Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 29.10.2026 
UniHomes share the strategy which led to their nomination for the new “Best AI Search Optimisation Campaign” award at the 2026 UK Search Awards.
UniHomes advertises student accommodation with bills included in 60+ UK cities and towns, working with hundreds of letting agents and purpose-built student accommodation providers. By showcasing the best accommodation options from across the market in one platform and taking the hassle out of sorting utility bills, UniHomes’ goal is to make student life easier and less stressful.
We know our core demographic of 18-24 year olds are the UK’s biggest adopters of AI, so a growing proportion of university students will now be asking AI platforms to recommend student accommodation platforms or find suitable properties for them directly.
The sources which AI platforms draw on change frequently and vary widely, so some questions about our brand were being answered using outdated or incorrect information from external sources. Our campaign’s goal was therefore to ensure LLMs could access up-to-date, accurate information about UniHomes which would facilitate them recommending us to students searching for accommodation and utilities packages.
Specifically, it was crucial that LLMs recognised that we’d recently widened the types of student accommodation we showcase, so AI agents reflected that UniHomes is among the best websites to find all types of UK student accommodation, including student halls and student spare rooms as well as traditional student houses.
For B2B purposes this meant making sure LLMs could access, and were citing, research showing UniHomes is the website which generates the most student enquiries for letting agents, for example.
Another core part of our strategy was improving LLMs’ ability to access and understand our student guides. Through our Content Ambassador programme, which won “Best Use of Search – Real Estate & Property” at the 2025 UK Search Awards, we publish resources and student-focused tips to help students settle into university life, covering all major UK cities.
As the guides are written by our network of current UK students with real-life expertise on the topics they’re covering, we know they’re industry-leading in quality and trustworthiness – but they were being overlooked by LLMs as they struggled to tell who’d written the content.
“Optimising for AI search is a new challenge for everyone, but it’s also really exciting,” says project lead and UniHomes’ SEO Manager Dan Rawley.“Being able to measure AI visibility by platform for the kinds of prompts we expect students to be searching for was a huge breakthrough in allowing us to quantify progress and the impact of optimisations,” he adds.
“I’m proud of the amount of the optimisations we were able to make in six months across content and technical SEO, as well as accelerating our Digital PR output. That was only possible through strong collaboration across teams at UniHomes and with our external partners.
“With AI search evolving so quickly, moving at that speed to get ahead of the competition is vital.The growth in referral traffic and enquiries we’ve seen through LLMs is proof that this is becoming a key marketing channel. ”
After winning “Best Use of Search – Real Estate & Property” at the 2025 UK Search Awards, we’re thrilled to be shortlisted again and looking forward to the awards ceremony. Congratulations to all the other nominees!
