skin results and deliver immediate value, while Phase 2 will embed search via SearchStudio APIs into the native Sitecore UI. SearchStax’s solution gave ACU rich analytics and no‑code tools for the Marketing team, produced a markedly better out‑of‑the‑box search experience, reduced ongoing management effort, and led to more personalized search results with higher conversions and improved user satisfaction.

Australian Catholic University

Luke Williams

Head of Digital Experience