Liberty University tops Google searches for Virginia colleges

Liberty University was recently announced as the most Googled college in Virginia, according to American Caldwell, a higher education marketing and research firm based in Washington, D.C.

In the study released this week, “Mapped: Most Googled College in Every State,” the firm said it leveraged Google search data “to explore this digital landscape, moving beyond traditional academic prestige to focus on public interest.”

The study highlighted Liberty under the heading “A Few Surprises,” noting “In Virginia, home to some of America’s oldest universities like William & Mary, founded in 1693, and the University of Virginia, established by Thomas Jefferson in 1819, Liberty University, founded as a Christian university in 1971, is now the most Googled in the state.”

In addition to being listed in the state-by-state study, Liberty was ranked 68th out of 700 universities and colleges in the firm’s Global University Visibility rankings. The ranking was based on monthly website visitors (4.8 million), annual news mentions (19,552), public interest (323,500 — the number of people searching for information about the university on major search engines in an average month), and social media following (785,869 followers on the school’s official accounts).